Adoption Story - Winston and Toby

A few years ago, I decided I wanted to find a small dog for my little family to care for and began reading and searching trying to find the exact match. It was important to me that we find a small doggie as my five year old son had a terrible fear of dogs and I thought small would be less intimidating. We decided to look for a Pomeranian puppy.

 

I found several breeders offering puppies, pet stores of course, but, much to my relief and excitement found a website for the National Mill Dog Rescue, and while I didn’t see any Pomeranian puppies on the website, we thought we would stop in to the next adoption event and see what doggies needed homes.

 

As we walked in I noticed several small dogs with high energy, barking and running around all of which made my son a bit nervous. As we looked more closely we noticed one black and white doggie sitting very calmly. My son immediately went over to visit him through the fence, much to my husband and I’s shock. The NMDR volunteer kindly introduced this doggie as Winston and opened the gate for us to visit.  My son sat down immediately and Winston curled up in his lap and proceeded to get pets from my son. My husband and I were shocked and moved by their instant connection and how calm and comfortable my son was with this doggie.

 

We knew we just had to have Winston in our family. We went through the proper steps and adopted Winston, we were told he had spent most of his life in a cage and therefore, may be unable to do certain things. I am proud to say Winston is one  of the most wonderful things that has happened to our family. He walks beautifully with a leash, sits on command, is loving and kind and even plays a great game of fetch.

 

We loved Winston and this experience so much that a few months later we saw another Pomeranian that had been rescued from the same home the NMDR website. We set up the opportunity to get Winston and then “Buddy” together. While the initial introductions were “interesting” my husband was certain that “Buddy” would be a great match for us.

 

We took “Buddy” home and discovered he preferred the name Toby. After just a few “doggie conversations” Winston and Toby are true brothers. We can’t imagine our house without either of them. Best of all, my five year old son is pals with both dogs and is no longer afraid.

 

We love our adoptees and truly love the NMDR organization for doing what you do – I wish we could take them all home!!! ;)

 

Toby

Winston

 

Update on Nicole

Nicole is now LOLA!

Here is an update sent in to our Assistant Director Helen on Nov 2, 2010

Hi Helen!

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Lola (Nicole)!!! She was meant to be a part of our family. We picked her up from the rescue a little over a week ago. She was a great "rider" all the way back to Aurora. She sat on our daughter's lap the whole way....not making a sound. We did stop for gas and to let her out...but she just sat on the ground...very scared of her surroundings. She also made her first visit to Petco!! She rode in the cart with her blanket and WOW the kids and adults couldn't get enough of her. Lola was so good..she would look at them and then lay back down in the front part of the basket. When we got home...she sniffed around a bit and just wanted to lay in her new comfy bed. She didn't understand how to go up and down stairs. We had to take her outside and put her on the deck. By the following day, she was becoming a bit more adventurous and would put one paw out the door...but got stuck in that position and began to tremble. It took a couple of days but soon she was able to go up and down the two stairs to the patio out back...tackling the 15 stairs to go upstairs...or the 10 to to go downstairs was something that took a bit longer. I am happy to report that Lola is a speedy little doggie who does not hesitate to take the stairs...two by two most times! Lola loves our daughter (age 15) and son (age 7). She follows them around and will lay next to them as they play chess. We can't believe how well Lola has done with the "potty" routine and the bedtime routine. Lola had one accident the first day we brought her home...since then..she is completely trained to go outside. She also sleeps all night on her bed in our bedroom.

It is like she has been a part of our routine for years. It really is hard to wrap my brain around.

Lola loves to go for car rides and enjoys playing with Django, my sister's rescue dog. She will take her first plane ride this Thanksgiving. She will go to North Dakota to see Grandma, Grandpa, Spikey (French Brittany), and Chopper (Papian). Lola is learning how to go for walks on her leash...she is trying to understand how this "thing" attaches me to my human and what her role is. Sometimes she just plops down on the sidewalk and looks at us with those big beautiful eyes!

We are blessed by your efforts to save precious animals. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for saving Lola. Because of you, Lola has the chance to love others...and to be loved. We are on an incredible journey!

