Hector

Hector is one of those puppies who knows what he wants and knows how to ask for it. We have this soft blanket that we folded up on a chair for him to lay on. He goes to the chair and begs for us to put him on his soft blanket. If we try to trick him with a different blanket he cannot get comfortable and lets us know. He must always have a pillow in his kennel to lay on. If I don't have a soft pillow for him he barks and wines and moans until I bring him one. The other night, I was so tired in the middle of the night and Hector was not happy about not having his pillow (that he had soiled on and was in the wash), that I sleepily got out of bed and brought him my extra pillow. That pillow is now and forever a dog pillow. Hector can tell you what he wants just by looking at you. He is the most inquisitive puppy I have ever had. When he came down with Parvo, I was in the middle of writing a plea for money for Lester, our other Parvo puppy. Poor little Hector looked at me with those eyes in the picture above, the entire ride to the emergency room. It broke my heart. Fortunately, Hector pulled out of the Parvo, much sooner than Lester was able to. Today, Hector is still at the vet, driving them crazy with his loud bark, and entertaining them with his big personality. His I.V. was removed and he will be coming home soon, I am sure. Lester is still at the vet and just ate for the first time this morning in 7 days. We think he is going to pull through, but we were not sure of his fate for the last couple of days. Between the two of these dogs, we are going to have close to $3000 in vet bills. We have had about $300 in donations since I sent the newsletter plea out. Thank you for that. If you have not donated yet, and were thinking about it, please do so as soon as you can. We do not have an account with the emergency hospital, and they do not give us a break. We have to pay them to continue treatment. Thank you for saving these sweet puppies.

I just don't understand.

Before I start on my morning, I will give you a piece of good news. I will end with good news too, but in between is going to be quite sad. As you can see above, Lawrence is looking wonderful. PJ treated him for his mange, so he is bloody no more. He has stopped itching and his fur is even growing back. Isn't that wonderful!

We have been told that we can take this little lady. She has the cutest personality and is so pretty with that blue eye. The only problem is that we don't have the money to pull anymore dogs right now. Not to mention the fact that we don't have a foster for her right now. Maybe she would be good for the Loosen the Leash program. I am calling PJ right now. Ok, she is called. Keep your fingers crossed that it will work out for this girl.

This poor buddy has an eye problem. Actually all of the dogs in this pack have an eye problem. And ironically, this is Martin's pack.

This is a new face for PJ. What a sweet face it is. He just wants to be loved. He so would love to come home with us.

Here he is again, visiting me in my window. I love this dog.

This is Hector's mom. It is also Velma, Simon and Simone's mama. We cannot catch her.

And now for the sadness. Today, for the first time, riding with PJ I saw two dead dogs dumped on the side of the road. PJ has seen these plenty of times, but luckily it does not happen often enough for me to have run into one yet. The worst part about this one dog is that he was missing his ears. We can only assume that he was being used as a bate dog. This poor baby's last hours of life were more horrid than we can imagine. And then the people who caused this pain to happen, had no more decency than to dump him on the side of the road. I barely have words for how angry this makes me. I don't understand the society we live in that this kind of stuff happens. This has to be changed.

Jamie Case (the new GPG administrator) and I spent the last two days at a fundraising seminar, learning how to get money for the rescue. This sparked a lot of ideas in us for the rescue. The way I see it is that we can feed and vet and love these dogs in East St. Louis as much as we want to, but without changing the minds and educating the folks who live there about compassion and responsible care for living creatures, nothing will change. We could be given a donation of a million dollars and pull all of the dogs off of the streets. It would do no good. There would be a hundred dogs running around, same as before because few people keep their dogs in their homes. No one spays or neuters. Some horrible people fight the dogs, and when the dogs are no longer of use to them, they dump them. We have to change mindsets. I believe that this starts with younger generations. At the point that our rescue is financially right now it is impossible for us to start new programs, but boy, do I have some ideas. I would like to go into areas where the children are at risk and living with stray dogs in their back yards. We could have a program where these children intern with a veterinarian for a few days. Teach the kids to write grants, form relationships with the folks who are going to donate the money. Have the kids go into their community and find out how their neighbors feel about having all of these stray dogs running around their neighborhoods and publish a magazine to be distributed in the neighborhood. The kids in the program will be taught life skills that they can grow up with and use. Compassion for the animals will come with the education and exposure they will be given.

We are only a few people 100% active in this rescue. We need more people to be involved in what we do. We will be having a meeting sometime in April to talk about how you can help us implement these ideas. Without your help, we are nothing. We are only putting a band-aid on the problem by saving and feeding the dogs. Lets put a stop to it.

I leave you with the cuteness:

Something About Lester

Let me give you a little background. About a week and a half ago, it was a Friday morning, I received a phone call from North County Animal Control. Petey, a dog we had adopted out a little over a year ago had been seized in a drug raid. What? A drug raid? That is what I said, from a house in Wildwood of all things. I immediately went to get pictures of Petey so I could send out a plea for a foster. They would not let me take him that day, but no worries, I was able to go back and get him the following day, thanks to our wonderful resident lawyer, Jonathan Beck.

Meanwhile, I saw a Lester in his cage, so cute and excited. He reminded me of my dog Floyd. I told my husband, and his response was, well, looks like we have no choice but to rescue him. They would not let me take Lester the day I pulled Petey because there was no vet on staff and "those are the rules." But, they did show me Melvin, whom I said I would be back on Monday for, along with Lester. When I showed up on Monday, the vet said, "You can't take these dogs yet, they have to be held until Thursday." Mind you, this is about an hour drive both ways for me. I already had Hector, PJ had rescued ten more puppies on the street, so I took one of them, and we have Hooper because he was getting picked on at PJ's. Gateway is totally strapped for cash with all of the pups we pulled last week, so I told myself as I pulled into the parking lot of animal control, that I would not be taking Lester (whom I had not named yet). When I got in there, and saw him again, I just could not refuse. There is something about this dog that just makes me melt. He is the happiest guy. Loves life. Unfortunately, three days after I got him, he started vomiting. I rushed him to the emergency room in the middle of the night and spent four hours getting him admitted and taking care of paper work. He has been there since. The vet bills for just Lester's care alone are astronomical. We are talking around $1300. We don't even have that much in the bank account at this time. We are struggling. All we want to do is rescue more animals, but without the money to do so, our rescue is at a stand still. This rescue will not make it unless we have money to pay our vet bills. Not to bore you with the gory details, but just to give you an idea, on top of what we owe for Lester, our current outstanding vet expenses are $5000. All I can say, is please help. We really need you this time. Please be part of of what we are doing. You can have a piece of what we are doing if you just donate whatever you can. I can't tell you how important you are to us. Lester would have been put down had I not pulled him. Lester would like to thank you for saving him.

Melvin--Rescued from North County Animal Control

BEFORE

AFTER

Can you believe this little dog was under all of that fur. I cannot believe it is even the same dog.