Feel-Good Friday: All Saint's Day!?!

Anyone who has been around the blog a bit knows I like to share Leroy and Fanny quite often. 

They live with Luke and Kim. Fanny is a rescue dog from the Hillside SPCA, which is the same shelter Wiley came from. 

I keep saying that one of these days I'm going to put her whole story together from beginning until the present, but I haven't quite gotten to it just yet, so I share her a lot on Feel-Good Friday. Anyway, I told Luke that I wanted to bring over some of Wiley's costumes and get some pictures of these two, and he responded "Ha! Good luck with Fanny." 

 

 Fanny doesn't really sit still. Especially when there are visitors with new faces to lick. Of course Luke also told me Leroy would never wear a headband, until I got adorable pictures of him this past Fourth of July. 

 So basically I tuned Luke out, like I do with most men. Granted, it wasn't easy (to get Fanny to pose, not to tune Luke out-that was very easy). 

 As soon as Fanny saw the headbands she thought they were new toys for her to destroy. You can see her trying to eat Leroy's halo below.

 I think the funniest thing about the whole experience is how perfectly still Leroy sat, just waiting patiently for his treats and for his sister to calm the heck down.  

I wouldn't say she ever calmed down, but we certainly took some great pictures. By the way, Luke and Kim insisted that Leroy be the angel and Fanny the devil. It was unanimous. hmmmmm. BOL. 

It's not too late to get your Halloween pet pics to me. I don't post on Saturdays, but Sunday will be a roundup of all the other pictures I've received. Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com
 

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Feel-Good Friday

 

Today's Feel-Good Friday is short and sweet. First, I want to remind everyone to get their Halloween pictures to me. 

 

Second, I want to share this great story about the Kansas City Pet Project. Remember Rosco?  Of course you do.  Well, he and new baby brother Owen have been getting along swimmingly, in case you were wondering.

 Anyway, Rosco and Owen's dad Matt shared this story with me, and it was definitely worth passing along.

 

 Last weekend this organization, which is a combination of a few city shelters in Kansas City, broke all its adoption records and were able to adopt out every single dog during their Mega Match-a-thon. 228 dogs were placed! 

  

  That is remarkable!  Especially for a city shelter. Click here to read more about this progressive shelter organization and all their hard work.

Thanks to Matt for sharing, and to Katie for taking so many adorable pictures of Owen and Rosco!

Ok readers. Spend your weekend dressing up your pets and taking pictures. See if your pictures are as cute as the ones I shared yesterday! Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com.

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Feel-Good Friday: What A Week.

Well readers, this has been quite a week in our household. If you've been following the blog, you know that Jenny had to get spayed this week, on the same day I needed a root canal. She seems to be doing really well and is almost back to her old self. 

However, we had another trip to the vet this week, and it was not planned. I found a new lump on Wiley. He had surgery for a lump back in February. You can read about that here. Naturally my heart sank when I found a new one, so it was right into the vet's office for him. Look at his sad face as he waits for the doctor.

 The lump was needle biopsied, and then we waited for the results.

The waiting is always brutal, but when the doctor came in he said he did not see anything abnormal on the slide. In his words, he did not "have a bad feeling about this lump." Dr. McDonald has been very candid with us in the past, so I felt very relieved to hear this from him, which is why it is my Feel-Good Friday story.  Please pray that Wiley's new lump just disappears, never to be seen nor heard from again.

When we came back from the vet I gave him doggie peanut butter ice cream. He got it before he even got his dinner!  Boy was he excited.

I asked Hubs to take a picture of Jenny and me after that, because I knew I wanted to write about her for Feel-Good Friday.

I know it looks like she is trying to get away from me in these pictures, but trust me- if she wanted to get away she would. She has no reservations about biting to get her point across. This is just Jenny allowing me to manhandle her, which she does quite often.

While we were posing, Wiley jumped up next to us on the couch.

He does this all the time, whether I'm holding Jenny or not. He will sit there and wait for me to pet him, so he can do this:

Hubs kept getting snapshots, like this one of Wiley's expressive face.

Later, when I was looking through the pictures, I discovered this:

Let me zoom in for you.

Hubs and I, and the other people I showed this to who know Wiley, could not stop laughing at this. I know you might think, "Oh no! That's not funny! He's a vicious sociopath!"  However, I can assure you that he must have been licking his lips or something in this picture. Neither of us noticed any kind of growling or body language to go along with this expression. However, that expression does pretty much sum up how he's felt about all of us since bringing Jenny in. 

