admin – Page 45 – Downtown Dog Rescue

About admin

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far admin has created 422 blog entries.

MIA’S DOG TREATS: Pack Hike in Santa Monica Mountains!

I got to know Gabriel through a friend, and he told me about the pack hikes he does twice a week working as a dog walker. After chatting for a while, I asked him to bring Sass along on the hikes, since Sass had developed a fear of big dogs from being attacked.

Sass loves hiking and is great off leash. I thought it would be a really good way for him to join and be around several large dogs.

It’s great that Gabriel sticks all 12 dogs in his SUV!! It sure helped Sass with his big dog fear!

A few weeks later, Gabriel inquired about bringing Princess too. I was a little concerned about her prey drive; because of it, I have never had her off leash so far. On the other hand, I felt strongly like she would stay with the pack. He took her a couple of times on leash and, once he felt she was ready, he took her off leash, and I joined in for this wonderful experience!

What an amazing morning! Princess stayed right by my side the entire hike, and I could not have been more proud!

DDR DOG SPOTLIGHT: COCO!

COCO PUFF!

Coco Puff is about 5 years old, and spent most of his life chained up in a pallet yard in Pomona before his horrible owners went out of business and left him there on his chain to die. Lori remembers the first time that she met Coco at the pallet yard, he was wagging his tail like a wild out of control dog, so happy to see someone new, then the chain jerked his neck as he tried to move out more than 4 ft from where he was chained to. A pole, a heavy chain that you could tow a boat to was about all that he knew of the world.

We suspect that Coco was fought, street style dog fighting, because of all the scars on his face and legs. To look at Coco’s face is like looking at a map of abuse. Somehow, he has learned to forgive and amazingly forget the past. When he first came into our rescue, he would walk 3-4 ft forwards to the side and back, as if he was still chained to the post. This went on for months.

Eventually, by watching the other dogs, he learned how to play. He has mastered play with female dogs only and the rougher the play the better for Coco. In fact, he can play with a whole pack of female pit bulls, no issues. NO male dogs please. He enjoys his simple of life at our kennel, two play times, two meals a day, a nice dog igloo to sleep in, always being able to access fresh water while living in clean run, all things that he never had at his old place.

We are not sure if we will ever be able to find Coco a forever home. He has been in our rescue for the past two years and we have set no time limit to how long he can stay but he sure would benefit from a real home.

If you are an experience pit bull owner looking for one special dog that will be quiet, is not hyper, Coco will probably be the most appreciative dog you will ever meet if you adopt him.

So far, not one application or e-mail for this big boy in 2009, maybe 2010 will be Coco’s lucky year! We are optimistic since Coco is counting on us!

[…]

WEST LA SHELTER RESCUE ME SPOTLIGHT: TIGER (A1079663) & OPHELIA (A1083632)

Please help these two sweet, dog friendly, loving dogs make it out alive and to a good place. Thank you to those at the shelter who took the time and effort to make this touching video to try to help these wonderful dogs.

A1079663 – Tiger & A1083632 – Ophelia

It was love at first sight and although Ophelia played hard to get…..

she couldn’t resist Tiger’s looks and charm!!

See a love story in the making….

Ophelia is a 2 year old, female American Staffordshire.

Ophelia came to the shelter as a stray on December 25th 2009.

Tiger is a 2 year old, male American Staffordshire/ Shar Pei Mix.

Tiger came to the shelter as a stray on December 2nd 2009.

If you are interested in Ophelia and Tiger

please contact the New Hope Coordinator at:

Samantha Westbrook

New Hope Coordinator

West Los Angeles

11361 W. Pico Blvd

Los Angeles 90064

Cell: 213 792 5811

Shelter: 213 485 0494/0495/0496

ani.newhopewla@lacity.org

THANK YOU!

WHERE ARE THEY NOW DDR Dog Alum Spotlight : STELLA!

Stella, formerly known as Betsy Ross was rescued on the 4th of July in Downtown LA. Lori took her to the shelter because she thought she was someone’s lost dog but ended up adopting her because no one claimed her and she was set to be euthanized.

