Calendar Contest at New Rattitude - LAST DAY!

Oh my gosh! I can't believe that I forgot to mention the calendar contest at New Rattitude. The fundraising team is putting together a rat terrier calendar that we will be selling. You can submit photos of your rat terrier for the contest: $2 for one photo or $5 for three.

HURRY! THE LAST DAY TO SUBMIT A PHOTO IS TOMORROW, 9/30!

For info on how to submit and a photo release form go to New Rattitude's fundraising Webpage for the full details.

Each of the winners of the 12 chosen photos will receive a copy of the calendar, plus bragging rights that you dog is a star!

PS: Don't forget to keep voting for New Rattitude Washington on The Animal Rescue Site!

Goobery Peanut

Poor Peanut's kennel cough turned into a full blown upper respiratory infection and Troy spent 2 1/2 hours waiting for an appointment at the vets on Saturday so that Peanut could get some antibiotics. He's now taking Clavamox and we are starting to see a change.

The little guy is just loaded with snot, though. He sleeps on his little curly tail and in the morning it has turned from white to crusty green. He needs fresh bedding daily thanks to the boogers and often he will have strands of green snot adorning his snout, thanks to a recent sneeze.

In spite of the cold he is full of puppy energy and loves to run around the back yard and to fetch toys that are thrown to him. I brought home some new squeaky toys from the store for him and he is enjoying flipping them around his ex-pen.

Currently the poor little guy is still quarantined in an ex-pen in the rec room to keep him separate from the rest of the pack. I am looking forward to introducing him to the other dogs and letting him and Frodo chase each other in the back yard.

Franny

We've had a few days to get to know Franny now and she is quite a character. What a great little dog - energetic without being hyper, snugly without being needy. She's getting along great with Frodo and Tilly but probably wouldn't do well with a strongly alpha female in the house.

Franny is a puppymill rescue and because of that she has her quirks. If she feels cornered she will roll on her back and snap at you if you try to reach her. Because of this she shouldn't be in a house with young kids. She's especially touchy if she's been napping and is woken up by a human. We are working on this and as she gets to know us and trust us it isn't as much of an issue.

Anyhow, that's the latest on sweet Franny.

Peanut and Franny

The two newest dogs have arrived! They flew in yesterday morning from Chicago and are doing great.

Peanut is 12 weeks old and a smart little guy. He seems to be house-training himself! He does have kennel cough and so right now he has to hang out in the rec-room in an ex-pen until he is feeling better. He has plenty of puppy energy and a big appetite so he's not too sick.

He's going to be a big rat terrier. At twelve weeks he's already nine pounds so he will likely be around 20-25# full size. He's a beautiful little purebred tri-color with a very sweet temperament. Some lucky family is going to get quite a special dog.

Franny was transferred to us from another foster home that was needing to lighten their foster load. She's a type B rat terrier (shorter type sometimes called Teddy Roosevelt terriers) and is quite a character. She was part of a puppy mill bust earlier this year, but it was thought that she was one of the house dogs so she doesn't seem to have the temperament issues that you can have in mill dogs.

She has packed on the pounds and is on a doggy weight loss plan right now. Once she's slim and trim I'm guessing she'll be 12-15#. She loves to run around and play chase with Frodo and seemed to enjoy her 1 mile walk last night.

Your rat terrier could be famous!

Hey everyone out there! Do you have some cute photos of your rat terrier? Well New Rattitude is holding a photo contest for the New Rattitude 2010 Rat Terrier Calendar that we are putting together to sell. Head over to New Rattitude's Website and check out the contest page. It's pretty easy to enter in the contest - $2 to submit one photo or $5 for 3. The 12 winners will receive a copy of the calendar.

Photos must be digital, high resolution, quality photos. All entries need to be received before September 30th so we can get this thing published and ready to sell. All money raised will go towards rescuing rat terriers. As you well know, we are an all volunteer organization which means almost no overhead so we can put all our fundraising monies toward the dogs care. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to participate!

Busy, busy, busy!

Stella went home a couple days ago to a very excited family. She was so enthralled with treats and the bag of Deli Fresh dog food that I had brought with me that I don't even know if she noticed that we left. What a sweet little dog.

Another foster parent decided she wanted to take on the litter of puppies that I had been working with her to rescue so I have found a couple other dogs needing a foster home. Franny is actually just being transferred from another foster home. She is a puppymill rescue from Indiana although it seems that she was one of the family dog so she doesn't have some of the social issues that some of the puppymill rescues seem to have. She's a 3-4 years old Teddy Roosevelt terrier (type B rat terrier) and you can read about her on her Petfinder.com Webpage.

The second dog that will be flying in this Sunday with Franny is a male puppy who will be a big boy. Right now he is about 11-12 weeks old and is already 9 pounds! At full size he will probably be around 25 pounds. We are still thinking about what to name this little guy. Both dogs will be transported to Chicago and will fly to Seattle non-stop and arrive in the evening.

