Some puppy gift basket ideas.

We got the sweetest little puppy this weekend! We were going to just foster her until she got a little bigger and stronger, but she is doing so well in the first two days with us..and all the other dogs like her..so we decided to keep her. She is a baby basset hound. She was the runt out of 13 and only weighs 2 pounds at eight weeks old. All of her brothers and sisters got homes and she was left behind. She quit eating and drinking and just cried all the time. We brought her home and she has been eating and drinking and her little tail never quits wagging. Sure makes ya feel good to see her thriving now after just two days!! We now have a cat, a mutt, a cocker spaniel, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, and now her. They are all doing well together and nobody is being mean to her..so keep your fingers crossed!  All of our animals are boys and this little one is a girl. The boys are fixed and she will have to get it to when she gets older, so hopefully they can all behave!

Thanks for listening...just had to share!

I posted last week about a new puppy to replace my dog that was stolen.  Well, I got lucky enough to get a full-blooded pekingese for free!  She is 14 weeks old and so sweet...   We named her Remy (all our dogs are named after a brown liquor - my husband's insistence!!!).

She is not too happy with trying to crate break her  and she threw up last night 5 times in my car and twice after I got home (car sick or overate on the new food the lady fed her yesterday), but today things are going good!

Wish me luck with the training...

Thanks to all of you, who are concerned. Took her to vets, they gave her a treatment for Coccydia (spelling?) some kind of bacteria in intestinal tract. They squirted something in her mouth that looked like tooth paste. So hopefully this helps.  I'm taking her back in a week for a recheck. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. She is 4 months old, so she had her vaccinations for parvo already.

And thanks to everyone for posting the recalled pet food links. I did check out the food that I feed my animals when this first happened and I've been keeping up to date on this. So far none of the foods I feed are on the list. But I'm still a little leery about pet foods. I'm looking into cooking for the dogs. Got a doggie cookbook. Thanks everyone for being so caring!

Just wanted to relay a story about my friend's dog, who came from a pupy mill. Her name is now Lisel, as my friend is German. She named her after the little girl in the Sound of Music.

Lisel was born in a puppy mill and fortunately for her she was finally adopted by my wonderful German friend, Ute. Ute and Joe are animal loving people and have had everything including many, many dogs, cats, horses, parrot, a goat, etc. Lisel had four homes before Ute adopted her from Daschund Rescue. She is a beautiful Wire-haired Daschund. Resue told Ute that this dog, who was initially named Zoie  was a real problem for people and terribly hard to handle. Each time she was adopted it in failure and her return to Rescue.

Ute learned the history of Lisel's birth and life before she ever had a home. She was born in a puppy mill, and even after four homes and then being loved at Daschund Rescue she would literally scream when you approached. her. She was afraid of Ute's legs when they walked, and she would not permit her to go near her ears, neck and head. Hang in there. There is a happy ending.

Ute investigated and learned some of the practices going on such as just yanking them out of their wire crates by the ears and neck, and when they spirit moved them to clean the cages at all the animals were often not removed. The operator of the puppy mill took hoses with much pressure and just sprayed the cage with the dogs still inside. The list goes on and on.

I am happy to say that after almost a year my friend said that Lisel is playing on their beautiful propery in the country, running with her little brother and sister, Willie and Ali (both short-haired Daschund) and chasing bunnies and all kinds of fun things. She said she actually looks like she is smiling. I cried when I met her because I wanted her to love me like Willie and Ali do. Ute and Joe said to be patient, that it would happen eventually. She is a beautiful, wonderful dog who found the pot of gold. Ute and Joe refer to her as their Forever Baby. They did not give up, even though many times Ute would email me and tell me she cried the whole morning after trying to deal with Lisel.

We need our elected officials to start addressing some of these issues when they are running for office. I know some progess is being made, but we need much more. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I cried for joy when I read the last email from my devoted wonderful friends.

God Bless Lisel, Ute and Joe.

I happened upon this very informative link:    http://www.stoppuppymills.org/

and found their videos to be educational and heartbreaking!  No animal, not even animals being raised for consumption, should have to live their entire lives in tiny cages producing babies.  This is the best reason out there not to buy cats or dogs from pet stores or online ads.  If you want a purebred pet, a rescue organization for that breed is the best way to go.  If you still want to purchase a pet from a breeder, find one that's registered with the USDA, or through the American Kennel Club or the Cat Fanciers Association. 

A lot of people don't know about this.  I didn't know until I got my dogs 8 years ago.  I do see a lot of puppy mills getting shut down on Animal Planet, but why the rest of them get to continue is I guess no one reports them.  So if anyone knows of these places they should call their local animal control, which is not great, because sometimes they get put down, but to prevent these animals from living a life of horror, locked in a cage forever.  I missed the first half of the show, I wish I would have seen it just saw the previews which were horrible enough. 

Even the local animal shelters are full of purebreeds because some people just bring them there after the puppy or dog they just paid a lot of money for from the pet store doesn't do what they want or chews something up, etc.   Either adopt from the local shelter where the dogs have more than a 50% chance of getting put down, very few get adopted, and the luckier ones are the ones that the rescue groups have already rescued.  They have a better chance of staying alive becasue they were rescued.  So try the shelters first and then go to Petfinder.com to find the breed you want.  The more dogs that get adopted from the shelters,the more room they have to put another one up for adoption. 

Also if you have the time, space you can become a foster home for some of these dogs, all the rescue groups need volunteers to take in foster dogs until they can find them a permanent home and get them used to living with a family.  There are so many of them in need. 

Everybody that adopts an animal is making a difference, one by one, the more the better.