Posts

This Wheely Sucks – Toronto Pug’s Wheelchair Stolen

/9 Comments/in /by

A Toronto area pug and his owner have learned the hard lesson that sometimes people really suck.

From the Toronto Star:

 

Christine Borsuk, who owns Roscoe, forgot to bring his tiny, custom-made wheelchair in from the porch of her McCowan Ave. home on a Saturday night two weeks ago. It was gone the next morning.

Roscoe, whose hind legs are paralyzed, has been housebound ever since, where he drags his immobile rear end around by his front paws instead of enjoying a daily stroll.

“He loved his walks,” said Borsuk. “He lives for his walks, and his treats and his hugs. He’s missing them.”

The only exercise Roscoe gets now is when she hooks him up to a sling that allows her to hold up his rear end and trot along behind while he wobbles around on his front legs.

“It’s hard on him and it’s hard on me,” she said, adding it looks “somewhat like a marionette. He gets out of breath really fast. It’s good for about five minutes.”

 

Poor Roscoe.  I think that if a donation was made via Pugalug Rescue, specifically earmarked to get Roscoe a new wheelchair, we could likely get him wheeling around again pretty quickly.

An update I received this morning from PugaLug:

 I just got an email from a pug owner is willing to donate her cart which is also an Eddie’s Wheels cart as her pug has passed away.  So Roscoe may be rolling again soon…..

3 dogs, 2 provinces, 16 volunteers, 1,037 km

/in /by

Our rescue relay route

Our rescue relay route

Well, that was pretty much the most impressive rescue relay I’ve ever seen first hand.

Three dogs, two provinces, 13 teams of volunteer drivers, 5 different rescue groups (that I can think of off hand – there might be one or two more, and at least TWO of them don’t even ‘work for’ the actual breeds involved), and a rough total of 1,037 km of driving for everyone involved – and all to get three dogs into their new homes.

End of the day, two collies in new foster homes, one REALLY handsome Frenchie boy being fostered in Beamsville, and I went on a shopping spree at the weird Asian food market.

Did you know you can get a 10 lb bag of goat pieces for $5.99, and that there at least SIX kinds of yam? Also, “Lobster Flavored Shrimp Crackers” don’t taste like shrimp -or- lobster, but rather like somewhat salty packing foam.

Photos of the new boy as soon as Karen has assessed him. He’s definitely dog aggressive – some dogs, at least – but his surrender form says “good with cats and kids”. Well, we think that’s what it says – it’s all in French. It might actually say “good at EATING cats and kids”. One small words, such a big difference.

For all of their help with this rescue relay, our thanks go to Pug Canada Rescue, Greyhound Transport, Collie Rescue Network, Pug a Lug Rescue, the Montreal SPCA, the individual volunteers, the over night home care volunteers and the final fosters. You guys rock, especially Cheryl Lamb who whipped all of us into shape.

Go team Collie/Frenchie Relay!

Share because you care – Vote Ten!

/1 Comment/in , /by

Vote for Ten in Purina's Rally for Rescue

Vote for Ten in Purina's Rally for Rescue


From French Bulldog Village —

Come on guys, go to Purina’s Rally to Rescue contest and vote for TEN! When you see his story, you’ll see why he is leading the pack, with only two weeks left!  Ten’s survival was nothing short of miraculous.

Okay, so he’s not a French Bulldog.  Vote for him anyway!  This little Pug is one of the severely damaged little Pugs rescued every year by our good friend Pam Mayes, founder and president of Alabama Pug Rescue.

Last year, Alabama Pug Rescue won the Rally to Rescue Contest with a BOXER, Faith, who had been run over, and then  forced by her owner to nurse four puppies, while going through unspeakable suffering from a crushed pelvis.  When she weaned those puppies, her owner dumped her, still untreated, at a local shelter.   The shelter called Pam.  She  did not hesitate to take her in.

Pam is a huge supporter of French Bulldog rescue.  She has three French Bulldogs of her own, is an FBVillage volunteer, and is currently fostering our little severely handicapped puppy, Emee.  Emee says, she loves Ten too!

Pam does so much for our breed.  Please vote for Ten, so at least she won’t have to worry about filling the food bowls this coming year..

The contest ends October 1, 2010. Please pass the word on to EVERYONE you know!

A note from me: In addition to voting, I want you to do one other thing. At the bottom of this post, and the post on French Bulldog Village, you’ll see the “Sharing is Caring” social media buttons. Please, please – click the Facebook and Twitter buttons, and share Ten’s story with the world. I can’t think of another rescue more deserving of winning this contest, so let’s share their story with the world! And if my pleading can’t convince you, just watch Ten’s video. It really does speak ten (thousand) words.

Godspeed, Sammy

/6 Comments/in /by
I hope there are biscuits and fluffy beds in heaven

I hope there are biscuits and fluffy beds in heaven

He kept at true good humour’s mark
The social flow of pleasure’s tide:
He never made a brow look dark,
Nor caused a tear, but when he died.
~Thomas Love Peacock

I’m very sad to report that Sammy, the senior Pug I have been relentlessly trying to get adopted, has been put to sleep.

Charlotte Creeley, Sammy’s foster mom and a Pug Rescue volunteer (as well as the founder of FBRN and the French Bulldog Village), passed along this message about Sammy’s last day —

had my 13 year old blind Pug foster boy, Sammy, euthanized this evening. I held him while the vet injected him, I would like to think he was not afraid, was maybe even a little pleased by the attention. He had started struggling to urinate last night, only drops coming out, and then this morning, the same. I got home early this afternoon, and found him restless and still unable to pee more than a few drops, so I took him to my vet.

My vet was unable to insert even the smallest catheter, and figured it must be a bladder stone blocking his urethra. He took x-rays and found what he took to be the bladder stones. The only way to remove them would have been to cut his bladder open, and Sammy was just too old and too weak to put through that. On top of that, Pug rescue could not afford to put up the $1200-$1500 the surgery would have cost, especially for a little old blind Pug with no prospects.

He was here only since Saturday, 11/21/09. He really did not even have the chance to settle in as part of the family, and I am so sorry for that. It breaks my heart when a little old rescue dies. I just wish they could live forever…

I know that many of you on Twitter have been endlessly supportive of Sammy, re tweeting his story in hopes of finding him a home. Thanks for all of your help.

Senior dogs are the most heartbreaking of all the rescues, aren’t they? Little old dogs do best with lives of regimented scheduling. They like to know that they eat, sleep and pee at the same time every day, that their beds will always be in the same place, and that their favorite blanket will be placed just so on the couch.

Tearing them out of that world, into a strange place with strange people, has to be unbelievably hard and confusing. Add to that how few people seem to want them, leaving them languishing in foster homes, or, more usually, simply put down for lack of time and space.

But adopting or fostering a senior dog gives back so very, very much. You can be the kind, safe place that makes their final months or years easier. You can give them the security that they lost, or perhaps had never even known. You can do the ultimate kindness, and be there at the end, to offer a soft word of reassurance as they leave us for the other country we’ll all travel to some day.

Godspeed, Sammy – and God bless Charlotte, and everyone like her who makes space in their hearts for the little old dogs and cats that no one else wants.