The sun was hiding behind clouds but it didn’t stop the dogs from playing loudly at 6.30 this morning. They were busy chasing each other, playing tag with a de-stuffed plushie racing all around the yard. They were having a blast!!I was soon laughing at their antics - up onto the dog house off through an obstacle course around the wood pile, onto the picnic table and long runs all around the low part of the yard through the water - happily barking their silly little heads in sheer exuberance. No more sleep for me so coffee wa smade and I enjoyed a quiet read with my first hot cup. The dogs meanwhile were all sleeping off their exercise while I was wide awake. Such is living with dogs.
I was sent this email today - we all need humour in our lives. Thank you Melissa.

Reposting from Victoria

Please help!!!! After two long years of being on a waiting list for an agility dog, we have been notified by the breeder that, at long last, our number has come up and … WE ARE HAVING A PUPPY!!!

We must get rid of our children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little puppy is going to be and it just wouldn’t be fair to the children. Since our little puppy will be arriving on Monday we MUST place the children into rescue this weekend!

One male - His name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn’t bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with peeing directly in the toilet. Has had chicken Pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed. Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained & gets along well with others. Does not run with scissors and with a little training he should be able to read soon.

One female - Her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), strawberry blonde hair, green eyes quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter,

thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots, tonsils out, and is very

healthy & can be affectionate. Gets along well with other little girls & little boys

but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training-shouldn’t take long at all.

We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what’s right for them;

that is why we contacted a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new puppy.

I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here!!! They MUST be placed into your rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our priority now has to be our new puppy.

This is a spoof on getting rid of your dog when babies arrive; one of the most frequent excuses we hear about finding a new home for a dog or cat.

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

The TG Bus is on its way home with a full load of dog food and goodies. A full load  down and a full load back up - now that is Economics personified!  Thank you VAS for the dog food for our puppies - you are the best!! My babies will have the top of the line in nutrition and immune system build up. Wow words just can’t express how much we appreciate your gift.

Yesterday was Spay day which also means the pound dogs are neutered and come in then too. Thank you Richard for taking Lilianna in for her spay - she is doing very well and for picking up the new fellow from the pound. He is an under 1 year old now neutered lab/rottie mix - a gentle giant of a mushball. He may be very large but he has the soul of a lap dog. He is very gentle with the babies - they are not afraid of the big guy. Of course he needs a name - can’t keep calling him Big Guy now can I?

He is a big boy!

I also received a call from our veterinarian Dr Kye who had an euthansia that she would rather not perform. Bailey is a young (just three years old) spayed rhodesian mix who had broken her leg in January. She had been splinted ever since and their vet told them that it hadn’t healed and would need surgery to repair it - a plate/screws etc. They were quoted a very high cost and decided to euthanise her instead . They brought her to Driftwood for the euth and met Dr. Kye. She asked them to surrender her to Turtle Gardens instead and she would monitor Bailey’s leg. They were quite happy to do so. And I was very happy to help my veterinarian save a life.

Bailey is a wonderful, sweet, quiet, gentle girl. She hasn’t made a peep, slept in the doggie bed by the stove and has excellent doggie social skills. She does walk/weight bear on her leg though she does limp - but not as bad as I would have thought. The injured bone is the ulna which is the smaller of the two lower leg bones - much like your arm. The radius should support her weight as the ulna heals. That is what the specialist told me when Sweetpea has surgery on her ulna. We will monitor her leg and watch for pain and limping. Bailey is such a nice girl. She deserves this chance at the "good life"

Standing on all four feet.

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

merry merry from another one of david’s sophos cohorts. thank you for giving so much to those creatures in need. it warms my heart that someone devotes their time and love to the critters

Scheduled Giving: In Honour of Iskut – Cameron

This is for the new little guy with the infected leg. I’m a sucker for a three legged dog! Poor little guy’s in good hands now at least. Hope all goes well.

I hope this helps feed some needy dogs that in are well looked after by you.

In Loving memory of a beautiful little dog named Peanut who came from Turtle Gardens and blessed our lives for 6 years.
And a special thank you to some very special people running Turtle Gardens Yvette and Dave

Yvette,
Phebie’s family here. After asking her boys Phebie would like you to name a black puppy "Tractor Tom" or "Tom" for short.
(If this is possible The new puppies are all black – no problem – one must be Tractor Tom!!
Thanks,
Melissa

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

Yesterday it was very obvious that Boots was in labour - she was restless, panting and looking for a place to hunker down.. She wanted the large doggie bed at the foot of my bed - I wanted her safe in her crate and x-pen. We tussled with locations until 6 pm then it looked like she was in the second stage of labour. Once more I walked her to her safe corner. She sighed and accepted the inevitable.  Then got busy doing what comes naturally. The first black pup was born by 6.30 pm. By 11 pm she has 7 all black puppies, had eaten a big bowl of good food and was lying contently nursing her brood.  So I went to bed and slept comfortably with my guys. As soon as I got up - it is spay day today so early, I checked my newest family and all is well. Chubby pups nursing happily on a tired mom. She ate another large dish of  good food mixed with canned meat.  All is well with TG’s newest arrivals.

