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!