Desi and Danielle

Here is a video of the last rescues of the year, Desi & Danielle.  Desi is one of P.J.'s favorites and I think she would like to exchange one of her "stinker" dogs in for Desi!  If you would like to meet P.J.'s pick, then give us a holler and we will arrange a time and place.  Desi is full of life and a big lover.  Danielle was a "surprise" child, as that morning we weren't looking for any more of Dribble's puppies.  But alas, one was hanging out in this abandoned house with Dribble, Desi, Wolfgang.

In the immediate future we are hoping to rescue Veronica, who had just given birth to 11 puppies, and Dribble, who has lived on the streets his whole life and is just the biggest teddy bear you can imagine.  We need all of your good energy since it's been a few days since we have seen Dribble.  Once we do see him, it will take some luck and perseverance to rescue him.

Winter time is always difficult as it's really hard watching these kids be outside in brutally cold weather.  If you are wondering if you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding yes.  You may have a space in your home, garage, basement to temporarily house someone, you make help take kids to adoption events, you may help with vet transportation, you may help lead a "dog food drive" at you workplace, you may send our updates to all of your friends and family, you may adopt instead of buy, you may ride along with PJ so you have a better understanding of what GPG does every single day of the year, you may buy calendars and our documentary for gifts.  The list goes on.  But yes, you can help.  Please don't feel like anything you give can be insignificant, be it time or money.  The only reason we are able to do these rescues is because of our fans who help these kids find forever homes.  Everyone one of us plays an integral part in the futures of these homeless animals.

Kids that STILL need homes: Kealy (to help your NY's resolution for a skinny butt), "Boise the Bestest Border Collie", Sonny the Precious Pitbull, and Casey the Cat. And of course all of our other animals are at the Gateway Pet Guardians Website.  We are also extending P.J.'s Birthday Challenge throughout the month of January because we know December was a busy month for everyone!  Thank you to Lindsay, Kati, Bethany, Larry, Jen, Erin, Nancy and April for giving to P.J.'s Birthday Challenge.  We will updating our list soon!

Nigel, Nina, & Nigella

Sunday morning listening to the howling wind and seeing there is a HIGH of 18 degrees tomorrow. We really don't know if Nigel, Nina, and Nigella will be able to survive another brutal winter.


Last Thursday the "Gateway Girls" went on the feeding route with P.J.
The video below is of Nigel and Nigella taken on that morning. Do you have a garage, a basement, or some room in your home to foster one of these kids until they find a forever home. The instant we have a foster home we can work on the rescue. GPG always pays the vet bills. Maybe you have a friend that keeps talking about needing some extra company? Please help us find fosters for these pups so they don't have to fight for their lives yet another winter.



Would you ever like to go out and feed the dogs with us? We love to have new people. Let us know if it is something that interests you. We go everyday of the week, 365 days a year. So you have plenty of days from which to choose. Please email us at gatewaypetguardians@yahoo.com or call 314.664.7398 to find out more.

P.J.'s Thanksgiving feeding

You can view the video in HD also, please just adjust on bottom right.Click on "You Tube" to the right if the video is cut off.

Many of our fans have never actually been able to go out on the feeding route with P.J. This video has basically everyone that we saw Thanksgiving morning. It was a Thanksgiving morning a few years back that was my first time out with P.J. And it was a dog named "Bomber" that I thought about every single day after my first ride along experience. If you have an interest in seeing what P.J. does on a daily basis, then please contact us. We would love to have more of our fans be able to share this experience.

I am thankful this Thanksgiving for people like P.J. who confront this suffering every single day. She does not turn her eyes away from these animals. Instead, she does everything in her power to diminish their sorrows.

"The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing. It is almost a miracle. It is a miracle.

Simone Weil

Thank you P.J. for being their miracle.

Questions with filmmaker Rebecca Ormond

In September I had the great opportunity of seeing "Gateway Guardians" at Winnie Moore Theatre in Webster and hearing the filmmaker, Rebecca Ormond, answer some questions from Mike Steinberg. This is Part 1. We are so grateful to Rebecca of Matriarch Motion Pictures for sharing her love with us! As you know, our big Soiree is THIS THURSDAY, November, 18, 2010 6:30-10:00 p.m. during the Webster Film Festival. The entire party, with movie included is 50.00. And of course all proceeds go towards helping the wonderful dogs in the movie and the current ones living on the streets of East St. Louis. We are continuing work on our mission of building a shelter with spay/neuter capabilities in this under served area. Click here for all the details. If you can't make it to the whole event, please just check out the movie!! But if you can make it to the party, we have yummy treats from MatchMeats and a great guitarist, John Mcclelland who is shown on the link with his duo. We might get lucky and hear him play some Piazzolla. I am putting in my request now!