Tuesday is spay day at TG. Today is Lilianna’s turn. Since Dave isn’t home - his friend Richard is kindly taking Lily to the veterinarian this morning. He was here by 7.45 am and Lilianna was ready. She was not impressed with going out the gate with a stranger. Passive resistance, on her back didn’t work and she was soon loaded and on her way. Sorry girl - it’s for your own good.

Lilianna is finally in good shape. Her demodex is gone (it was starvation demodex - not inherited) her coat tho patchy is coming in all over and her weight is good.  She has a solid temperament and will be an awesome companion for a lucky person.

And just a cute picture for puppy lovers!!!

Sady and Bonny Lassie’s pups - cousins!!

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

Hi Yvette - just wanted to let you know how happy Possum and I are. We had an excellent drive home from Nanaimo - he slept the whole way and was great. We came home and got settled. he and the cats touched noses and there was no aggression on either part which i was of course very relieved to see. He was shy of course - spent a lot of the evening under the kitchen table but came out and gobbled up his dinner without any trouble. He was shy when i went to bed but let me pick him up and slept the entire night with me on the bed. When I woke up this morning he was lying on his back and when I said good morning he gave his tail a little thump and he had a little belly rub. We have already locked hearts I think. He found a ball on a shelf in my kitchen and took it off of it. it was sure funny - he has the funniest little face. I am truly in love.

I spoke to Dave about the papers and he said you could fax the adoption papers for me to sign to my work and then just pop the other stuff in the mail. (feel free to send it COD) Just saves me driving an hour and a bit each way down to Nanaimo as I dont want to leave Possum very much and he didnt seem to do so well on the car ride over on the ferry. (Just thought I would limit the car rides for now until he was a little more comfortable.)

Katherine.

Good afternoon!

we have changed sandy’s name to bella and shes getting along just fine! she slept in the car on the way home so we took her for a pee before we brought her inside…she didnt go outside but decided to go inside a few times. we tried to leave her in a crate in the kitchen but man did she ever howl! not only that, SHE ESCAPED! she managed to unzip it. smart little girl. we eventually went into the spare bedroom with her. it turns out its not the crate that she doesnt like, she HATES being alone. the new city noises in the morning woke her which woke us nice and early. she piddled in the house a few more times but i have learnt that we must sit outside with her for at least 20 minutes before she decides to go outside. she was given alot of praise. she did a #2 for the first time when we took her out too. it looked better then what dave and stan described it as so that is good. shes a beautiful girl and is enjoying the company of the rabbits. we just put them on the the floor in their cages until they get used to each other. she runs around the cages in happiness. i will send you pictures when i get a chance to upload them. as you know how hard it is to get anything down with a pup! luckily shes sleeping below my feet at the moment after that big walk. thank you so much once again and james will mail off the check on his way to work this afternoon. take care and we shall see you at the reunion hopefully! we have a wedding in kelowna late august so im hoping it wont fall on the same weekend. bye for now!

Hi Yvette, I’d like to thank you again for Keena, she is a wonderful dog and
is adjusting quite well! She has had 2 big bowls of food and water since
she’s been here and is cruising the yard like she owns it!  We are planning
on taking her through all the forest trails and by the river tonight as a
little walk to get her used to a leash and collar as she’s not too keen on
it.   I promise to send pictures of her swimming and camping with us in the
next month. We have kept her name Keena as we love it!

Hello Yvette, just wanted to let you know how Linnet is settling in - my girls really wanted to have a hand in naming her so we have successfully (if you can believe in two days) changed her name to Meeca  (Mee-ka )  and she has had no trouble!!  The girls are just thrilled with her and we have already started to teach her to play with a ball - which she does enjoy!  She is making herself at home now.  She has become much less timid coming in and out of the house, and she has been on the leash lots and is getting much better at it.  Bye for now - we will keep you updated with pics and her progress!  Thank Dave for bringing her down to us!  Sharon, Mysha, Mindy, Richard and Meeca.

Hello, Yvette

Fianally, I met Oro/Buc last night around 10 pm.
Stan and his daughter were so nice to bring him to me and giving me advice.
He mentioned that he is going to call you regarding his stiches.

He has been good, trying to adjust, except few things, he did NO.2 right after he came to my place. Unfortunately, it was very soft one, so it was little bit work to clean it, since he did it on the carpet. But I cleaned it right away, and tried to teach him not to do it again by Stan’s advice.

He woke me up around 6 am this morning, I didn’t want to have another accident, so took him for first walk. In fact, he did a great job for No.1 and 2. But again, the No.2 was very soft and sticky. Wondering if there is something I can do for that.

Other problem that I had last night was, he refused to go into the carrier. I wanted him to sleep in there since I didn’t know what to expect specially, right after the first accident. I tried to trick him by putting dog cookie in there, but he was manged to get just the treat and refused to go in there. So I took him in my den and turned the light off and I went to bed as well, he was crying a little at first, but after told him to be quiet few times, he just went to sleep and didnt wake me up till this morning.

So going back to the carrier, maybe he has ever been in the kind of carriers so he was nervous? or maybe he is scared of going into tiny and little dark space? or I should get one more size bigger? ( I got M size)

Please let me know what you think, whenever you get a chance. ( sorry for asking so many questions, however I think it is very important to teach him stuff from beginning and get advice from someone knows about him well)

Thank you.

Yuriko

My answer to Yuriko answers what to expect from these new additions :

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

The TG Bus arrived safe and sound this morning. Updates as I receive them!!

Linda seems to know when Dave goes down with the TG Bus to Surrey. He hadn’t been gone an hour when she called about another dog in need. "Boots" had nowhere to go she said, no one to help her and she was due to "pop" any day. She was so thin her backbone was showing. Could I help her?

I need a brain transplant. Or a harder heart.  I have 19 puppies here under 6 weeks of age. Mind you they have integrated into one happy group. They eat together, sleep together, play together.  Bonnie Lassie even nurses them.. - tho not very often - usually when she wants their special food!!

They look happy, well adjusted and quite social. They follow me so that I have to shuffle trying not to step on any little feet. I feel like a pied piper. They make me laugh at their antics, smile when they sleep in a stack. And they are so much work keeping everything clean. So why would anyone even consider another female due to whelp anyday?

Because I can hear the sorrow and defeat in her voice - the desperation to find help for another lost soul. Because I can remember Serene’s sad face. Because there is no where else for her to go. So I say - Bring her in and I will find her a safe warm bed. And I do. Another corner is prepared with a wire crate, bumper pads and an x-pen is ready for her confinement. Linda arrives at 9 pm - the days are so much longer now - it doesn’t get dark until 10. 30 now.  Linda looks so tired - she has  worked a full day and now has travelled 2.5 hours to bring me Boots. She still has the long trip back.  Boots is brought out. And yes she is so very skinny - her backbone is showing. Her belly is watermelon shaped - she hasn’t much time to build up her strenght before the pups are born. She has the softest, gentlest eyes - a sad soul. This isn’t her first litter - her last pups are barely 6 months old. I sigh, my heart bleeds for the suffering this gentle animal has gone through. I promise this will be her last litter - and she will find a yuppie puppie home where she will be spoiled and cherished for the rest of her life - as all my charges will . That’s a guarantee.

Boots has found a very soft place - my bed!!!

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

Life continues at Turtle Gardens. The sun still comes up and the dogs still need to be cared for.  Serene’s pups have integrated with Bonnie Lassie’s crew. They are about the same age tho twice the size.  They are adapting as orphans - they have Aunti Sophie looking after them as well as Lilianna plays with them as well. 

The weather has  been very hot and the water is rising beside the greenhouse. The river is higher, faster and quite dirty brown with the soil from the shores washing away. So Dave thought it a good time for a fast trip down to Surrey.

I woke up early and started washing dogs to get ready for the trip. By noon all but Linnie were bathed. Linnie has stitches both in her back feet (she had her dew caws removed) as well as her spay just 3 days ago so she missed out.  By the time Bear (Dave’s sister) arrived all the dogs were loaded and ready for their big adventure. Dave hopped in and away they go!

Going this trip is:

  Linnie - her family is in Surrey.

Keena who looks a lot like Linnie but younger is going to Port Coquitlam

Sandy the short legged pup is going to Port Coquitlam.

Possum in his going home outfit from his sponsor Kate D. Thank you Kate - he sure looks cute doesn’t he? Possum is going to Cumberland.

Buccaneer is going to Vancouver.

Tigger is joining a  couple in Port Coquitlam.

And last but not least - Dave ’s little protegee - Peanut.

Hand feeding Peanut baby food before her dentistry! She always wore a sweater as she was chilled until the antibiotics kicked in. She will be missed by Dave - he spoiled her rotten. He will personally deliver her to her new home in Parksville.

It is always quiet when Dave leaves. I am sad to see them go but so happy that they have their own loving families. It just gives us more room for  the next needy dog.

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

I received the call last week about the injured dog - could I help him? He was a stray and had been hanging around all winter. His front leg was bleeding and appeared broken. He was very scared and they couldn’t catch him. I suggested putting food in their shed and trapping him in there. Then we would come and get him. A few days later Ralph drove up with the dog in the back of his truck.  He was a shepherd looking fellow with soft brown eyes pleading for help. His leg was swollen and twisted with the ankle to paw open to the bones and still bleeding. He was infected - I could smell him 10 feet away.  I told Ralph that we would pay for his veterinary bill - that he needed professional help now. Ralph offered to take him to my veterinarian. Upon examination it was determined that the gentle, sad 18 month old boy will lose his front leg. He will be neutered at the same time. He is on antibiotics for a week to reduce the infection and on good premium food to build him up for the sugery scheduled next Friday. Turtle Gardens has promised to pay his medical bills and provide everything he needs to survive the impending operation. Ralph is  fostering him for now as TG is a bit too busy and noisy with all the pups for such a sick dog.  This gentle soul needs sponsors to help him regain his health, a NAME (His name is Silas which in latin means 3, it also means Living in the Woods - sponsored by Cheryl K), and a family to love him and care for him forever.  Can you help us help this poor boy?

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.