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November, 2007 |
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Dear Friends:
Much has
happened this month – enough to write a mini-book. Once again a few lives
were saved, as usual just a drop in the ocean. Just to let you know how much
work it takes sometimes to save some of those unfortunate creatures, I
thought I give you a quick run-down: A couple of weeks ago I received a call
from one of our supporters. She had been in touch with a group who is
rescuing dogs from the Deep South. They had put together a dog transport
from a dog pound in Georgia. 21 people were involved, each took the dogs
from one point on the road to the next, eventually ending up in Maine.
Anyway, the
lady told me that they had a small Chihuahua at the shelter, 6 months old,
waiting to be euthanized this week. Could we take him? Of course, I
answered! I always receive emails asking if we have small dogs. Normally we
have only older and bigger ones, so a 6-month-old tiny dog should be able to
find a home quick. I made a call to the pound in Georgia because they needed
verification of our 501 status, meaning where private people have to pay
them $100 for the dog, it would be free for us. That done, I had to fax them
some papers, and we were all set. A while later I received the following
email:
We're so
adorable
NOTE: The pups must have a rescue
lined up ASAP, but can stay at the shelter a couple days longer if needed.
Free transport to Atlanta can be provided + transport to the NE available.
The December newsletter probably
won’t get to you until after Christmas, so I’ll take this opportunity to
wish you and yours a very merry one. I hope all of you have at least one
loved and loving pet to share the fun with.
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How
could I say "No" to this! Sure, there are plenty of dogs, and then some,
up here in Maine, which are being killed every day. When I am confronted
with a picture like that, knowing this poor dog never had a chance to
live a good life, and now has to face death with her pup; no way!
Another email went 2000 miles south, ‘yes, we will take her too’.
I sent
emails to Karen and Mary hoping that one of our volunteers would know of
someone who would be willing to foster these two until we could find a
permanent home for them. Karen found someone who was willing to take the mom and her
pup. After lots of calls and emails, asking people who had previously
sent me emails about small dogs, if they were still interested. The day
went by mostly being on the phone. It’s beyond me how these ladies which
put transports together do it. To give you an idea how much work is
involved, here is their transportation schedule:
PASSENGER # 5
NAME: Prince Chico
BREED: Chihuahua
SEX:
M
AGE:
6 mos.
SIZE/WEIGHT: 10 lbs
SPAYED/NEUTERED: No, To be done by rescue
VACCINES: UTD with HC
GENERAL HEALTH: Good
CRATE TRAINED: Yes
OKAY
WITH OTHER ANIMALS: Yes
DOES
THE ANIMAL RIDE WELL IN A CAR: unknown
ITEMS PROVIDED: collar, leash and medical records
ITEMS NEEDED: water, bowl, crate
REASON FOR TRANSPORT: From Kill Shelter to rescue
Transport:
FRIDAY,
NOVEMBER 2, 2007
RAPHAEL
AND CHICO WILL BE
PICKED
UP ON FRIDAY AND OVERNIGHTED'
FOR
TRANSPORT ON SATURDAY
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2007
Leg 1)
CLARKESVILLE, GA - ANDERSON, SC
61
miles - 1hr15min - 7:00 am - 8:15 am
FILLED:
By sending Shelter, Thanks, Deanne
Meeting
Place:
Leg 2)
ANDERSON, SC - SPARTANBURG, SC
61
miles - 1hr15min - 8:30 am - 9:45 am
FILLED:
Thanks, Pat
Meeting
Place: None, doing two legs
Leg 3)
SPARTANBURG, SC - CHARLOTTE, NC
76
miles - 1hr20min - 10:00 am - 11:20 am
FILLED:
Thanks, Pat
Meeting
Place:
Leg 4)
CHARLOTTE, NC - LEXINGTON, NC
58 miles
- 1hr0min - 11:35 am - 12:35 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place:
Leg 5)
LEXINGTON, NC - DURHAM, NC
87 miles
- 1hr30min - 12:50 pm - 2:20 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place:
Leg 6)
DURHAM, NC - ROCKY MT, NC
77 miles
- 1hr20min - 2:35 pm - 3:55 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place:
Leg 7)
ROCKY MT, NC - EMPORIA, VA
60 miles
- 1hr0min - 4:10 pm - 5:10 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place:
TRACTOR DEPARTS TRANSPORT FOR RESCUE
Leg 8)
EMPORIA, VA - CHESAPEAKE, VA
80
miles - 1hr30min - 5:20 pm - 6:50 pm
FILLED:
By Receiving Rescue, Thanks, Lynda
Meeting
Place: RESCUE AT LAST!!!!!
