A Goodbye to Linda

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of the death of our volunteer and friend, Linda Griess.
Linda was well known at the puppy rescue and had been volunteering since June of last year. She attended intakes as our resident puppy washer and adoptions as a senior adoption counselor.  On occasion, Linda would bring her granddaughter Sydney to help at a few of our events and Sydney became well known too.  Linda was fun to be around, easy to approach and easy to trust. She became a fast friend to most of us. We enjoyed spending time with her while eating and gabbing after intakes and at our book-swaps.

Linda at the Volunteer/Foster Appreciation Dinner

I will remember Linda for her hearty laughter, her genuine smile and her sensitive hugs. I will remember the generosity and thoughtfulness that she showed to those around her. I will remember the love that she had for our puppies, for us and for her family.

Linda contracted Bacterial Meningitis earlier this week . She passed away last night at Parker Adventist Hospital surrounded by her family. I will let you know when her service arrangements have been decided.

Please review this website for more information about
bacterial meningitis. http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/articledetail.cfm?id=546

Our girl, Puppy 232

On Febuary 4th puppy 232 was found on the road, hit by car. She was taken to The Animal Care Clinic in Taos, NM for treatment and care. She was half starved and now suffers from constant tremors (see video.) She doesn't seem to notice the difference. She runs (a little strangely), she plays, she cuddles, she is smart, she aims to please, she sits on your lap and watches tv, she asks to go outside so she can lay in the sun, she's very affectionate.

Special Needs Puppy #232

There maybe unknown future complications, she maybe like this for the rest of her life, or she may get better. The Animal Care Clinic has documented her progress and show that her tremors have improved. 

Puppy 232 is available for a $50 spay/neuter deposit and will be at our adoption event in the Petco at Colo. Blvd and I-25 from 11am-2pm. See some photos of her at www.coloradopuppy.org.

Special Thanks to James for the great video!

Gifting Pups and other things I did this week

What a strange week. I want to start off by saying that it's my week off, which means that I work part time instead of full time. I've had a great break, but I wanted to share with you all of the things I did do this week.

First of all I thought I'd try out IE 9 beta. Bad idea. Now I can't personalize the font color, type or size in any of the fields I fill out online (including this one.) So I downloaded Firefox and I LOVE IT!

Great News!! Petco Foundation approved our food donation application and has already sent a whole pallet of food. WOOOOHOOOOO!! I never thought I'd say this but: Please do not donate anymore food. We have so much now that we're running out of places to put it. We no longer need food donations. I'll let you know when that changes. A special thanks to everyone who sent in food and helped up during our hard time.

Also on the donation front, we're received many "wish list" donations from companies and vet offices. Our puppies are doing well this winter. Thanks to everyone who has sent in donations. We have everything: blankets, ink, towels, toys, bowls, leashed, collars... it really is great!

Last week I was interviewed by Sr Youth Reporter Sophia Baker for a story in The Denver Post's Colorado Kid's Section. The story was about the ethics of giving a pet for Christmas and focused on pet owner-responsibility. When I posted on our FB pages that I had been interviewed about CPR's policies lots of people posted comments and opinions on the subject. The most common comment was to the tune of "I hope you told her that you are against the idea..." Since it was such a hot topic I thought I'd elaborate here.

Puppy #1071

CPR will not adopt to third parties. This means that you can not adopt for a person that does not live with you. The policy cuts out most gifts. The exceptions are as follows.

- An adopter must be present at the adoption event to adopt a CPR puppy. We want to meet you and know who our puppies are going home with. Is the person you're gifting to at the adoption event, meeting the puppy? If the answer is yes than we have no problem letting you pay and then allowing your friend to take the puppy home.

- We are open for adoptions on Christmas Eve. Most of our adopters that day will be parents adopting puppies as Christmas gifts for their children. It will be a surprise, the kids will have no clue until the puppy tries to eat the tree on Christmas morning. I know and you know that no matter what the kids say, the parents take care of the pets. Are you adopting for a minor child that lives with you? No problem. This is really YOUR puppy.

In our experience, it's a bad idea to adopt a pet as a gift for someone who doesn't live with you. People want to "connect" with their pet before they commit. When you gift a puppy, you rob them of that opportunity and ultimately the puppy will be re-homed. If a surprise is what you want, most shelters and rescues (including CPR) offer gift certificates.

