February, 2010

To Anyone Interested in Reading This:

We’ve survived another year!! Someone said the most important thing in life is showing up, so I guess we’ve accomplished that, for the most part. Any way I look back on 2009, it doesn’t look too good, except for the loyal supporters that have been with us through the years and have remained to cheer us on. It was a tough year in many ways. We said farewell to a lot of friends, both human and canine, we’ve waded through hard economic times, we’ve faced a lot of health issues (again human and canine) and we’ve saved a lot of dogs.

……. THE GOOD:

On the support side I’d like to thank and recognize some of our corporate and institutional donors who have made a huge difference over the years. These include the many veterinarians who have given their skills freely to saving the dogs that appeared in their clinics before they gave them to rescue, as well as those offices that willingly sell our crate mats and other products which help support us.  All of the many Animal Control Organizations (vets and staff alike) of the towns in our service area have cooperated with us in every way and made the results of our efforts multiply because of their initial intervention and help. The incredible working relationship we have had with many, many city employees has provided the juice that keeps us going.

In 2009 alone:

• Pedigree Foundation gave us a cash grant in the late fall.
• Southwest Airlines gave us a pair of passes to use in our Bastille Day fundraiser.
• The Outback Steak House again provided gift certificates.
• Petsmart  provided us with products to raffle.
• Our veterinarian since inception, the Animal Medical and Surgical Hospital of Frisco, not only continued to provide lots of vet care, they helped guide us through various health crises, assured us that our decisions and judgements were sound, and obtained for us large quantities of medications  as the need arose.
• Our groomers, Paws and Claws, are still working with us as is Deb Stover with her HipDog   School of Grooming Art.
• The dogs are sure it was a saint (maybe St. Francis) that sent ninety dog beds their way last spring.

………..The NOT SO BAD

We accepted 99 dogs into our program last year. We also redirected a lot of dogs to other rescue groups in areas that weren’t so full. The Dallas area seemed harder hit by the economy than other parts of the state. We were not able to take  all of the dogs that we were requested to take, but we received a lot of assistance from other area shelters, such as Operation Kindness, the Frisco Humane Society,  Houston Poodle Rescue, Betsy Parks of Borger Animal Control and especially The Poodle Patch in Texarkana. Without the help of these other rescues, it would not have been very pretty here last year. Houston Poodle Rescue came up and took the fifty toy poodles that came to rescue through the closure near Cedar Creek Lake in late summer. We were able to work with HSUS and keep the dogs under our control as we have worked with them through the years.  During the year 79 dogs were placed in permanent care in addition to the 50 in Houston.

In addition to the rather large number of dogs surrendered to rescue, the condition of the dogs was frequently horrendous.  In the spring it seemed that every dog was covered in mange or had distemper. The mange we cured-the distemper we lost on. All year we treated heartworm cases. Then in the summer and fall, we received a series of dogs with broken legs. Legs were plated, casted, or pinned. We operated on ACLs (anterior cruciate ligaments) now and then as needed. We acquired the obligatory blind standard for the year(more about her later). We took in two toy poodles that were burned while being used to launch fireworks. Animal cruelty investigations were initiated. We lost a Quite a few of our older residents to various cancers, but they had had years of benefit from our program and were well taken care of.

……..  The REALLY BAD

And then we took in a dog that carried the herpes virus, which has put us in another place all together and has provided us with a challenge for years to come.Herpes in dogs has been  recognized as as a problem for breeders, because it causes infant mortality and still births. If an infected dog survives, it becomes a carrier. When and if stressed, the virus in the carrier can become active (like shingles in a person who has had chicken pox . In adults herpes reappears as an upper respiratory virus. Most dogs survive it with little trouble. It appears that the small toys are most likely to acquire viral pneumonia, and sometimes don’t survive. All of the dogs that were in our main facility (my house) at the time,  were exposed. The Board of Directors has been wrestling with this problem for months. We have consulted several internists at the nation’s veterinary schools and have been told that there is no treatment available, no vaccination available and no way to determine who is affected and who is a carrier. Although exposure to this virus is widespread in the general population, we are not willing to adopt these dogs out to new owners who might at some time have to deal with the consequences of herpes infections that were dormant. We have taken the action of closing my place-no dogs are coming in and none are leaving.

Our foster parents are continuing to accept dogs directly into their homes and to adopt them out. These dogs have not been exposed to herpes in our program. This will greatly reduce the number of dogs that will be accepted by us in the immediate future. We will continue to care for the ones we have until they leave this earth (without our help or intervention). Therefore, our need for support will be even greater in the future as we will not have as many adoption fees as normal to provide for the group that’s resident.

………..THE PLAN

We plan to do more in the way of fundraising this year. We will again celebrate Bastille Day sometime in July, but we are also working on a series of wine tastings by grape variety or type over the year. (French Bordeaus, Burgundies and whites from the Loire Valley and Provence, German  Reislings, Gerwurtraminers, and Moselles , and American whites and reds, Champagnes and dessert wines etc.)

We will step up our requests for grant money.  Sometimes employer’s will match contributions made by employees. We our donors to check their employers policy on this.

We have been chosen by Kroger Foods to be a recipient in their Neighbor to Neighbor charity program. We will receive funds if you enroll your Kroger card under our number. It does not change your card benefits, but increases our share of the pie. The barcode can be printed off our website- www.poodlerescuent.org. Take it with you to the grocery store and enroll your card.

