“Casey” Seabrook

To make a one time donation, or a monthly donation to Small Paws Rescue, you may use your major credit card securely, at this site. Enjoy our user friendly, secure site to make your credit card donations. 

If you’ve made a past donation by credit card, you may e-mail Louie Bertolino at louieb@smallpawsrescue.org to let him know the amount of your donation. If we already have your credit card on file, please e-mail Louie and let him know the amount of your donation. Or give him a call at 337-324-2466 to make a donation. Louie is in MA. on Eastern Time.

We have added our Text-to-Donate feature! It’s simple and secure. You may use any major credit card as well as Google Pay and PAYPAL! Text the number 53555 and the word Bichon in the message area. A secure link will come up with simple instructions. After that, you can text a donation of any amount to Small Paws anytime without filling out your information again! We hope you enjoy the ease and security of Text-to-Donate, to help the Bichons!

“Beno” Scheuneman

“Sydney” Irvin

Thursday Afternoon, May 30, 2024

Dear Small Pawsers,

If you have an AOL or Yahoo address, I am not able to respond to you until our Web Designer gets this fixed.

Some of you inquired about Petunia, and some have made donations who have AOL or Yahoo e-mail addresses.

Usually, I answer every single donation personally.

But everything I send out to either AOL or Yahoo is bouncing back to me unread and undeliverable.

Until this is fixed, I can’t respond to you. I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE! Ha!

Again, I can hear from you. You just can’t hear from me until we get this fixed and we are working on it!

We thank you for every donation, no matter how small or large.

Thank you to AOL and Yahoo users!

Ok, we raised only $465.00 yesterday for little Petunia, our 9 month old little girl who survived Distemper as a young puppy.

Her exact estimate is for $1,886.00 at one of the “City Vets” near Dallas, Texas.

This includes an exam, heartworm tests, fecal tests, vaccinations, x-rays of her leg, 10 days of quarantine since she came from a shelter to rule out things like kennel cough, spay, and removal of baby teeth.

Her spay and baby teeth removal is supposed to happen Friday, May 31, TOMORROW MORNING.

We have two matching challenge donations for Petunia.

What is a Matching Challenge Donation?

First, from Barbe Von Netzer at Forest0000@al.com, we have this challenge for $100.00.

“I will issue a matching challenge of $100 for this sweet Petunia. I pray someone will match my challenge as well as know in their heart this baby is meant to be theirs. God bless you for the work that you do to help these precious pups. Love you, Barbe” 

Is there anyone who can match Barbe? We are $1,421.00 short for Petunia’s surgery tomorrow.

Thank you Barbe and Randy!

Next, we have a wonderful volunteer Foster Mom, and Team Leader for Michigan. It’s Dawn Mead at mead.dawnl@yahoo.com.

Yesterday, we learned that Dawn and Diane lost their 15 year old Shih Tzu, Sadie.

Bless their hearts.

Dawn and Diane have issued a Matching Challenge Donation for $50.00 in Sadie’s honor. Oh My. Sadie was in residence through over 40 Small Paws® Rescue foster dogs, over the years.

“$50 Donation to Small Paws in honor of SADIE Mead (Dawn Mead’s and Diane Barker beloved 15 yr old Shih Tzu)- Sadie crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday and we are heartbroken. Dawn, Diane (moms) , 3 remaining siblings SMALL PAWS- Bichon mixes (Ernie, Dawson, Ellie) and our foster bichon- Toby are feeling pretty lost. We thought a donation in honor of Sadie (the leader of the pack) would be appropriate.

SADIE has helped foster over 40 plus Small Paws Bichons at our residence in Lansing Michigan. SADIE’s guidance and no nonsense leadership training helped these pups get to a successful adoption. ( By the way Dawn had a handle on this as well:)

I put a challenge out to others to consider donating to Small Paws and save a dog in Sadie’s honor.”

This is Diane Barker and Dawn Mead’s precious “Sadie”. She will be missed by all who knew and loved her.

