Dear Brad, Madeline and Heidi,
My children and I cannot find the words to express how much we love and appreciate the little gray toy poodle we adopted last Sunday. He has adjusted beautifully to his new home and Pug roommate, Louie. My son, Nik, now has a new best buddy.
This little dog is loving, affectionate, playful and confident--all we hoped for.
Thank-you for bringing us this angel-we named him Ziggy Stardust. Photos to follow--after the E-collar is off!
With our sincere thanks and love,
Elyse Kent, Nik and Lexi
Poodle Club of Southern California volunteer Heidi Hamilton and her husband Joe are constantly watching and visiting the local, and not so local, animal shelters, paying special attention to those shelters with high kill rates. These past few weeks have not been the exception and Tuesday, August 31st, Heidi spent her whole day and evening - over 12 hours straight - bailing out, and then cleaning up two more rescues.
The first few hours were spent with a drive to L.A. and a heart-breaking visit to one of the largest government run animal shelters in L.A. Heart-breaking because Heidi was not able to free all of the hundreds of dogs currently there, two to three in each cement run, and even more heart-breaking because while waiting for the two that she was able to free she watched as other perfectly healthy dogs were led to their deaths.
[Heidi and Marie would like to take this opportunity to extend a very special thank you to Mary Chatman, a rescuer, who pulled a few strings, and helped walk Heidi through the rescue process paper work. Your kindness will not be forgotten. AND Kathy if you are out there reading this, a special thank you to you too! What a pleasure it was to meet such very special people while at the shelter. - M. marie@bigplanet.com]
The dogs Heidi was able to bail out were very dirty and smelled horribly on the trip back to Ventura County, but thankfully both were very well behaved in the car.
The next stop was to visit Bradley Patterson, DVM who constantly volunteers his services to care for all of the Poodle Club rescues. Brad was not even aware that the two were on their way for examination till Tuesday mid afternoon, but he once again graciously adjusted his schedule to fit in seeing both of the rescues. Thank you again Dr. Patterson!
From there it was on to visit Madeline Patterson who, with help bathing and holding by Heidi and Madeline's assistant Caroline Beaver, proceeded to work her magic cleaning up these two initially scruffy, matted, flea and tick invested dogs.
It should be noted that Caroline stayed long after her regular workday without pay, and Madeline started these two after her regular workday and did not finish till 9:30 P.M. Madeline volunteers her time to groom all the Poodle Club rescues. Like Brad, Madeline did not know these dogs were coming till late afternoon and she too re-adjusted her schedule to fit them in. When Heidi left at 9:30 p.m. with two dogs that actually looked once again like Poodles, Madeline still had a Standard Poodle coat to tackle - so her day was not yet over!
Our very special thanks to Madeline, Brad, Heidi, Joe, Glenda and Caroline!
The first of the two L.A. shelter dogs is a grey toy poodle and one of his 'before' and two of his 'after' pictures are above. [Yes, believe it or not, that is the same dog in all three pictures above.] He was so filthy and matted that the shelter had him listed as a 'terrier'. Thankfully Heidi is thorough in her checking of the runs and kept her eyes open. She spotted this little fellow being led down one of the aisles - skipping and hopping - this grey toy poodle was thankful for even the tiniest bit of attention from the shelter employee and his 'poodliness' was instantly recognized by Heidi.
This little grey Toy Poodle was picked up wandering the streets of South Central, full of burrs and fox tails, with bite wounds including one that actually pierced one of his ears. In the picture at the very top of the page, he looks almost black but in reality he is a beautiful dark grey color - and as you can see in the picture to the right, his coat was so neglected that it came off like a pelt. [That's his hind end that you see and Madeline peeling back his coat.]
Even in the disgraceful condition he was found in - his spirit was hard to ignore - he is a very loving and eager to please little fellow, melting in Heidi's arms and instantly offering kisses as soon as she picked him up.
Now that the ticks and fleas have been destroyed, his shaggy coat removed, his ears cleaned up (all things considered his ears were not too bad), wounds attended to, toe nails trimmed, and he's been wormed and neutered. [Brad volunteered to neuter him on his day off - this past Thursday. Brad has also cleaned his teeth and he's of course had all his shots.]
Brad and Madeline guess his age to be 18 months and he will be ready to be placed this coming weekend.
NOTE: This morning [Wednesday, Sept. 1st, 2004] after his first night in his foster home the report is that he is eager to please and totally focused on his foster parents already! He will be an easy dog to train and is a natural retriever.
See who is available to be adopted right now: http://www.poodleclubsocal.com/poodlerescue
