DOGS KNOW WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN RESCUED

AND THEY KNOW THEIR HERO

Long time readers will remember a blog I posted about one of our rescues who stayed by her foster Mother's side after a bad fall. The Dad in the house had to carry her outside to use the facilities (a/k/a grass). He didn't have to carry her back in though. She did her business and flew back in the door to resume her post. She knew this lady had rescued her and it was her turn to return the favor by providing constant company and reassurance that all would be well.

I read in our local newspaper awhile back about a dog who saved his new owner's life the day after he had been pulled from a shelter. The human lost control of his car and went down an embankment. The dog managed to get through a small opening in the window that the man had opened for fresh air, climb the embankment and run down the road barking until someone heard him and followed him. This dog must have watched some Lassie re-runs.

Now today, I just heard about Tally, one of our new rescues. Talisman or Tally for short came into rescue earlier this month. He is 4 years old, gets along with females and submissive males, knows several commands, and saved his foster Mother from a dog attack yesterday! Didn't see that one coming did you?


Not bad for a dog who originally fell to the floor and put all 4 paws up in the air when a leash was attached to his harness. Tally was afraid to come out of his crate for the first week or so but not any more. And it's a good thing he learned move through his leash fears because it was on the end of that leash that he scared an advancing off lead dog who was running toward his foster Mom.

Tally raised every hair on his body up in warning, snapped, snarled and growled so ferociously that the advancing dog turned and ran in the other direction! Now some of you are thinking, foster Mom must adopt this dog, look what he did for her! Well the reality is that Foster Mom has dogs of her own and always leaves room for a foster. If she made Tally her forever baby, she would not have the space to save the next one that comes through her door. Now that we can add hero to our list of accomplishments for this little man, maybe you want to check out his full bio on our dogs page!

Way to go Tally. You win the medal of bravery in our book and hopefully soon you will win your forever home and family to protect forever!

THE LUCK OF THE IRISH

O.k., I am seriously stretching the story here to the theme of Saturday's holiday - St. Patricks Day but I needed a reason to show you this adorable picture. These are the Flanigan Boys - the personal bostons of one of our members. Two of this crew were once BTRNC foster dogs. She dresses these little leprechauns up each year for this special day.

The real story here is how the luck of the Irish and the power of rescue can move mountains. This is the story of one dog named Parsnip, a mixed boston baby who was forgotten at a regional animal control facility. He was dumped in the after hours room with 5 other dogs, all with some or a lot of boston terrier in their genes. I know because I rescued and adopted one of the 5 in January. She has a boston head and face, boston colors throughout, and that's about all we know. Her name is Jaden and she is home. This is the story of rescue, the dedication of those who are in rescue and happy endings.

It is sad and true that no one can save them all but if we do nothing, then none of them are saved.

I am fairly confident that Parsnip was Jaden's puppy so I checked Pet Finder daily to see if he had been adopted. The other 3 dogs had either been adopted or placed in an all breed rescue. They were dropped off on November 29th, almost 4 months ago. Last week I sent a yippee e-mail to the shelter coordinator that another had been adopted. She answered back that yes that was good, but unfortunately it did not look like a happy ending for Parsnip. He was out of time. He was now considered un-adoptable because he was so shy he would not approach anyone who came to the shelter and they were as always overcrowded. I told the shelter coordinator I was calling out the Calvary and that is exactly what happened.

I got updated pictures of little Parsnip, sent them to BTRNC and every other contact I had from transports, home visits, adoption events, etc. Everyone who received my e-mail in turn sent it to everyone they knew and posted it on the BTRNC Facebook page. The Facebook page had 37 comments by that afternoon. I got calls from across the country as did some of our other members. Lots of irons in the fire, but nothing firm. At last, an all breed rescue from Richmond, VA (about 2 hours away) knew the shelter coordinator, had seen my post and stepped forward to confirm they would take Parsnip! He even had a ride to Richmond in two days. As irony would have it, I had an e-mail from an individual in, you guessed it, Richmond, VA, who had received the post from one of our adoptive families who was interested in adopting Parsnip. Funny how some things work out. Oh, and in case you were wondering what this little Parsnip looks like....

We did this for each other, we did this in the spirit of rescue, we did it because a fellow rescuer had a personal connection to this one soul and we did it for Parsnip. We cannot pull off a miracle like this often because there are so many, but when we are successful, we are all renewed and strengthened to continue the fight, the mission, and for the dogs!

If you are reading this, you are probably either connected to rescue, interested in adopting a boston through rescue, or at the very least enjoy reading about our rescue dogs. To all of you, we say thank you for always being ready and willing to pitch in with posts, contributions for chip in funds, transports, e-mails, etc. and as always for considering rescue for your next four legged friend. You cannot imagine the joy our dogs experience when they get to their forever home nor the joy we feel in having a hand in placing them there.

HAPPY SAINT PATRICKS DAY!