We have specific needs other than just cash:

• Medium to large crates are always welcome, as the doors on ours have taken a beating.
• Oster grooming blades that fit an A-5 clipper-sizes 7., 10, 15 and 5/8” blades.  Also Geib size 9 Buttercutter blades
• Quality dog biscuits (not rawhide) in various sizes. (Think in the hundreds-go for quantity)
• Cans of Purina One for those who have lost their appetite-lamb, chicken, beef, salmon and rice or barley (available at grocery stores)
• More locations in which to sell our products.
• We are trying to fund two major surgeries-cataract removal on the blind standard and hip and knee surgery for a toy with birth defects.  These will require major amounts ( probably 3000 or so) so we would like to have some earmarked contribution. The specialists involved have agreed to vastly reduced fees, but its still costly.

I, and all the Board of Directors and Volunteers, would like to thank you for your interest in and support of our organization. Thanks for the privilege you have given me to allow me to work with these animals over the last 12 years.

Ruth Hollis, President.

Poodle Rescue Wrap Up 2007

An open letter to all who care:

This was originally going to be a Christmas letter, but we got buried in dogs from October on, and it didn’t get written. Then it was coming out for New Year’s, but we all got the five week crud and are just getting over it, so we missed January. So now, it’s just an update.

The year started with an ominous note-our co-founder Ann Kimball had to move to Oklahoma to care for her father. Although she left with twenty senior dogs in crates in a horse trailer to care for until death do they part, her daily presence here has been sorely missed. Although we now have a northern outpost, and we thank the technical wizards who brought us cell phones with lots of minutes, we sure miss her. Fortunately, all remaining volunteers and fosters have stepped up their commitment, but they are stretched very thin. We received a positive five year review from the IRS in the spring and a new approval letter stating that we currently qualify as a publicly supported charity, so maybe we will attract more volunteers.

The high note for 2007 was early in the year and a continuation of 2006. In the previous fall, we had taken a small white toy from Ft. Worth Animal Control that had been used as bait to train fighting dogs, had not been to see a veterinarian in a timely fashion and had very badly infected enormous wounds. It was likely that if he survived at all, he would have three legs. Due to the incredible skill, tenacity and dedication of Drs. Marcum and Schaffer and the entire staff of the Animal Medical and Surgical Hospital of Frisco, the leg was eventually saved, a brace made for the nerve damaged leg and foot and was adopted by a staff member this winter. He can run and play, is completely spoiled and no longer needs the brace. Our story couldn’t have ended in any better way. Our photos were too graphic to use on our website, and Michael Vick became the news and did what we needed to have done regarding informing the public about fighting dogs, so I guess the law of unintended consequences was at play there.

Then we had the rest of the year. If we were Chinese, it would have been the year of the Standard Poodle, or maybe the senior poodle no one wanted. We accepted 87 dogs into the program (more than some years, less than others) and 34 of them were standards. That is an incredible number of standards and difficult do to space constraints, if nothing else. Seniors were more than 20% of the animals accepted, with most of them coming from (1) families of owners who had either passed on or moved to nursing facilities and (2) strays dumped. We have no expectation of adopting these senior dogs, but will act as a sanctuary for the remainder of their lives. Many of them have died, but at least not in a park or drainage ditch with a broken leg. The dogs received this year were a reflection of the malaise that’s visited this country. We had our normal heartworm positive dogs, but some of these dogs were so sick they died before we could even treat them. Then we had three dogs with distemper, all of whom died. Several came with fractures. Our biggest orthopedic defeat was a tiny toy that fractured his forearm. The fracture needed to be pinned, but he rejected the pin, and then the subsequent bone graft as well. After an orthopedic surgeon told us it was hopeless, we amputated his leg. He is doing very well and is a spunky three pound perfect dog (with three legs). Finally, we took a standard puppy that had been crated way too long and couldn’t walk. He was malnourished, had rickets, and was covered in sores and urine burns and mange. He is going for what we hope is his final mange dip on Monday. He can run and play, has no deformities, no sores, is in weight and has a sweet temperament. A great intervention!

During August we participated in our first puppy mill closure in East Texas. We went in initially with a coalition of rescues and the help of the local sheriff. The Humane Society of the United States followed up and provided all the housing, logistical support, vet care and transportation for every dog we could not get a rescue group to take, over 100 in total. Poodle Rescue of Houston accepted 19 puppies; we took the adult standards and a feral labradoodle. They were all about 20-30 pounds underweight, dehydrated, anemic, full of fleas and hookworms. The labradoodle was comatose and received a transfusion. He is still a work in progress, but everyone else has been adopted and is well and almost in proper weight. They were so eager to get out of there (at midnight) that they all happily collapsed in my car and went to sleep for the drive home. When they got there, they were absolutely thrilled with the water. Food came in second.

The really good news is that we have adopted out almost all of the dogs we expected to, or soon will. With your help, we have saved some wonderful dogs that are now providing companionship and love in their new homes. They will all have been saved from where they were and have the potential to live good, happy, quality lives.  And even though there is plenty of heartache along the way, I guess saving what you can is what it’s all about.

So, THANK YOU for your financial support, without which any of this could not have happened.

Sincerely,

Ruth Douglass Hollis, President