Reuben was a rescue from Hazelton - a very skinny, brindle boy. As he gained weight and strength his wonderful temperament shone! We neutered him and vaccinated him and he waited and waited for a new home. Finally Sam from
Bully Buddies found him a foster home and took him in - November 9th. Reuben has just been adopted!! Here is th eemail I received from Sam!
Hi Yvette
I dropped Reuben off with his new folks Megan and Gabriel today, and they are thrilled! He has gone to live with a young couple in New West, their bratty 10 month old terrier boy from 1 at a Time rescue, and their elderly cat that she adopted a couple of years ago because noone wanted a cat with diabetes….. Anyways, great folks. The dogs love each other. Megan is a vet tech at canada west so they are true animal people. Attached are some photos
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
The sun was shining when I got up this morning and let everyone out the front door. Because of the hill across the road our house loses the sun in early December and doesn’t come back until mid January. But it shines all around the yard - turning snow covered trees into jewels. If I walk a few hundred yard down the path outside the fence I can stand in the sunshine. I can see the sun everywhere around us but it doesn’t come into our windows yet. So no rainbows across the rooms. It will come just as the new year will come. Time stops for no man/woman - and it is speeding by so quickly! We have placed 180 dogs this year so far - though I am expecting a few people today who are coming to see Ruby Red, Holly and a "farm dog" The farm dog may not be here - our border collie likes to sleep on beds and I really don’t see any dogs here that want to live outside - all are heat suckers - they like the comfort of the cushions near the woodstove and the companionship of people around them and their friends. Don’t we all enjoy our comforts.
We have had a rough year in some ways - we lost three of our old dogs. We still have 4 demodex dogs - and they are still on medication - averaging $200 a week for all four. The good thing is they are getting older and soon their immune systems will mature to fight their inherited demodex - to live normal lives as normal healthy dogs. Our veterinary bills are still high but the donations from Dave’s co-workers at Sophos.com will really, really bring it down so we can’t start the new year in the pink instead the red! Sharon’s birthday open house will also help to bring the bill down. We average $20,000 a year on veterinary expenses for all our furry friends. They are all vet checked as soon as we can get them to the office, they are vaccinated, wormed and totally examined. If thye need antibiotics ot an ongoing medical problem fixed - they are. They are scheduled for their spay or neuter as soon as their large canines fall out - they are physiologically able to reproduce once those teeth come in! They are our guidelines as we often don’t know their age - or when they were born - most of the time we don’t know anything about them until we live with them and find out as we observe their quirks and behaviours. We learn so much from living with dogs and are truly blessed!
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
Our children bought us a satellite dish for Christmas this year. We are used to having only one channel on TV - it is often snowy and goes off the air if it rains or snows too much. This is really going to increase our entertainment/relaxation time in the evenings. But first we had to install it. It came complete with an instruction book - not a booklet. That should have been our first clue on the complexity of it. Ignorance is bliss. The first night Dave tried to set it up but soon discovered he had to have a compass. Off he went to his friend’s house and returned with the compass - three hours later. The next day he found the compass point,, the skew, the elevation and all other points but now he needed more precise measurements - he needed a level!! He hunted the entire house and yard and finally found it. He checked the skew measurements - then the BV and calculated the "correct" elevation adjustments, then the compass reading and lo and behold it turned green - as I yelled "we got it" the dogs started howling in joy right along with me - what a cacophony of joyous sound!! We did it!!! There is a 24 hour telephone number to set up the programming so at 10 pm last night Dave called the number and was told "we have an emergency situation at our premises - we are closed - please call back later" What kind of emergency did they have? Nothing on the news on our sole TV Channel. So much for a 24 hour customer service. This morning; Day 3 of installing the satellite dish we finally contacted customer service - we are hooked up and we have mega channels to watch - but no time to watch it - chores have to be done first. This evening will be the test of multiple channels. So far we know that the picture is crystal clear, the computer doesn’t intefere with the quality of the picture and there is lots of choices. And Dave installed it by himself!! How cool is that! Thank you boys for the new toy.
