Dog Center Blog

Pet Haven alum Ode and her mom, Pam met current PH dog Shiloh and her foster parents, Lauren and Mike last weekend at the Lake of the Isles dog park in Minneapolis.  Shiloh is the Shepherd/Husky in the center of the picture.

Shiloh was rescued by Red Lake Rosie’s.  She was a bit of a wild girl who eluded capture for her transport to Pet Haven for a couple of days.  When she was rescued, she was caring for her own litter of puppies and helped out with an orphaned litter as well.

She is a sweet, shy dog who takes a little time to warm up to new people, but it is really worth the small effort to get to know her.  She is loving life in her foster home.

Although a happy player at the dog park, Shiloh’s choice for an adoptive home would be one with a nice fenced yard as she just loves to just hang around outdoors.  A tie out would not be right for this girl.  

Shiloh gets along great with other dogs and asked that we find her a home with another dog so they can keep one another company.  At Red Lake Rosie’s, she got to live in a large pack and she thrived in that situation.  Before going to her foster home, she was the foster dog at Auntie Ruth’s where she was a staff favorite who enjoying spending the day in the ‘convy’ room, where the smaller, senior or recovering dogs stay.

Lauren and Mike are already cat fosters for Pet Haven, but Shiloh is their first foster dog.  They have a soft spot for the Red Lake dogs, as so many of us do.  We welcome them to the dog division.

To the Editor:

Re “Animal Abuse as Clue to Additional Cruelties” (news article, March 18):

As someone who deals with dozens of cruelty-to-animals cases every week, I applaud states that are imposing stricter penalties on people who hurt animals and that are working to establish online registries of animal abusers.

Animal abusers are cowards who take their issues out on “easy victims”—and their targets often include their fellow humans. I cannot begin to say how many incidents I’ve seen involving animal abusers who commit violent acts against humans, and animal neglecters who have also neglected their children or other human dependents.

Treating cruelty to animals with the seriousness it deserves doesn’t only protect animals, it also makes the entire community safer.

Martin Mersereau
Norfolk, Va., March 18, 2010
The writer is director of the Emergency Response Team, cruelty investigations department, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Our black beauty from Red Lake, Kayleigh, was adopted this week.

The couple who adopted her were looking for a senior black dog to love.  As rescuers, we love to hear this!  Kayleigh is perfect for them — she is truly a “move-in dog” who comes with no training needs or special care instructions.   All she needs to do is learn to peacefully co-exist with the resident cat.  Kitty (that’s his name) has all of his claws, so if Kayleigh doesn’t get it at first, she might learn the hard way that when a cat says ‘no’, he means ‘no’.

Kayleigh is shown here with former foster brother and fellow Red Lake dog, Orlando.   They were lovingly cared for at Rescue Buddy Boarding. Seems that Orlando was a little lost after Kayleigh moved to her new home the other day.   I’m sure that Laura has a dog or two coming to visit this week, so the boy shouldn’t be lonely for long.

Here are Kayleigh and Orlando.  Orlando is being fostered for Red Lake Rosie’s Rescue.  Contact Laura at Rescue Buddy Boarding if you are interested in meeting this young hound mix.

One thing Pet Haven does really well is help dogs who other groups might not be able to help.  Expensive surgeries and heartworm treatments are just some of the things that we have done for dogs we accepted into our adoption program.

Senior dogs have a harder time finding homes, and they have a harder time in shelters than younger dogs.  People don’t want to adopt them, fearing that the time to say goodbye will come far too soon.

Sadie was at People for Pets, a shelter in Spencer, Iowa.  Pet Haven gets dogs from this shelter throughout the year.   Usually, they are the big black dogs who have such a hard time getting adopted.  Being located in a small town in rural Iowa does not improve their chances.  There just aren’t enough people looking for dogs there.  Being elderly made it unlikely that Sadie would ever get out of the shelter if a rescue didn’t take her.

Sadie enjoyed playing with the other dogs at the shelter, but the shelter life was wearing her down.  At an estimated eleven or twelve years old, she just wanted a home to spend her remaining time on this earth.

So she came to Pet Haven, thin, arthritic and deaf, but sweet as can be.   A volunteer who had not fostered before had space in her home because she had recently lost her blind senior Newfie.  A large bed was sitting there, empty.    Sadie was delighted for the chance to snuggle in that bed.

Colleen took Sadie home yesterday.  The resident dogs and young daughter all accepted Sadie as one of
their own. For her part, Sadie explored the yard and house and gave all of it her approval.

Sadie is up for adoption.  Is there someone out there looking for a happy senior for a couple of years?  For now, she is comfortable and loved in her foster home.

One thing Pet Haven does really well is help dogs who other groups might not be able to help.  Expensive surgeries and heartworm treatments are just some of the things that we have done for dogs we accepted into our adoption program.

Senior dogs have a harder time finding homes, and they have a harder time in shelters than younger dogs.  People don’t want to adopt them, fearing that the time to say goodbye will come far too soon.

Sadie was at People for Pets, a shelter in Spencer, Iowa.  Pet Haven gets dogs from this shelter throughout the year.   Usually, they are the big black dogs who have such a hard time getting adopted.  Being located in a small town in rural Iowa does not improve their chances.  There just aren’t enough people looking for dogs there.  Being elderly made it unlikely that Sadie would ever get out of the shelter if a rescue didn’t take her.

Sadie enjoyed playing with the other dogs at the shelter, but the shelter life was wearing her down.  At an estimated eleven or twelve years old, she just wanted a home to spend her remaining time on this earth.

So she came to Pet Haven, thin, arthritic and deaf, but sweet as can be.   A volunteer who had not fostered before had space in her home because she had recently lost her blind senior Newfie.  A large bed was sitting there, empty.    Sadie was delighted for the chance to snuggle in that bed.

Colleen took Sadie home yesterday.  The resident dogs and young daughter all accepted Sadie as one of
their own. For her part, Sadie explored the yard and house and gave all of it her approval.

Sadie is up for adoption.  Is there someone out there looking for a happy senior for a couple of years?  For now, she is comfortable and loved in her foster home.