Rescue Dogs

April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month and we’re not the only dog lovers with canine rescue stories and animal humane treatment on the brain. RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, NC seems to have an interest in canine rescue, too. At their 2013 festival, RiverRun will be screening Susie’s Hope, a film, based on true events, that tells the story of Donna Lawrence and her adoption of a Pit Bull-mix puppy — a puppy that someone had set on fire and left for dead — just months after surviving a horrific Pit Bull attack herself…

Although I have fostered scores of dogs, some as long as a year, Gracie was the first one I felt compelled to keep. My main breed is English Cocker spaniels, but I also had an interest in a mini Wirehaired Dachshund, so I volunteered to foster for DRNA (Dachshund Rescue of America). The fourth dog I was cared for was Gracie, a seven-year-old, smooth-standard dachshund…

Over at the Canine Journal HQ, we have rescue puppies on the brain. Partially because, well, we have rescue puppies on the brain (we’d adopt ’em all if we could!) but also because one of our very own just welcomed a new fashionable hound into her home…

Our first dog as a couple was a Golden Retriever named Remington. My husband was not allowed to have a dog while growing up so when our new neighbors moved in with a litter of Golden puppies, and Ken had to adopt one of them. Three-month-old Remington joined our family in early 1999 and quickly made Golden lovers of us. He was a huge part of our family until we lost him to liver cancer in July 2008. No warning, he just stopped eating and was gone within a month after the vet diagnosed his disease. We were devastated…

I will never forget the day that we brought home our rescue pups, Angie and Dana. We had just bought our first house one month earlier. My husband, Brian, knew I wanted a dog but said that we needed to get settled first before adding to our long list of new responsibilities. That bright Saturday morning, I thought I was going on yet another house shopping trip with Brian, with a big grin on his face, turned into the pet store parking log where they were having an adoption fair. I just smiled at him and asked. Yes was the answer…

Eight years ago I moved to a large home and wanted a very small dog. I visited two shelters many times but never seemed to be there at the right time. In desperation, I asked the kennel keeper if she could suggest a dog for me. She said a 40-pound, year-old stray was on death row and might be a good fit if I had no children at home…

One night while surfing online somehow this picture popped up and it was Charlie (to this day I have no idea how I found myself on the Furry Angels website). It was love at first sight. We had never heard about the Furry Angels Foundation, but we emailed a request to see if he was available. The foundation responded and after finding out what he had been through, we knew he was the one…

My wife, Kim, and I have donated to Best Friends Animal Society for 15 years. We really like their positive, upbeat approach to communications and their vision of a no kill nation through education, spay and neuter programs and rescue organizations. We volunteer at their international headquarters and sanctuary in southern Utah as often as we can. We already had two rescue dogs and a cat and I was not at all interested in adding to the family, but when I finally met Gracie, I knew I had to take her home…

Tito Beveridge, founder and CEO of Tito’s Handmade Vodka in Austin, TX, built his distillery 15 years ago with his companion DogJoe, a white shepherd mix, right beside him. At the time, Tito did not realize that the distillery, which is located in a large, open field, would be an attraction for so many abandoned dogs…