Right after this he got down to come investigate Jenny a little closer.

See? All's well that ends well, and he and Jenny saw eye-to-eye.

Anyway, can I just tell you I am so ready for this week to be over? All combined, we have had a trip to the endodontist, the family doctor, the therapist, and two trips to the vet. That's just between Wiley, Jenny, and me. Let's hope my husband stays healthy. I'm grateful that we all have access to health care but man. . . this week was EXPENSIVE.  I'm thinking about shaving a corporate sponsor into Wiley's fur or renting Jenny out for Halloween. Any takers? They're high maintenance. lol 

Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com if you have a rescue story to share, pictures of Halloween or a Dynamic Duo, or a job opening for Wiley and Jenny so they can start supporting themselves. BOL.

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Feel-Good Friday: Just Desserts

If you are a regular reader of the blog you know that Wiley had quite a crazy and eventful Memorial Day Weekend, beginning with this crisis, and continuing with this experience. 

 After the day was winding down, and we knew Sadie was going to be okay, my husband and I decided that both Wiley and my older niece, Olivia, needed some ice cream as a reward for their patience and a balm for their anxiety.

We headed to an older establishment in my hometown, Spangenberg's Family Drive-In. 

 I had a tough time tracking down when they opened but the general consensus from my parents is that they opened sometime in the 1960s, which makes sense given that they are a real, old-fashioned Drive-In. 

 All my childhood ice cream memories revolve around "Spangey's" as we always called it. 

They make a custom doggy bowl, and Wiley was absolutely loving life.
 

Olivia rather enjoyed herself as well. 

 

I neglected to take any pictures of the Hubs and me eating our ice cream, since I figured we'd come up short in cuteness compared to Livvy and Wiley.

As you might have noticed, despite Wiley's best efforts to clean up every delicious speck of ice cream, his efforts fell a little short and his nose showed traces of his treat.

Saturday was a trying day, but the ice cream seemed to lift everyone's spirits. 24 flavors of soft serve will have that effect! So, cute kid, cute dog, delicious looking ice cream. I feel I have fulfilled my end of Feel-Good Friday. Now go take a picture of your pet with something in its mouth and send it my way at pabibliophile@gmail.com.

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Mom of the Year. . . Cadbury?

Today is a day to recognize the contributions mothers make to our world. We all know mothers, and we have all seen mothering done right. Maybe it is our own mom, or maybe it is an example like sweet Cadbury here, the Mom of the Year according to the Washington Humane Society.

Cadbury was a stray roaming the streets with two puppies when she was brought into the shelter.  Sadly, it is not unusual for strays to be mothers.  However, as you can see in the pictures, Cadbury is likely quite a mixed breed, including terrier. The puppies, on the other hand, were BOXERs.  Huh?

As it turns out, Cadbury was also expecting her own litter, which she gave birth to the next day.  No one knows how Cadbury found these boxer puppies, but it is assumed her mothering instinct and her pregnancy caused her to lactate when she found the boxers, and continue to care for them right up until the point they could join their adopted siblings.

How about that.  Are any of us really surprised?  This dog had more instinct than some humans do to reach out and provide whatever care she could to babies who needed her. That makes her a perfect mom to all of those puppies, even the ones who kind of stood out. 

You can read more about Cadbury's story here. In the meantime, let's appreciate all the mothers we've known who have made sacrifices and accepted responsibility for us, sometimes going well above and beyond any familial or societal obligation.  

Happy Mother's Day to my friends who have been given the miracle of children. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my family, Linda, Sandy, Suzy, and Adrienne. And Happy Mother's Day to all the moms with furkids, because I know you're going above and beyond. 

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Feel-Good Friday: Boston

Today's post is very short and very sweet. Kevin Spacey, whom most of you have seen in a film at some point, reached out to Boston immediately after the bombing. He boarded a plane and went right to work visiting those most impacted by the terrible events. Ok, well, so did a lot of other people. So did a lot of dogs, like the Canine Comfort Dogs we featured a few weeks ago.

However, before Spacey went home, he made a stop at the North Shore Animal League, the world's largest no-kill animal shelter.  Oh boy.  I like where this is going.

He adopted this special puppy, and named her Boston!