STELLA
by Leigh Spader

Anyone who knows me knows I love my Stella more than anything. In my eyes she’s the perfect dog and more importantly the perfect dog for me.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I decided to rescue a dog in hopes that it would help me cope with missing my friends and family back east. I’ve always liked bully breeds so I was set on adopting a boxer, bulldog, or pitbull mix of some sort. When I saw Stella on Petfinder I emailed Lori and got the quickest most enthusiastic response. I could tell right away how passionate she was about these dogs. To make a long story short, I met Lori and she introduced me to Stella. She told me all about Stella’s personality and how my home sounded perfect for her. I knew right then that it would be a good match. I brought Stella home with me and it’s been wonderful ever since! Everything Lori said about Stella’s personality was dead on. I’ve now known Lori for a couple years and I am blown away with how well she knows each of her dogs and how great she is at finding their forever homes. She’s kind of a doggie matchmaker of some sorts.

Stella is the most affectionate, playful, happy, silly dog I have ever known! As her mom, of course I’m biased, but everyone she meets just adores her. Even my mother who always says, “Leigh, why can’t you like nice dogs!” fell in love with her. All it took was Stella curling up on the couch and resting her head in my mom’s lap and she was sold! She could not believe a dog that looked like Stella could be so friendly, calm and loving.

I work in the creative field and always have some personal project swirling around in my head. One of them was a crazy idea for a t-shirt. This crazy idea kept coming up in conversations with my friend, so I finally said, “Let’s do it.” We brainstormed names but nothing seemed to sound right. As we continued […]

ACTIVATE: We’ve come to take your dog away! What is BSL (Breed Specific Legislation)? A Better Name? Breed Discriminatory Legislation!

by Irene Soriano Brightman

COOKIE!

Think of this…you raise this beautiful pit bull from puphood to full adulthood and spend countless hours filled with wonderful companionship, trips, tragedies and other life changing events. Pit Bull and Guardian live happily ever after, right?

Here in Los Angeles, it would seem to be the natural progression to be able to raise your pitbull or other power breeds to a ripe old age. That is NOT the case for many dog guardians of this misunderstood and maligned breed in the United States. To me, when I hear of states that have passed BSL (Breed Specific Legislation), they all seem like some faraway lands I hope to never visit. But it is a reality and I know that many DDR friends and family have connections to many of the states that have these types of horrible legislation in place! Florida has one in the works! Denver has had BSL laws in place for over 20 years! Read Stephanie Ernst’s (from Change.org) article at Denver’s problematic “profiling” and murder of pitbulls in The Killing of the Misunderstood 3,500: Denver’s Pit Bull Ban

When I looked up BSL in California , here are the cities listed:
San Francisco, Santa Monica, Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, Point Hueneme

Apparently an ordinance was in effect in Santa Monica, California, before the state prohibited breed-based laws:

4.04.410 Vicious dogs.
(a) No person owning or harboring any pit bull or any other dog subject to this Section pursuant to subdivision (b) shall within the limits of the City allow or permit such dog, whether licensed or not, to be upon the public streets, public sidewalks, public parks, or any other public place within the City, or upon any private property which is not fully enclosed by fence or other barrier, except when muzzled and held under leash by an able bodied person.
(b) This Section shall apply to any dog for which the Animal Control Officer has issued, based upon the vicious or predatory nature of the dog, a written notice to the person owning or harboring such dog to keep the dog muzzled and leashed in accordance with this Section.
(c) For purposes of this Section, “pit bull” means any pit bull terrier of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, or American Pit Bull Terrier breed of dog or any mixed breed of dog which contains as an element of its breeding the breed of Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, or American Pit Bull Terrier as to be identified as partially of the breed of Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, or American Pit Bull Terrier. (Former section 4.04.410 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code.)

I’m just glad that bad dream is over but of course those […]

LORI’S CORNER: BRUNO

I get lots of e-mails and phone calls from people who have adopted Pit bull Terriers from a shelter. The main challenge for most of these new dog owners is dog on dog aggression. The message usually starts out something like this, “When my dog was in the shelter, he was in a run with other dogs, and wasn’t fighting, so why is he aggressive when he meets a new dog now?” No one adopting a shelter dog should assume that just because a dog is OK in a run with other dogs at the shelter, it’s going to be a breeze to introduce and allow your new pit bull to play with dogs. Sometimes, it works out this way, especially if you have a trusted shelter volunteer as we do, Debbie Fan at West LA shelter and Andrea Franks at the South LA shelter, but no one is perfect, no me, not Billy and especially not the dogs that we rescue!