Leg 9)
EMPORIA, VA - RICHMOND, VA
67
miles - 1hr0min - 5:25 pm - 6:25 pm
FILLED:
Thanks, Sandi and Doug
Meeting
Place:
OVERNIGHT IN RICHMOND FOR
FIVE
DOGS
FILLED:
Thanks Sandi and Doug
SUNDAY,
NOVEMBER 4, 2007
Leg 10)
RICHMOND, VA - FREDERICKSBURG, VA
56
miles - 1hr0min - 7:00 am - 8:00 am
FILLED:
Thanks, Sylva
Meeting
Place: |
TITAN DEPARTS TRANSPORT FOR RESCUE
Leg 11)
FREDERICKSBURG, VA - KENSINGTON, MD
64
miles - 1hr15min - 8:15 am - 9:30 am
FILLED:
By Receiving Rescue, Thanks, Judy
Meeting
Place: RESCUE AT LAST!!!!
Meeting
Place:
Leg 12)
KENSINGTON, MD - ABERDEEN, MD
69 miles
- 1hr5min - 9:40 am - 10:45 am
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place:
Leg 13)
ABERDEEN, MD - CHERRY HILL, NJ
77 miles
- 1hr25min - 10:55 am - 12:20 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place: I-95 & Exit 4
Leg 14)
CHERRY HILL, NJ - NEWARK, NJ
78
miles - 1hr20min - 12:30 pm - 1:50 pm
FILLED:
Thanks, Jackie and Ed
Meeting
Place: I-95 & Exit 14
Leg 15)
NEWARK, NJ - BRIDGEPORT, CT
70 miles
- 1hr20min - 2:00 pm - 3:20 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place: I-95 & Exit 29
Leg 16)
BRIDGEPORT, CT - HARTFORD, CT
58 miles
- 1hr0min - 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place: I-95 & Exit 24
Leg 17)
HARTFORD, CT - WORCESTER, MA
63 miles
- 1hr0min - 4:40 pm - 5:40 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place: I-84 & Exit 10
Leg 19)
WORCESTER, MA - PORTSMOUTH, NH
88 miles
- 1hr30min - 6:55 pm - 8:25 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place:
Leg 20)
PORTSMOUTH, NH - PORTLAND, ME
77 miles
- 1hr20min - 8:35 pm - 9:55 pm
NEEDED:
Meeting
Place:
Leg
21) PORTLAND, ME - WATERVILLE, ME
51
miles - 0h55min - 10:05 pm - 11:00 pm
FILLED: By Receiving Rescue, Thanks, Gabrielle
Meeting Place: RESCUE AT LAST!
BOTH
CHICO
AND FRED DEPART TRANSPORT FOR RESCUE
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The blue print
means they have found someone to transport the dogs from one
point to the other. The red print
means they are still looking for a person who will do it.
Since this list did not include the
mom and her pup, I had to get a hold of the coordinator again,
who in turn called, and emailed the shelter where this little
girl was staying. The people there didn’t know anything about
it, and got upset. "We have a mom, which fits this picture, but
she has six pups they said. The coordinator, Carol, asked me if
we could handle the whole family.