In apprecation of you all,

Lola

Frazier,Terasia, Sedia and Evan"

Pennies for Jenny

   This sweet little Shih Tzu named Jenny was recently rescued by NMDR from a puppy mill in Missouri after many years of neglect.  One look at her was enough to melt hearts when she was discovered cowering far back in a dirty cage suffering from mammary gland tumors, a shoulder mass, dry eyes and a bilateral broken jaw.  Neglect and abuse took a heavy toll on this old girl who was filthy and matted without even a blanket to rest her tired body upon.  But her timid, dry eyes still managed to barely peer through tangled, unkempt hair silently pleading for our help.

     Mammary gland tumor incidence is drastically decreased in dogs who are spayed at an early age but that was not a luxury little Jenny was afforded because she was seen as nothing more than breeder stock for the majority of her life.  Teeth rotten from years of neglect and a broken jaw made even eating excruciatingly painful.  This is typical of so many unfortunate abused puppy mill dogs that live in unconscionable conditions that should never have occurred.  Jenny is now recovering nicely after hours of extensive surgery to excise the mammary gland tumors, shoulder mass, and considerable dental surgery to remove rotten teeth and repair her little jaw. 

  Jenny is one of the lucky ones.  With continued love and care, she will be able to eat without pain, gain strength and know what being loved finally feels like. The jaw of this sweet girl may have been broken, but not her spirit nor will to survive!   She desperately needed our help and thanks to continued donations from wonderful, caring dog lovers like you, abused dogs like Jenny are able to be given a first chance at a decent life.  Jenny’s surgery was very extensive, and costly.  Every donation, every penny counts in helping pay for Jenny’s upward battle in recovering and finding her own loving, forever home.  

     Many, many thanks from all of us at NMDR, especially sweet Jenny.

An Update on Smokey

The following is an update on Smokey from his new family sent in to Helen. Smokey was one of the power wash dogs and we think he looks great!

Hi Helen!

I have been thinking about you folks at the Rescue for a couple of weeks now.  You must have picked up my vibes.

Smokey is doing great for the most part.  He’s still a little timid and shy at times, still a bit jumpy with unexpected noises but has come such a long way from the scared puppy we brought home with us.  

He has conquered the stairs, actually my daughter had better luck than I did getting him to try the stairs.  I think he knows I am a softy and a pushover.  He loves his food and eats very well.  He did really well at his visit to his new vet here.  A little timid and nervous, but she and her assistant were female, and he seems to like females better than males.  He actually ended up giving the vet a hand kiss.  We have also conquered the “where to potty” question, so all is good in that department.  The only time there’s an accident is if he gets really anxious about something.  For instance, when I do have to be away for an appointment or such, I cannot leave him loose in the house even though it might be only a short time that I am gone.  He does much better in a confined area and doesn’t have the accidents that way.  I think it just makes him too anxious to be left free on his own.

We are learning to know Smokey, and he is learning to know us.  And, yes, we do still call him “Smokey.”  It seemed to fit him, and he has that bit of “smoke” trailing down the back of his head, so we kept the name.  The only real problem we have had and do have with Smokey is that he isn’t really fond of men, and when Bill comes in from work or even is out of the room a while and comes back in, Smokey will growl and bark at him.  It’s like starting over every time.  I talked with the vet about it, and she said that we should just keep reassuring him, as we always do, that it could just take time.  She thought even as much as a year.  If your dog behavior person has any other suggestions, they would be welcomed.  Most of the time, Bill fixes the meals for the dogs, and Smokey has no problem taking his food from Bill.  He will even take a treat out of Bill’s hand, as long as Bill doesn’t invade his personal space too much.  None of it seems to make him like Bill any better, though!  And he will sometimes have a potty “accident” if Bill approaches too suddenly.  We can tell it’s mainly because he is afraid of Bill but aren’t sure why he is so afraid nor what to do about it other than what we are doing.

Other than this, life is good for Smokey.   He gets along really well with the cat and Maggie (the other Dachshund we have) is his explore-the-backyard buddy.  He has gotten very attached to me, maybe a little too much, even.  But he is very sweet about it.  He has discovered my pillows on the bed (I have four) and if he sees that I am headed for the bed, will race me to get to the pillows before I do.  He loves to lie in the middle of them, and I have to roust him out when it’s bedtime.  If I am just watching TV, then I sit up and let him lie on them in back of me.  I think that is just about his favorite place in the world to be.  

Little by little, I think we are getting there and hope the situation with Bill will resolve itself with time and patience.  I’ll try to take some pictures this weekend and send you some.  

Hope all of you are doing well.  Keep up the wonderful work that you do!

Pam Wiener