Results tagged “dogs” from Petfinder Blog

Rex, a German Shepherd, Labrador and Bassett Hound mix, never knew anything but shelter life. His mother was dropped off at a Tennessee facility two days before Rex came into the world.

Quickly transferred to another shelter, Rex was put on a transport for New Hampshire in an effort to get him to a part of the country where shelters weren't so overcrowded.

Eventually he came into the care of the Salem Animal Rescue League in Salem, NH, where his photo and description were put on Petfinder then jettisoned far and wide.

A year and a half earlier, the Walsh family dog, Bootsie, was killed in an accident. The whole family was devastated but Jamie, now seven, had a particularly rough time.

"She spent many nights crying for her beloved Bootsie," says Jamie's father Michael Walsh. "My wife and I really had a hard time deciding whether or not we should get another dog and possibly put her through something like that again."

We love stories of lost pets reunited with their families -- often as a result of a wisely placed microchip.

But Discovery News has a truly miraculous lost-pet story, about an Australian explosive-detection dog named Sabi who vanished during a September 2008 gunfight in Afghanistan.

Fourteen months after Sabi's disappearance, a U.S. soldier found her at an isolated patrol base. The retriever was returned to her Australian caretakers in time for a visit (and some pets) from Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. (Read the full story here.)

Speaking of pets and the military, you can help men and women serving in the armed forces by fostering their pets while they're stationed abroad. Learn more after the jump.

November is Adopt-A-Senior-Pet Month, and we'll let people who've done just that explain why seasoned companions are so special.

Read on for five senior-pet Happy Tails -- and if you can't adopt your own senior pet, you can help them find homes by adding our adoptable senior pet search widget (shown here) to your Web site.

Bunny
"We drove 800 miles to get her. It was love at first site. She happily hopped in the car and headed back to Alabama with us, where she immediately made herself at home and has stolen all of our hearts. She has filled much of the void left by my old pal Bud, and filled our home with the love of a senior dog. We tell her every day that she hit the Basset Hound lottery, but actually it was us who won."
>> Read Bunny's full Happy Tail.

Bugsy, an eight-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, was Lauren Morris's dog. He had come with her from her parents' home -- where he had plenty of playmates -- to her marital home.

Now he was depressed, missing the little pack of terriers he'd been around all his life. Lauren and her husband decided to get him a companion.

"We both agreed the route of rescue would be best," Lauren says, "giving a forever home to someone in need, rather
than supporting the breeding industry."

The couple asked their veterinarian what kind of dog would be best for Bugsy. The vet suggested that a younger female dog would probably work out well.

Lauren's husband favored German Shepherds, but they figured that was too large a breed to be a good companion for little Bugsy. So they logged on to Petfinder to see what was available and were shocked to see how many homeless pets were in their area.

Petfinder has the world's greatest fans -- they're always coming up with new ways to spread the word about pet adoption. Case in point: Pals Jill, Esther and Lisa recently sent us this great video they made for Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month.

Lisa e-mailed to tell us, "I was asked by a friend of mine from YouTube to help her come up with a concept for a video for Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month and I immediately thought of Petfinder.com -- adopt, don't buy!"

This Saturday, October 24, we'll celebrate one of our favorite breeds on National Pit Bull Awareness Day. The annual event was started by Bless the Bullys in 2007 to bring positive media attention to these special, and misunderstood, dogs.

You can find events near you on the Bless the Bullys calendar and at NationalPitBullAwarenessDay.com (also check out Petfinder's own event calendar). Want to do more? Here are some ways to help Pit Bulls, adapted from a previous blog post about Pits.

Here's how you can help:

• Adopt a Pit Bull. Pit Bulls are devoted, affectionate and joy-inducing pets with as great a range in personality as any other breed. As with dogs of any breed, not every Pit is perfect for every family. Read more about things to think about if you're thinking of adopting a Pit Bull.