This was the case for our boy Bruno, a beautiful young Pit bull Terrier, who was red listed at the South LA shelter. He was in a run with a couple other intact male dogs and did fine day after day. No fights. No aggression. When Andrea sent me his plea, Billy and I decided to check him out. At the shelter, Billy took him out of the run, walked him in front of lots of barking dogs. He saw no leash aggression, and no aggression towards the dogs going back into the run. In fact, he seemed submissive. We rescued him. Then everything changed when Billy entered our Vet’s waiting room. Not only did Bruno growl, he snapped, challenged on leash and went crazy at every dog in the waiting room. The staff was even concerned. Billy called his change in behavior a “180” meaning he went from being a scared submissive shelter dog to a scared out of control rescue dog in less than an hour.

The first day at our kennel was also not good. He literally barked for an entire day. He didn’t connect with me and wouldn’t listen. I could tell that he was fearful and very leash aggressive when walking past all of the dogs in their runs. Billy started running him on his bike, taking him on correction walks and dominating him until one day he was ready to meet some dogs out in the yard. The big day that we had all been waiting […]

FRIDAY SHOUT OUTS – Giving Thanks!

PUPPIES galore this week!! For this Friday, we are glad to report that 9 puppies are currently on DDR transport to Las Vegas for pickup by a Best Friends volunteer and whisked away to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. No doubt, these pups will be housed in their Puppy Care Center. They’re on their way to their loved, new lives!

Who will do the honors this week? It will be our own Pup DANITY! One of the Southgate 67 dogs that now has a permanent home and new family! Hooray!

Are you ready girl!!??? GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Danity, Rainy and the 9 pups would like to thank the following people that set OPERATION Rescue Rainy’s pups into action!

LOS ANGELES

CATHY SIMPSON for rescuing Rainy and her pups

JO BARKER for helping care for the pups

B.A.R.K.’s JOSIE GAVIERES for transporting pups to Las Vegas from South LA

LAS VEGAS

STACIE, a BEST FRIENDS volunteer

picking up the pups in Las Vegas

and transporting them to UTAH!

UTAH

BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SANCTUARY

for taking the 9 pups

and eventually placing them in their forever homes!

Whew! It It does take a rescue village!

Ok, it looks like Danity’s being called by her forever guardians to go home! Danity!! Good luck in your new home!!! We’ll miss all your cute crying! lol!

We’re helping DOWNTOWN DOGS one dog at a time

with YOUR help!

See everyone next week!

P.S. – Rainy is available for fostering or adoption everyone! She will be spayed and ready to go into a loving home – contact Lori at lori@modernica.net Thanks!

SOUTH LA SHELTER RESCUE ME SPOTLIGHT: ECLIPSE : HER MOMENT OF DARKNESS

ECLIPSE : HER MOMENT OF DARKNESS

SEEKING HER LIFETIME TO SHINE

FROM OBSCURITY SHE CAME, SHAKING AND SUPREMELY SAD

AN ANGEL, SLOWLY FINDING HER WAY — WITH YOUR HELP

ECLIPSE

(A1086258, on alert as of February 24th — way, way out of time!!!!!)

She only 10 months old when she arrived at the shelter, pregnant. This breathtakingly-beautiful puppy curled herself into a ball and wanted to die. She cringed from human touch. She crawled on her belly to get a treat. This sweet dog never, ever knew any joy. With consistent handling and walks and even a visit with us at our last mobile, Eclipse has learned that people can be fun.

I won’t forget the first time she stood up when I approached her cage. Won’t forget that first lick of the fingers, the first time I saw her wag her tail. Knowing that Eclipse has this little germ of hope is so encouraging. Everyone admits that she is stunning. She has been kenneled with many other dogs and gotten along fine. Eclipse needs someone now to shower her with love and to elicit that playfulness hidden behind her blue brindle coat. But, it will take time — she needs patience.

I beg you to let me know that she will be saved. We’ve spent a lot of time and put a lot of devotion in — and can’t wait to hear the good news.

If you can help, please call

the South L.A. shelter at

(213) 485-0117 or (213) 485-0119

Many thanks,

Andrea & Mindy

ivegonetothedogs@gmail.com

(323) 363-4909

Previous 43 44 45 46 47 Next