“Well," I told her, “before they
kill her this afternoon, yes, we will make some kind of
arrangements.” Carol got back with them and all of a sudden,
yes, it was a mom with only one pup, and they had already placed
her! Believe it, or not. Either way, it was very frustrating for
all of us. Was this mom still alive or dead already? No way of
course to find out the truth. And just as frustrating was the
following mail, sent by Carol to someone else involved with this
dog transport:
Hi Deanne,
After a somewhat disturbing phone
conversation, I feel it is not in the best interest of Tractor
to send him to Diamond in the Ruff in Cheasapeake, VA. This
rescue has charges of animal cruelty against them as of October
25, 2007. Therefore, we are in hopes another rescue will take
him. I have cc Gabriele who is taking a Chihuahua on this
transport and maybe she just might have room for Tractor since
he is already on transport. I will look forward to hearing from
you both concerning tractor. Other parties are also trying to
find a rescue for Tractor. Just let me know. Dwight will be in
touch with you concerning where to pick up Raphael and Chicco
going on this transport. All are going the same way. We are
hoping to fill.
Carol B
Carol
I had to say NO to Tractor because
we just did not have enough money this year to do the new inside
runs in the barn. It’s so sad, that so many animals, cats and
dogs alike, have nowhere to go because there is never enough
money to do just a little for them. Tractor has been taken of
this list; he is not going to the rescue in Virginia. Is he
still alive?
I don’t know.
Finally, a few minutes before the
dead line of “to be or not to be a dog transport”, some more
volunteers agreed to take these animals from point A to point B.
Our Ted and Mary met the two dogs destined for our shelter at
1:00 am at the Waterville destination.
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Raphael, a beautiful 7-month-old lab
mix has already found a home, and was picked up after
Thanksgiving by his new mom. The little guy, supposedly a
Chihuahua by the name of Chico has been giving us lots of
problems. The only thing coming close to a Chihuahua are his
pointed ears, other than that, there’s not much of a
resemblance. He is very cute and extremely friendly, but also
very sick. The first trip to the vet was for a general checkup
and his vaccinations – other than the required rabies he had no
other vaccines in his body. However he did bring some other
things along from Georgia: A case of Mange, and lots of fleas. A
few days after he was treated for the Mange, he started to run a
high fever – 106 degrees. When our vet said it could be Parvo or
Distemper, all hell broke lose- everybody was worried of course
for the safety of our other dogs. Thank God the next blood test
proved that little Chico did not have Parvo. But he is being
treated for Distemper. Right after that incident, several of our
other dogs started to cough. Did Chico infect them with kennel
cough, or worse, with distemper? More trips to the vet. I will
keep you informed about the outcome.
Before I go over the weight limit of
the 42-cent stamped envelope, I better get to the other shelter
information: The 3rd prize of last month’s fund-raiser in the
amount of $50, won by our supporter Joseph Blake, was returned
to our animals. Thank you much, Joe! We received a donation from
Doris Dango in memory of her 12-year-old kitty Mickey. We are so
sorry for your loss, Doris. Our beautiful ex-shelter dog
Smokey, the Husky, who had been living with his new family
Beverly Maheu for at least five years, also died of cancer. He was
15 years old, a nice age for a large dog. As always, the
time we can enjoy our furry friends is always way too short no
matter what their age is. Thank you, Bev, for your donation in
memory of Smokey. And thank you for giving him a few more
perfect years.
More donations were mailed to us in
memory of our supporter Elizabeth Johnson from her son John
Hunt, Kyun-Ye Hunt, Herman & Berty Sawer, perhaps misspelled,
our sincere apologies, and several of Elizabeth’s neighbors.
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CAT REPORT – November 2007
Our
little cats have had all kinds of presents this month, and it isn’t even
Christmas yet! I’ll have the pleasure of doing some serious shopping
for them – someone sent a gift card, and Florence Mason sent an extra
monetary donation just for the cats. Gabriele says “No food!” with the
special money so I’ll buy replacement centers for the Turboscratchers
and look for new beds and hollow scratching posts. If I find some
really deep litter boxes, though, I’ll not be able to resist being
practical. Agnes has a habit of standing up when she wets (I know,
that’s a guy thing, but she does it anyway, and so does at least one
other female), and nobody likes the resulting stinky puddles under the
boxes. I can’t solve the problem with covered boxes; unless they’re
lined with plastic they leak through the seam between the top and the
bottom, and when I did try them, in the early days when I was just
learning how to house multiple cats, I always had at least one cat who
thought it was great fun to catch another cat in the box and not let him
or her out.
