We have 2 rescue dogs that are in need of medical assistance which means, we need funding.  Starbuck has two torn ACLs and will need surgery for both hind legs.

Abby, a senior Lhasa Apso girl, is blind and deaf and needs meds to keep her comfortable.

If you are not able to adopt or foster, would you please consider sponsoring these two wonderful dogs and help them get the medical care that they need.

To donate, please go to http://www.furkidz911.org/donate.html   Every little bit helps!

The FurKidz team will be at the Mill Creek Festival on Saturday, July 16th from 11AM to 6PM.

We will also be at the Petco in Ballard for an adoption event the following day (Sunday, July 17th from 10AM to 2PM).

Please stop by and visit with our available rescue dogs!

~Maria

6-6-11: Shout out to businesses that support our rescue…

I wanted to share a few website links of businesses that support our rescue efforts

Petcare Hospital in Mill Creek – http://www.petcarehospital.net/

4h Dog Food – http://4hdogfood.net/

Kimberly Gauthier Photography – http://www.kimberlygauthier.com/

Sunrise Massage on Bainbridge Island – http://bainbridgesunrisemassage.com/Home_Page.html

Crown Hill Pett Supply in Ballard – http://crownhillpet.com/

Thank you so much!

Maria & the FurKidz team

May 28th, 2010 – Our first newsletter & other things…

We did it!  We have our first newsletter done.  Thanx to the advice and support of my friend Dianne Johnson (she is Kirby’s new mom).  She not only helped with the edits, she printed them out for us as well – and it looks great!  Check it out via our website.  We will send them out quarterly.

This past week, Bella, the Blue Heeler/Norwegian Buhund, and mama of six puppies, died from complications during her spay surgery.  It’s a rare occurrence, but it can happen.  Tory and Shane, Bella’s foster parents, took the best care of Bella and are saddened by her death.  Bella was a sweet girl and her life will live on through her pups.

Yesterday, we picked up a Jack Russell Terrier named Jack.  Not sure how old he is or if he’s a purebred – but he is very sweet and well behaved.  Our friends from Crown Hill Pet Supply in Ballard, asked if we could step in and help this boy and I just couldn’t say no to them.  Crown Hill Pet has supported our rescue for many years and it was our turn to support them.  Jack seems sad or depressed – he has eaten much of his food.  He has been moved around from place to place and what this boy needs is a permanent home.  And we will do just that

Bentley will be returning to our rescue soon from his stay with his foster parent.  He is a young Rott/Shepherd mix that will also need a forever home.

Copper is another dog in our rescue who is currently staying with the Ip’s (who own 4H Dog Food). – he is looking for a forever home too.

Last weekend, we participated in Petpalooza in Auburn.  Even though the weather wasn’t perfect, there were still alot of people there.  Thanx to Don, Abde, Colleen, Liz, Sharon, and Josh for staffing the booth.  Don, Abde and Colleen helped out at the event for the whole day – it was a long day too.

Our next event is the Furry 5k in Seattle at Seward Park on June 12th.  Put that date on your calendars and visit us!

We will be doing a dog run soon to eastern Washington to help out some dogs.   If you can foster a dog (or two), let Tory know (tory@furkidz911.org).  Or if you can’t foster, you can help by donating on PayPal for the vet expenses for the incoming dogs.

That’s about it for now, chat with you again soon.

~Maria (The Pack Leader) Woof! 

 

April 18th, 2011 – 10 dogs arrived into our shelter this month and many have been adopted!

What a busy and good year so far! 

This means we’re getting closer to paying off Kirby’s vet bill (YAY)!!!

Spencer, Lil’ Lady, Libby, Blitzen (Teddy), Pebbles, Jetson, Bam Bam, Milo, Sherlock, Louie, Roscoe, Oprah, Scarlett, Dexter, Madison, and Tilly (did I forget anybody?).

We have Bentley (who’s meet and greet was not successful, I was told Bently was the good one during the meeting).

Doodle “Lil Dood” needs a home where he can run and play – he is an active boy and loves to be with people and other dogs.

Colbie is a small mellow boy that also loves to be a lap dog.  Very sweet guy.

Trooper is a purebred 3 year old German Dachshund looking for a forever family too. 

Our dogs are UTD with shots, microchipped and have already been spayed or neutered. 

