Archive
Wordless Wednesday #319 – Can I Play?
Black and White Sunday #185 – Puppy Mill Survivors
Today is national Puppy Mill Awareness Day. Daisy and Cupcake (above) are both former puppy mill breeding dogs. They were fortunate enough to be rescued before they could be killed, but many puppy mill breeding dogs are not so lucky.
When you buy from a pet store or online, you are buying from a puppy mill. And when you buy from a pet store or from an online website, you are guaranteeing that the parents of that puppy will continue to live in feces, be covered in fleas and suffer untreated medical ailments, including rotting teeth and jaws. You are also guaranteeing they will be killed by shotgun or through torture.
Please don’t buy a puppy from a pet store. Please don’t buy a puppy from the internet.
Adopt. There are so many dogs in need. So many of them are in shelters or with a rescue, and 90% of the time, through no fault of their own.
When puppy millers stop seeing sales, they will stop, but in order for that to happen you need to stop too.
My thanks to our hosts for this blog hop Dachshund Nola and Sugar The Golden Retriever.
Unfortunately, WordPress.com doesn’t allow Java script so I can’t provide a direct link to the linky, but you can join here.
Wordless Wednesday #297 – The Look
Wordless Wednesday #291 – Just the girls
The ASPCA Rehabilitation Center that is changing the lives of damaged dogs

Foster Maggie telling me it’s too much pressure to “touch” my finger when I am this close.
If you would have asked me what my dream job was five years ago, I would have said professional pet sitter. It was what I was doing at the time, and I loved it. I loved caring for other people’s pets and making them feel loved while their parents were away. I also loved being able to train and socialize the ones I walked each day. Puppies were the easiest, they were always so eager to learn, but what always got me excited was working with a shy or fearful dogs. I can’t explain it, but there is something so rewarding about being able to build their confidence and win their trust.
Even when I volunteered at our local shelter, it was the shy or fearful ones I was most drawn to each day. In the 8 1/2 years I was there, those were the dogs I woke with most. I think it’s in my DNA. It’s most certainly how I met my dogs Indy, Daisy and Jasper.
Several years ago, I heard about a small facility that was being set up as a pilot site to work with and better understand how best to help dogs coming from dog fighting rings, puppy mills and hoarding cases.
Operating out of St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in Madison New Jersey, the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center rehabilitates dogs that are damaged and traumatized by abuse and neglect. Their goal? To give dogs, most likely to be euthanized at local and county shelters, a new leash on life.
Back when I first read about it, it was more of a proof of concept, an experiment designed to prove that these dogs could be rehabilitated. But, it was also a study into learning what worked and didn’t work when rehabbing these dogs.
Fortunately, it appears they are succeeding. Thanks to the ASPCA and the wonderful people working at the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center, dogs are successfully being rehabbed and placed into new loving homes.
And now, they are ready to graduate and take it to the next level. Recently, they announced that they will be moving to a brand new (and much larger) facility in Weatherville, North Carolina in 2017. This is HUGE news. For those of us who work with puppy mill dogs, it means we may soon learn more about how best to help these dogs recover from abuse, trauma and neglect, and that really excites me.
This is my dream job! Think they would be open to a Minnesota transplant with a silly Fargo-like accent? Would it work if I made up a sign “Will rehab dogs for food?”
A person can dream, can’t they?
If you want to learn more about the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center, there is a great piece on it in NJ.com: Meet the ‘miracle’ dogs: N.J. center rehabilitates animal cruelty victims
Wordless Wednesday #273 – Miss Maggie in Winter
Give to the Max Day is Thursday! Help dogs like puppy mill rescue, Maggie
This Thursday, November 12, is Give to the Max Day! Are you ready?
Never heard of it? The official description is below, but I can tell you that for Minnesota charities, this is the biggest day of the year. In this one event, charities can raise enough funds to keep them going for the next year. It means they can continue to help those in need, animals and humans alike, for a whole year.
About Give to the Max Day
Give to the Max Day was created in 2009 to launch GiveMN, a collaborative venture led by Minnesota Community Foundation and many other organizations committed to helping make our state a better place. That initial spark touched off a blast of online giving — $14 million in 24 hours. Since then, Give to the Max Day has become an annual tradition. Every year thousands of organizations and individuals generate donations and excitement for Minnesota causes that are working to improve the quality of life for all Minnesotans. Give to the Max Day has become a national model for giving days. |
Give to the Max is a competitive day of massive giving and fundraising. What makes it special is that ON THIS DAY ONLY charities have the chance to earn extra $$’s just by you giving.
- Every hour a random drawing will give $1000 to a charity on each of the categories. This is called the Golden Ticket.
- Two SUPER SIZE GOLDEN TICKETS of $10,000 will also be awarded to two charities.
- In addition to that, top earning charities for each category will have the chance to win extra $$’s just by you keeping them in that top slot. Here is where Minnesota Sheltie Rescue hopes to be (small organization leader board):