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

Forte and Legato "The Dynamic Duo"

These puppies are adorable. Forte & Legato will be 4 months old on August 28th, 2010. They were part of a litter of 8 pups. P.J. searched daily, for 2 weeks, until she was sure that she had found all the babies. Their siblings were lucky enough to find fosters and permanent homes. Can you help us find some people for these dogs to love? They are just spilling over with joy and they need to be able to spread that joy to some loving people. They promise a lifetime of loyal love. Now how many people in your life can fulfill that? P.J. has given them a head start in life. And the usual story.....we can't take in any more kids off of the street until we find some homes for our current rescues.This "octet" of puppies was very lucky. P.J. knew when they would be born and made sure she found them all. Not all the kids on the streets are able to come home with their guardian angel. There is a lot of dog fighting in our area and an unfortunate number of dogs are either used as "bait" or used in fighting. They are exploited to make a buck. Or sometimes they have bullet wounds, etc............Please speak up for these animals. We are their voices www.gatewaypets.com

Will you please help my brothers and sisters?

Hi, my name is Largo and I am writing you as the ambassador to my brothers and sisters.


Eight weeks ago we were born on the streets. My mom took as good of care of us as she could, but really she can only do so much. PJ knew we were born because my mom disappeared for a few days, but she was unsure if we were in a place she could rescue us. Luckily, my mom was smart and she had us in a place that PJ could find us.


Over the course of a few days, once we were located, PJ was able to rescue all of us! We were loving life, awaiting something PJ kept talking about...our foster homes. We couldn't wait! It sounded so wonderful.



Until, one day the sickness hit us. BLAM! All of my siblings were getting so sick. I didn't know what to do. We were rushed to the vet and they said that 4 of the seven of us had parvo. I didn't know what that meant, but I was pretty sure that it sounded expensive.


Gateway Pet Guardians is doing everything they can do to save my brothers' and sisters' lives. Parvo is a very serious virus.

I am here to ask you to please donate so that Gateway can continue to help my my brothers and sisters.

Whatever you can donate will be of use. Whether it is $1 or more they will be forever grateful for your generous gift. And so will I and my siblings.

We are some very lucky pups, rescued just in time.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Largo
Ambassador to my siblings
Gateway Pet Guardians

Things Are Changing

Gateway is growing rapidly and with this growth comes more rescues and greater responsibility (I will talk more about that responsibility later).

Our movie Gateway Guardians will be making its debut on July 18th at the Tivoli. Lorrie Austin is working on our movie website to make it more interactive and informative. One ongoing feature we will be adding to the site is a section of current dogs we would like to pull if only we had a foster or adoptive home. We will be able to tell you the dog's personality and other pertinent information so that you will know what you will be getting yourself into if you are interested in helping out one of these poor adult dogs.

Aaron, above, has been on the streets for such a long time. He has gone from being friendly to becoming slightly more feral. This usually happens due to another human being cruel to the dog. Unfortunately, the work that PJ puts into making these dogs friendly is then set back. Don't worry though, that friendly dog is still in there. We will pull it out of him again.

Malcom and Show Me live on top of a hill. To the left of the hill there is large machinery that changes the structure of their home on a daily basis. We find them on different mounds of dirt everyday. They look over their city wondering when their time will come.

I have written about Blondie on other occasions. She just had another litter :( She too has been on the street for so long. She will not survive much longer. She is shy, but I can tell that she would be a fabulous dog.

Which brings me to our new found responsibility I spoke about earlier. As we were filming Gateway Guardians, the question kept being raised, "What are we doing about this problem?" Yes, we are feeding these dogs, and yes we rescue their puppies and the adults when we can, but what are we really doing about the problem.

We have decided that we are going to start a spay/neuter program in East St. Louis. It is illegal to spay/neuter and release, but at the very least we can alter dogs who are owned by people. Education and working with the locals will hopefully help to alleviate the suffering due to over population.

