The latest on the girls

Well, flight plans fell through for Sunday when Alaska Airlines decided that no dogs would be allowed on the first flight of the day. Since it is hot in Dallas that is the only flight of the day when it is safe to transport animals so we had to postpone the transport. Now everything is arranged for the girls to fly here Friday morning.

They have been named Callista and Leda after two of the moons of Jupiter. Callista, or Callie for short, is 2-3 years old, about 12 pounds and looks to be a pure-bred black and white rat terrier from her photos. Leda is 2 years old, about 7 pounds and is a rat terrier-Chihuahua mix.

They have been pulled by a New Rattitude volunteer who will take them to the vet for their flight health certificate and get them on the plane Friday. She says that both girls were very shy when they first arrived but that they are starting to come out of their shells and even have done a few rattie runs around the house.

I'll post again once the girls are here and I have some photos of them.

A wild week of rescue

Wow! Talk about emotional rollercoaster. There were rat terriers being listed for euthanization everywhere it seemed and we had no place to put them all. The group would scramble to save a bunch of dogs that were scheduled for gassing and then at the last minute another group would pull them. Each time we were SO happy that they were safe but the stress really gets to you after the 3rd or 4th urgent E-mail begging you to save yet another dog that had been dumped.

The flight was all set for the 2 puppies that were supposed to come to Washington (pictured a few posts back) and then we discovered that another group pulled them. Okay, so then we worked to try to save some in Louisiana that were in a gassing shelter. The state coordinator was all excited, called the shelter and they too were gone. Then we were possibly going to get a pregnant dog from California but 2 dogs came up in a Texas shelter that were going to be gassed. Team California pulled together and found a spot for the momma and FINALLY, we knew who our foster dogs would be - two adult girls from the Dallas area.

So no puppies will be heading to Washington but instead well get two adult females. They each came to the shelter with a litter of pups and now that the pups are adopted and no one was interested in the moms, they were going to be euthanized.

We've named them Callista (Callie for short) and Leda after two of the moons of Jupiter. Some good samaritans are going to help us fly them here so on Sunday morning at 9:30 am there will be two new rat terrier girls arriving at Sea-Tac airport.

Above you see Callie and some of her pups. Doesn't she look sad and scared?

Dine to Donate!

On Thursday, July 30th, the New Rattitude Washington Team will be hosting a "Dine to Donate" event at Applebees. All you have to do to help us out is get ahold of one of the fliers and then come to the Federal Way Applebees to eat. For every diner on July 30th that presents their server with the New Rattitude event flyer, Applebees will donate 15% of your ticket to us.

These events will happen across the country and each NR state will participate for bragging rights of raising the most money. Can you help team Washington win this contest and at the same time help out a few little spotted furry ones?

Let me know if you would like a flyer or need a few for friends as well. You need one flyer per ticket so if you and friends will be paying on separate checks you'll need one flyer for each of you. I'll have fliers at The Pet Market and area vets or I can mail you one.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Calling all airline employees!

Daily I get E-mails from New Rattitude's Urgent Team checking to see if I happen to have an open spot for dogs in kill shelters in the South. There are so many rat terriers down there and young and old alike are ending up euthanized due to lack of space and funds. Thankfully the kill rates in PNW shelters (if they even euthanize) is incredibly low and we have a ton of rescues operating here. The result is that rarely to we end up needing to rescue a Washington rat terrier.

The problem is often the cost of transporting the dogs from places like Shreveport LA, Atlanta GA, and Dallas TX to the Seattle area. It can cost around $200 to transport one adult rat terrier from Atlanta to its foster home in Seattle.

One way we can get around this is to find airline employees to help us fly the dogs. Typically the rate an employee would pay for cargo is 75% off what the airline would charge the rescue organization. So for the price of one dog we can save 4!

If you have any friends or family living in the Puget Sound area who are employed by an airline that flies into Sea-Tac airport then would you please, please, please ask them if they would help us out? All it would take was occasionally working out a time that they could pick up a dog for us. NR volunteers would meet them and get the foster dog immediately.

Also, if y0u know of anyone who has been thinking of fostering, please let me know. Today I was informed of 4 dogs who will be gassed on Friday if the Urgent team can't find a placement for them - yep, that's right, gassed. Washington only has room for 1 of them right now. With the economy the way it is, the number of dogs in the shelters has shot up and the typical numbers of urgent rat terriers we are learning about is triple what we are used to.

Thanks everyone. Oh, and don't forget to keep votine at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/ . New Rattitude could really use the $1,000 grant.

BTW, the photo above is of two of the pups who will be flying here from Atlanta on Tuesday of next week. The litter was listed to be euthanized due to lack of space. Stay tuned for puppy breath reports!

The next ones

Well, Rory goes home this weekend and Spock now has a great application on him so we are moving right along to rescue the next two rat terriers and get them transported to Washington. There is a litter of four 8 week old pups in Alabama in a shelter that listed them for euthanization. We said that we would take 2 of them if they could find a way to get them here. Another foster home took one of them as well, so that just leaves one pup in need of a foster spot.

So the transport team and the Alabama team are working to get these two little dogs to Washington. They are young enough that they can fly together in one crate and keep each other company, which is nice. We're not sure which of the four will end up here (there are 3 males and 1 female). The dog pictured above is a male and is the only tri-color in the bunch. The other 3 are black and white.

There was also a 10 year old gal who was going to be put down at the same shelter, but an adopter was found for her, thank goodness.

Another dog that will be coming to Washington soon is a blue tri-colored little guy who has a badly broken leg and will be needing surgery.