An Email I received this week:

Hello

My family is planning on attending the adoption event on Saturday. But we would like to adopt a pair of siblings (sex doesn't matter) is that possible? Also, I was wondering the cost of 2.

Thank You

  Our average adoption fee is $150 + $50 for the state required spay/neuter deposit whether you're adopting one or many.

That's it this week. See ya soon!

It's a short one, but worth the read



Puppy #975

This week's intake: OMG those are some cute puppies this week! (Yes, I know, all puppies are cute. But these are REALLY cute!) I've been swamped with emails about these pups. I think it will be quite a busy day tomorrow. We have 6 babies whose mom was a Great Pyrenees but they look more St. Bernard. They are pretty small though so I'm not sure if there's a smaller mix in the pool too. We're getting two returns this week. That's a lot and not at all usual. # 938-968 was adopted a few weeks ago and I'm sure he's being returned because he cries at night. #960 was adopted last weekend and after a week of trying to work it out, the older dog still doesn't like her.

This week's most interesting email:

Subject: Silky Terriers

We have (2) 13 week old silky terriers, AKC> one male one female. I bought them from Pet City for my D/D daughter. They are wonderful and smart, but we now have been asked for an extra 500.00 pet fee to keep them in our condo. I paid near $1200.00 for these 2 puppies. They ideally would go together. Please help us find a premo home for them. I wanted them for my daughter for company, but they are too much work for me.

What she means is that she wants us to help her sell her puppies. Luckily I didn't have to write her back, she sent the email to Kim. (But really, what's another $500 once you've already spent $1200 on them?)

This week I worked on: EVERYTHING! And doing a pretty good job if I do say so myself. With Kim taking time off I'm been handling both of our jobs. I'm looking forward to a nice rest when Kim returns.

The 2011 Foster Puppy Calendar. I compile all of the pictures that our fosters sent throughout the year and pick 13 to go into the calendar. Active volunteers and fosters get it for free. They are available to everyone else for a $10 donation. In the previous years I've picked the cutest pics that fit the required size specs. This year I'm looking for something different. I want a calendar that says "See how much fun you can have fostering for CPR?" If you do have an undeniable urge to foster after seeing the '11 calendar, you can email Renee at foster@coloradopuppy.org.

I ordered this year's volunteer appreciation lapel pins and I'm very pleased with them. I also ordered a starter batch of "Proud to be a CPR Foster Failure" T's. Once they come in they'll be available for a $20 donation. Haven't failed at fostering? No big, next week I'm ordering t's that are just as cute for you too.

See ya soon!

The Puppy Run (Brook style)

On Thursdays we drive out to the boonies to pick up puppies from shelters or from other drivers that the shelters sent to meet us half way. We call that trip "The Puppy Run." Kim usually drives the puppy run. She likes to go by herself; it's her "quiet" time. When I drive the last Thursday of the month, I like to take a volunteer with me. I like to show people where we're getting our puppies from. It's a part of the rescue that not everyone gets to see (or wants to.) They see one of our partner shelters, meet the staff and drivers of other rescues and help load pups in the van. Volunteers also help me keep track of the keys because it's well know that I've locked them in the car on puppy runs before. Most volunteers have a great time. It's a 6-8 hour trip so only volunteers that can stand me for long periods of time are invited.



Our Puppy Mobile

 Yesterday I drove the puppy run because Kim is taking some much needed time off. I drove by myself, which turned out okay because I made a puppy run "mixed tape" and brought a book to listen to.
Destination: Noah's Ark Animal Shelter in Trinidad, CO. Three and a half hours south on I-25. I left at about 8:15 so I could get an early start and take my time if it snowed any harder than it already was. Cup of coffee in hand, music blasting, I was on my way. Traffic was no problem and by the time I hit Monument Hill the skies were blue so I was flying. (I've been known to pick up speeding tickets on this trip...not THIS time though!)

While passing through Pueblo, I saw a large Veterans Day festival. There were tents up and convoys and it looked like all kinds of fun. Since I was running early I stopped for some food and to check it out. This is one of the best parts of the puppy run. Kim often stops at various farmers markets on the sides of the road. It's fun to see what the towns have going on and bring home great snacks too. I bought a burrito from a guy in a van, listened to some bands play then I was back on the road.

