We had two wonderful little dogs arrive Sunday night, brought out to us by Gale Lang's TLC Pet Transport. This is one of them, Owen the Beagle, who came to us from North Carolina. (Sorry, you'll have to wait until Friday to find out who No. 2 was!) We were first contacted about Owen by a volunteer for Beagle Rescue of Southern Maryland, who had seen him listed in a "Must Be Out By…" email from a county animal control shelter in North Carolina. It said:
"Owen (A150080) is a 5 yo male Beagle, unaltered. Owen was a confiscation as part of a neglect case. He was found locked inside a trailer with no food or water. He was very thin and pitiful. He came in covered in fleas and urine. He had scaly patches and hair loss from the fleas and poor husbandry. He looks great now and has gained weight. He has been with us for two months while his case went to court. Owen is blind but compensates very well. He walks slowly and deliberately to feel his way around. He listens to your voice and comes when called. He loves to play with other dogs. He loves attention. He must be out by 9/10."
The volunteer said they were unable to help but hoped we could. I emailed the shelter, offering to take Owen, and the shelter then forwarded my email on to a private rescue group in Asheville called Brother Wolf Animal Rescue. In the small world that the animal rescue community often is, it turns out that Brother Wolf's executive director, Denise Bitz, was involved in rescuing and sending to us a blind and deaf Catahoula named Emmy Lou way back in 2006. (Emmy Lou was subsequently adopted by one of our employees in 2008.) Denise graciously offered to pull Owen from the shelter for us, get him neutered and vet-checked, and then foster him for a month until we could get the transport scheduled. Thank you, Denise!
On Sunday night, when Alayne picked Owen up to carry him into the house, he pressed his face against Alayne's and wrapped his front paws around her neck. He was so content to be held like this that Alayne just walked around the house for a while, holding him.
The next morning, however, it was like someone had fired a starter's pistol, because right after we let him out in one of the dog yards, he took off to go zooming around. He eagerly greeted his new friends, blind Louie and blind and deaf Spencer and Katie, and then raced back and forth from one side of the yard to the other. Owen was in constant motion, darting back and forth, so happy to be outside and cruising around. Although the shelter said he was 5 years old, he acts much more like a puppy!
The beautiful photo at top is one that Denise sent us last week. Here are some I took this morning, including this one of Owen with Louie on the left:
You can see what a handsome little fellow he is!
It was hard to get photos of him because he kept zooming up to me, and every time I'd try and take a few steps back, he'd just keep coming:
Finally, Owen momentarily ran out of steam, and that's when I got this shot:
For some reason the flash went off, even in bright sun, which is why his eyes are shining so much — his pupils are wide open and the flash is bouncing off his retinas, just as you saw yesterday in the photo of Fuzzy and Sophie. Owen is another classic case of progressive retinal atrophy.
Next up is … oh, that's right, I'll be holding off on the other new arrival until Friday. But no, it's not a Dachshund! (Owen's arrival now evens the score at Beagles, 6, and Dachshunds, 6.) However, this yet-to-be-seen arrival is smaller than a Dachshund … has as much personality as a Dachshund … but is not a Dachshund.
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Another Shelter Challenge begins — and No. 3 again already!
The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
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. [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]
Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
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