Check them out on our Petfinder.com site:  http://www.petfinder.com/pet-search?shelterid=WA438

On another note – we really need more fosters.  Please spread the word for us and have them contact our foster coordinator, Tory Lee at tory@furkidz911.org   We want to rescue more dogs at the end of the month, so if you can help foster for a few weeks or so, we would greatly appreciate it.

Btw, Bella, a Blue Heeler mix, had her babies this week – she had 6 puppies.  So stay tuned for puppies in June (pre-adopt starts in May).

Thank you for supporting us all these years

Maria

“The Pack Leader” – WOOF!

Bella what a sweet dog and Bambam is the cutest puppy with a personality too!

Bella is about two years old and is expecting puppies any day.  The staff at the shelter wanted us to take Bella because she is sweet, smart and steals your hear once you meet her.   We didn’t want her or her puppies come to any harm so we rescued Bella along with the other 9 dogs from the TriCities.  Bella got a quick exam yesterday from the vet and after an ultra sound and a few x-rays we found out she should be having about 6 puppies. She is house trained ( she even whines when she really has to go), learns tricks very easily (sit down and off) She will jump on the couch when we leave the room but she knows to hop down before we make it back to the living room.  She loves to run around with you and would make a great jogging buddy for someone once her puppies are old enough to be homed.  She likes to follow me around the house and is sleeping under my feet while I type this.  She doesn’t play with the other dogs yet, she is more of a people dog.  She isn’t nippy at all like some heelers and is a very quite dog.  She only barked when people walked by the yard for a second. She checked to see that i saw them and then went on her way smelling the yard. She is also already kennel trained and will get right in for you if you ask.

 

A little about BamBam.  He is only ~7 lbs of pure love.  He is fun to watch run around and he will slip and slide on the  hard wood floor.  He loves squeaky toys and bones. He is getting pretty good at fetch but some times he just plops down and chews on his toys instead of bringing it back. He is good about sleeping through the night and will let you know in the morning when he needs to be let out of his kennel to potty.  His house training is coming along, but there are a few accidents.  He loves playing with other dogs, but hyper large dogs scare him a little too much for him to play with them.  He met a nice gal that will be having another meet and greet with him on Monday after his neuter surgery.  He will make a fun and funny dog for however is lucky enough to adopt him.

 

 

4-2-11: We Have New Dogs

Nick, Tory, and I made a dog run last Thursday and brought back 10 dogs from the TriCities shelter.  They have many dogs that need to be rescued or adopted.  Please help them if you can. 

The new dogs are listed on Petfinder.com  http://www.petfinder.com/pet-search?shelterid=WA438

They are currently at foster homes, and some of us have doubled or tripled dogs in our homes, so if you can help foster one, it would be greatly appreciated.  Please contact Tory if you are able to help.  tory@furkidz911.org  If you are not able to help now, we do need help in the near future.

The trip was long and exhausting.  It was Tory and Nick’s first dog run.  We plan to work with TriCities this year since we spent the majority of our time last year with the Harney County hoarding case and some Cali dogs.  Our shelters are needing our help.

We are holding adoption events this year at the Petco in Ballard (Holman Rd).  We have our events posted on our website – please check it out.  We will be there on specific Sundays from 10am-2pm.

We will also be at the Furry 5k, Mill Creek Street Festival, and Mutt Strut this summer.

Updates:  

• Madison and Copper (Sherlock) have been adopted.  A big thanx to Colette and Josh Ip for fostering and socializing Copper.  Btw, check out their website for some kool dog food!  http://www.4hdogfood.net/
• Milo has a pending adoption. 
• Jetson is still looking for his forever home. 
• Kirby’s surgery was long but successful.  Dr. Crocker from Mercer Island Veterinary Clinic performed his dental surgery.  He fixed 2 oronasal fistulas and extracted 10 of the 12 teeth that Kirby had left.  Kirby is resting comfortably at my home.  He is on medication to ease the pain.  Kirby has learned to eat without his teeth and is doing well on soft foods.

Thanx for all the support and donations for the surgeries and dog illnesses we’ve had in our rescue (Donovan, Bean, Kirby to name a few).  We couldn’t have helped them without all of you.

For the dogs,

~Maria

Happy New Year!! Last post of the year…

This is the last blog of the year (unless Abde and Tory write one after me LOL). 