We will be working on the details of this program over the next few months. We will be making a plea for funds as well as people interested in contributing their brain power once we get more of a plan together. I am so excited to hopefully be able to start making a dent in the stray dogs in East St. Louis. We are hoping to be able to clear the streets once our movie premiers. The next step is spaying and neutering.

We thought the best way to reach people would be through the churches. Lo and behold, PJ was feeding the dogs the other day when a parishioner drove up to her. Before the woman could say anything, PJ began to explain to her what we do and who we are. She told her about our spay/neuter program and how we would like to get the local churches involved. She said she would take it to her pastor. The lady was very attentive and sweet. She took notes on who we are and said she would look at our rescue. This to me is very promising. It is so nice when we run into community members who are supportive of what we do and willing to listen to our ideas.

Poor Nigel is not looking so hot these days. His mom Nina has transmissible venereal tumor (TVT), which is something we could treat if we had someone to foster her. The other dog in the pack, Nigella is pregnant again. We would like to be able to rescue all three of these at the same time.

If you are interested in rescuing any of these dogs, or would like to be a part of helping to build our spay/neuter program, please contact us at gatewaypetguardian@yahoo.com

SHOW ME ST. LOUIS TOMORROW!

I know I mentioned in the last blog that we would be on Show Me St. Louis sometime in the near future. Little did I know that it would be tomorrow! We filmed this morning and it will air at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 4th. Above is one of the dogs we saw this morning. This poor little girl is one that PJ has seen for quite a while now, but anytime we even pull the car on the street she disappears. Believe it or not she is looking better now than she did a few months ago. Her skin is still quite raw, but there is fur growing back in. She has trouble walking because her skin is so bad. I am ordering a kennel today. We need someone to foster her, so please let us know if you are interested. She will be a very rewarding pup to watch heal.

I took some pictures of Argyle and Tweed (below) at PJ's today. They are ADORABLE. Seriously, look at that little face. And look at the wiry hair on Tweed. We know who the dad is of Tweed and he is a VERY handsome fella. These two were the starving, dehydrated pups that were on the second floor of the falling in on itself building. I'll have to get some pictures of the building to show you what PJ goes into to do these rescues.

INSANITY.

These two need fosters as well. That was our major plea on Show Me St. Louis. FOSTERS! There are about 20 pups on the street right now that need rescuing. We knew where eight of them were and had made the decision beforehand that we were not going to rescue them today due to the fact that we have no where for them to go. But then the news lady said that she wanted to adopt one and said she would also foster another. After that we decided we could not leave the other six just in case the mom got a bright idea to move them, or in case one of the locals saw us and might want a new puppy. These guys are safe now, but we desperately need fosters for them.
Camera broke as I was taking pictures of them, so I will have to get back to you on pictures of them.

Thanks everyone, and don't forget to watch tomorrow at 3!

Argyle & Tweed

Few quick notes...Tomorrow we will be filming to be on Show Me St. Louis. They will be riding along with us as well as filming our little designer pups. Super excited about this and we will notify you of the air date. We have a TON of events coming up. Please go to our website calendar to check everything out and if you are not signed up for our newsletter, please sign up while you are there, so you will be automatically notified of all of the Gateway happenings.

On another note, we rescued two little sickly puppies named Argyle and Tweed from the second story of a building in East St. Louis. We went in looking for these pups a little over a month ago with no luck. The building is completely dilapidated, so I stayed outside with a camera (since I am pregnant) and PJ went in to do the searching. She was in there for about 45 minutes with no luck. We knew the mom was running out of milk, so we continued to leave food and treats thinking they would come out and get them. They never did, but the mom would bring the treats in, so we knew she must have been feeding her babies with them. It finally dawned on PJ that they were probably on the second floor and could not get down. We were unsure how sturdy the steps were since the entire building is collapsing on itself, but our brave PJ, along with our wonderful cinematographer Rebecca Ormond went in and were able to rescue these starving, dehydrated puppies. They have been given fluids and are recuperating at PJ's. They are tiny for 13 weeks due to malnutrition, but will surely catch up with themselves now that they are getting regular food and water. We need you to foster these puppies. Please let us know if you are able to.