• Volunteer with Pit Bulls. At many city shelters, Pits and Pit mixes make up the overwhelming majority of the canine residents, and because Pits have been bred to bond closely with humans, the isolation of shelter life is particularly hard for them. You can visit the shelter to help exercise and socialize the dogs; open your home to a foster dog; photograph and write bios for local adoptable dogs' Petfinder profiles; start a bedding drive at your office to collect old blankets and towels to donate ... the possibilities are endless. For more ideas, read our article on volunteering or visit BAD RAP's How You Can Help page.


• Educate others about Pit Bulls. Once you've fallen in love with a Pit (and to know one is to love one), you'll start to notice how many offhand Pit Bull stereotypes people throw around in everyday conversation. Learn the facts about Pits and you'll be able to shoot down the myths (no, they do not have locking jaws). Some great resources include Petfinder's book The Adopted Dog Bible (you'll find an excerpt, Pit Bulls: The Myths, the Legends, the Reality, after the jump), as well as BAD RAP's Monster Myths page and Pit Bull Rescue Central's breed info page. (All three sites are excellent, and we encourage you to click around on them.)
  

Lately there's been a lot of discussion about cat and dog vaccines -- when people should vaccinate, whether they should, and what kinds of vaccines are necessary to keep pets safe.

(Check out the comments on vet blogger Doolittler's recent post on the rabies vaccine.)

Vaccines protect pets from upper respiratory infections, distemper and parvo, in addition to rabies, which is transferable to humans. So why all the debate?

The issue is that some pets have adverse reactions to vaccines. In fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association's brochure on vaccinations warns of just that possibility:

The most common adverse responses [to vaccines] are mild and short-term, including fever, sluggishness, and reduced appetite. ...

Rarely, more serious adverse reactions can occur. Allergic reactions appear within minutes or hours of a vaccination and may include repeated vomiting or diarrhea, whole body itching, swelling of the face or legs, difficulty breathing or collapse. ... In very rare instances, death could occur from an allergic reaction.

Brody has more than 270 friends on his MySpace page and the neighbor kids come over to ask if he can come out to play. That's quite a change from the "unsociable" label he earned just a few years ago while waiting for a home.

Brody, then two years old, was spotted on Petfinder by Dale Mustard of Cannon Beach, Ore., after the Pembroke Welsh Corgi had washed out at his previous two homes: once for his high energy, once because he bullied the family's new dog.

Rescued Paws in Longview, Wash., posted Brody on Petfinder, but he "was pegged as one 'who does not get along with others,' " according to Dale. "Now he has a more active social life than his human family."

October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month and, with the ongoing economic crisis, there are more dogs in need than ever. But what if you can't adopt?

Here are some easy ways you can still help:

1. Donate your Facebook status. Just paste this message into the "What's on your mind?" box at the top of your page: "October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. Save a life: Adopt a dog! http://www.petfinder.com"


2. Tweet, retweet and repeat the following (or your own brilliant message): "October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. Save a life: Adopt a dog! http://www.petfinder.com"

It's Deaf Dog Awareness Week and we're happy to bring you an interview with Melissa McDaniel, an avid deaf-dog advocate and blogger, as well as photographer for The Photo Book Projects, a stunning series of soon-to-be-published books calling attention to deaf and rescue dogs.

(Don't miss the great giveaway at the end of this post!)

What is the purpose of The Photo Book Projects?
I wanted to do something to raise awareness and money for deaf-dog advocacy [and rescue] groups and to show these dogs for the beautiful animals that they are. In many respects, deaf dogs are just like hearing dogs. [My deaf dog] Sadie has a great life. She has no idea she's deaf and if she does, she doesn't let it hold her back. Humans could learn a lot from deaf dogs.

What inspired you to create the books?
My dog Sadie is a deaf Border Collie mix that I adopted. Her mother was deaf and she passed this trait along to the puppies. After getting Sadie, I learned all about the issues deaf dogs face, including the horrible statistic that thousands of deaf dogs are put to sleep each year simply because they are deaf.

Why do you think deaf dogs are singled out?
There are many myths circulating about deaf dogs, including that they are untrainable, dumb, stubborn and aggressive, and these just aren't true. Many of the dogs appearing in the books are better-trained than most hearing dogs I know and some are even therapy dogs and/or compete in agility.

A Better Place, a New Boston, MI-based rescue group, produced this great video about two Springer Spaniels found living in filthy conditions who went on to thrive in foster care and at their new forever home. The story of Duke and Spike shows what's possible with a little grooming, a little affection and a lot of love.

You might also like:

Learn about English Springer Spaniels

Adoptable English Springer Spaniels listed on Petfinder now

Learn about Welsh Springer Spaniels

Adoptable Welsh Springer Spaniels listed on Petfinder now

Pets available for adoption at A Better Place

Last month we ran our second Victoria Stilwell contest, in which rescue groups nominated dogs in their care who could benefit from a phone consultation with the It's Me or the Dog star.

Visitors voted on our five finalists, and Logan, a Hound-Lab mix at New York's Buffalo Humane, won. (Meet Logan and the other finalists here.)

We'll be following Logan's progress here on the blog, as we did with our previous winner, Pit Bull Liza Bean.

Here's the first update from Logan's foster mom, Carol Tutzauer, in which she tells us about Logan's great escape the night before she learned of his big win:

I was steeling myself for the likelihood that wonderful Logan would not win the Petfinder/Victoria Stilwell contest. After all, his profile appeared as the last entry, not a good position for getting votes, having to cursor down the screen to find him. "Too bad," I thought. "Logan would benefit so much."

My husband and I, educators at the State University of New York at Buffalo, had just survived the first few days of the semester. Exhausted and tired from dealing with the throng of students, we arrived home to our farmhouse, gathered up all eight dogs (our four and the four fosters), stoked up the propane heater in the pole barn and sat down with the dog gang and a nice cold beer.

iStockphoto

The San Diego Union-Tribune (via Paw Nation) reports that there's something in your refrigerator (or purse) that sounds as dangerous to your pets as anti-freeze and is even more accessible: sugar-free snacks and gum.

That's if they contain the sweetener xylitol, which is harmless to humans and found in many foods.

"Two pieces of sugarless gum can be harmful or fatal for a 20-lb. dog," vet Ashley Weinberg tells the Union-Tribune. Adds vet Valerie Caskey: "One pudding cup can cause harm to a 90-pound Rottweiler."

If you think your pet has eaten something containing xylitol, take him or her to the vet or call the ASPCA's poison control hotline immediately at (888) 426-4435:

Symptoms are vomiting, weak and wobbly appearance or extreme lethargy. A dog's blood sugar can bottom out in 30 minutes, and a pet can fall into a coma, veterinarians say.

These symptoms can be observed from 30 minutes to 12 hours. The longer the pet goes without help, the more grave the condition becomes. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Still, this doesn't mean you need to trash all your sugarless foods: Many don't use xylitol at all. Just check the label and, if a food does contain xylitol, be sure to keep it well out of your dog's reach.

Gracie and Ann Marie's 2-year-old granddaughter are "instant best friends." Read Ann Marie's story.

Shortly after Ann Marie Gonzales of Espanola, N.M., moved to the country, her two dogs got out of her walled yard while she was at work.

When she arrived home that day, she found her Pit Bull mix Nakita, "the most beautiful, loving, loyal animal you could ever meet," dead, lying beside the wall.

"I think when the neighbors saw her, all they saw was a Pit Bull and they didn't [want to] take a chance that she wasn't there to eat the cows or sheep. They just shot at her and killed her."

Eventually, Ann Marie began browsing on Petfinder, just looking, not sure she was ready to chance such a heartbreaking loss again.

Then one day she was having computer problems, and when she rebooted a picture of a dog came up. "I clicked on it, thinking it was odd that of all the past viewings for my computer to save, it would be one of a dog," Ann Marie says.

On Aug. 12, Petfinder and shelters and rescue groups across the country celebrated Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Day, a day we designated to give all those pets who are often overlooked a chance to shine.

Here are just a few ways adoption groups put their extra-special pets in the spotlight -- and found new homes for some of them as well:

Three New Jersey rescue groups, Friends of Homeless Animals in Hawthorne, Here Kitty Kitty! in Paterson and Angels of Animals in Clifton teamed up to do a joint ALAP Day adoption weekend at the PETCO in Clifton. Senior cat Izzy, who'd been waiting for her forever home for way too long, found that home thanks to ALAP Day!

Our friends at The Grey Muzzle Organization, which helps at-risk senior dogs by providing funding and resources to animal shelters, rescue groups, sanctuaries and other non-profits nationwide, added our senior-pet search widget to their Web site, GreyMuzzle.org.

Washington's Seattle Animal Shelter got the story of Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Day out to local media and bloggers. As a result, five "less adoptable" pets found new homes, including two Pit Bulls with special needs!

Michael and Alicia Stiteler of La Verne, Calif., wanted to adopt a puppy and they found just the one, an Australian Shepherd mix, on Petfinder, listed by Chihuahua Haven Rescue. It was their dream come true, but it ended abruptly when they got him home.

Brian, as they named him, cried and cried and cried. "The first few nights with a crying puppy ... were pure chaos," Alicia says. "We started regretting our decision and wondering if we had done the right thing. They decided to return him and called the rescue.

"We held each other and sobbed," Alicia says. "We felt guilty for taking on a responsibility we couldn't handle."

And then fate stepped in. It snowed where they were to meet the rescue person, and she asked if they could wait a week. Soon, Alicia says, "we realized that Brian ... was just trying to get used to his new 'digs' ... by the end of the week, we knew Brian wasn't going anywhere."

A few months ago we posted several updates from Elizabeth Lujambio, founder of Marley's Pit Stop in Los Angeles, on Liza Bean, the shy pit bull she's fostering whose debilitating fearfulness was the subject of a phone consultation Elizabeth won with It's Me or the Dog star Victoria Stilwell.

Well, it turns out that Victoria, a true dog lover, went above and beyond the call of duty and paid a visit to Elizabeth and Liza Bean in person!

Here's Elizabeth's account (see all her posts here):

The movie studios in Los Angeles couldn't have staged a more perfect Manhattan Beach day: a slight ocean breeze, warm sunshine, a gorgeous dog and a beautiful British import!

Lucky Liza Bean finally got to meet her trainer extraordinaire, Victoria Stilwell, who took time away from her family on her only day off to give Marley's Pit Stop volunteer Dave and me even more tips on how to help Liza prepare for a new home.

Shortly after Colleen Vetter of Mahwah, N.J., adopted Abby Rose from Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge in New Jersey, Colleen's mother became terminally ill.

It hardly seemed an auspicious time to have a new member of the family. Life was hectic. Decisions had to be made by Colleen and her siblings, who spent many hours on the phone. Abby Rose stood by as a beacon of reassurance during the crisis.

"She was a huge comfort and mental health benefit during that time and every day since," Colleen says. "She lay with me while I cried and played with me to keep my mind busy."

We've been hearing from more and more of you who included your pets in your weddings, and of course we think this is wonderful. Pets are important members of the family, just like your brother, sister or even children.

Here are a few tips we've developed from speaking with people who have included their pet in their special day:

• When planning a ceremony and reception location, make sure they allow pets.
  
  
• Designate someone (not in the bridal party) to watch your pet for the day.
  
  
• Take photos with your dog before the wedding or on a different day.
  
  
• Know your pet before making the decision to include them in your wedding, because some pets may not handle large crowds and intense situations well.

What if you got old and nobody wanted you? That's the question posed by Judith Flatley, who adopted eight-year-old Queenie, a Pekingese whose previous parent had a stroke and could no longer care for her. The woman turned her five dogs over to Adopt-Aluv Small Breed Rescue in Mentor, OH, before going into an assisted-living facility.

Judith had already adopted one dog from Adopt-Aluv through Petfinder, and when the five dogs arrived, the rescue person called Judith to see if she could take on another. "I hesitated," Judith says, "because our other adopted Peke was such an Alpha that I wasn't sure it would work out. Now I'm sorry I hesitated even long enough to discuss it with my husband. Queenie is the sweetest dog imaginable."