JANUARY 2011

The first post of the new year - and we have 12 or so dogs needing to find homes. We also have two dogs needing to come back to rescue - one is Wilson who was placed during this past year and the other is Kees who was placed in 2002. How is it that when folks move away and have problems we do not get to know about the issues for years? Suddenly we are expected to do something and do it immediately. Ahhh well, one can never say rescue is dull and boring...it never is...

Our web site is more or less updated with the dogs but there seem to be many that are not on the site. Pure breds that hopefully will be placed without ever having their photos up there - they are in great demand at times and we still seem to go through cycles of only males for weeks then only females for weeks, there is no rhyme or reason for this non-pattern occurrence.

Rescue is still looking for a volunteer grant writer, as well as foster homes and people to help transport. It is a never ending wish list for those three helping hands.

Fewer dogs is always good?

We have two Ridgebacks in rescue - Rudy the three-year old ridgeless boy and Maggie the two-year old ridged girl - both need new homes and both a pretty cool dogs - photos can be seen at http://www.ridgeback.org/ but will post a couple here of Maggie being possessive of her personal space.

Sadly remiss...

Ah well, I forgot all about this blog - even though I promised faithfully to keep it up to date.... but let us get down to the business of Rescue - we still have dogs to be rehoused. We still have far to few volunteers, we have even fewer foster homes - and there are always dogs needing to be rehoused. Always. I am currently trying to learn how to write grants so that rescue can be flush again and have some much need cash to spend on the dogs. Dogs need to be spayed, neutered, microchipped; they need to be fed, most of all they need to be loved.

I am soooo bad...

I really put this blog up so that I could keep in touch with more of you out there and I have failed miserably. Tonight I am sitting on 22 dogs in rescue and 628 e-mails that I have to do something with - adopt out, answer, delete, destroy (only the e-mails, not the dogs), all of the above. Good grief, I need a secretary or three. Please - somebody send me some personnel!

Life has been morbidly busy - is that an oxymoron? If it is morbid does that mean it is dead - or has been dead a while? I guess one cannot be busy when one is dead. Too many people are losing their homes thus losing their dogs too. I wonder why none of the kids are being dumped? Just the pets..... Food for thought?

Suffice this post to say I shall try to keep up my postings and try not to get too high up on my soap box - hope you are all well and one of these Sundays we shall do yet another RR walk at some out of the way place that is equally inconvenient for all to get to - honest.

Good to be home

It really is good to be home but now my feet are getting itchy again and I want to travel - with the price of gas that is not very feasible so will add a bit to this blog and a photo of one of the horses who travelled back to California - she is so large that Makeetah stood up on her hind legs and licked the top of Allie's leg - nowhere near her shoulder!

A few highlights...

After looking everywhere - while we drove, for wildlife - and seeing none, a young and very thin coyote ran in front of my truck. Me, being the ever conscious and careful driver, slammed on the brakes of this heavily laden truck. I am just lucky it did not even fishtail!! The coyote ran looking across his shoulder at me - as if to say - nope, not ready to die just yet. I know there are folks who do not like coyotes, but I happen to like them, and this one reminded me of a little jackal from South Africa. I am glad he crossed the freeway safely (and that I did not kill myself slamming on the brakes).

At one stop in Arizona the red rock was carved by the eons into beautiful waves and jutting pointed edges. Atop the flattish parts were life sized animals, anchored with cables, to the rocks - it was quite impressive and I shall insert some photos here at some point. The animals made it all so appropriate for some reason.

I looked through all the damp states for a cardinal. Not one was to be seen by me. I am sure they knew I was coming and they all hid. There are just a few wild creatures I really want to see in the wild: a mountain lion; a bear; a wolf and a cardinal. My list used to have a moose but then in Idaho I saw a moose cow from about three miles away so I guess that one no longer counts as needing to be seen.

The motels we stayed in were expensive (I guess the days of a Motel Six actually charging six dollars per night is something that is now read only in the history books). However, some of the motels wanted ethernet cables to use their internet, or they wanted $2.99 to log on for 24 hours. Thus, we did not keep up with the blog.