I pulled into the dirt driveway at Noah's Ark around 11:35am. That's where I met Pat. She is one of five volunteers that transports puppies to a meeting place for us because CPR can not drive to all of our partner shelters and rescues every week. They are just too spread out.  Pat picks up puppies from rescues and shelters in the Taos and surrounding areas and drives them up to Trinidad or one of our other meeting spots and she does all of this on her own dime. She is a volunteer. Over the years that we have worked with Pat, through CPR and Lifeline, she has transported well over a thousand puppies to us from kill shelters. She has saved their lives.

A stray at the Taos Pueblo where
some of our puppies are from.

Pat brought 14 puppies with her. They are so cute! Three are from the Taos Pueblo. There were seven in the litter but when Pat went to pick them up yesterday morning four of them were missing. This means that they'll probably turn up soon and we'll get them in a few weeks. Five of the puppies are chunkers. They weigh 6-8 lbs and when we got them home we saw that most of them didn't have their teeth yet. They are too young to go up for adoption this week and they'll have to stay in foster homes for at least another week. After giving all of her puppies a look over and finding a crate to put them in for the ride, Pat was ready to go and I was ready to see if Noah's Ark had pups to send with me.

Noah's Ark Animal Shelter is kind of hard to find if you don't know where to look. It's a small older building that is waiting for enough funds for a good fix-up. There is a small staff with big hearts. All of the animals there are taken care of and given a chance. Like most shelters in Colorado, they sometimes need to euthanize for space. That however, is a last resort. They will do everything they can to adopt and transfer their animals to keep from needing to euthanize. That is why they need our help. 

Yesterday I noticed that there were not many dogs. Noah's Ark had five puppies to send with me. All of them were 3-4 months old and on the larger side. The puppies were in an outside run that was in the middle of being hosed down when I arrived.  All five puppies were soaked and after picking them up and hauling them to the van, I was soaked too. Brrrrrr! I was sure I had ice crystals on my jeans. I turned on the van and cranked the heat. I tried to put the puppies by the vents so they could air dry a bit. Then I took pictures of all of the puppies to post on Facebook. I think it's fun to show everyone a preview of what's about to arrive.

The ride home was pretty uneventful. I pulled over twice for carsick-clean-ups. I arrived home around 3:30 to a house full of volunteers ready for puppy intake... which is a story for another time.

See ya next week!

Guest Blog: Why Christy Volunteers for CPR

I'd like to introduce Christy, a volunteer for Colorado Puppy Rescue. She works full-time and volunteers with CPR when she has time. Christy wrote this for me about two years ago and I'd like to re-post. Thank you Christy, for sharing your CPR experience.



Christy's Puppy Sammie

 About a year ago, I dragged my son and husband to a Colorado Puppy Rescue (CPR) adoption event at Petco on Mississippi. I actually left my mother's 75th birthday party early so I could adopt a puppy. I arrived right at closing time and fell in love with "Big Girl". She had a "nipping" problem so it had been difficult finding a good home for her. OK so she is a heeler and she nipped more than your heels - but I fell in love with her. She will now nip at my pant leg or shirtsleeve and pull it when she feels she has not gotten the attention that she deserves, but to me that is endearing.

About a month, after we got our puppy I was looking for a volunteer opportunity for my son, something where he could get involved in the community and stay busy.

In my search on the web, I found a volunteer opportunity for him at Colorado Puppy Rescue. I signed him up and went with him to the volunteer orientation. I dropped him off for intake later that week and picked him up when he called and said he was done. The next week he came out the car and asked if I could come in and help, because they were short handed. It was probably a lie, but they got me in the door and I was hooked.

When I first started volunteering my husband gave me a hard time about the time I spent with the puppies, but now he knows that a little time at CPR makes me a much better person. I am a working mother in a high stress corporate job, but all week long, I look forward to Thursday nights. I make sure no one can schedule a meeting with me after 3:00 so I can leave on time. As soon as I pick up that first puppy I can feel the stress just melt away. There is no way that I can stay mad when holding a cute innocent puppy. It is not all fun and games, there are still messes to clean up, baths to give and crates to clean, but for all of that the payment is puppy time. The most treasured part of intake is after the initial rush, when we sit down and get to know the other volunteers. I feel such camaraderie with this group of people and have made so many new friends over the last year. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have some wine and extra puppy time too.

Sometimes I am able to foster, this is a special occasion because when I foster I want to dedicate every minute to watching the puppy. I cannot get any work done; I am too engrossed in watching the puppies every first. Sometimes I see them use stairs for the first time, touch grass for the first time, use the doggy door for the first time, play with older dogs for the first time and bark for the first time.

