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