Sunday, June 19, 2011

HEADING BACK HOME...PIT STOP IN STL TO SEE THE FAM!

We had such a great time in Wisconsin and were sad to have to go back home. The good thing is we were able to stop in to see family on the way back in St. Louis! They even barbequed for us and it was fantastic! Even though this is a blog about dog rescue, we just thought we'd introduce some of our family too!

Downtown Appleton, WI


Kevin's favorite little pub in Appleton, the Wooden Nickel

Somewhere in WI on the way back

Time to stretch the legs- hubby
Kevin

Windmills are just fascinating (to us anyway- lol).

Another view of the windmills- love them :)

Stopped by to see "The Fam". Pictured below (left-right: nephew David, sis Lisa, niece Presley, and bro-in-law John).

Niece Delaney

Nephew David with his girlfriend Brooke

Nieces Presley (top), Emma (left), and Delaney (right)

My mom's rescued dogs, Angel (yellow lab) and Alex (black lab). I learned my love of animals from my mother!

My mom's other dog Sasha (a rescue)

Sis Kristin playing piano with other sis Lisa. Funny how we take years and years of piano lessons and we all can only play probably 5 songs from memory. How I wish I had kept up with it now!

Nieces and nephews. Top bunk: Jake and Luke. Bottom:
Andy, Presley, Delaney (hiding), and Emma.

Twin Sis Kelly and bro-in-law Dave.


Angel- spoiled rotten and sweet as can be!

Nieces Presley and Emma

Angel again- lol

We didn't get a picture of my mom, Ruth, this trip so I thought I would post the latest one I have from February.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

MEET HANDSOME PIPER!


This is PIPER! Piper is an absolutely precious puppy who is looking for a home (be sure to click on each picture for an enlarged view of this stunning boy). I had the pleasure of meeting him and taking his picture today. He is approximately 6 months old. He absolutely loves to play. Piper hit the jackpot when my friend and fellow rescuer, Diana, agreed to help him.

Piper was brought in to a vet clinic by a woman who had apparently found him after the storms last month. Piper was not in the greatest shape when he came in- he was thin and looked like he had been dragged or something (cuts, etc. on his underside).

After several weeks at the vet clinic, Diana picked this adorable boy up last week so that he could experience life in a real home. Piper has made friends with one of Diana's other foster pups, Lizzie, and they play all the time!

If you know a family looking for a wonderful companion, please contact Diana at 901-299-9191 or
dmoore2003@bellsouth.net.

Diana's rescue (non-profit), Grace Rescue for Southern Paws, is now up and running. Her Petfinder site is still being tweaked, but it can be reached via the link below:

http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/MS140.html



















Saturday, June 4, 2011

GEARING UP FOR ANOTHER VISIT TO WISCONSIN!

***HUGE THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE FOR DONATING FUNDS TO HELP GET THESE BABIES "HOME": Ann B., Kelly A., Paula J., and Sharon R. Your support means the world to us! Thanks to all of you who have "shared" as well- networking makes all the difference!

We are so excited to take another road trip to Wisconsin to visit friends! We get to take part in Orphan Animal Rescue & Sanctuary's 2nd ANNUAL PURPLE PAW PARADE next Saturday! This is not only a wonderful fundraiser, but Kevin and I get the opportunity to see some of our pups that have been adopted through OARS!

Of course, we cannot take a trip without bringing some fur-kids along, so as a result of networking from our wonderful friends, 12 lucky pups (2 get off in St. Louis) will be hitching a ride to their fur-ever homes! All of these babies found themselves in City animal shelters in Arkansas (11 rescued from Osceola Animal Shelter and 1 from Wynne Friends of Animals in Wynne, AR). Thank you so much Amy and Steve for helping us process these applications- we love you guys!

Harry is going to Friends of Homeless Animals in St. Louis (thanks to the Boston Terrier networking family). Big thanks to Joe and Faith for coordinating this rescue!




Jake is going to the greatest home (our friends Jaime and Glen are adopting him- they adopted a pup from us last year, Riley aka Mac, and will be his new playmate)!




Jake's brother, Sammy, is also going to a private adopter- this time in Green Bay (pending the home visit tonight)! YAY!




