Walkies: November 2009

To be thinking of Christmas shopping! As the holidays approach and the new year is getting closer, what better gift to give family and friends than a calendar full of gorgeous dogs AND (here's one of the best parts), almost all of the proceeds from the sale of these beautiful, well designed calendars goes to help dogs in need.

The bulk of the money raised by WBCR goes to provide spay/neutering and other much needed veterinary care for the dogs, as quite a few of the dogs arrive in rescue in bad physical shape and often very heartbreaking situations.

Dogs like Callie.

Darling little Callie is one of the special WBCR girls that came from a hoarding situation in Oklahoma, where 120 + dogs were found to be living in desperate circumstances, many of them Border Collies. Callie was transferred to a Colorado shelter and was determined to be too shy for the shelter to care for very well...so, she was transferred to WBCR where she could gets lots of TLC and special attention as a loved dog in a foster home.

Like many of the Ada rescues, Callie had no idea what people were or how to trust them. When she first arrived in her foster home, she had to be hand fed for a couple days before she would even allow anyone to touch her. Slowly she has come around to her new situation and is making great progress in gaining confidence and trusting people.

Then there's Banjo.

This chocolate-eyed, baby faced cutie was picked up as a stray by a highway in Idaho and was one saaaaad puppy dog --confused, dejected, frightened, you name it. BanJo curled into a ball and cried for a full day. But on day 2, we caught a glimpse of an impish grin, and by Day 3, it was clear BanJo has quite the irrepressible spirit!

But, the next month in foster care was up and down. She seemed to have good days (when she felt great and was full of play and fun) and bad days (when she was lethargic, restless, uncomfortable), so we took her to the vet again and in late July, BanJo was diagnosed with liver failure, and given just a few weeks to live. But nobody told her that, and she continued to have good days...so we went and got another opinion, and it seems that she was NOT in liver failure, but had a liver shunt which was thought could be easily remedied with one surgical procedure. Thanks to a caring vet in CO, BanJo’s surgery was done with a deep discount, and was performed in mid-August. Unfortunately it did not go as well as we’d hoped. Her shunt was inside the liver rather than outside of it, which complicated things considerably, but the surgeons did what they could to redirect blood flow to her liver, and now it’s a waiting game to see how she does post-op and over the following few weeks. She's been clearly feeling better since surgery although we won't know for sure till what her long-term prognosis will be.

So, here's your chance to help us help dogs in need. Buy calendars for everyone on your Christmas list this year. :D

A BIG thanks in advance from:

Vixen!