Yvette did 2 interviews today! Japanese TV (not sure even what channel they are on) did quite an in-depth interview and filmed the raffle draw at the Escapes.ca office. Two hours later at the re-union at Everett Crowley Park, CTV (they stayed for the entire time!) also had an interview with Yvette – she’s getting to be a pro at this!

The hike/re-union was a blast, I’m guessing about close to 50 TG dogs came out, and with friends joining us, there were easily over 60 dogs. What a great experience, it’s something I will cherish for a very long time. There were so many warm and fuzzy moments - way too many to count! I’m sure those who were at the park this afternoon can attest to this. What a wonderful afternoon for Yvette to see all her happy and healthy furbabies. She never stopped smiling, Yvette was ‘glowing’ all afternoon (and did you notice she was wearing lipstick, Cheryl? )

Thank-you so much to everyone who’s supported the TG raffle draw, it was huge success. Because this was our first event, your support was particularly special for us. Thank you for all your kindness and generosity. Ok, how much did we raise? Unofficially, we’re just a shade over $14,000!!!

Here’s the list of winners, congratulations to all.

1. 7 day trip to Mexico – Patricia McLeod, North Vancouver
2. getaway to Victoria - Vadie Bond, Terrace
3. $500 gas cards – Anita Lee, Vancouver
4. $500 Home Depot – D. Munro Vancouver
5. pet portrait by Deborah Strong – Kevin Goodbody, Vancouver
6. $100 Bay/HBC card – Dove Cresswell, Burnaby
7. Dental whitening package – Sharon Giguere, Chilliwack
8. Van Houtte Coffee & Purdy’s basket - June Dinning, North Vancouver
9. Avon basket – Susan Finlayson, Bowser
10. Telus Pay & Talk cell phone – Jarmila Tegart, North Vancouver
11. Telus Pay & Talk cell phone – Brigitte Watts, Thornhill
12. Pets & People goodie basket – Miriam Lenting, Richmond
13. handmade jewellery - Graham McTavish, Burnaby
14. handmade doggy themed quilt – Tim Little, Surrey
15. $60 Chapters gift card - Sharon Bandstra, Terrace
16. 4 bags Starbucks coffee – Ola Hiltz, Telkwa
17. $50 Earl’s gift card - Sabrina Vandenbrink, Chilliwack
18. $50 Swiss Chalet.Milestones card – Greg DeBloime, Vancouver
19. $50 Starbucks card - Joanne Fan, Vancouver
20. $50 Starbucks card - Bonnie Jung, Trail
21. Snack food basket - Margaret Macloed, Perow
22. 4 movie passes + A& W card - Pam Rutherford, Port Moody
23. 2 movie passes + $15 Tim Hortons - Adrienne McCann, Burnaby
24. $25 Starbucks card – Peter Ukai, Vancouver
25. $25 Starbucks card - Eleanor Busse Klassen, White Rock
26. $25 gas card - Jo Caple, Victoria
27. $25 gas card – Carmel Briskor, North Vancouver
28. $25 gas card – Verne Scott, Nanaimo
29. $20 Tim Hortons - Diane Cunningham, Vanderhoof
30. $20 A & W – Eliza Fry, Kaslo

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

So I have access to a computer. What an incredible weekend so far!! I had a wonderful seatmate on the bus - he was 7 years old and small so I had a lot of room. When we switched buses in Prince George - he sat beside me again - his mom was in front with his baby sister. He cuddled up to sleep and so did I thank you Eric - what a very nice well behaved little boy.

Jude picked me up at the bus depot (we found a coffee kiosk right away!!) and drove me to her home where I freshened up - had more coffee and breakfast and then Cynda arrived. She and Jude has gone shopping for me and bought me some wonderful outfits!! My favorite is a soft fleecy purple vest with a matching shirt. And the most wonderful, youthful capris. How very nice of you!! Jude gave me a haircut and my confidence was boosted for the BIG day ahead. But first we had dinner at White Spot with Sharon - a long time supporter of TG and very good friend.

Then it was a very good night’s sleep and THE BIG DAY - the Raffle Draw. The complete list will be up shortly - Cynda will email me here at SAINTS and I will post it. What an incredible amount of work they have done to get to this point. THANK you Jude and Cynda - we are so thankful for all your very hard work. And a very big THANK YOU to Chris of escapes.ca for the GRAND Prize. And to all the other donators of fabulous prizes.

Then it was to Sullys to order a take out sandwich and drive to the Take a Hike with TG at Everett Crowley park. We set up a table and sat down to eat - I took two bites and TG Alumni started coming up the path. That was the last time I sat down until we drove home! I saw Annie from 5 years ago. I saw Peaches and Poppy - sisters who met again after 4 years!! All of Nala’s family was there - Gryphon, Teya, Ella, Sage and Bailey from Bowser!! Bailey is Nala’s sister! There was Nell and her son Truman to meet again. Two of the Sherriff dogs - Maya and Mackenna - they knew each other and me too. My beautiful Nonie gave me kisses. There was three Nauticals - Rosa(Bonnie Lassie) and Oro (Buccaneer) and Kuma (Sailor). There were over 50 dogs and their very happy families. Some pictures are here http://mylifewiththecritters.blogspot.com/2008/08/yesterday-was-awesome.html Thank you Jean!! It was so awesome to meet you after “knowing” you so long in cyberspace. I met Lynda, Cheryl, Ellen, and so many rescue friends. It was INCREDIBLE!! I also met Shelley from CTV and yes we were on TV at 11 last night. Thank you so very much! I will post pictures when I get to Dave’s tomorrow - well maybe the next day and tell you all about today’s adventures too. Just a hint - we rescued a dog!

I am visiting Carol at SAINTS today and tonight - what a fabulous place. Then I will be off to Victoria to see my sons and grandson before heading home again.

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

Today is “T” day - my greyhound leaves at 5.35 pm! Yes I am taking the bus - several reasons - It is way cheaper - less than half the air fare!! (more for the dogs spay/neuters) and less get there travel time. The airport is almost 2 hours away and we need to be there 2 hours ahead so Dave would be away a lost 6 hours!! The bus picks me up at the corner - I could walk! We are less than a minute from the highway. Besides both trips are at night so I will sleep or read. No problemo!

Annie arrived - a failed adoption after almost 5 years! She was 7 months old when she left here. She has fears of thunder storms and she bolts. She has been picked up twice by animal control and they can no longer afford the fine. So Annie returns. She is a calm girl with people but is territorial - she is part maramma . Turtle Gardens welcomes Annie:

Then we received a call from Char - the Burns Lake Pound. She has 5 dogs in the pound. They had their vet visit scheduled - Thank you Burns Lake Vet Clinic!! Dave picked them all up and what a nice bunch of dogs!!Turtle Gardens welcomes them all - no names - yet!!
This is the littlest pound pup. She is a female, 6 to 8 months old, weighs 13 pounds and is super friendly - she is already following us and sleeping under out chairs in the kitchen. What a sweetie!

Next is Nonie2!! She looks just like Nonie and acts like Nonie and is the same age as the one above and Nonie!! They must be part of Nonie’s family!!

Then a beautiful, striking aussie mix - a 4 month old blue eyed, female who could very well be Abby Rose’s sister - except aussie and border collie aren’t grey - are they? She is super bright, very very active and what a friendly, good natured pup! She plays plays and loves to play.

And then the other 4 month old pup - a lab mix, male - oh so gentle. He has already been adopted! Jerry and Lindsay lost their Rusty on the 11th - he was adopted from TG 11 years ago when he was just over a year old. They were devastated and came here to look for another companion - Lucy caught their eye but she has a home in Squamish. I told them that I would call as soon as a lab pup came in. Well this little guy looked like he could fit the bill so I called when he arrived. 5 minutes later - it was a done deal. Tears and hugs and he was part of a his new family.

And las but not least - a adult, akita/husky mix, another male, with a blue eye - what a nice boy he is. He fit in so easily with the group and slept under the table all night long. Someone will have a treasure with this boy!

Well it is off to finish packing and the start of my big adventure. I am so looking forward to seeing my furry friends again and meeting their families and rescue friends too. See you soon!!

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

The Vancouver Courier telephoned last week to do an interview about our TG Reunion!! It is a very “real” article and “tells it like it is”. Thank you Cynda, Steve and Jude for participating in the interview and posting your picture with Maya. The link is here

The story is here if I haven't posted it right!!
Rescue dogs reunite at Crowley Park
Reclusive animal shelter owner to join panting party
Sandra Thomas, Vancouver Courier
Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
When dozens of sick and starving sled dogs were seized from an abandoned property in northern B.C. last fall, animal shelter owner Yvette Labatte didn't hesitate to take them in.
"We took all 50," said Labatte, who with her husband owns and operates Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue in Topley, which is northwest of Prince George. "We took them in on the Sunday and Monday and by Friday they had all been vet checked."
Labatte said the veterinarian aborted 29 puppies because the mothers were too sick to deliver and the puppies were too interbred to survive. The majority of the dogs had been locked in a trailer with no food or water for weeks. The survivors were reduced to eating drywall.

Steve and Judy Taylor and ‘Maya’ will attend a reunion of dogs rescued through a remarkable shelter in northern B.C.
Photo-Dan Toulgoet
Labatte notes one puppy was born, but with several developmental disabilities. Named Isaiah, the puppy has become a poster boy for spaying and neutering.
“He’s not the brightest bulb in the garden,” Labatte told the Courier during a phone interview last week from her Topley home.
In less than a year the Labattes had all of the dogs spayed or neutered, brought them back to health and adopted out all but eight of the most damaged dogs. The Labattes keep those dogs, which Yvette describes as having severe separation anxiety, at the shelter.
The couple opened their non-profit shelter 20 years ago and have since found homes for more than 4,000 dogs considered hard to adopt. The shelter has a no-kill policy and takes in dogs destined to be euthanized from area animal pounds.
This weekend several dozen Turtle Gardens dogs, accompanied by their Vancouver owners, will converge on Everett Crowley Park for a reunion.
Labatte, a near recluse, is making a rare trip to Vancouver to take part in the event. “I’m so happy about seeing the dogs, I can’t believe it,” said Labatte, who last left Topley, which has a population barely above 100, two years ago to attend an earlier reunion. “And I know the dogs will remember me. They always do.”
The reunion will cap off a months-long fundraising effort by several local dog owners who adopted their canine companions from Turtle Gardens. Cynda Lee and Judy Taylor are a part of a small group determined to help the Labattes keep their dilapidated shelter running. They’ve adopted dogs from the shelter through contacts made on the Internet or through word of mouth.
Taylor and her husband Steve adopted one of the abandoned sled dogs last year after hearing about Turtle Gardens through someone who adopted a dog through the shelter. But first the Taylors undertook a little detective work.
Steve Taylor, a commercial fisherman, was near Topley for work and dropped in to see the shelter. “I wanted to see if it was a scam or not,” said Taylor. “But when I met Yvette and saw the shelter I was amazed at the work these people are doing.”
Taylor described the shelter as dilapidated and much in need of money. Because of the shelter’s makeshift look, similar animal rescue groups accuse the Labattes of running a substandard operation. That’s just not the case, said Taylor.
“There are two ways to look at it,” he said. “Some people think the shelter is below standard and should be shut down, but on the other hand they’ve rescued and adopted out thousands of dogs that would have been killed. They refuse to refuse a dog, and they’re stretched to the limit.”

The Taylors adopted their dog, named Maya, after the visit. Taylor described Maya’s personality as “different.” Dogs that live long enough to make it to Turtle Gardens are an example of survival of the fittest, he said.
“It’s Darwinism at its best. If you want a smart, crafty dog, then you should look at Turtle Gardens.”
The dog reunion and Take a Hike with Turtle Gardens event is Aug. 30 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Everett Crowley Park. The entrance to the park is off Kerr Street, just north of Southeast Marine Drive.

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

Isn’t that awesome? All tickets are accounted for…..they’re all on their way!
The raffle draw is this coming Saturday, Aug.30th at 11am at Skyland Travel,
Escapes.ca ‘s Office on 445 W.6th Ave in Vancouver. We’ll be calling all the
prize winners asap – it’ll be a reverse draw, the grand prize to Mexico will be
drawn last. The list of winners will be posted on the blog when Yvette has a
a few minutes. We literally will be racing from the Escapes.ca office across
town to the re-union to set up the tables.

Please take note that the entrance to Everett Crowley Park is on Kerr St, not Marine Dr., the parking lot is just north of Marine and half-block south of 63rd Ave. Lots of parking available on the street. Don’t forget to bring your cameras! I can’t wait to take a
‘family’ photo of Nala and 4 of her pups, Gryphon, Teya, Ella & Sage. Nala’s pup from an earlier litter - Robbie (now named Smokey) will be coming as well!
Another ‘family’ photo will have three of the Nauticals! I’m thinking after the walk, everyone should have a photo op with Yvette. There are so many ‘happy endings’ for Yvette to witness – what a wonderful testament to the work and sacrifices she’s made over the last 20+ years.

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

This is a problem that I am not sure of how to solve - does anyone here have any ideas??

Hi Yvette, Dave and Stan;

We have been keeping all of you in our thoughts and we believe that all is well. I am writing about Merlin the blue, eyed gift.
(Merlin is a catahoula and a Burns Lake Pound pup so we have no history on him - this picture is when he arrived at TG)

He has been a wonderful addition to our family and we love him dearly. He is on his way to being two and I think that he is developmentally appropriate and maturing very nicely. He will not leave the yard without a family member; deer, cats, neighbors all can not entice him to leave without permission. He only barks if something out of the ordinary occurs (which is once a month) and he acts like a brother to our cat who is also two and a male.

There is one issue that we can not seem to train (relax) Merlin over. He is obsessed with cyling-fans. If he sees one that is not spinning he will look up every 10 seconds to make sure it doesn’t start. In our own house we have three and they are needed all year long, we have decided that we need to work through this with him. Now is the time. If the fan is turning, Merlin will cower and inch his way through or around the room until he can make it safely downstairs to hide on his bed. If he is outside, he will run into his dog house. We have tried several tactics…
1) Ignore the behavior and introduce Merlin to the fan being no big deal and not staring at it the entire time it moves.
2) Accountability, if Merlin is asked to come and he doesn’t, one of us will walk to him and while holding is collar comfortably, walk him to where he was supposed to go and talk positively while he is doing what was requested.
3) Rewarding with treats– he is only somewhat interested, the fan fear is bigger that the idea of a treat.
4) Play while in a area that the fan is to take his mind off of the distraction. We use barriers so that he has to stay in the main room of the house and I try to correct Merlin’s obsession of looking at the fan before he has the chance or the detract him once he spies it.

Merlin is very healthy. He gets lots of exercise, adequate diet and has dog duties that he seems proud of. When the fan is off, he seems like a well adjusted, great natured guy. When the fan is on he is as neurotic as they come.

It doesn’t seem to matter if the fan is at the 8 foot level or not. The main room in our house has a fan 20′ up and this is the fan that seems to cause the most fear in Merlin. I have run out of ideas and the winter is fan season for us- it is an integral part of our heating system. We are interested in any thoughts that you may have.

Thanks,
Paula and Dennis Graham

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

This weekend was a lost cause - another migraine and a bad one this time. I apologize to Jim who I was talking to on the phone and had to leave quickly - but it wouldn’t have been pretty to stay on the phone! Migraines make me very nauseous and know me down for the count. I hadn’t had any for months now two close together - a visit to my doctor when I get back.

Only a few more days before the draw and the Hike with TG - fund day in the park. I can tell you Cynda, Jude and Sara have put a lot of their time and effort for this raffle and reunion. Thank you so very much - I can’t wait to finally meet you! You have gone above and beyond in supporting Tg and man oh man we appreciate it so very much. From building brochures, and placing them where dog people will find them to organizing this tremendous raffle with really really big wonderful prizes, to selling tickets, and then the Hike with TG Reunion!! You are so very very awesome and I am so proud to know you. And humbled too. