RESCUE is The Best!

Well, RESCUE won The Best contest at AZ Central!

If you voted for us, thank you so much!

Thanks for reading. See you at the Dog Park!

Meet Our New Foster Toby!

Time to meet our new foster dog, Toby! Toby has been with RESCUE (and us) since April 2nd. Why he's still with us, I don't know. Just look at that face!!!

(This picture was taken on his rescue day, so he was a little unsure of himself at the time.)

Toby is a small (around 8lbs) brown and white chihuahua. He's friendly and fairly outgoing, and seems to have a soft spot for men. He does well with dogs and cats. He's quite the playful little guy and loves all his toys. Including the big-dog toys, many of which are as big if not bigger than he is. He's a bit "toy ADD" in that he'll start playing with one, spot another one out of the corner of his eye, abandon current toy and take up new toy. Thirty seconds later, he sees yet another toy that must be played with. And so and so on until every toy has had a chance to be gnawed on that hour. But he's a sweet and goofy little guy (my favorite puppy personality) and you just can't help but smile at him.

Toby has a slightly twisted muzzle, his nose is a little off center (that's not just a weird camera angle, his nose is really slightly off to the side like that). But it doesn't faze him, and since he hasn't hit his teens yet, he's not constantly worrying about his looks. So he is blissfully unaware of his imperfections, as it should be. It makes him all the more endearing, don't you agree? He also has a slightly crooked tail, that appears like it may have been broken before. It add to his overall charm.

When Toby is worried or unsure of a situation, he will wrinkle up his little forehead (see photo) and look up at you with his big, sad, brown eyes and you just have to melt right then and there. I don't care who you are, he has the magic to melt.

Toby loves lap time and wants nothing more than to be snuggled up to his person while he naps.
He is also a nibbler (that's one of his nicknames now, Nibbler). He loves to nibble on fingers and toes (especially when the toes are attached to feet that are trying to move around the house). He never bites hard, just softly nibbles. Its very sweet.

So if you or someone you know is looking for a small, calm, sweet little pup to spoil and love, check out Toby. You might just be his forever home.

Thanks for reading. See you at the dog park!

Romeo's Adoption!

I never got a chance to write a post about Romeo, the white boxer (mix?) we fostered earlier this year. But I now have some great pictures from his adoption day so I just wanted to share.

Here is a shot from Romeo's rescue day:

And here are some shots of him and new brother, Mickey Blue Eyes, having a jolly good time playing and wrestling (something I'm sure is an everyday occurrence in their home now):

And here is a great shot of Romeo with his new forever proud papa.

We loved having Romeo around. He was a sweet and goofy dog that made us smile every day. His temperament was a dream, he was smart, great on the leash, and even learned a few commands. He was a great foster that we were sad to see go, but we know he has found the perfect forever home with a mom and dad who will love him and treat him like the wonderful dog that his is. And he now has a canine brother who is matched to him in play style and temperament, so we know he'll have fun every day and get all the activity he needs.

Good luck Romeo! We'll miss you!

Thanks for reading. See you at the dog park!

RESCUE - The BEST in Phoenix?

RESCUE has been nominated to be the "Best" in Phoenix for animal shelters/rescue groups!

The "Best" is hosted by azcentral.com . This is their second year for this and it is a Reader's Choice poll. Readers nominate their favorite local businesses from a number of categories. These include favorite people, recreation areas and activities, Valley attractions, arts and entertainment, food and dining, various services, and even pets! The top ten are selected for each category and then readers can vote on their favorite from that list of 10.

The winners for each category will receive plenty of media exposure and then of course they will be awarded the title – THE BEST for 2008!!!

Voting is simple. Head on over to the azcentral.com Best website and then click on Pets. A new window will pop up which asks you to enter the characters you see (this is just a security check). Then you will be taken to the poll page. The default category will be Best Animal Shelter (on the left side of the screen). You can also choose other categories by clicking on them, which will then open a new list of nominees. Click the radio button next to RESCUE to select us, then click Vote down at the bottom of the list. That will tabulate the votes to date and show you the current results.

You can vote once a day from now until April 17th. So please tell a friend (or 10)! And be sure to log on every day to cast your vote. You can help RESCUE with your vote by giving us a chance to show the community who we are and what we do to help homeless dogs and cats in Maricopa County.

Thanks for reading. See you at the Dog Park!

Should I Stay or Should I Go? (The Poo Chronicles)

Well, its all about the poo this week at the house of L. Yes, I said poo. Its something you get frighteningly comfortable with when you have a multi-pet household with critters of all ages.

Really, that goes for all pet messes. For example, on our wedding day, one of our cats had thrown up on the living room carpet (guess he wanted to let us know how he felt about missing out on cake). When we got home that night I was seen on my hands and knees cleaning it up, still in my wedding gown. If that's not commitment to one's animals, I don't know what is.