Tony and Terri are 2 extremely lucky pups to be heading to UPAWS in MI (thanks so much Ann!). These two kept getting passed over, but now they have a wonderful opportunity to go where people actually "want" them!





A picture of Tony from a few weeks ago at the shelter- what a love!

Terri was sooo adorable- flips around in circles when she gets excited!




Lil Sam! Thanks to our friend Beth, he gets to go to Min Pin Rescue in WI (thanks Angie for accepting him!)!




Another cute picture of Sam!







Marci is another very very lucky pup! She is being adopted by a wonderful family in WI and will have a furry Schnauzer playmate too! The home visit went great so they have been approved!




Marci the day she left the shelter to stay with Amy and 3 other furry friends from Osceola (Guy, Lillie, and Winnie). Her hair is already filling in! We love you Amy! Thanks to Sherry T for taking the time to perform the home visit for us!




Remember Guy from the shelter? He too gets to go to UPAWS in MI!




Guy from the day he left the shelter for his foster home- thanks so much Amy!

Precious Lillie will be on her way to UPAWS next week!





Last, but not least, Winnie, will be joining her buddies at UPAWS! They may already be adopted by the time they get there!














Friday, April 29, 2011

COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS AFTER THE STORM

On Tuesday night, a horrible storm literally blew through the area. Kevin and I looked out the window at our neighbor's 75+ year old trees blowing almost sideways. Tornado or straight lined winds... who really knows. All they know is it was 80 or so mph winds according to news reports. Kevin and I sat in the hallway (the safest place here since we don't have a basement) along with 5 of our fur-babies (Bella, Lula, Speckles, Munchkin, and foster baby Shiloh) and listened to the weather radio. We didn't even have to tell our 4 legged kids, they just followed us in the hallway (even shy Shiloh)!

The picture above and below were taken on our street


A street perpendicular to ours, 1 block down

There were several of these in a row in West Memphis, AR
The flooding was unbelievable- roads completely impassable just one street over (we are so thankful that our house is literally on the highest part of this city). We awakened on Thursday morning to a 3 x 2 piece of drywall on the floor of our dining room. The ni
ght before I noticed a leak in the ceiling and looked in the attic...sure enough a continuous drip down one of the beams, despite the fact that our roof is less than 3 years old. I put a pan under the drip but it was apparently too late.




After the cleanup

This is 1 street south of ours- completely flooded (many people had to evacuate)

There goes the power... No biggie, it will come right back on right??? Well little did we know that our electrical lines were lying in our yard along with several other power lines in the neighborhood. We now know the meaning of "torrential rains". Just when we thought we would have a break, another round came in from the southwest (for days).



Hard to tell but this is 1 block to the north of us- part of a big tree down on their power line (you can enlarge it to see)

If you look closely you can see the power lines down (our yard)

Our neighbor 1 block to the east of us- luckily their roof was only minimally damaged
Another neighbor a block down the street


Backyard of my neighbor directly across the street (they lost another huge tree last year during a storm)


Another lost tree down the street

A familiar sight sadly

This is some farm land out on the way to Kevin's brother and sis-in-law's house...more flooding

This is a Church in Marion (the next town over)

More from Marion

Near Kevin's brother's shop- this poor family's entire front yard is under water


I looked out the window in my computer room at my Tulip tree hoping it was ok...thankfully it was for the most part. However, I can now see completely through to the sky (not possible before of course). 4 fairly large size branches completely snapped. This is my absolutely favorite tree in the world so I'm so grateful that the storms did not do any more damage than that. Driving around the neighborhood, I was astounded at the numbers of enormous trees completely uprooted. Sad in itself really. It turns out we FINALLY got our power on Thursday at 4 pm, 45 hours later.

Pretty crazy what wind can do


Another broken branch in my favorite tree



It may not be nice and round anymore, but I am so grateful that it is still standing :)


YAY...we have tv and can finally find out what has been going on for the past 2 days. Well how devastating that was to hear about all the death and destruction that occured in Alabama, Mississippi, etc. We were extremely lucky and definitely counting our blessings. Prayers go out to all of the families affected by these horrible storms.