Stella

I'd better write about our foster Stella before she goes to her forever home. Little Stella arrived in Washington last Wednesday, thanks to the help of an Alaska Airlines volunteer who flew out to Southern California on her day off and carried Miss Stella to Washington.

After a day of getting Stella settled in she had to go to her visit with the vet for a dental on Thursday. The poor little girl had to have 12 teeth pulled which brings her missing teeth to a total of 15 - over 1/3 of her teeth! She bounced right back though and I'm sure that she's feeling much better now that the abcesses and rotten teeth are all cleaned out.

So Friday I had to work all day long to get ready for the Pet Market's "Back to Drool" sale on Saturday. Stella came to work with me and guess what - she found her family that day! The daughter had come in to get food for her dogs and met Stella. She had been trying to talk her parents into adopting a dog after they lost their last dog, Pepper. She brought her parents back to meet Stella and of course they loved her. Who wouldn't?

Her new family only lives about a mile from our house so we will get to visit her on occasion, which is nice. Plus, maybe we'll get to see her at the store on occasion as well. The home visit was done today and everything looked great so she should be heading to her forever home in the next few days.

Time to vote! But this time we're a shoe in

Hi guys,

Well everyone knows that we were squeezed out of the competition last time on http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/ for their shelter challenge event. A new challenge is starting tomorrow but this time, instead of using our Georgia region the group decided to use the Washington/NW region as our state choice. See, Georgia has a bunch of rescue groups that compete in the challenge and many of them are very high in the overall national stats. Washington, on the other hand, doesn't have many shelters participating and the ones that participated didn't have that many votes. Sooooo..... this time when you vote for New Rattitude and choose a state you will choose Washington!

All you have to do is go to: http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3

Pick New Rattitude as your shelter name and then "WA" as the state. That will bring up the vote button.

Repeat daily through Christmas. I know that's a long time but hey, it could mean $1,000 for some very deserving doggies who need to be rescued. E-mail everyone you know and get voting. The Website has a reminder feature where you can sign up and get a daily reminder. That's the easiest way to make sure you get your vote in everyday. Also, in the past you have been able to vote once per Internet browser so unless that loophole has been closed, be sure to vote on each browser that's loaded on your computer.

Thanks everyone!

Update

Einstein went home yesterday to a great home where he will have a furry brother, Jack to play with and a kitty who keeps the canines in line. We were very excited to find such a wonderful home for him where they understand that it takes this poor guy a little time to settle in and relax.

Stella is scheduled to fly into Seattle on Tuesday. A wonderful airline employee will use their day off to fly down to Ontario, California and pick her up. Ms. Stella is in great need of dental care and is having trouble eating due to the bad condition of her gums and molars. The vet who looked at her in California said that they think about 8 teeth need to be pulled. Stella is 7 years young and has many years left that she will be doting on some lucky family. As soon as she arrives I will post some photos.

Look at all those faces

These are the faces of all the dogs that were flown to Washington in the past year and saved from being euthanized. All of the dogs were in urgent situations and had no local foster homes with openings to take them in. Is that awesome, or what?!

New Rattitude has a flight fund and honestly, most of its money is spent on helping get dogs to Washington. (To learn more about why we fly so many dogs to WA check out the article in the 'Tude News) This last month we've been raising money online so that we can continue to save these wonderful dogs. The average cost to fly the dogs with the discounts that we are able to get is a little over $100. So far the fundraiser has raised just about $1,500 which is incredible, but wouldn't it be great to make it to $2,000! Twenty dogs that we can save. So if you can give a few dollars - any amount will help us - then please link to the fundraiser Web page and donate. A donation of over $20 will get your name listed on the donor recognition page over on www.newrattitude.org.

Thanks so much for your help!

Catching up

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted here. First we were dealing with the distemper outbreak and all the heartache that came with the loss of 3 of Washington's foster dogs and then last week we were on vacation in Eastern Oregon, trying to recuperate and get re-energized.

It was a much needed break full of camping and hiking. Tilly and Frodo hiked right along with us and by the end of the trip Tilly was a bit like Charlie Brown's buddy, "Pigpen". She loved to give herself dust baths by rolling in the dirt and on trails chose to plough right through large piles of horse poop rather than take a few extra steps to walk around them. She also added a few black spots to her coat when she would rub up against the charcoal covered firepits in the campsites. Frodo, always the priss, avoids dirt and mud at all costs and even after miles of hiking would be perfectly clean. In the photo above, I am carrying Tilly on a hike in the John Day Wilderness after she laid down in a patch of dust and refused to hike any further. Note her ripped harness, torn when she decided to scratch her back along a downed log while the rest of us played in the river and weren't watching.

Our foster, Einstein, is still with us but has a great application and I'm guessing will be going home by next week sometime. We are currently working on getting a new foster dog flown up from CA who was on New Rattitude's urgent list. Her name is Stella and she's 7 years old and has most of her vetting already done. She will need to have her teeth cleaned though as she has bleeding gums and possible abscesses that need to be taken care of.