The 1000th great story

Each dog that New Rattitude saves has a story, but since many of these dogs are strays or from big shelters, we'll never know their past. We try to guess, but who knows if we are correct. Some of the New Rattitude foster dogs' back stories are incredibly dramatic and heartbreaking - dogs purposely burned, left to die on the side of the road after being hit by a car, starving to death... It goes on and on and on and sometimes it just feels soul killing to live in a world where these things happen.

I want to put a suggestion out there, though. Let's not define these dogs by their past or the terrifying things they might have gone through.  Let's not get so sucked up in the drama and the heartbreak that we forget that they now have a chance at a bright, happy future.  See the dog: the ability to survive the worst that humankind can dish out and still greet a person with pure joy and happiness. I mean, can you really, truly wrap your mind around how incredible that is?! That they have the resiliency to move past fear and still find joy in each moment? That they can look past our weaknesses and just embrace the moment and the happiness that can be found there in the sharing of time and space with another living being? If we slow down and step out of that circle where we are the center of our little universes, we could learn so much from them.

As a New Rattitude foster parent I get the opportunity to take part in changing a dog's story;  Redrafting a life from one of neglect to a new happy tale of being a loved and cherished family member. And I'm very proud that last week New Rattitude hit the milestone of its 1000th creation of a happy story since the group was formed in the summer of 2008.  The amount of time and energy and love that New Rattitude's volunteers give to these little dogs is really an amazingly wonderful thing.

Salish's "New Dog" packet: Foster parents receive a packet for each new foster dog. It includes, a microchip, dewormer, a martingale collar, and a NR ID tag with the dog's identifying number.

Recently my current foster girl Neah received an adoption application that looks like a really great fit for her.  And like I often do, I took that chance that it would work out and okayed my friend Lynn to pull a big beautiful Rat Terrier from a shelter to be my next foster dog. This dog probably didn't have a chance of making it out without rescue, not because there's anything wrong with her, but just because there are more dogs in that shelter than can ever find a home.  I named her Salish, after a pretty body of water in NW WA/SW British Columbia: the Salish Sea. It's named for the Coastal Salish Peoples,  several Native American Tribal groups in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest.


Salish Sea, photo by Jim Teblun

And just like that, Lynn and I started to change this Rat Terrier's journey.  I logged her into our group's "ratabase" and unbeknownst to me at the time, she became New Rattitude's 1000th story.


She's not much different than a lot of the 1000 dogs that New Rattitude has rescued: a stray who ended up in a shelter with many more dogs than homes that would take them.  Nothing was wrong with her. She just had the bad luck to turn up as part of a sad statistic. I won't get to meet her for another couple of weeks until Neah heads home. In the meantime Salish is hanging with Lynn's crew.  She's a 24 pound large standard or "giant" rat terrier with a pretty tuxedo coat and heart shaped markings on her face, just a baby really at about 10 months old. She's built like a tank and loaded with muscle. An amazingly exquisite gal, in my opinion. She's also proven to be easy going and good with other dogs big and small.

Sweet Salish. Stay tuned for more posts about Salish coming to you here in December

Why did Salish's story get to be turned into one with a happy ending? Well, because Neah's future people chose to adopt rather than buy and in doing that they created the space for another dog to be saved. And Samish's new family did the same for Neah. Each family who adopts has saved two lives: the one they adopt, and the one that gets to move into that open foster spot they created by adopting a rescue.

So spread the word. Adopt a dog. Talk about your rescued dog and the many more who are out there waiting to be saved. Better yet, join me and start on the life changing journey of taking thrown away dogs and giving them a chance to find their happy ending.  Who knows? You may end up being a part of New Rattitude's 2000th great story.