But I digress. Our elderly cat, Reggie, has been suffering from bouts of constipation. We have special medication to give him for this problem. Its supposed to taste like chicken. If the smell is anything to go by, that's a chicken I do not want to eat. He hates it, and I don't really blame him. But he tolerates it well enough, considering. Our nightly ritual now involves wrapping him in a towel (to keep my husband's hands safe from the talons-of-death), I hold Reggie like a baby, my husband fills up the syringe and then squirts it into Reggie's mouth. Yes, we do end up wearing some of it. Then we get out the pillow and some cat food, and he gets his sub-Q fluids. I've become quite tolerant of sticking a one inch long 18 gauge needle into my cat, and it disturbs me slightly. But it part of owning an elderly cat with hyperthyroidism and damaged kidneys I guess. Oh, he also suffers from a slight heart murmur, has high blood pressue, and his vision is diminishing day by day. My cat is on more prescriptions (including his food) than I am. And his cost more. But he's still an affectionate cat who can hold his own with a large, enthusiastic, young dog (and in our household, that's a valuable trait).

Back to the whole constipation issue. He's backed up. But we had poo on Monday night, which I announced to the entire household. I had to hold myself back from rushing on here and annoucing it then. So its getting better.

We have a new foster right now, and I will tell you much more about him in another post. His name is Romeo and he is a boxer (mix?). Anywho, he was only supposed to be with us over the weekend (our boarding facility was going to be closed and we had an adoption event, so I took him in so he could be at the event), but he'll be sticking around for a bit. He had some diarrhea last weekend I'm told. We noticed on Friday night when I got him home, that he still had some intestinal issues. By Saturday evening, it was worse. He was quite lethargic as well. He woke us up in the early morning hours on Sunday, twice, needing to go out. He repeated this Monday and Tuesday mornings. Its very pretty outside at 3am. You can see lots of stars from our backyard. This morning however, he only got me up around 5am. I do so appreciate that. The poor guy though, he held it until we heard him whimpering and let him out. He's such a good dog!!

Turns out that our little (well, not too little, he is boxer afterall) guy has a bacterial infection. I picked up some meds for him yesterday. He gets them three days this week, then we wait seven days and give it to him for three more days. We already noticed a difference this morning. I was out in the backyard with both him and our Min Pin, Marie. He tried to get her to play, though she's not having it. He gave her a couple of enthusiastic play bows, let out a few goofy grrrs, jumped around, ran to the grass and back to the patio. She just turned her back. But I was laughing at him. And happy to see he is starting to get back some energy. When we got back inside, he actually tried to get Reggie to play with him (which is saying something, seeing as how his basically terrified of Reggie). He play bowed, then pawed at Reggie. Then Reggie swatted him, and poor Romeo cowered and crawled backwards to hide behind me. ;D

He's lost some weight from all the runs (and I don't mean around the block), so we'll be working to get some meat on him on the next week or so. Eggs and rice (with some medication hidden in it) along with Wellness dry dog food should help.

Well, thanks for reading (despite the topic). See you at the dog park!

Beauty to the RESCUE!

Its that time of year again, time for the annual Beauty to the RESCUE fundraiser event!

This event takes place on Sunday, March 9th, from 9am-3pm at the Mane Attraction Salon in Phoenix. The address is 3156 E. Camelback Road.

The beauty of this event isn't just the customers after a service, but also in the fact that Mane Attraction is open on a day it would normally be closed. They also donate all the proceeds from the day to RESCUE. How great is that?!

The event will include beauty time, food from Seven's Heaven, items for auction, dog grooming services by Animal Attractions, and of course, the lovely dogs of RESCUE. You can partake in all of this as you rock out to the musical stylings of Sistah Blue.

And to top off the festivities, we will have be holding a raffle drawing at the end of the day for a $1000 grand prize. You can purchase raffle tickets for only $5 from the RESCUE website. And you do not need to be present to win!

So hurry over to the site, buy your tickets and then go mark you calendar for Beauty to the RESCUE!

Thanks for reading. See you at the Dog Park!

A Min Pin's New Years Resolutions

My Min Pin Marie finally wrote down her 2008 New Year's Resolutions. Since she can't type (or turn on the computer), she asked me to share them with you all. She thinks that maybe, if she puts them out there on the internet for all to see, this will give her some accountability and might just help her keep them. So, here they are, in no particular order.

Marie's New Years Resolutions for 2008

• Be nicer to my foster brothers and sisters


• Try not to destroy my stuffed toys (that way Mom won't take them away from me when she spots my stashes of stuffing all over the house)


• Try to eat slower so I don't choke


• Lose 3 pounds (Mom says I'm becoming a little fatty)


• Convince my Siamese cat sister Neika that I'm a nice dog who really wants nothing to do with her anyway and that she doesn't need to hiss at me and run every time she sees me. (I'm not one of my nosy foster siblings after all.)


• Figure out a way to get into the cats' litter closet so I can raid that litter box.


• Convince Mom to put the giant stuffed dog on the floor so I can gnaw on it and tell it who is boss.


• Be much more sneaky when I get up to Mom's workbench to steal anything that smells good. (I really enjoyed that last spool of thread).


• Continue to sit on the floor and stare up at Dad when he's eating in the hopes that he'll either drop a tasty morsel, or he'll break down and share with me. (Sharing is the nice thing to do after all, its so rude to eat in front of others.)

Well, there you have it. I'm not sure if I approve of some of those, but I do agree, she needs to lose a couple of pounds.

Well, that's all for this time. Thanks for reading. See you at the Dog Park!