Hello Folks,
Wow, time flies. I can’t believe it is December. I don’t know where 2008 went. As always, so much has gone on, so much left to do!
Thanks Giving
Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close and I am reflecting on the things for which I am most thankful. I look at my sleeping “kids” and I am very thankful for each one of them. They are all so different, with their own quirks and unique gifts and needs. I am grateful that each one of them is here and is alive today. Each one of my kids traveled a hard road to get here. Each one could just as easily not have made it. They make my life better by being in it and I am thankful for every person who helped my kids along the way and got them to safety. I am thankful they were fighters and did not give up easily.
I am immensely thankful for the entire Safe Hands family. I think our group is amazing. I think it is amazing that this group of people has come together around a common cause and passion. We share a value for life and a desire to preserve it for our canine companions, not just the ones we share our lives with, but the all dogs. We are compelled to action and our motions enable us to share the lives of many dogs and pups. We are a part of their journey, we are a bridge that they can cross to avoid the raging rivers, we touch their lives and help them on their way. We bring them home.
Life is busy. It just is. But all of you take time to read the emails, to forward them on, to tell your friends, to volunteer at adoption events or to help with transport, with the cleaning, organizing, fundraising, donation collection or administrative tasks. You take wayward dogs and puppies into your homes and teach them what it is to have a family and then you help them find their own families and gently help them on their way although your own heart breaks and you do it over and over again so that more may live. You give selflessly, you work tirelessly, you open your hearts and you endure the heartbreaks and celebrate the successes. You are all the life blood that gives life to so many dogs and pups.
I am also thankful to everyone who has adopted one of our rescued dogs or pups. I thank them for providing a home and family, for choosing to save a life, for providing a happy ending. Without these folks we could not do anything.
I am thankful for each one of the 539 dogs we have so far saved directly through our group in just over 2 years and the 2000+ dogs we have helped get out of the Harlan County Animal Shelter and into other rescues too.
Thanks & Giving Reunion & Benefit
We had our Safe Hands reunion and benefit two weeks ago. What an enormous amount of work went into that! Big thanks are due to Stephanie Timberlake and Tess Keen for coordinating the benefit and to Fetch Delivers for hosting us in their warehouse! Thanks to Ali from Sidewalk Dog for hosting the event and to Debi from Pawty Time for providing the bobbing for hot dogs that so many dogs loved! It was so overwhelming and rewarding to see so many of our dogs and pups happy, healthy and so obviously loved, with their families. I got to see my girl, Lexington Jane Tiny Peanut Monkey Girl!! Janine got to see the Derbster. My Dexter’s brother Spencer was there with his brother Tonka. Dexter’s sister Mandy was there too. It was really good to see Spence and Mandy Jane but also a little heartbreaking as I look at them and see what Dexter would be had he lived.
For those of you who don’t know, Dexter was my heart. He was a tiny puppy, he arrived just 2 pounds 4 ounces and full of more worms than I knew possible. He was sick, he was weak, he had me at hello. I love him completely with all of me. Dexter slept a lot at first and his siblings wanted to play. I took to carrying him around tucked into my vest while he slept listening to the beat of my heart. He grew bigger and stronger and he started to play too. He was smart and sweet and absolutely perfect. Then the unthinkable happened and he came down with parvo. Spencer and Mandy got it too. The pups waged an epic battle. Spencer and Mandy recovered. Dexter did not. He died in my arms and I have never known pain like that. It haunts me still. Dexter devestates me. Even now nearly two years later the wound is raw.
I tell you this and bare this part of myself to you not because it’s fun, but because I owe it to Dexter. I made a vow to keep Dexter’s spirit alive and to make something good come from his loss, my loss. We started the Dexter Dollar fund to raise money to provide vaccine for the shelter so that puppies will get vaccinated upon arrival which drastically reduced their chances of coming down with parvo and suffering as Dexter did. Thanks & Giving raised $747 for the Dexter Dollar Fund. This will provide vaccines for about 225 puppies.