Thank you, Diane and Dawn. Is there anyone out there who can match “Sadie’s Memorial Challenge?”

Sadie wasn’t a Bichon, but she sure knew and loved over 40 of them!

That’s where we are.

All My Love, Robin

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Listen to the YouTube music to go with this newsletter.

“Broken Toys”

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, we took in an emergency case from a shelter near Ft. Worth.

We were told by our vet that she is around 9 months old.

They know this because her growth plates haven’t closed yet.

She was on the shelter euthanasia “RESCUE ONLY, RESCUE NEEDED NOW” list.

They told me that she had “distemper teeth.”

This is a tooth enamel disorder caused by a dog having had distemper, as a young puppy.

80% of those puppies will assume room temperature.

There is a small percentage that survive.

That’s where our story takes us today.

We were notified of this Facebook post for dog’s whose “time is up” at a shelter near Ft. Worth, Texas.

The shelter assured me that this baby girl, a DEFINITE Bichon, did NOT have distemper now, but that she probably had it when she was a small puppy.

They said she is very friendly and that she had a “Tick” probably from having had distemper.

Guys, I just could not let her be euthanized. Blame me. I did it. wrong or right, I did it.

I just wanted to get her to one of our vets to be examined.

She IS precious. She loves EVERYBODY.

This is Petunia at City Vet Preston Hollow in Dallas.

Many thanks to Everett Goble, the adult son of SPR volunteers, Thomas and Melissa Goble, who pinch hit for his parents, on Memorial Day Weekend, when the clock was ticking.

He picked her up from the shelter and took her to our vet. This was a drop dead emergency. Everett took these pictures of our new baby girl.

Petunia raises up to be picked up. She has no idea that anything is wrong.

But Petunia is a broken toy. She has some neurological damage from having had distemper, a completely preventable disease.

This is what our veterinarian said about Petunia.

“From: <no-reply@app.ezyvet.com>

To: Robin Pressnall <robin@smallpawsrescue.org>

Subject: Rescue Pup at City Vet

Hi Robin,

I just wanted to touch base. Your new rescue dog is doing great with us– eating well and a happy little girl!

I took x-rays of her left front leg, which seems to be the most pronounced part of her “spasms” and also is intermittently non-weightbearing. I do not see an old injury or fracture so I think it is likely that she had distemper as a puppy and was one of the lucky ones that survived but will likely have neurologic deficits for the rest of her life. Interestingly, her growth plates aren’t closed so I suspect she is actually around 9 months of age.

We updated her vaccines today and she did great– no side effects. The shelter hadn’t fecal or heartworm tested her so we did that and she is negative for both. I am going to start her on heartworm/flea prevention while here. I am not worried about any side effects from the heartworm/flea prevention as her neurologic deficits are not seizure in origin.

She has not developed a cough but we will continue monitoring since she came from the Fort Worth shelter. The plan is to spay her and remove some of her puppy teeth next Friday.

I will call you if anything concerning occurs otherwise I’ll call after the spay on Friday,

Below is a video of Petunia. She has a tremor. She doesn’t know it. She is such a happy girl.

She will have this tremor for her lifetime. They tell us she is healthy today. She is scheduled for her spay surgery on Friday, as well as having some baby teeth removed.

All of her vetting including exam, bloodwork, heartworm testing, fecal testing, vaccinations, spay and removing baby teeth will run around $1800.00 including a 10% rescue discount.

But we also need a foster home, and a permanent home.

She is so precious.

More about dogs who survive distemper.

“Some dogs fully recover from the virus with few to no long-term effects or signs, while others display certain characteristics that will last throughout the rest of their lives. In most instances, these neurological effects do not have a significant impact on the dog’s quality of life.” 

Is there anyone out there who can help?

Please let me know at robin@smallpawsrescue.org

All of us are broken in some way. There was only one perfect One and we aren’t Him.

Without someone helping us, where would we be?

I’m praying for Petunia. That there is someone out there who can give and receive love from this precious little girl.

All My Love, Robin

 Florida Charity Registration # CH37698