Caption: “Pure Love”
How precious is this? Illinois Volunteer Extraordinaire, Jackie Kolb, gets ready to transport 6 year old “Maddi” and 8 year old “JenJen” to Foster Care, but first, pictures for all of you!
Their owner was terminally ill, at the end, in a hospital, and the adult children were beside themselves.
None of them lived there. They desperately needed our help for these two little ones. See why we don’t separate Bonded Pairs? See more about their medical needs, below.
Some days we rescue dogs. Some days we rescue people. Some days we rescue both.
We have also now added Text-to-Donate feature! It’s simple and secure. You can use any major credit card as well as Google Pay and PAYPAL! Text the number 44321 (how easy is THAT number to remember?!) and type the letters SPR ( all capitals) 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!
If we already have your credit card on file, please e-mail Louie and let him know the amount of your donation.
Happy Thursday Morning, Feb 10, 2022
Gem of the Day: “ “Fall in love with a dog, and in many ways you enter a new orbit, a universe that features not just new colors but new rituals, new rules, a new way of experiencing attachment.” ~Caroline Knapp, Author~
Dear Small Pawsers,
First of all, an update on Monkey and Blitzen!
If you remember, Monkey is a four year old male who began having seizures.
After Emergency Care and medications, Bonnie Ferguson, our Director of Adoptions, found a great home for Monkey with one of our previous adopters who is also a volunteer for Small Paws! What an answer to prayer!
Wanna SEE??
Monkey and his new Dad, Dave, who adopted him AND he’s familiar with seizure dogs! Thank you Dave! And thanks to a Charter Member of Small Paws, Vicki Furstenburg, for fostering little Monkey and getting him to the ER!
And we also have news about little Blitzen near Dallas, who is blind.
Isn’t he a doll?!
We were hoping that his right eye just had a cataract, which could have been removed and given his site back. His left eye was already dead.
Another Charter Member of almost 24 years, Ardys Adams, took him to the eye doctor and his diagnosis is:
Progressive Retinal Atrophy
It’s usually congenital and there is nothing that can be done to give him his site back. That’s the bad news.
The GREAT news is that he isn’t in pain, doesn’t know he’s blind and I’m not tellin’ him!
Ardys says he’s the greatest dog. He doesn’t act blind!
He needs a forever home. This is an online application to adopt Blitzen!
Fast forward to today.
Well, January was slower than a herd of snails traveling through peanut butter.
The same thing happened last January, when Covid numbers were high.
Please don’t misunderstand. The shelters are full.
Full of big black dogs and lots of Pit Bulls. Bless their hearts. Many get a bad rap and are very sweet. The shelter workers are at their wit’s ends.
But whenever a small ANYTHING comes into a shelter, after stray hold and no owner claims the dog, there is a already list of 20 adopters, waiting. We are having a small dog shortage in the entire country.
The great American dog shortage
But it’s starting to pick up as Covid numbers come down.
I don’t know what the connection is, but there sure seems to be one.
In the past few days we’ve taken in two bonded pairs. One of the pairs is Maddi and JenJen.
They are VERY bonded as you can see. Due to their owner’s illness, they hadn’t been to the vet in years.
This is from the girl’s Foster Mom, Caryn in Indiana. Her vet is very reasonable.
“Update from Caryn
Total for today was $279.21, that includes all vaccinations, pre-dental bloodwork, two months of Heartguard for each girl, fecals and heart worm tests. Both girls have negative fecals and are HW negative! They will call me with pre-op bloodwork results, then I can schedule dentals. Jenny’s teeth are terrible, most of them are covered in tartar and are barely hanging on. She will likely lose all of them. Dr Joyce said it make take two sessions because they don’t like to leave them under for more than two or three hours at a time. If it does take two sessions or there are lots of buried or broken roots, worst case scenario on Jenny would be around $1000. Maddie has all of her teeth, none seem to be loose, but she may require a couple extractions after they clean off the tartar. They expect her dental will be in the $300 range. They’re running about a month out on dentals, especially complicated ones like Jenny’s will be. Both girls have no heart murmurs and seem to be in very good overall health. They were excellent patients and Dr. Joyce just loved them.”
The other bonded pair, 6-7 years old, came from a cruelty case and were confiscated from the owner and sent to a shelter. We have them now.
Meet Henry and Bindi! They need the works. 10 days of quarantine, spay and neuter, dentals, bloodwork, Fecal tests, Worming, and vaccinations. One of them has some small bumps that need to be removed. Their vetting in Chicago, will run about $1500-1800 each.
Then we just took in this boy. When he’s cleaned up he will DAZZLE! So we named him “DAZZLE”!
This is a video of him! Can you say one really dirty B I C H O N?!
Then on Friday, we are standing by to take in a male hit by car Bichon in North Carolina. He is stable and they have to try to find his owner, first but I have a feeling he’s coming in. This shelter has been a joy to work with!
So this is where we are. After a quiet January, February is heating up. All of these kidlets really needed us and they still do.
Some days we rescue dogs. Some days we rescue people. Some days we rescue both.