Puppies and a Purple House

We were draped in puppies today after the rescue. Seven puppies total from two separate houses next door to one another. We have been leaving notes for this woman asking her if we could take the puppies that have been staying on her front porch, but have not gotten a response. Luckily, PJ is persistent. Today the little boy that lived there was home. PJ asked him to get his mom and he disappeared. PJ knocked again asking him to get his mom again, explaining that we would like to get care for the pups. He shut the door and never came back. PJ knocked again. He came out and his mom followed. She was very nice and said we could take all of the puppies but one :( I will be thinking about the one until we are able to rescue her. The rescue went pretty easy. All of the puppies let us pick them up with a little coaxing except for one. Again, lucky for PJ's persistence. She had him cornered, but he escaped. He went under a car and she swept him out gently with a broom. Finally, he ran onto a mostly enclosed porch and PJ was able to trap him with all of the junk that was on the porch. Trapping him, and picking him up are two different things though. PJ went and got her gloves while I played defense in the doorway with the poor, frightened pup. This puppy cried like it was the end of the world when PJ picked him up. He snapped and struggled and screamed. It really sounds like we are hurting them, but she was not. I saw it with my own two eyes. The scared pup is already allowing us to pet him now. Just goes to show how quickly they come around once they are touched by a gentle human hand. We need fosters for all of these pups. Please tell all of your animal loving friends.




At the end of the rescue, as we were getting ready to drive away, I saw another small dog running around. I decided to try to go get him. What's another one after you already have 7, right? As I approached, he ran away, but a head popped up from the back yard of a purple house without making a peep. It was a very underweight, brindle pit mix tied to a 2 foot kinked up chain. I went to get him a couple of treats and my camera so that I could take a picture of this atrocity. As I was walking back to give him the treats, a woman was walking toward me. "What are you doing over there?" I explained that I was trying to catch the little white dog, but then was going to give the brindle dog some treats. She said that was her dog. I asked if I could give it treats and she said yes, but she better, because he isn't very nice. She was very well spoken, well dressed and seemed like a nice person. I thought about asking her about the too short chain, but decided that it was a matter for animal control. So, I called animal control on the purple house with the brindle pit tied to the fence on a two foot chain. Hopefully tomorrow, that dog will no longer be tied up. And if he is, hopefully he will have been given a longer lead. Wish we could save them all.

Bomber Needs a new Foster!

Remember Bomber? Bomber's foster mom and dad are in the process of moving to New York. They already have 5 big dogs, otherwise, I believe they would have kept Bomber. Bomber is in desperate need of a new foster home. He is such an easy, laid back dog to have around. He really just needs a place to lay. He does well with other dogs, children and loves people. Bomber is the quintessential sweet old man. If you have a little extra room in your home, or know someone who would like to have a sweet dog like Bomber around for a little bit, please email us at gatewaypetguardians@yahoo.com.

This lady had a litter of pups a while ago. They are about 6 weeks old now and ready to go into foster homes. Getting them this early prevents them from having to suffer through all of the pains of living on the streets. Not only do they get more fearful of us as they age, they also get mange among many other horrific ailments that street life brings to dogs. Not to mention the harsh winter months that are coming up. We know that there are at least four blonde pups that look like their mama. There might be even more. Please pass this along to all of your animal loving friends so that we can rescue these puppies sooner than later!

Thanks again for all of your support.

These pups need fosters!

These two puppies desperately need a foster. PJ cannot keep them and they need the socialization that your home would be able to give them. We think there are other puppies from this litter, but we cannot even think about going to look for them until we find fosters for these two. Remember Nigel and Nigella? They are offspring of them. Really, the pictures don't do these two justice. They are about 5 weeks old and absolutely adorable! The fluffy one on top is going to look just like Nigel, we think. Please help us socialize and find loving homes for these pups!

