IF YOU THINK THIS IS ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING OR AVAILABLE DOG POST.... READ ON TO BE SURPRISED, MOVED AND FASCINATED

I was reading through the e-mails and website postings to decide on a blog for today when I saw this amazing story about one of our former adopters who found a way to turn heartache and pain and their wedding into a way to remember a boston lost and to help a boston in care and to shine a spotlight on BTRNC and all the bostons in rescue. Not bad ah?


Jennifer adopted Lucy and Desi in from BTRNC in 2007. There is a blog on them in the archives if you are curious. Desi crossed the bridge in 2009 from brain tumor complications. Lucy is doing fine and enjoying the perks of a larger family now that Jennifer and Jay are married. Jennifer's first boston Daisy was also helped to cross over in 2009. A little later and along comes Lilly, this beautiful boston puppy was added to the pack.

Sadly, Lilly was only here for a short time but she was certainly in the right place for her short life. Jennifer and Jay did everything they could to make her as comfortable as possible for as long as she could stay with them. Eventually, to allow Lilly to cross was the best decision for her so it was to be. The wedding was coming up and this couple decided to use the funds they had set aside for material favors to create instead a candy table dedicated to Echo, all bostons and to their beloved Lilly.

This is an ice sculpture of Lilly.

They perused our website and talked to our coordinators to see which boston might best benefit from their donation and chose Echo. He has been with us a long time and is still in search of that right forever home. Echo has Cushings disease and hypothyroidism, which require two pills daily. Please see Echo on our website and the link to his previous blog.

We understand that a new puppy has arrived in Jennifer and Jay's world - April, named after their wedding month. BTRNC would like to offer their sincere thanks and appreciation to all that this couple has done for us and to wish them every happiness and a healthy and long lived April! THANK YOU!!!!

ADAMA AND OISIN

Now there are two names you don't hear every day. I "binged" the names but could not find anything on Adama and I learned that Oisin is an Irish name but that's all. Hopefully Adama and Oison's Mom will see the blog and comment if there is a story behind the names.

I hope you saw the Mother's Day slide show. One of my favorite pictures was of Katherine kneeling outside with one dog in each hand. She looked utterly joyous as did the boys as she calls them. We received the happy ending update around the same time.

Adama was formerly Louis while in BTRNC care. Don't confuse Louis with Lewis who although named Kobe very briefly knows the name Lewis and he is back on our available dogs page. Got all that? Anyway.... Adama joined the family and Oisin was not over joyed to learn that Adama was a permanent family member and not just passing through. After a short adjustment period, the boys are now friends and co-conspirators. A lesson here is that dogs do not always make instant friends. Some new owners panic if the first few days don't go smoothly and sadly return their new adoptee sometimes thinking that the resident dog is angry or that there will be fights. While certainly some dogs do not get along and should not live together unless separated, in many cases with patience and consistency from the humans in the house, strong bonds are formed.

That was certainly the case with these two boys who bring laughter, joy and love to each other and to their very happy forever Mom!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

So I searched the definition of mother thinking I would get some great definition I could use to start this blog. But alas, I only found clinical definitions, and some not so nice definitions so I gave up and wrote my own:

Someone who provides love, care, compassion protection and basic needs to another, usually someone dependent on the mother for these things and unable to take care of themselves.

(Who needs Wickapedia anyway.)

I hope that you stopped on our home page and watched the slide show for Mother's Day. Those foster and forever Moms holding their beautiful bostons and a few other special fur babies certainly meet my definition above. If you are reading this, you probably have, had or want a dog and I bet you call yourself Mamma when you talk to that dog too! We know who we are.

I wanted to add to Emily's slide show with this blog in honor of all Mothers of both children and dogs and to say thank you on behalf of all those who can't for all you have done and will do. The following is a poem submitted by one of our volunteers this week. I think this entry summarizes much of what foster Moms do when they take new fur babies into their home. I hope you enjoy it as much as our members did:

Now that I'm home, bathed, settled and fed, all nicely tucked into my warm
new bed... I'd like to open my baggage, lest I forget there is so much to carry,
so much to regret.

Hmmm....Yes, there it is, right on the top, let's
unpack loneliness, heartache and loss.

And there by my perch hides fear
and shame. As I look on these things I tried so hard to leave - I still have to
unpack my baggage called pain.

I loved them, the others, the ones who
left me, but I wasn't good enough for they didn't want me. Will you add to
my baggage? Will you help me unpack? Or will you just look at my things - and
take me right back.

Do you have the time to help me unpack? To help put
away my baggage and never repack? I pray that you do - I'm so tired you see, but
I do come with baggage -Will you still want me?

Author Unknown

In the past few weeks, our foster Moms have been at the emergency vet with a new foster who had an allergic reaction, have taken a foster to a specialist for evaluation for cataract surgery so they can see the world again, made room in an already crowded house for one more that had no where else to go, stayed up all night with one who was ill, and drove many miles to get another one to a safe place. You bet this is Motherhood and all it's pain and glory.