Just watching a puppy makes me smile.

Saturday is adoption day, when the sweet innocent puppies find their new families. Saturday is also a day when I find more companionship with the other volunteers.
People who love dogs make great friends.

If you have a story or pictures to share of your Colorado Puppy Rescue puppy send an email to info@coloradopuppy.org.

Tuffin!!! COME!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. While dressing up in a costume no longer appeals to me, I wear my Walmart and Target Halloween shirts proudly. I love to look at other people's costumes and dress up my son and my dogs. I enjoy giving out good candy to the kids who dress up and peanut butter kisses (those icky candies wrapped in orange or black wax paper) to the ones who don't. I like celebrating Halloween at our adoption event on the last Saturday of October... but this week we're closed.
     We couldn't pull together enough puppies for a puppy run this week so we held this week's adoption event yesterday evening with five puppies. I wasn't sure what to expect, we've never held a Thursday night event before. It went really well; four puppies found homes right away. We have one puppy who still needs a home.



Puppy #938

 Meet Puppy #938: Pup 938 came in a little over a week ago from Noah's Ark Animal Shelter in Trinidad, CO. He was one of three boys who all looked different. One was cream with long hair, one was black with long hair, and #938 has black, short hair. We think he's a lab mixed with something BIG because he's a pretty good size at only 14 weeks old. What a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky boy. He's always up for a good time whether it's hiking, playing fetch or cuddling up for a movie. If it's a BIG boy you're looking for, he's the one for you. He's great with kids and loves to play with other dogs. He's not very happy in his crate but will quiet down after about 20 minutes (if you're willing to stick it out that long.) Contact info@coloradopuppy.org for an appointment to meet him.

This week's most common phone call: Had to do with training. We all know that feeling of panic when your dog bolts out the front door and to the maple two houses down. When this happens to me, I bolt after him yelling "Tuffin!! COME!!" He lowers his leg, sniffs at me and waits till I'm just out of arms reach before taking off in another direction. Now I have a few choices: 1. Keep chasing him and hope I eventually out-smart him. I'm embarrassed to say that could take awhile. 2. Offer him a treat- but I don't want to reward him for this. 3.  Go get the car and lure him in with a car ride. All terrible options.
Like the previous adopters that called this week, my dog knows his basic commands, is generally a good dog and I love him very much but some of his bad behaviors have me mumbling threats while I try to dig him out from under a car.
     I said the same thing to these adopters that you'd say to me. "Try having a trainer come to your home and see these behaviors in action. Then you and the trainer and formulate a plan of action."
     "Yeah, but how much is that going to cost?" one adopter asked before explaining all of her financial obligations.

How I need your help with it: She needs a low-cost solution to her behavior problems and I could not recommend someone for her. I couldn't recommend someone for ANY of the five adopters who called with training questions/complaints this week. That's when I realized that I need to build a database for trainers. Please help me. Leave a comment below if you've been to a trainer that helped to save your relationship with your dog. Please include what the trainers strengths are (ie. aggression, house training, digging...) so that if someone calls with that particular problem I can find the right person to send them to. Please keep in mind that we're trying to keep this as low-cost as possible.

My solution to last week's Facebook Dilemma: I'm going to start posting the same thing on both pages and hope I don't tick that many people off. Thanks to all of you who wrote with solutions.
 
Still no word from the Petco Foundation: about the $1700 dog food donation we asked for a few weeks ago. We'll give it one more week before we start making any big decisions about finding a new place to hold our events. In the meantime, I've decided to submit another application for general supplies. Things like brushes, shampoo, wire crates to replace our bent and rusty ones, new playpens, etc.
 
Next week: We're closed for intake and adoptions. This will give us some time to take care of some things on the business end, like grant applications, that we've been meaning to get to for awhile. I hope to be running again the following week.
 
Guest blogger: I think it would be fun to have one guest blogger a month. I'd like to hear from previous adopters about what it's like to adopt from CPR and I'd like to hear from volunteers and fosters about what it's like to volunteer and foster for CPR. If you're interested in guest blogging, go ahead and write one up and sent it to me at info@coloradopuppy.org. I'd love to slot you in! I'll through in an extra on on Monday to wet your whistle. It was written a few years ago. See you!