WHAT A YEAR!!!  We had rescued and adopted out a lot of dogs,  had a crazy amount of puppies, went through many challenges, and made new friends along the way (especially the Petcare Hospital team! )

 A 2010 review:  we started the year with our long time senior resident Bailey (Cocker Spaniel) from the Tri-Cities animal shelter;  an energetic Thor (German Shepherd) and Blackjack (Lab mix).  Thor found his forever home early on in 2010 and so did Blackjack.  Bailey and Blackjack’s pictures were even featured in Swedish Hospital’s magazine called IMPACT (I was the cover girl with Multiple Sclerosis and the editor kindly included FurKidz 911 Connection in the magazine – http://mdcote.com/Impact_Winter_forWeb.pdf).

 Next we met  the coordinators/organizers of Harney Save A Stray, Melanie Epping and Byron Wilkes.  This was our very first experience with feral dogs – we decided to start a blog – to document our experiences and hopefully share any training advice for others taking on unsocialized dogs.  Some dogs were easy to handle and train (Moon, Max, Bena), and then there were others like Madison and Fred, who were scary and challenging to deal with.  People from all over Western Washington came together to help foster, socialize and train the feral dogs we took in and we were blessed to have their help.  Thank you all again, for your support.

Taking on the feral dogs and puppies kept us busy for many months – we had to be extra careful where we permanently placed these dogs, they were not ordinary adoptions.   All dogs have been placed except one, Madison – who is our featured dog.  This girl has turned out to be an absolutely wonderful dog (and I’m not just saying that LOL) – we know she will find her permanent home soon.  Please spread the word that this beautiful girl is available.

We were able to help with some of the King County animal shelter dogs over the summer.  Penny, a Chinese Crested was one of the dogs that came from the King County animal shelter.  Not only did she find her forever home with the Penners in Canada, she was also pictured on the Oprah Winfrey show with me just this past November (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprahs-Ultimate-Favorite-Things-Audience/2).   

In July, we lost our long time FurKidz resident and friend, Bailey.  He was such a sweetie and I fell in love with this biter – LOL (oh yes he did bite!)   Bailey had his tags and microchip when he came to us, but his owner was nowhere to be found.  He lived the rest of his life with my family – he touched my heart – and I miss and think of Bailey every day.

Then came the “Lessons Learned” – rescuing dogs from California.  Anyone who says we don’t need documentation does not know the laws of Washington State.  This is not displayed as mandatory on the State’s site, but it is mandatory.  Heartworm tests and rabies shots are necessary before taking in dogs from out of state.   From now on, our rescue will not be taking in dogs without these.  Donovan, a Chi-mix was a dog that almost died – we worked hard to get him healthy again – and he made it!  For Tory and me, I think these dogs were more work than the Harney County dogs!  (We still have Casey with us, she had puppies – they will be ready for adoption soon!  Whoohoo!!)    Tory and I handled the majority of the puppies this year – I think we are “puppied” out  LOL

Other challenges were finding Stu (a lost/abandoned dog) and Fred (a Harney County dog).  Abde and Niko worked hard to train and socialize these two difficult dogs.  This took many months!  Their hard work and perseverance paid off – they both found WONDERFUL permanent homes.  Abde and Niko do amazing work with hard to manage dogs.  Hopefully they will have easier dogs in 2011

I think that’s it for 2010 – I’m sure I left out some things (maybe on purpose, maybe not LOL).  It was a year that our core team came together  and stayed together.  I appreciate each and every one of them and I feel blessed to have them in my life.  Without them, we would not have FurKidz – you guys are my rock!

Thank you Petcare Hospital in Mill Creek!  Dr. Doug, Dr. Meghan, Shelly, Sharon, and Sonia – we owe you big time for all the help you all have given us this past year - taking care of our rescue dogs and allowing us to come in, especially in emergencies.  This group of people have hearts of gold.  THANK YOU!

Thank you to those of you who had adopted a dog(s) from us – you helped us save a life and you should be proud of yourselves :-)  We enjoyed meeting everyone and we have made some lifelong friends!

 A big THANK YOU to all of our fosters!!   You have an amazing and caring heart – and we truly appreciate what you have done for us.

 See you all in the New Year – here we come 2011!!!

