Here's the sweet girl who arrived early on Sunday morning in the same transport that Snuggles left on … one Cocker in, one Cocker out! This is Suzi, who came from a small foster-based rescue group in Michigan called Happy Homes Rescue. Anne R., who runs the group, emailed me a few weeks ago to say:
"I rescued a blind, female Cocker Spaniel from a breeder in May 2010. Suzi had juvenile cataracts as a puppy and at some point after that her pupils luxated. When I first saw Suzi, her eyes were bulging out of her head. I rescued her and took her to a fabulous surgeon and had her eyes removed.
Suzi is a beautiful dog and a very well behaved girl. She is 5 years old and she has no other known medical conditions. I have taken care of all of her veterinary needs.
I have been disappointed by the fact that since May, no one has had any interest, at all, in adopting her. I've had her picture posted on petfinder.com and on our website. I haven't received any applications. When I have taken her to adoption events all that happens is that people want to have us take her out of the crate so they can see her, but they have no interest in adopting her. They just want to look at the dog without eyes. I get very upset because they treat her like she is some kind of freak show."
Well, that last line really got to me. I stopped reading her email for a second to let that sink in. I knew exactly what Anne meant. People can react very oddly to the sight of an animal with no eyes in his or her head; being blind is one thing, having no eyes is something else.
Anne continued, "To be honest, I've never had any problems adopting out any dogs and I never imagined that I would be in this position with Suzi. She's a beautiful, well behaved dog and I really thought she would get adopted."
I showed Anne's email to Alayne and she felt the same way I did: Yes, we'll bring her out.
If Anne was the first angel in Suzi's life, a second one arrived shortly thereafter: Lisa S., a friend of Anne's, graciously made a gift that paid for Suzi's transport to New Hampshire.
So on Sunday morning, we swapped Cockers … off to Colorado and a wonderful new home went the one-eyed, energetic, brash and bold Miss Snuggles, and here came blind, quiet and timid Miss Suzi. In terms of personality, they are polar opposites. Every morning Snuggles greeted the new day with a "Hello world, what are you going to do for me today?" kind of attitude. Suzi is so shy and meek you hardly realize she's here.
But somebody did realize she was here. Blind Briggs, the original ladies' man from Georgia, was thrilled with the new girl in town. That last new girl, Snuggles, was a bit too pushy for him — a number of times she even tried to hump the poor wobbly guy (and Fuzzy, too!) — with predictable effects: "Hey, what are you doing?!?," followed by the sound of Beagle crashing to the ground. Briggs likes to lead on the dance floor, so to speak, so Snuggles was not his type at all.
Suzi's demure "oh, it's just me" nature is perfect for him. Here he is, finally getting a chance to meet her:
Briggs: "Say, come here often?"
We keep telling him he needs to work on his pick-up lines.
Well, we may roll our eyes at his introductions, but it seemed the blind Beagle and blind Cocker have hit it off, because a short while later here was the scene:
Suzi, honey, you've come to the right place.
Anne and Lisa, thank you for rescuing this girl and helping her get to us!
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American Dog Magazine is holding its 1st Annual Humanitarian Awards poll and is asking print and online readers to vote for various organizations and individuals in several animal welfare categories. We are included in the very first category called "Exemplary Animal Shelter" and also in the third category, "Rescue Organization Saving Dogs." You can vote in the poll here.
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Still 2nd place!
Please keep voting for the sanctuary in the Shelter Challenge — the votes are adding up! And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Please note: Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.
It was thanks to all of your amazing votes that we won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the final Shelter Challenge of 2009, and we came in fourth nationwide in the first Shelter Challenge earlier this year, winning $3,000. So this is serious money and can really make a difference for our disabled animals! Please help us win this round of the contest by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
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