Lori Weise – Page 7 – Downtown Dog Rescue

China has been adopted!

I’m really happy to announce that China, now known as Mara, was adopted two weeks ago and is doing extremely well. She was adopted by a family in South Pasadena who has two other small dogs that Mara really enjoys. The whole family understands that it will take time for her to feel completely secure.

What a 100% change from six months ago when Cathy rescued her from the alley behind her house. I like her new name, which her owner Nancy wrote, “We have renamed her Mara (the Acoma goddess of travelers) Supertramp (because she took the long way home). Mara Supertramp, but we call her Mara.”

She truly did take the long way home to her forever home! Thank you to all the volunteers who helped her get to her home.

Canine Good Citizenship Test (CGC Test) @ Pit Bull School

I was so proud of the dogs that participated in our first Canine Good Citizenship test in class last Sunday (January 3rd, 2010). More than half the dogs that were tested by evaluator, Lezle Stein passed on their first try. All were pit bulls, proving once again, it’s all about the owner and how educated the owner is, not the dog. One dog really surprised me, even though Jay J didn’t pass, as a puppy under a year, he hit every mark except the “out of sight” challenge.

His guardian, Gerardo asked for our help so that he can keep his puppy. This is part of our Operation Safety Net Program. He is a terrific dog owner who is keeping Jay J very social, bringing him to class every week, socializing him with other dogs and people including nieces and nephews.

Like many of the young dog owners in our class, he wants to learn how to offer his puppy the best start in life. Check out this wonderful photo of a very smart and social puppy, Jay J.

Compton Spay + Neuter Clinic

On Saturday January 9th, we hosted our monthly free spay + neuter clinic for Compton dog owners. AngelDogs was our service provider. They have a great team and with my two key volunteers, Ivania and Rosalie, we had a very successful day, 30 dogs were sterilized, vaccinated and microchipped all free of charge to the dog owner. Plus, Ivania wrote out another 20 vouchers so that the walk up people with dogs can take their dog over to Golden State Humane Society Hospital at a later date and get their dogs done free of charge.

Through grants and private donations, Downtown Dog Rescue provides this free service for all Compton Dog owners each month. We do not receive financial assistance from the City of Compton, in fact, they have never acknowledged our work in the community. Since 2006, we are the only non profit to provide free spay/neuter services on a regular basis in Compton. The key to our success, the mobile clinic and trained and dedicated volunteers.

Without a mobile clinic program, we would have never met Elizabeth and her family who just moved in across the street from the park where we park the mobile clinic each month. Someone in her neighborhood has abandoned two dogs, and then a third. All females, all large breeds. She had no money to get them spayed, and no car to take them to a hospital. On Saturday, I’m happy to report, we got them all spayed, including “Beauty” a very nervous dog who loves only her family. AngelDog’s staff was terrific and knew just how to handle these dogs. We also provided services for Mr. Randall’s puppy “Thriller” Without the mobile clinic, I seriously doubt this pup would ever have received any vet care since Mr. Randall is homeless. His girlfriend had visited us late in the day at our Dec. clinic but we had no way of contacting her. I was so happy to see Mr. Randall, push his shopping cart up to the mobile clinic, with Thriller in his back pack. Although he had no appointment, we were able to take him aboard the clinic, with a little coaching on why getting Thriller neutered was so important from Rosalie who also offered her yard as a safe haven for the pup whenever Mr. Randall could not care for his dog. He stayed most of the day, had lunch with us and waited patiently for Thriller to be done so he could go back home.

I was also very touched by Felita who had rescued a little female Chihuahua named Cookie. She helped talk two more people into getting their dogs spayed who were “on the fence” about getting it done. We were able to take all the dogs who did not have appointments including Cindy’s big black beautiful male pit bull and lots of […]