 ~Maria

Older news from website: 2/10/10 – 4/18/10

April 18, 2010

We had a fun time at the Petco adoption event in Marysville yesterday. Pumpkin, Bena and Shier were adopted and Dexter (Moon’s pup) was pre-adopted. Although our fosters were sad to see their foster dog move on, we were all happy they found their forever home and now have a chance for a normal life. Thanx to Don, Tory, Colleen, Liz and Sharon for staffing the event and to Karie & Paul who brought Skye down from Sedro Wooley (it was nice to see Kaya too!). There were alot of people yesterday, more than we were used to, so having them available was a blessing. We do have four of Moon’s pups available for pre-adoption. Skye, an 11-week old Aussie mix is also available for adoption. We will post them (as well as some other ready to adopt dogs) on Petfinder soon (Colleen took some photos of the dogs at yesterday’s event for our Petfinder site). ~Maria

April 4, 2010

A very special THANK YOU to Katherine Turner for creating spectacular videos for our rescue (see above). We will post two others in the next few days of Bailey and Kaylee. We had a great time working with her and appreciate all the time she spent with us, show casing our dogs and the King County Animal Shelter.

March 28, 2010

We would like to extend a HUGE thank you to those who have donated towards our upcoming fundraisers with an extra special thanks to Steve Nemchik and his family. Steve and his brother recently inherited a family member’s estate and have donated all of the household items to FurKidz to sell in our garage sale, and a few antique items that will be saved for our upcoming silent auction. It has been a wonderful treasure hunt of vintage furniture, clothing, toys, etc. from the 1950’s on. Everything is in new or close to new shape. We will try to get some pictures posted of the items we have available. We owe our success to our fosters and all the people who have made donations of all types. This recent rescue project has been much larger than we would have ever imagined, but it has opened up so many wonderful opportunities for our rescue. We’re slowly starting to grow up and couldn’t do it without everyone’s help! Thank you!

March 24, 2010

We currently have 29 dogs from the Harney County Hoarding case in our rescue, with several more on the way from Mama Hannah (who is close to delivering). Please continue to read our blog (see link above) for information on the dogs we have rescued from that area. We are also in need of more fosters, our current fosters are overbooked and would really appreciate some relief. Contact us if you can help. Thank you.

February 24, 2010

We created a Blog to share our experiences, thoughts, and photos. Click on the OUR BLOG tab above or go directly to this link: http://furkidz911.wordpress.com/ to follow the Oregon dogs progress.

February 23, 2010

It’s been two days since the dogs arrival and we are all working diligently to make them comfortable. A web page for the Oregon dogs will be up soon – it has been extremely busy and exhausting, but definitely worth all the effort. More updates and photos coming soon.

One of our fosters, Cassi, has started a journal where she is posting her two dogs’ daily progress. Check it out at: http://furkidsfoster.wordpress.com/

February 21, 2010

The Oregon dogs are coming in today, 11 total will be in our rescue. Stay tuned for pictures and information.

February 10, 2010

There are about 30 dogs remaining at the Princeton property in Burns, Oregon (see article links below). They will need to be rescued by March 15th or they will be euthanized.

We are looking for foster homes for these dog/pups – they will be coming into our rescue next week.

These dogs and older puppies will need a secure environment with an experienced owner to get them over their fears of being handled. They all seem to thrive in a setting where they can be with other social dogs. These dogs are mostly herding type breeds. Aussie crosses mostly, cattle dog crosses, with some medium size “fox” looking dogs that may have some Shiba Inu in them.

Can you help foster or get the word out to your friends?

Madison is our last Harney County Dog

Madison has been at my house for a couple of months now.  When she first came to furkidz she tried to act tough to scare you away because she was so scared.  With time she calmed down and let Maria and Don pet her when she couldn’t run away. Now every morning after my alarm goes off she demands her morning head scratches as does Lilly (my dog).  She is still very fearful of new people and sudden movements.  She is completely house trained and is starting to tone up.  She gained a few extra pounds with her last pregnancy and a few hundred string cheeses to help her come out of her shell.    She loves following Lilly and I around but refers to stick closer to me rather than stray too far with Lilly.  She gets so excited when I come home she runs around the yard to show me how fast she is and how neat it is that she can huff and puff when she makes each turn.  She is such a sweet dog and once she has gained trust in you she really opens up.  When she sleeps she sometimes snores or makes funny sounds of gunts and huffs.  She is doing great on the leash.    She loves treats and will eagerly dance or sit for one.  She is a real gem and I will love to see someone give her the chance she deserves.

Madison and Tory

09-04-10: Help us save more dogs by ChipIn

FurKidz is saving more dogs – would you please donate using ChipIn (go to our link below)? Your cash donations on ChipIn will raise money to save dogs from deathrow, for their vet expenses and transportation. Every little bit helps. Thank you

http://furkidz911.chipin.com/rescuing-dogs-in-danger-of-being-euthanized