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
Here are some pictures from Jackson. He is a very, very, very nice dog.
Regards,
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
I stumled out of bed for a bathroom break and boy was it cold! I checked the time and it was too early to get up - wasn’t it? So I crawled back into bed and cocooned myself into the blankets. Then I heard a soft whine - Sweetpea needed help getting on the bed - she had gone outside to potty through the back doggie door. I helped her into her spot and closed my eyes - but she shivering! It must really be cold outside if she is that cold. There was nothing else to do but undo my lovely nest of blankets and invite her in under the covers. She was COLD, an icicle cuddling up in my arms - all my body heat diappeared. 
Where was my furry hot water bottle? Cold nose, cold feet cold little body - I am shivering as I remember. Poor Sweetpea - she will need a winter jacket to keep warm when she goes outside in the early morning! Spring is a long way off.
Most of the dogs are outside watching Dave saw wood for the stove. A friend dragged a full lenght dry pine into our driveway and Dave is cutting into lenghts for the stove. The dogs watch him all the while he is outside - dogging his every movement. They enjoy watching anyone doing chores - it is something interesting in their lives. And who knows it might end up with treats happening. Dogs like to be with their people. They like to be included in our daily lives. They are intelligent, observant, willing creatures who desperately want to be a part of their pack or family. Isolation is the worst kind of punishment for these social animals. One of the many reasons why we won’t send our dogs as outside only pets. How can they be pets if left outside while their family is warm inside watching TV together without the "family" pet?
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
Today has to be the slowest day of the year! My favorite blog was not updated www.saintsrescue.ca/wordpress/
the rescue forum I usually read with my coffee - only one post! www.brindleweb.com/rescuebb/ Lorna’s blog
myrescuedog.turtlegardens.org/
nothing new there either - but she has a very good excuse - she worked all of Christmas so her co-workers with kids could be home. In return when she needs time off for agility or Rally O trials - she has no problem finding someone to exchange shifts with. My boys haven’t updated their blog either - www.redneckmedia.net/ That leaves me no option but to write here and ….gasp - clean house instead
Bronson is a big big dog - a 3 year old, purebred Saint Bernard. He came in neutered/ vaccinated with Dozer - a 7 year old golden/duck tolling retriever mix instead of being killed - the neuters were the exchange with euthanasia. Dozer was quickly adopted. Bronson adapted very well to living here. He enjoys the comfort of indoor living - he was an outside dog in his earlier home. He is a greeter - he stands on the fence and greets our visitors - with interest and soliciting pats. He is gentle with all of the other dogs and sleeps with pups curled up to his massive tummy. He sounds like an ideal companion doesn’t he? He went for a sleepover in Smithers to live with a young female german shepherd as a companion/babysitter. She is a tad hyper to say the least and they hoped his steadying influence would help to calm her. They had a huge kennel run to play in during the day. He would sleep indoors they told me. When they went shopping overnight they asked a neighbour to feed the dogs left in the run outside. Bronson growled at him when he tried to enter the kennel to feed them. So he threw the food over the fence. The next day he tried again to feed the dogs and again Bronson refused to let him in - he was still there when Andy arrived home. This time Bronson lunged barking. He was left in the run again. The next morning the door hadn’t been latched properly and Bronson was found sleeping on the couch in the living room. I received a phone call and agreed Bronson should come back to Turtle Gardens. Bronson has been back for 10 days. He is back to his old self - a gentle greeter to all our visitors. He sleeps in the kitchen or for some reason - he likes the tub! 
His next favorite spot is next to the woodstove!! He lies there stretched way out and moans in ecstacy - just because he weighs over 160 pounds doesn’t mean he is comfortable living outside. Bronson is an oversize lapdog - a maltese in disguise! Bronson needs a strong guardian who will set boundaries for him - to take care of him and meets all of his needs. Bronson is a wonderful, sweet, big housedog. Someone, somewhere would be the perfect family for him. Meanwhile I enjoy the big lug!