Karen gave
Agnes and company a new rope-covered scratching post. I thought it was
just like the one they’d torn half the rope off, but this one seems to
be sturdier. Karen’s also buying canned food, as
are P. A. Lenk and the Charles cat. Roberta Chaves and Teresa
and family (especially Teresa’s sister in Pennsylvania) send
lots of useful coupons. My thanks to them, and to all the rest
of you who help cover the vet bills and keep our animals fed and
warm.
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Agnes
was the first to use it, pulling at the base with all her strength, and
she’s still likely to make a beeline for it when I let her out of her
dining room. Robin uses it a lot, and Peter and Pooh have tried it when
I was around.
I heard
this month from the couple who adopted Baby, the tricolor cat who was
Nancy’s until Nancy had to move and couldn’t keep her. (For those of
you who’ve joined us recently, Nancy worked with Charley and after his
death was the first live-in kennel manager.) Baby, who’s at least 12 or
13 now, has a heart murmur and cataracts. She gets medication, and the
woman wrote that they always keep her bowls in the same place so she can
find her food and water, and they bought a four-step so she can climb
onto and off their bed, instead of trying to jump without seeing where
she’s going.
Purina/Meg and Kennebec each have one of my own cats as a companion
now. Meg seems content; Kenn’s not too pleased. Kenn, you may
remember, decided a year or so ago he’d be the kitchen cat. My two cats,
Jenny and Woodstock, came in from the adjacent dining room for meals,
but the rest of the time Kenn had the place to himself. Just recently
Wood’s elected himself kitchen cat, too; after he eats, he settles down
for a bath and a nap on the storage bin that doubles as Kenn’s dining
table. Kenn’s been retreating to the far end of the room and giving Wood
disgusted looks, but they get along fine when they’re both underfoot as
I fix meals. Meanwhile, Jenny moved herself upstairs, and a couple
rearrangements later she and Meg ended up in the area that includes my
bedroom. Now Meg sleeps on my pillow and Jenny in the middle of the bed
all night and most of the day; when I get to bed, Meg purrs me to sleep
and Jenny keeps my back warm.
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The following supporters of
Charley’s Strays once again saw to it that none of our
animals had to go hungry, do without medical care or had to be
cold:
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Al & Judy Smith, Belmont
Marlene Kaplan, Melrose
Sandra Nicholson, Beverly
Dorothy D’Alessandro,
Ossipee
Enid Hayes, Halifax
John Hunt, Springvale
Betty
Sawyer, Jonesport
Josephine Smith, Woburn
Carole parker, Stoughton
Rust Pappathanasi,
Swampscott
Werner Eckstein, Woburn
Lisa D’Alessandro, Raymond
Robert Hull, Lawrence
Naomi Teixeira, Jay
Lorena & Harry Clark,
Beverly |
Harriet Snyder, Brockton
Diana & Michael Rizzo, Oxford
Joe
D’Alessandro, Tuftonboro
Judy
Rohweder, Northport
Jon
& Barb Anderson, Augusta
Linda Merriam, Dresden
Joe
Blake, New Bedford
Mary
Klayda, Winchester
Katherine Collins, S. Barre
Cristine Cardello, Melrose
Pat
Caswell, Newport
Joann De Napoli, Winchester
Cindy Houston, Woburn
Viola McDonald, Woburn
Marian Delarue, Woburn
Thank you very
much!
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Nancy Herron,
Coventy
R.D.Bournival,
Nashua
Charles & Ruth
Ames, Grand Isle
Inge Maiellano,
Marblehead
G & R. Welch,
Stonington
Richard Lizotte,
Newton
Doris Dango, Palm
Bay
Nancy Capone,
Wakefield
Roberta Chaves,
Westport
Irma Simon, S.
China
Florence Mason,
Lexington
Leslie Tucker,
Reading
Mildred Walker,
Presque Isle
Jean Catignani,
Conway
Karen Rapallo,
Wakefield
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If I
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Beagle Bailey
with his friend,
Ted |
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Gabriele, Karen, Mary, and Jim |
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and
the rest of the critters at Charley’s Strays wish you a perfect
Holiday Season! |
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