And some of our other press!!!! Which we are so GRATEFUL for! First we have our beautiful Amie Simmons, who I recognized when I saw only her feet from her adorable Hunter Boots :) promoting the grand gala this Thursday on Fox2. Click here to see Amie, Amie's boots, and Cally, an adorable dog who needs a forever home.

And we got a write-up in the Riverfront Times. Click here to read!

Our lovely Jamie with Sonny, one of our favorite pups who has had a difficult start. Click here to see Sonny on Fox 2.

Another write-up on Sonny here from "The Examiner".

It's RAINING puppies!

Puppies galore! Get them fast!
Okay folks, we need fosters for these kids.
And, oh, FOREVER homes. So spread the word to all your friends that think they need to buy a puppy. To foster or arrange a meeting please email gatwaypetguardians@yahoo.com

Sonny

For Previous blog posts about Sonny click here.


Sonny is getting depressed. He has been in a kennel and 2 foster homes. Both of his foster homes ADORED him but his first foster mom had to move to the East Coast quickly and his second foster home is growing in the number of people VERY soon and they worry Sonny won't get the attention he deserves. Sonny & his foster sister Maddy are the best of friends. He wonders why a lot of his Gateway friends have already been adopted and why he often doesn't get a second look.

Okay pit lovers, you know who you are. PLEASE spread the word about this guy. He wonders if he isn't handsome enough or if people just won't even give him a chance because he was born a pit. He is really great with most dogs and he even walks well on a leash. I don't know if you could find a more loyal companion.

So if you want true unconditional love then ditch the computer dating sites. Come meet Sonny.
Go out to dinner with people, have a drink, conversation and some fun.
But if you want someone who won't let ya down and who will always greet you with love when you walk in the door-this is your man.

He doesn't leave the toilet seat up or throw his socks on the floor.
This guy is good.

Running with Kealy

Kealy is a wonderful kid with mountains of gratitude and good energy. While she has enough zest to get me to enjoy an hour run, she grants me much grace by her acceptance of my speed and unwillingness to run a daily marathon. No, I don't want to chase every squirrel up a tree and I am not a sprinter. Kealy takes all of this into consideration when she picks me up in the morning. While she is always awake and rearing to go, she also lets me have a little adjustment time to be groggy and adapt to the morning jogging world. A world which I truly thought would occur in an alternate lifetime. Usually I get my serotonin shots from lifting weights or an abundant amount of "breath of fire" in Kundalini yoga. But Kealy has forever changed that. Now I am appreciating the early morning sunlight and feeling the dew on the grass. After a thermos of yerba mate, slipping on my hip new KSO Vibrams, and hitting play on the ipod (Krishna Das helps as I am really in need of some powerful mantras to kick-start this process), we hit the ground running.

The first few days she was testing me to see if I was really suitable running material. After a few leash changes and myself just surrendering to the actual idea of running itself, we have both adjusted quite well to this invigorating routine. She is such a WONDERFUL girl and she really needs a foster home or to find her forever home. You see, her current foster home is more for "special needs" kids like Bea and Aaron and very shy pups who are still learning to adjust to us people. But Kealy is just a really normal dog who loves people and other dogs and we really need to find her a foster or forever home so we are able to pull another dog in dire need off the street.

Maybe you are flirting with the idea of becoming a newbie jogger.....maybe you just are pretty depressed when you walk in the door in the evening and could use a dose of Kealy's infinite joy of life. This kid will do her best to keep you out of the dumps. And if it's a skinny butt you are after, well she ensures that you will get that too. Please contact us if you would like to meet this girl in person. I really don't think you will be disappointed!

