So Much to Tell ... Plus an UPDATE!

Where do we even start after such a long hiatus? There's a lot to tell. Mom has been dragging her feet, which sort of immobilizes our paws. When she gets frumpy, our computer time gets limited. We've told her to get a shake on it.  

First of all, we want to thank everyone for continuing to help draw attention to the horrible wrongs of puppy mills and disreputable breeders.  Several bloggies have mentioned the atrocities in blog posts and have put links in their sidebars to lead readers to more information. Recently in a blog post she made, Asta introduced Merci, mentioned us and reminded everyone of the ongoing problems that can be a result of puppy mill experiences. We are so glad that more and more people are becoming aware of the horrors and are spreading the word. It is our dream that each of our United States will develop more and more legislation to put an end to these unfathomable conditions. It makes us really happy to see friends that are making information - as ugly as it might be - available for people to read and absorb and, hopefully, remember.

Just this week we were made aware of more dog auctions in Wheaton, Missouri. They came to our attention because of a mill here near our own hometown - Denver, Colorado - that had shipped their dogs to be auctioned to (probably) another puppy mill breeder - a further life of neglect, abuse, misery, trauma, disease, etc., etc. We are pretty sure it was the Wheaton, MO auction where I (Jake) was rescued. The auction of the Denver dogs was last Friday. We were thankful there were no wires listed in it, but there were plenty other little dogs that were on the block. These auctions happen week after week. The next is on May 16, where 44 female Yorkies and 16 female miniature schnauzers will be sold. And that is just a few of the dogs up for sale. It is WRONG!!! We just hope and pray that some rescue angels will be there to scoop up many of these dogs, just as one did for me. (If you don't know about dog auctions, and have any interest in learning more, we blogged about them a few weeks ago. We warn you, though, it's awful, what you'll see.)

As if that's not enough, Mom got a call from PJ (one of our rescue angels here in Colorado) who just brought three breeder wires "home." Yesterday. She sent us some photos of them, two males and one female (Mom, Dad and Son: all breeders.) (One of them is up above, in dreadlocks; the other two are down below.) These guys are four, four and two years old, and, according to PJ, had probably never had a bath or had their toenails trimmed. She said they smelled really bad and trembled. But, thanks to her, they are in a safe place now and, hopefully, will be headed for forever adoptive homes soon. (First they'll be spayed, neutered, heartworm checked, vaccinated and micro-chipped, and then they'll be listed on Petfinder.com.) Maybe someone will give them a home and become part of this wonderful community. That'd be great! Wouldn't it?

Here are the other two of them in PJ's yard ... about to get their first "groomings."

And here are the same two, a few hours and a couple of baths later.

Like a girl dog I know (we won't mention names) the girl doggie here tends to keep that tail tucked down tight. (It's no wonder. She's learned.) But what a difference a little caring attention can make! Just imagine how well these three are sleeping these past couple of nights with soft dry beds, clean bedding, full tummies (and a cookie before bed - PJ ALWAYS made sure we got a cookie and didn't go to bed hungry) and a loving "good night" and "I love you" and "You're safe now". A new life has begun for them, and that makes us very happy.

On a more personal note (thank you, in advance, for letting us share - it's kind of icky), our Miss Fergi is going to the hospital on Tuesday to have some surgery. (This is one of the things Asta was referring to in her blog, recently, when she mentioned the troubles that mill dogs experience not only during their lives in the mill, but also, sometimes, sadly, for a long time afterwards.) Mom found a big, squishy, purplish breast lump a few days ago. (It popped up really fast. Fergs isn't too crazy about Mom giving her belly rubs - she doesn't really let loose and totally relax quite yet. Fergi. Not Mom. Mom relaxes pretty well when she has a chance.) Anyhow, something inside Mom told her to give Fergi a good going-over one evening. That's when she found it. The LUMP. It wasn't there when Fergs went for her physical the day before her birthday, just a couple of weeks ago. But, now that it's discovered, Miss Fergi is going to have it removed by our very wonderful, most favorite-in-the-world, exceptionally tender and sensitive and loving and understanding vet man, Dr. Batch. We are all hoping that this will be a one-time take-care-of-it-all surgery and that Fergi can get back on the road to more toy exploration, stuffie-de-stuffing exercises, approach-Mom-for-a-pat tricks and stop-and-wait-don't-run-away responses to time-to-put-on-your-harness routines. She's been making really good progress and we want to keep going in a forward direction. Cross your paws! 

