September greeted us with the discovery that three of our rescues were heartworm positive and needed to be treated. This led to an online heartworm preventative awareness campaign and, of course, more fundraisers … We also said goodbye to one of our special boys whose mother made him a “lucky one” … and provided the soundtrack to a video of lots of other lucky dogs like him.
Off to a Rocky Start
September was off to a “Rocky” start as we were worried about Rocky’s weight gain. He had, had difficulty gaining and keeping on weight since he arrived in April, but it became very apparent in August that something was wrong. Almost immediately, his ribs began to show and that, of course, was not acceptable.
We rushed him to the vet for a ton of tests. His fecal checked out fine (no more of the nasty parasites he arrived with), but his pancreatic enzymes were off. It was nothing too alarming, doc said (whew). He received a couple of shots and supplemental powders. It took a awhile, but he is finally showing improvement and packing on a few pounds. We will continue to monitor him for any changes, but would love to find him a forever or foster home to help with his healing.
Fundraising Weekend
We had planned for weeks for Suwanee Day and could not wait for this mega-festival in outer Atlanta on the 21st. Unfortunately, the weather did not play nice, and Mother Nature rained us out by two o’clock. Fortunately, we had an incredible supporter donate an iPad, which raised us a great deal of money. Donna made the drawing in the pouring rain (with the Gwinnett paper on hand to shoot it) and someone who had busted her butt all day in the rain to help out and bought a ton of tickets won, fair and square. Karma. 🙂 You’ve gotta love that.
That same weekend, we were hosting another auction for our online friends to raise money for Hartley’s $5,000 in ear surgeries and treatments. It was tighter this time, but you still came through and helped us raise money to make a dent in our debts for him.
These auctions are so much work and put together entirely by Cara Thomas, one of our volunteers. She gives tirelessly to the rescue everyday, on top of raising two four-leggeds and two two-leggeds, and yet she finds time for these auctions. Thank you to everyone who has participated and, of course, those who have donated. Without you, there is no auction.
We’ll have more soon, don’t worry. We just need to focus on the dogs during the colder months.
Be Negative. Stay Negative.
We received a triple-whammy of news within days in September that three of our dogs were heartworm positive. We decided to launch a heartworm preventative awareness campaign of some of our current rescues of former rescues who survived the treatments and went on to goodness. We knew the weather was going to turn and folks would be less inclined to to pay for heartworm preventative. We wanted to remind everyone that preventative is year-round … and of the consequences of  not making it year-round or even a priority. Thank you to all of the parents who helped us with this.
Oscar Becomes One of “The Lucky Ones”
We were able to announce that Oscar had been adopted in September. Oscar met his new mom, Morgan Rowe, and sister, Ezra, back in July when they came to visit us at the ranch during the Volunteer Day Cookout. Mom came back a few weeks later to take him home for a trial … and he never came back.
These days, he is enjoying plenty of cookouts, hanging by the fireplace, living like a king and, most of all, enjoying quality time with Mom and the life every dog deserves. His talented Mom also “donated” her song “The Lucky Ones” to us to use in one of our latest videos. He opens and closes the video, which features some of our adopted babies throughout the years.