Bronson at my feet!
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
It is a glorious morning this Merry Christmas with the sun shining and all the dogs happy and playing. All the pups are happy and healthy and enjoying their premium puppy food - a wonderful treat for them. the teenagers and adults also have premium dog food and everybody had lots and lots of milkbones for breakfast. We play the "bucket of bones" game - all the dogs sit around whovere has the bucket of milkbones and sit. I or Dave will call out a name and that one gets the bone - we go around and around until everyone gets their fill, they all sit and they learn their name. They also learn to wait their turn - sharing time and treats. A positive learning experience.
Yesterday was very quiet - not one vehicle on our road - after the 6 inches of new snow - the road is a pristine carpet of white. Now that is isolated/quiet. It was a peaceful wonderful day for Dave and I and our furry friends. Today will be the same. Our children are having their own Christmas down in Surrey - Dixie’ s family went down to spend the holidays with them. Stan and Dave www.redneckmedia.net/ will call us and our grandchildren will exclaim over their gifts. Friends and family will call but essentially Dave and I are celebrating the holiday alone with our dogs. Our choice - and happy to be here. Merry Christmas to one and all May you have joy in your heart and peace in your lives.
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
The smell of brewing coffee woke me up this morning but it was so warm and comfy under the blankets with my furry hot water bottles!! Sweetpea was in my back and little Grizzly Adams was on my feet. I snuggled in bed while dreams of grilling bacon filled my head!! Bacon??? I had to get up because my stomach was growling from the tantalizing aroma wafting into the bedroom. Dave was up and busy this morning!! Normally I don’t do breakfast until much later - but bacon cooking in the oven is irresistable and made up as a BLT - well how cool is that? Thank you Dave what a glorious way to wake up!!
ok 
There were very few nightly deposits this morning - Dave had gotten up during the night to keep the woodstove going and all the culprits went out with him. The old dogs (and there are quite a few of our non-adoptables that are between 13 years and 18 years old) can’t “hold” it as well as the youngsters and are not as regular either. It doesn’t help matters that the food dish is always full - no routine - they eat when they are hungry. A couple of them eat only at night - they are used to scrounging and have never gotten out of the habit of looking for food at night. They were second or third generation strays; already older adults - they trust Dave and I but no one else. They are the ones who taught us how to work with shy, fearful dogs. thye taught us patience an dunderstanding, respect and sent us looking everywhere for help. Because of them we studied Ttouch - Lorna is a qualified paractionner. We studied clicker training/positive reinforcement as tradional methods just didn’t work. We learned what methods of sheltering them worked and cages definetely wasn’t the answer - the group foster idea was born. And it does work. We don’t have many non-adoptables coming in now - 99% have been turned around. Contessa - a tiny terrier mix is just too old to change - she was already a senior when she is arrived last November from a collector who passed away. She has been vet checked/vaccinated/spayed/her teeth cleaned/removed etc ad is relatively happy living in the front room near the wood stove. She will take smelly treats from my fingers, knows her name - she sometimes barks/moans/growls until she hears her name!! Redman - the resident male from the same collector is slowly coming around to where he is sleeping in our bedroom and following me from room to room. He will come to his name and take treats from my fingers though he is still deathly afraid of hands. I think he will be ready for his own senior home this year. And dear Walter the young male who was shot and abandoned last summer is coming around very well. He knows his name and will actually come to me but he is also deathly afraid to be touched. He has a very gentle mouth and takes food very gently. somewhere there is a special person who will accept this lost soul as he is.
We hope you are having a wonderful family day today and tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all of you.
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
Here she is in August camping with her buddy. 
here she is waiting for Santa Claus! Thank you Klazinia!