On a much happier note, we were honored to receive this award from Chase the Puggle, quite a few days ago now. We proudly pasted it into our sidebar right away, but want to properly thank our friends for sending this our way. There is no question but that Miss Fergi loved it as soon as she saw it, as pink is her favorite color AND the award arrived on the same day as the announcement of her first Play Time with an honest-to-goodness toy!   That was a happy day for us. (Thank you, everydoggie, for all the congratulations for Fergi. It may have seemed like a little thing, but it was a huge event with our pack and around our house!) Anyhow, back to the lovely award, the directions that came with it were to accept it, post it on our blog together with the name and link of the bloggie who granted the award - did that! Thanks Chase the Puggle! Next we are to pass the award on to up to 15 other blogs that we've newly discovered (remembering to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for the award.) Since we are fairly new around here, most blogs would be considered newly discovered, but we've recently received some nice comments from some blogging doggies that we are excited to get to know better. These include:  Merci (Asta mentioned her in a recent blog about rescued puppy mill wires), Noah's Bark (go check out their autumn leaves Down Under - so incredibly beautiful!), Adventures with Ari (she's traveling to Peoria and is gonna be on the radio!), Stella's World (Dughallmors Beagles recently introduced us to each other), and the Four Muskateers (the same says it all!) If you don't already know these bloggies, drop in and meet them. We love them all!

We also received this pawsome award from the Kids in Dog Suits, the TN Bull Terrors! It makes us feel proud that they thought we deserve this award, because we think THEIR blog is particularly pawsome. Actually, we think THEY are particularly pawsome! Anyway, we're told that "this award is presented to those dog bloggers out there who know the meaning of GREATNESS. Their blogs are consistently interesting, funny, or informative. Their KINDNESS is extended to others without expectation of its return, and their FRIENDSHIP inspires others to do EXTRAORDINARY things. These are the blogs you can't wait to read everyday. In short, the are AWE-INSPIRING, full of wonder, and simply PAWsome!" Wow! Those are real compliments, and we thank you TN Bull Terrors. The directions are to "pass this award on to four others who we feel exemplify a "Paw"some Blog, and to leave a note saying why we think they deserve the Pawsome Award!" This is the really hard part. There are countless blogs that we look forward to reading everyday. If we had unlimited time, we'd read for hours. We've looked at quite a few blogs and have seen this award on them, already received and graciously acknowledged; we've looked at others and seen no awards, but know they are exceptionally deserving. Perhaps they are bloggers that modestly accept the acknowledgement without posting or formally passing it on. Perhaps there are others that have not been awarded, but are genuinely deserving. We have no way of knowing. We do know that every blogger we've met has inspired us in one way or another. Made us think. Made our tails wag. Taught us something. Exposed us to something new. All of those reasons make a blog pawsome, in our humble doggie opinion. We ask that each of you accept this award for yourself if you do not yet have it and want it to grace your page. Grab it and know you are deserving. That would make us feel good! We need and want things to make us feel good. We had a wonderful Mother's Day - all of us - today. And we hope you did, too! Now we're looking forward to a good week ahead.

UPDATE!  The rescue angels that we hoped and prayed for arrived!!  Mom was reading the newspaper this morning and she broke into a big smile!  She learned that 66 - YES!  66! dogs were purchased by animal welfare groups who travelled to the Missouri dog auction on Friday!  Approximately $16,000 had been donated to save the dogs and they were purchased and returned to Denver!  Fifty three purebreds were donated to the Denver Dumb Friends League by a local nonprofit, Rocky Mountain Animal Defense.  The others went directly to other shelters.  The dogs are all already in the process of being readied for adoption!!!  Just typing this makes Mom get all leaky all over the keyboard!  Good people are out there helping good dogs, and it's communities like this one that help to rally the support!!!! (You can read the article and see a picture here.)  Wooohooo!  Arrrrooooo!  WOOF!

~Now, I (Jake) have a question.  It seems sort of silly at the moment, but it's still a question.  If newspapers go defunct, what will dogs do to replace a daily job of many of them - bringing in the paper?  "Fetch the laptop, Jake."  No, I don't think so.  I'd get distracted and have to stop and read my bloggie-friends' updates.