The Deer & the Cat

A truly heartwarming video. Enjoy!

Doug & Katie Are Doing Great

Here is another update on how wonderfully Doug and Katie are doing in their new home! To read previous posts about Doug and Katie, please visit Spotlight on Rescuers.


Hello Everybody,

Doug and Katie are doing VERY WELL in their new home!

Katie loves the other dogs in the home, and they love her.

Doug is slowly starting to learn to deal with the "stress" of a life off the streets. We have a lot of appointments with Social Services and the hospital coming up. Tomorrow, we are meeting again with his social worker in West Los Angeles. He will get an assesement of temporary disability because of his hernia. Next week, we have an appointment at the hospital to see the surgeon. From then on, it can still take up to 1.5 years to get a surgery appointment. Then he has an appointment at the hospital to see a dermatologist because the doctors are suspecting skin cancer below his nose and on his scalp. Then he has a full physical exam in the beginning of August.

ARE THERE ANY DRIVERS out there? (Just kidding).

Anyways, it is very exciting to see how Doug keeps the house organized and clean, and how he continues to make improvements.

He is very happy there.

I accompanied Doug to his first AA meeting on Saturday (we will go every Saturday). It was great, and he really liked it. Two guys at the meeting, who have been sober for over 30 years, gave Doug their number. I hope he can make some friends that will also support him. We are also looking into counseling to battle his anxiety and to overcome his childhood and adulthood traumatic experiences.

Katie stayed at home with the other dogs during the AA meeting, and she did great! She is SUCH A GOOD girl.

We took Katie and her 3 new siblings for a little walk in the park. You will see Doug & his gang in the pic. I had the pleasure to walk 2 of them but for the pic, I asked Doug to hold onto all of them. IT WAS SO CUTE!!!


The dogs are so in love with Doug! They follow him around the house EVERYWHERE and sleep on his bed.

As you can see in the picture above, Doug is also a great cook! He insisted to cook me lunch, and it was Tortellini with a Mushroom/Creme sauce. VERY GOOD!

You all might remember that we had found a black Pit Bull last week on our way to the Social Services in West LA. She is still at WEST LA SHELTER. I am waiting for better pics from one of the volunteers.

I AM ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, because on Saturday, when I was visiting Doug and Katie, I was in their living room and all of sudden, I see 2 Pit Bulls running by the house. I ran out and caught both of them, they jumped right into my car that was parked there.

Male and female, between 10 months and 1.5 years old. NOT FIXED, NO COLLAR/TAGS, NO MICROCHIP, a bit skinny, dirty, FLY strikes on ears. EXTREMELY FRIENDLY.

I begged my friend to hold onto them until tomorrow morning. I have networked them out like crazy because I am BEYOND full with the dogs that I have for adoption.

If no rescue can be found by tomorrow morning, they will have to go to the shelter.

PLEASE NETWORK THESE AMAZING DOGS! My trainer evaluated their temperament and they passed with flying colors.


THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT! Special Thanks Again to our 2 VERY special ANGELS (you know who you are)!

Please continue to make donations as Doug still needs to cover expenses. The medical exam will show how soon he can start looking for a job but until then... WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!

Ingrid Hurel
4818 W. 136th Street
Hawthorne, CA 90250


or

PAYPAL
pajade@yahoo.de

Thank you!

Ingrid
310 480 6030
pajade@yahoo.de

Animals Who Steal

This is hysterical! Enjoy!

Pit Bull Blues

I hope that you enjoy Pit Bull Blues by John Shipe which is easily the best song about pit bulls that I have ever heard.

Update on Doug & Katie in their New Home

Here is another update from Ingrid on Doug & Katie's new home.

Previous posts:
The Story of Doug & Katie
Update on Doug & Katie
Doug & Katie Have a Home


Hello Everybody,

I am so sorry I haven't updated you in over a week.

I actually have been doing some catching up in my own life in addition to helping Doug and Katie.

Both have been in their new home for 1 week and 2 days now, and so far everything seems to be going really good.

It's a cute 2 bedroom house with a peaceful yard. A friend of our rescue ANGEL lady's family lives there too. Doug and Angelo get along just fine, especially since they found that they both are of Italian heritage, lol.

Doug is absolutely excited and happy about his new home but at the same time, I can see how he gets overwhelmed with all the changes. As it seems easy to most of us, every change is hard for him. We are trying to establish a daily routine for him, and he started making a list for every day of things that he wants to get accomplished... be it yardwork or vaccuming the house or making calls to find out about counseling.

He does his best to clean the house and the yard but he has to take it slow, because he often is in strong pain because of the hernia.

Even though, at first, Doug was really apprehensive about the idea of going to counseling, he seems to be warming up to the idea now. We are waiting for a call back from the Family Counseling Center in Pasadena.

Doug will also start going to AA meetings. I will be going with him for the first month, starting this coming Saturday at a Church near his house.

Katie LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her new home. She is so happy to sleep in the bed with Doug and run around in the yard. Katie loves her new doggie brothers and sisters. All the dogs constantly follow Doug around and/or sleep in his room or on his bed.

Especially Daisy, the senior lady of the bunch, is very fond of Doug. And Doug adores her. She gets extra hugs and kisses all the time.

We are also working on getting help from the Department of Social Services. He had gotten a card for food stamps, but there is a problem with it now. We went food shopping one time with it for less than $ 50 and now the balance is gone. So we had to spend some donation money on Saturday to buy groceries.

