Backyard Breeders

Many people do not understand what the problem is with "back yard breeding (BYB)".  My list could go on and on but I will share the story of O'Ryan and his littermates Willow, Gracie, and Lilly.



A volunteer of our rescue, Pam,  contacted us saying she was contacted @ a litter of puppies a a backyard breeder near her no longer wanted.  The full story is unclear but it we knew the puppies were only @ 8 weeks old.  Pam agreed to take the puppies in and foster them.  When she went to pick the puppies up she was given 3 puppies (2 females and 1 male) who were all infested with fleas and worms.  The "breeder" kept 1 female puppy to use for breeding.  None of the puppies had received any vet care.
They were named O'Ryan, Gracie and Willow.
This was the day they were rescued:

O'ryan seemed to be in the worst shape of the three.  He ended up being rushed to the Emergency vet his first night in foster care due to being extremely lethargic and being in respiratory distress.  He ended up spending a week in the hospital and was diagnosed with a heart condition called bicuspid valve dysplasia.  Things were touch and go with him to start but he has since made a wonderful recovery.  While he still has his heart condition the vet feels on medication he will still live a long, healthy and normal dog life! If he had remained with the breeder he certainly would have died.


This was O'Ryan when he was rescued in June/July. 

This is a picture of O'Ryan when I finally got to meet him @ 2 weeks ago.

O'Ryan was very lucky and his foster mom (and rescuer) decided he would get to stay with her family forever.  They have officially adopted him :)


Gracie and Willow were also sick with kennel cough but after a couple weeks were well enough to be adopted.  They were also very lucky and the wonderful family who came out to adopt 1 of them decided they were able to take both.
This is Gracie and Willow:

Now I had mentioned that there was one more pup kept by the breeder to use for future breedings.  Well @ 2 weeks ago Pam got another call from the BYB saying they couldnt handle the puppy anymore as she was too much work.  She immediately made arrangements to pick her up.  She arrived to find "Lilly" chained outside.  We took her in and she went right to the vet since at 12 weeks old she had received no vet care.   Luckily there were no major issues and Lilly was placed in another foster home nearby. She is doing great and even gets to have playdates with her brother O'Ryan.  It sounds like her foster home may be adopting her as well.

If you are going to breed you need need to be financially prepared to handle and care properly for the puppies you are producing.  This really is just one example of why it is so important to spay and neuter your pets! 



I can only hope these people are not still breeding.

Photo time..

In my last post I mentioned how everyone has something they can offer to rescue.  Photography is my passion and I found this was something I could offer to shelters and rescues.  So many times if you look at dogs petfinder photos they are not so great (dogs in cages, barely looking at the camera, blurry, etc..).  I have been doing photos for the weim rescue for awhile not and more recently have begun doing it for the Burlington County Animal Alliance and hope to get into the Burlington County Shelter as well in the near future taking petfinder photos of their dogs. 


Here is the crew I got to photograph last weekend.  Im going to post with their petfinder links- the petfinders prob havent been updated w/ my pics yet bc I just emailed them out tonight.

Beau

Vinny

Paige

Lucy

Benny

Georgia

Jennie

Shadow

Gracie

Abby

Brownie

Tipper

Not sure who this one is... :(

Where to begin...

I started this blogging thing a few weeks ago with a fun blog for my dogs.  Its more of a silly and goofy spot where I can share stories and photos (being that Im a photographer I take TONS of photos) of the adventures of Grayce and Danger.  One day I hijacked their blog to post photos of a few rescue dogs I did petfinder photos for and it gave me the idea to start another blog just to share the stories of my experiences working with rescue.

I hope this blog will inspire people to help in whatever way they can to help.  Whether it be adopt instead of buy a dog, spay and neuter a pet,  foster for their local rescue, volunteer at your local shelter once a month, transport a dog or just become more aware of why rescue is so important and help to educate others.   You may think there is not much you could do- but trust me there is A LOT you can do!

I will probably share a lot of happy ending stories but there will be times I share stories that may not end so happy- but that is the reality of rescue and I want this blog to be true to life- not sugar coated.

I will start this blog off with one of my favorite rescue stories from this past year.  As a photographer I get the wonderful experience of meeting so many of our rescues dogs and trying to capture their story in pictures.  I have had the privelage of of following Busters story right from the beginning.  I got a phone call about a severely deformed puppy in VA that needed our rescues help while I was out with some friends.  I will never forget that night bc while I was outside on the phone trying to arrange details for Busters transfer into our rescue someone stole my wallet from my purse!  It was all worth it- Buster's story is one with a happy ending that people all over the world donated and helped with.  He's a wonderful example of what can be done when a lot of people pitch in and do a small part and in the end accomplish something huge.  

This is the story of Buster (get out the tissues).....

 

Buster is just one of many...