The latest

First to report, is that we are still holding 1st place in Georgia for the http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/ shelter contest. Continue to vote for New Rattitude (state of Georgia) and tell everybody you know to do the same and we may just win this contest yet! Voting continues through July 29th.



Next to report, we went over to Cosmo's new home for dinner and he is doing awesome. Although he is fond of his new mom, he is head over heals crazy about his new dad. Anywhere Dan goes, Cosmo is at his heels. He's doing great - getting two 1 hour walks each day - and has taken off the chub that he came to the shelter with. Now he's all muscle and his coat is looking great - no more dandruff and skin problems. So a big 2 thumbs up to the Proctors for giving this guy a great home and wonderful care.

Little Aurora aka Rory was spayed last week and had a retained puppy tooth pulled. She recovered quickly and is now just waiting for the two week medical hold to be over so she can go home to her already approved forever home. They are super excited to get her home. This week she'll be microchipped and have a distemper vaccination and then she'll be ready to go.

Spock continues to be a great boy and hasn't had any accidents in the house. He can be left loose in the house when we are out. What a lover. I need to try to get video of him "talking" when breakfast is being prepared. His basenji voice comes out then and he rasps away - so funny.

Help New Rattitude win another $1,000!

Although we are still in first place for Georgia, our overall placement has been slipping daily while the 2nd place group in Georgia has been gaining daily. There are still a few weeks left in this thing and we could end up losing the $1,000 grant if the votes don't keep up.

One thing you can do to help you remember is go to their main Webpage, http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/ , and then look about 2/3 of the way down the page. There is a button you can click that will E-mail you daily reminders to "click to give". After you click to give it opens up a link that says "vote for your favorite shelter". That would be New Rattitude (choose Georgia as the state so all our votes will be concentrated in one area.)

What's click to give? Well, the animal rescue site is set up as a way to raise money for shelters. The advertisers on that Website pay per click. Each day that you click to give that will generate 1/3 of a bowl of dog food. It's a great program. They also fund raise through their store which, by the way, has some awesome dog and cat themed gifts and pretty low shipping rates.

So pleasssssssssse can you help us? $1,000 could help us pay for vetting for about 10 dogs. Adoption fees help, but rarely do the vetting costs (spay/neuter surgery, shots, medications for illnesses...) come in at under the $150 adoption fee.

Spock is looking for his own home

I thought I'd write a little about Spock, now that we have gotten to know him better. WOW! What a great dog. First off, he's housetrained, which is always a big plus. It's rare that we end up with housetrained fosters since a lot of them that come to us have been outside only dogs in Texas and are clueless about the whole outside/inside bathroom thing.



Frankly, I'm really shocked at how healthy and muscley he is. Wherever he was before he ended up a stray in the shelter he was well cared for. He isn't hand shy or overly submissive so he likely wasn't mistreated. His coat is gorgeous and his weight is perfect.

He does bark, but really, our dog Frodo is the one who starts it and he just joins in for a bit and then gets tired of the barkfest so goes off to do something else. If only Frodo was so inclined. I'm pretty sure that he is a rat terrier/basenji mix, so he has that odd, hoarse bark that basenjis have and also has the curly basenji tail, which is pretty cool. He acts like a typical standard rattie: full of energy and always ready for fun, but just as willing to kick back on the couch with you and relax.



If you know of anyone looking for a sturdy, loving, gorgeous rat terrier mix then let them know about Mr. Spock!

Mr. Spock and Aurora

Spock and Aurora arrived in Seattle at 10 this morning and have spent the day getting settled in. Aurora is a 10 month old, 7.5# rat terrier/chihuahua mix, and spent the day with me at the pet store. Midday she stole a couple's heart and it looks like she already has a home lined up. She was going to be shuffled around foster homes a bit since she was being squeezed in, but since the female rattie we were supposed to get was too ill to be flown we decided just to keep her here for until she can go to her forever home.

At first we were worried that Spock was going to be loud and obnoxious since he came off the plane barking his head off and spent most of the drive to our house doing the same. Now that he's calmed down from the plane ride he's an absolute sweetie, full of love and kisses and always ready to give a kiss.

Phoebe LOVES Mr. Spock and they have spent a lot of time wrestling and playing. Of course, Frodo, Mr. Fun Police, is greatly bothered by this and barks at them whenever he feels they are overstepping their limit of fin times.

It's a very full house with 5 dogs here tonight but Phoebe will be heading to her forever home tomorrow. Even though she's just 4 1/2# she will leave a giant hole in our hearts because she's such a wonderful little gal.

More heading home

Well, Cosmo headed home last week and little Miss Phoebe will likely be on her way this week. She has a great application with a couple who have experience with tiny little "microdogs" like Feebs is. She is continuing to eat well and should be at a healthy weight soon.

While we were on a road trip she was watched by some friends and one of them teaches developmentally disabled high school students. Phoebe went to work with this friend and one of the non-verbal students started talking at school for the first time, telling people all about her pets and calling out when she thought Phoebe was lonely back in her little crate. It was a wonderful breakthrough and all thanks to a tiny little speck of a dog. What a great girl Miss Feebs is.

We have one, possibly 2 new dogs coming from Dallas tomorrow. A male we named Spock for his very pointy rattie ears (pictured above), and a female that we haven't named yet but the shelter is calling Annabelle. She was on the euthanasia table and they had tried 4 times to get a line in to put her to sleep. After the 4th try they decided not to test fate and called around to rescue groups in a last ditch effort to save her. We don't have many details about her other than the story I just told and that she is a rat terrier.