We also raised money for the Moses Medical Fund. This fund provides lifesaving medical care dogs with special needs. The fund is named after our first special needs pup - Moses. Moses was just three months old when he was hit by a car and left at the shelter in great pain and unable to walk. He arrived in Minneapolis on Christmas Eve morning 2006. He was shy. He was scared. He was in rough shape. He had a broken pelvis, fractured femoral head, multiple fractures to both femurs and four metatarsals on one foot. Our members went into high gear to raise the money necessary for Moses’ medical care. Kalen baked and sold dog treats. The Rollergirls made Moses the beneficiary of one of their events. People sent donations. Moses got the treatment and care he needed and is now a good natured, happy go lucky guy who loves life and is grateful to be here. He lives at my house and he is a great big brother to all the scared and lost foster puppies that pass through. He plays so gently with them, lets them curl up to sleep with him, offers them companionship and comfort and makes them feel safe. I think he remembers what it was like when that was him.
The medical fund has since helped dogs like Eden who needed a pin put in her broken leg so she could walk again, it helped Twiggy who arrived unable to open her eyes from severe entropian, it helped Annie & Jax with their heartworm treatment and it helped Two Tone Larry the Tough with surgery on his badly fractured leg so he might have some use of it again. At the benefit we needed to replenish the fund to help Ellie Mae (see photo attached). Ellie arrived just one week before the event. She was unable to put much weight on one of her back legs and was obviously in pain. Her radiographs showed an old fracture, the femur bone was shattered, there were at least five breaks. The vets could move the bones around still, they had not really healed. It is estimated that she had likely gone six months this way, in great pain. Still she was just a doll, she would curl up in any lap, she loved to be loved, told what a good girl she was, how pretty she was, how she was safe now. We all fell in love with her. She made you want to keep her safe for always. A consultation with orthopedic specialists revealed that amputation was Ellie’s best chance at a pain free life. We raised $1045 dollars for the medical fund and thanks to a veterinarian who agreed to do the procedure at a reduced fee Ellie was able to have surgery. Her foster mom said she never looked back. She is more active now than she was with her bum leg and while I was concerned for her, she seems happy to be rid of that appendage that caused her so much agony. She does not act as if she misses it at all. Dogs are amazing creatures.
New Kids on the Block
Of course there is no rest for the weary…so just barely more than a week after our event, while hard at work planning our trip to Harlan, we took in some new dogs. Thanks to Suzanne and Brian for stepping up to foster Jesse and her five fat, sassy babies.They would not have stayed fat and sassy if we did not get them out of the shelter quickly! Jesse is a beautiful girl and her babies are adorable. Tulah and Garbo hitched a ride too. Tulah is beautiful and so sweet and so happy to be in a home and not a kennel run. Garbo arrived one giant mat, all of five pounds, and terrified from the trip. She arrived like a tiny lion but soon was kissing faces like a little lamb. Thanks to Marianna for coming over late at night on a moment’s notice to give Garbo a much needed grooming/shave. She was amazingly sweet and gentle with our little muppet girl, so patient and kind.
To H and Back
That’s Harlan folks. To Harlan and Back. I just wanted to be sure I had your attention… We leave for Harlan this Thursday and return one week from today. I can’t say we look forward to the trip. It is long, it is tiring and it is so hard to look into all the faces and know we can not take them all when we go. I’ve attached pictures of some dogs needing foster homes. These and many more await a safe place to go and a family of their own. If anyone wants to foster, as always, let us know.
Keanu is a shelter staff favorite. They say he is a mellow guy and very sweet. About 40 - 45 pounds.
Keanu
Rianna is a beautiful girl, estimated to be 2 - 4 years old and a mellow girl. She is estimated to be 50 - 55 pounds.
Rianna
Yellow boy is about 25 pounds and 8 - 10 months old.
Yellow-boy
Blitzen is a happy guy, about 50 pounds.
Blitzen
Jameson is a sweet boy of about 45 pounds.
Jameson
Jay, cute Jay!! He is about 6 months and 25 pounds and we are told just a sweetie.
Jay
Thanks for being there, listening and helping out. The homeless pet problem in this country is enormous. But there are solutions. And it has to start one person at a time. One life at a time. You are part of that solution.
“A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back - but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.” Marian Wright Edelman
Best Wishes to you and yours,
Lynne, Janine and all the Safe Hands kids
Wish List
Gas cards to help us get to Harlan
Small and medium leashes
Toys - particularly stuffies, nylabones or Kongs
Puppy Pee Pads
$25 pays the transportation cost for one dog or puppy to get to safety
$25 treats one puppy with lifesaving Tamiflu
$80 buys a tray of 25 lifesaving puppy vaccines for the shelter
Mailing address:
Safe Hands Rescue
P.O. Box 19623 Minneapolis, MN 55419-0623
Ellie Mae
Jesse and babies