Well, we went on Friday to meet with the social worker all the way from Duarte (near Pasadena) to West Los Angeles, and then she wasn't even there. We were just able to submit the application. On top of everything, we found a BLACK female PIT BULL (I think she's is mixed with Shar-Pei), approximately 2 years old, near the Social Services Department on Pico/Sepulveda, just running loose.

I am stressed to the max, because I have no more room for another dog. My house is full with cats and dogs (my own dogs and foster dogs), and I have several in boarding and 2 in a foster home. I can't take any more. Most of mine are Pits. Well, please don't get upset with me, but I took the little girl to WEST LOS ANGELES SHELTER. I actually stopped by another rescue before, but of course, they were full. I called a few rescuers, but of course everybody is full.

Before I turned her in, I had a long conversation with a volunteer at the shelter who assured me she would take pics of her. As soon as she becomes available, she'll e-mail them to me. The West Los Angeles Shelter has several good volunteers there and the dogs get exposure. Of course, I will keep an eye on her and start networking her out as soon as I get the new pis. I don't have much hopes because everybody is so full and adoptions are so slow. Plus, she is black and black dogs are always the hardest.

I named her Crystal for now (please see pic above). Her impound number is A1046623. PLEASE NETWORK HER!

Of course, we had Katie in the car. Since I always keep a crate in my car, I put Crystal in the crate. She went in without any problems and a couple of minutes later, Katie and her were kissing each other through the bars of the crate. She becomes available for adoption (and to be killed) tomorrow.

Again, please forgive me, but I didn't know where else to take her. I am beyond overwhelmed.

Doug has another appointment tomorrow morning at Social Services with the acutal case worker. So, I will leaving my house at 5 am to go pick him up (his new home is about 45 min. from me) and then drive him to West LA. Then drive him back, go home to spend some time with my dogs and then go to work for my nightshift.

Please keep crossposting Doug's and Katie's story. There is still a LOT OF WORK ahead of us and we NEED your support.

To all who have donated, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

If you can, please make a donation. Our goal is to make Doug and Katie self sufficient. They are on the right track, but it can't happen overnight.

Please send your donation to:

THROUGH PAYPAL
Ingrid Hurel
pajade@yahoo.de

or

Ingrid Hurel
4818 W. 136th Street
Hawthorne, CA 90250


PLEASE NETWORK CRYSTAL SO HER LIFE CAN BE SAVED!!!


Thank you!!!

Ingrid

Update from Ban Ohio Dog Auctions

Here is a recent update from Mary O'Conner-Shaver from Columbus Tops Dogs & Ban Ohio Dog Auctions:

Dear Companion Pet Lovers ~

I wanted to take a moment and thank you for playing a critical role in our campaign to ban Ohio dog auctions. Your dedication to the animals is so important in helping us raise awareness of this event and its relationship to puppy mills and pet homelessness. I also want to share with you where we are in the process and ask for your continued assistance as we move forward in reaching our goal in presenting this proposed law to Ohio voters.

Here's where we are right now.

Unfortunately, our initial written Petition, which was signed by over 1,500 Ohio citizens, was not certified and approved by the Ohio Attorney General (OAG) and Ohio Ballot Board. The primary reason was information we did not capture correctly during the first signature drive.

But when one door closes, another one opens.

Although we were very disappointed to receive this news, thankfully we have allies (which include several animal loving attorneys!) in the right places who are providing guidance on corrective steps that need to be taken to ensure our amended Petition is approved and certified as part of a second filing. We have also connected with many new groups and individuals who are committed to helping us succeed in this campaign! One of those individuals is Don J. McTigue of McTigue and McGinnis, LLC.

In case Don's name may not be familiar to you, he is the former Chief Elections Counsel to the Ohio Secretary of State. Don has been in private law practice since 1991, representing and advising ballot issue groups across Ohio. He has also represented his clients in numerous election-related cases before the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio Elections Commission, and he is an Adjunct Professor at Capital University Law School, where he teaches election law.

In addition to helping us draft our amended Petition, Don's team has also coordinated the necessary legal paperwork to ensure our affiliate - Coalition to Ban Ohio Dog Auctions - can operate as a 501(c)(4) tax exempt, nonprofit organization.

We're getting ready to submit our amended Petition within the next week!

As was the case with our initial written Petition, the amended Petition will need to be signed by a minimum of 1,000 Ohio registered voters. Because so many animal lovers across the state feel passionately in supporting a ban on Ohio dog auctions, we have once again partnered with teams of dedicated animal advocates, which includes many volunteers from Stark County Coalition for Animal Concerns, who will be taking a lead role in helping us secure the required signatures (as with the initial filing, we will be striving to secure at least 20% above the 1,000 minimum requirement). As an additional show of support, efforts to secure signatures will also be taking place during the July 18 Citizens for Humane Action (CHA) Animal Shelter's 'Picnic with the Pups' fundraiser.

Again, I sincerely appreciate all your passion and commitment to helping us move towards a statewide ban on Ohio dog auctions!

For the dogs,

Mary O'Connor-Shaver
Columbus Top Dogs
http://www.columbustopdogs.com
http://www.banohiodogauctions.com
http://tejasanimalrefuge.ca
http://www.lostpetusa.net

LEGISLATIVE ALERTS: Please visit our Home page for pending legislation impacting the welfare of OH animals - http://www.columbustopdogs.com/

Recession Proof Your Dog: Tips from Cesar

Owning or adopting a dog can be expensive under any circumstances. Between the price of food, medical expenses, pet paraphernalia, training, and boarding, monthly budgets can shoot skyward with the addition of a four-legged friend to the household. But even in this time of economic crisis, you can find ways to care for your loyal companion without breaking the bank!

Read Cesar's 11 Tips:
http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/features/recession.php