Boston went home with Kevin and joined his family, which also includes an older mixed breed terrier named Mini. 

Thank you, Kevin Spacey, for bringing happiness to so many people and animals with such simple gestures.  Thank you for patronizing a no-kill shelter while simultaneously raising awareness of rescue dogs. If a mutt from a shelter is good enough for Kevin Spacey, it's good enough for anyone.

Tell us about your rescue story readers! Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com

 

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Feel-Good Friday: Coco

We are having a quickie for Feel-Good Friday. Interpret that how you will, but all I'm trying to do is tell you a happy little story about Coco.

Many of you will remember the terrible and deadly tornado outbreak that devastated Alabama in April of 2011.  Like so many natural disasters, many pets were displaced during this tragedy.  A Facebook group was set-up to help reunite owners with these poor lost pets.

A few days ago I saw a picture pop up in my Facebook newsfeed from a friend who works at the Hillside SPCA.  Hillside puts a tag on all their adopted pets identifying them with a serial number and Hillside's phone number. The adopters must sign a contract promising to keep that tag on their pet at all times. 

This friend had posted Coco on her Facebook timeline, asking her friends if anyone knew Coco's owner.  It turns out that Coco was found just a few days ago by the Cherokee County Humane Society, who contacted Hillside when they saw her tag. Hillside looked her up and found her owner's name and phone number, but when they called the number it was disconnected.  Someone from the shelter remembered he was a trucker who drove a Pennsylvania-Alabama route.

Oh man.  All that hard work and record keeping and poor Coco was still without a family?

NOPE. 

People reached out. People posted on message boards online specifically for truck drivers, trying to contact Coco's adopter.  A worker from the shelter, Tricia, drove past the address they had for him here in Pennsylvania to see if anyone was home.  

People. . . .this is Feel-Good Friday!  Of course it has a happy ending. Coco lived with a friend of the trucker's in Alabama, and she has been reunited with her owner!  I don't know all the details, but I do know there were a lot of people trying to help Coco get home, and she did, and that's one less lonely and stray dog. Hooray for Hillside SPCA tags!

Here's a lovely little thought to help you enjoy your weekend:

Thanks for checking in. It's not too late to submit a picture of your pet for The Great Outdoors! Plus, we always accept rescue stories anytime you have one you'd like to share. You can email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com

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Pheel-Good Phriday: CHASE UTLEY

So, it's Feel-Good Friday, and Wiley, my hubs, and I are Philadelphia Phillies Phans. I've been waiting to share this since I started the blog.  My favorite player, Chase Utley, is a strong presence in the animal rescue world.

I'm not a PETA fan but the message in this image is one we can agree on.

 He and his wife Jen started The Utley Foundation in 2011, but they started raising money all the way back in 2008 through Utley All-Star Animals events, after Jen began volunteering at the Pennsylvania SPCA.

 At first she just wanted something to do, but as she saw the increasing numbers of victims of animal cruelty, she realized there was something to do. 

 

Not only have the Utleys raised millions for education about prevention, but they also are deeply and personally involved.

 Jen and Chase sponsored and personally attended an assembly at Anna B. Pratt Elementary School in West Philadelphia. 

 This school has a history of its own schoolyard turning into a place for late night dog fights. In fact, Philadelphia has some of the highest rates of dog-fighting in the country, and the number of reported cases of animal cruelty in Philadelphia has tripled over the past few years.  The Utleys worked with these young elementary school students to develop a mural that focuses on the positive ways to interact with animals.

 Jen Utley says, “We are reaching kids at the age when they still love animals.  They see that their best friends show nothing but love and loyalty and turn to them for protection.” 

 

Source: http://ejcamp.com/category/sports/

How inspiring to find people using their celebrity for something positive, but also getting personally involved. The school assembly is just one example of many events they host and attend throughout the year.  It's easy to write a check as a millionaire. The Utleys put themselves out there for those who are deeply in need of persuasive and powerful advocates. 

Now you can see why Wiley and I are such big fans!

Please get your rescue stories in to the blog! We need them; we are running low. I have enough for next week and that is it! If you like the content help me keep it going.  Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com

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You can read more about the Ulteys and their charity work through these articles or by clicking the link to their foundation in the blog post.

http://www.suburbanlifemagazine.com/articles/?articleid=447

http://stubbydog.org/2011/11/homerun-for-animals/