My Crazy Foster Dog

Why are you crowding the door way? There is no way I am coming near you.

Ok, I really want to come inside, please step aside, because I cannot AND WILL NOT walk past you.
I am serious about this. I need you to put the camera down, go inside and hide somewhere so that I cannot see you and so that I can scaddadle to my kennel as quickly as possible . (Can you see the little colic on top of her head? I think that is soooo cute.)

Forget it! I am not coming inside until you go away. Now GO AWAY!

I think I have already introduced Mabeline to you. She was not my foster at that time, but we had to do a little switch-a-roo and I got Mabeline. Have you ever met someone who you really did not care for at first? Who you thought was extremely strange and so quirky that there was no way you could ever be friends with them? But, then over time, whether it is due to exposure, or the two of you getting more comfortable with one another you end up loving that person? This is how Mabeline is for me. When she first arrived at my home she was so insanely terrified of everything, I was not quite sure what to do. I thought, "Well, I have dealt with fearful dogs before and she is not aggressive, so I will get her to come around." Week one passed and she still urinated every time I looked at her. I had never had a dog like this in my house. She was like a wild beast. I would put her on a leash (as she urinated out of fear) and she would buck like a wild bull. Even still, if I went upstairs and closed the door, guess who was outside crying. I would open the door to say hello, and she would pee, run away and hide in a corner.

Week two passed and the urinating lessened, but was still there and she still would not come near me. Tail between legs, scuffling to the corner like a cartoon trying to get a running start. Eventually, I just started ignoring her, because I was so sick of cleaning up the pee from going near her. Ignoring was also a bit of a plan, thinking she might get sick of being ignored by me.

At the end of week two I decided to take her to the vet to have her evaluated. I have never put a dog on drugs before, but I thought, jeez, a human would never live like this without drugs, why not try that for Mabeline. I was shot down by Dr. Diesel. He said that some dogs are just a little off and that drugs will probably not work. He said give her more time and the fact that I have seen a little progress is progress none the less.

The day after the trip to the vet, something clicked in Mabeline. Don't get me wrong, she is still off her rocker crazy, and always will be, but she started asking for my attention. And now she approaches me and I can pet her. She is actually quite funny. I am thoroughly entertained by her quirky and hilarious personality. She has become my quirky little friend that I thought I would never like. It just goes to show that not everything fits in the little box that we have decided they should fit into.

I think Mabeline is going to make a very rewarding dog for someone who is very patient, albeit a little quirky themselves. Maybe someone who likes the rewards of training a dog that is capable of learning, but needs a little extra attention and work. Someone who likes long walks in the park, hikes, adventure...well, maybe not a whole lot of adventure at first, but maybe adventure in the long run.

Here is a kinda long video of her. She was being extra hilarious, of course right before I started taping. In the video, she is just being kind of hilarious. Notice her bent tail if you can. Just another quirky thing about Mabeline.



Have you ever worked with a dog with crippling, non-aggressive fear? How did you handle it? Do you have any tricks in your pocket that might be useful for me? I would really like to hear them, so please feel free to leave your advice and comments for me below.

Another Unexpected Rescue...

Some days, even though we are not planning to do a rescue, a rescue just falls in our lap. Even though we don't have the money, and we don't have the foster homes, rescue we must. PJ had a little run in with a local today who is not very happy about having dogs running around the neighborhood. He is upset, and I think rightfully so. I don't want stray dogs running around my neighborhood either. Unfortunately, he has threatened to eliminate the dogs on his own; not necessarily the solution we are looking for. In the middle of having the altercation with the man, PJ heard some pups in the background who were also in danger of being killed by this man. We have footage of all of this as well, but most likely it will be saved for the movie. I will post it if I am given permission. Here are the three puppies who were rescued today. We need a foster home for the two blonde ladies. The little black guy is already spoken for. They seem to be very friendly and already adjusting quite nicely to their new human integrated world. What would you do if there were hundreds of stray dogs running around your neighborhood? How would you handle it? Click on the comments below. We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Some of the Adorable Faces around here

I just love this little lady's face. Her name is Mabeline. Maybe she was born with it :) I did not name her. She is still quite shy and is such lover. I think she is going to be a great pup for someone. She was one of our Parvo survivors. Hopefully we won't have anymore parvo pups. We have gone to great lengths to prevent that from happening again.