We also have two awesome events coming up. First we have a Trivia Night. Okay, we know....you don't remember any frivolous facts from years ago, heck, you can't even remember if or what you ate for breakfast. But honestly these events are about hanging out with other compassionate folk and bringing a picnic basket full of munchies. Buy the booze there but you can bring your own eats. Contact us if you want to participate but you don't already know 9 other people with whom you would like to spend a Saturday night. Maybe we can help fill out your table and you can meet new friends that give your dogs kisses when they stop by your house. These new friends won't always eagerly point out the excessive amounts of animal hair that always seem to be so prevalent on your black wardrobe.

Finally, we have what we hope to be our hugest event this year. Our DOCUMENTARY!!!! Yes, Rebecca Ormond teamed up with Jamie Case & Amie Simmons to bring Gateway Pet Guardian's movie to fruition. We all know Jamie & Amie are wonderful! And I just met Rebecca at the Tivoli film debut and discovered she is also wonderful and really brilliant. She is overly modest about her incredible talent and she really veered off from her usual style of movie by accepting this grassroots project. I got to hear her talk shop at the Webster debut and found her interview really engaging. This movie was not "easy" to shoot/produce by any stretch of the imagination. She had to rely on the PJ and the crew to use Sony ZI8 HD cams and pretty much relinquish control over what was shot and how it was shot. Scenes got to be pretty difficult to capture because a lot of the footage was during actual rescues where the people filming were also actually participating in the rescue. Add that to being in abandoned buildings with some floors some of the time, walking on rubble, and trying operate a camera in zero degree weather.....well we surely presented her with a challenge. All the girls did an amazing job of taking all of those hours of footage and telling GPG's story.

We want to pack the house for the Webster Film Festival showing on November 18, 2010. You are able to just buy a ticket for the film only but if you can we would love for you to buy a ticket to the "Soiree" afterwards. This is going to be a really great gathering of our fans & supporters. All the money made goes to helping the kids that you see in the movie and also making our other dream, the shelter, begin to materialize. Rumor has it that some stars from the film, four-legged and otherwise, will also be making appearances. We will also be serving animal friendly treats (food for the peeps that didn't harm the animals in the making). And apparently some good live music which we will announce shortly!

And one last note.....We are wanting to get Kenya/La Roja this week but need to find a foster home FAST!!!! She is adorable and also seems to be really well adjusted. All of our dogs are adorable of course, but some have obviously had a lot more social experience with us people. She doesn't seem to possess any fear of people and she should be an easy kid to foster. At least it appears that way from her behavior on the street. You can see for yourself. If you have a space anywhere, basement, warm garage or of course your house-please consider making a difference in her life. You can also see some other kids that are still waiting for a foster. It will be getting cold soon and it would be great to rescue some of the kids that just might not make it another winter. These include Lloyd, Malcolm, Nigel, Nigella, Nina, and countless others.

Thank you Mike & Gracie!

The other day we received a letter from Mike and Gracie. Gracie was adopted from Gateway Pets and when she heard the news that we are going to open a facility for her relatives from East St. Louis, she told Mike that he better send money to help out. Mike sent the cutest letter and photo of Gracie. I thought I would share the photo. Gracie is a celebrity!

Thanks to all of you, like Mike and Gracie, who have donated so far to the rescue fund. We are working slowly toward our goal. Our business plan is coming together to ensure our success once we obtain the facility. If you are still considering donating, please consider doing so now. There is a donate now button to the right. We could really use your help with getting this shelter for all of the homeless dogs living in East St. Louis like the ones below. Luckily, the pups below have been rescued! Yay!
Popeye is a 9 week old German Shepherd/Terrier mix, found wondering alone in East St. Louis. PJ just could not resist that cutey patootey face. She came straight over afterward to show me the cutest puppers we have found lately.
PJ was tracking T-Bone and his siblings since they had been born. She knew the mom was pregnant, but did know where she had stashed them. One day she spotted one of them frolicking outside of an abondoned house. By the time she got to the puppy it had scurried under the foundation of the house to be with the rest of its litter. PJ checked everyday to see if these puppies would come to her. She brought the grossest smelling, tastiest to dogs, food she could find. No dice. When they realized it was PJ and not their mom they would hide as far in the depths of that abandoned house as they could. We even went as far as to driving the mom to the pups to try to trick them into coming out. These puppies were a little too smart for us. Finally, PJ was able to get a grate over the hole in the house before the puppies were able to crawl back in. Rescued! It is a good thing, because it was starting to get very cold and who knows what would have happened if they would not have gotten into the safe hands of PJ.