Little Bruce is one of Eartha's pups. He is a ham, playing it up for the camera and chasing his two year old human foster brother around.

Isn't Abby cute? I think she looks so sweet. I want her.

Mr. Hugo is a shy and loving puppy. I love those sweet eyes. He is also sporting a lovely tan toupe.

And finally, the cute little grumpy faced Dixie. I adore this face. Little white fuzz ball. If I were in the market for a puppy, I would have snatched her up already.

Agnes

Agnes has been on the streets for quite a few years now. PJ was the only person that she would let pet her. There was this guy who she followed around every day, but she would not let him pet her. I would like to draw you a picture of Agnes and this fellow: We would see this man who dressed everyday in a one piece, red type button up pajama suit,  always with a bottle of whiskey. If we saw this gentleman walking around, lo and behold, there was Agnes, following 10 feet behind. She would not let him touch her, but she was always there. PJ would give the man Agnes' treats if she was not around, and he would always say, "when you gonna bring me something?" But, he would laugh and give the treats to Agnes. At least we assumed he gave them to her. One day when PJ pulled up to give Agnes her love and her treats, the man came out to tell her that some fellas had been throwing bricks at Agnes and that she was really being picked on by the locals. PJ just could not stomach Agnes being left to the fate of these mean people. Next thing I knew, PJ called me on her ride home, "Guess who I have in my car!" I was so happy to hear that she had rescued Agnes, even though our rescue has had to put rescuing on hold since we have had 6 parvo puppies in the last month. There is always room for an animal who is being abused on the streets of East St. Louis. Now we just need to find a permanent and loving home for Agnes and life will be happily ever after for this special dog.

UPDATE: Thankfully all of our parvo pups survived. Hopefully it will be the last that we see of parvo for a while. Unfortunately, meanwhile, we have lost a lot of our puppy fosters due to the fact that parvo lives in a yard for up to 6 months. We cannot risk putting puppies in homes that have been exposed to parvo. If you have been thinking about fostering a puppy, now is the time that we need you. We cannot pull any more puppies until we have more money and more foster homes. But, like I said, the good news is that everyone survived and most are in their forever homes by now.

Honey, Please don't kill me, but there is a feral kitten lose in the basement.

Which would not be such a big deal if my husband were not deathly allergic to cats. I rode with PJ today, and we have had this ongoing thing with this kitten. I tried to catch her once and failed, but today, PJ snuck up on her and grabbed her while she was eating. It surprised all of us. It's like, oh no! what are we going to do now? She is so adorable, and I am really hoping she will fall for the stinky food in her trap. It's even organic. She got away from me when I was trying to transfer her into the big kennel, her new lovely mansion, equipped with a toilet, fake mice, and jingly little plastic balls, access to food and water 24/7, and a soft snuggly blanket. And all the pets she will allow, which aren't much these days. She is mad at me, but I told her that she should be mad at PJ since she is the one who caught her. I think I have someone who will foster her on Monday, so hopefully we will only have her for a couple of days. I really do not know how my husband puts up with me. He is a saint, as are all of the spouses of the Gateway fosters. Than you to all of you!

Super Bowl Puppy Shuffle

I just love this photo of T-Bone. David Carlyon took this photo and many in this post. He is so talented. T-bone is a sweet, sweet boy. He is well on his way to a new home. We have had a lot of interest in him.

Hyacinth was rescued by PJ from East St. Louis. Is she not the sweetest thing? That curly hair is not something you see on the East side very often. We are not sure where it came from. Hyacinth has been adopted already, but her sister is still running around on the streets. PJ goes every day to try to catch her. Hyacinth and all of her litter mates have mange.

Chesley is one of Hyacinth's litter mates. He is a little more on the reserved, shy side, but super cute none the less. He is a relative of Nigel. Chesley and his brother Broderick still need a foster home. No pictures of Broderick, but he looks very similar to Chesley. He is at the doctor today because he is having some issues. I will keep you posted on how he is doing. Hopefully he will pull through.

This is another one of Chesley and Hyacinth's litter mates. His name is Caian. You can see how bad his mange is. He is a very lucky boy to have been rescued when he was. Soon enough, all of his fur will grow back, his sores will heal, and he will be a healthy and beautiful puppy. I am sure he cannot wait until the day.

Ha Ha! Isn't he adorable? Another one of Mazey's puppies. Too cute for words.

This one is Ella. She is a little sweetheart.

And I think this one looks the most like Mazey. He is a tub.

We have a lot of vet bills because of these pups. I am so sorry to sound like such a broken record, but anything you can give will help us out tremendously so that we can continue to pull more puppies off of the streets. They do not deserve to live like Caian. The streets are not a safe place for puppies especially. Thank you for all you do. I will be posting about a Valentine Event we are having this weekend too that involves artist-made jewelry, hand-made chocolates, homemade dog treats and proceeds to benefit Gateway Pet Guardians. Stay Posted!

Baby Mama

A few weeks ago PJ contacted me asking if I might be able to find someone who would take a sweet pregnant dog off of the cold streets of East St. Louis. She was one of those dogs that tried to get on PJ's lap when she fed her and tried to take a ride home with her when she left. One of those dogs who knew that there was a better life for her and her last litter of pups that she will ever have to give birth to. I thought it was going to be difficult to find someone to take on the undertaking. I sent out the plea, thinking it was a long shot that anyone would step up to the plate. Lo and behold, Mia, a sweet and devoted foster did immediately. It was really just in time because Mazey, a.k.a. Baby Mama, Mia's new foster had her puppies last night, just five days after PJ pulled her off of the streets. She was one of the lucky dogs who got to have her puppies in a safe place on a warm blanket with the attention of a human just in case something went wrong. Nine Ten puppies to be exact. These pups as well as their Mama will stay with Mia until Christmas, and then the whole family needs to move on to a new foster home since Mia is traveling abroad for a while at that point. After about 6 weeks, we will need to find foster homes for all of the babies and the mom. We will then take them to the vet for their shots, spay and neuter them, hopefully train them a little bit, love them a lot and then off they will go to their new forever homes. I will be posting pictures as they grow and become cute little fuz balls. I personally have never experienced a dog birth. I am sure that it is nothing short of fantastic.
Doesn't she look tired? Had I been present, I am sure that she would have had to tell me to go away if she could talk. I personally think I would be a little annoying at a puppy birth. Although, I probably would have obsessed over the process and read a gazillion books and as much info online as I could find. I know, I know. It is not rocket science. I just obsess over things like this. And then, I probably would have passed out once the first one crowned. Have you ever experienced an animal birth? Was it scary? Fun? Gross? A miracle? Did the animal tell you to go away at any point or did you feel like she wanted you there?

Brothers in Arms

I have been fostering my baby, Luke as well as two of his brothers, Max & Cooper for the past few days. One went to his new Forever home and the other is here keeping my baby company. Currently I have Luke and Cooper. Max - absolutely adorable Max! - one of the brothers who is now with his incredibly fabulous papa, Doug. What a great family they are becoming. So, the details on the remaining brothers is that Cooper is the big lug. Loving, tender, sweet and mellow and kind to all other dogs. Luke is energetic and ready to go, very outgoing and friendly with all dogs.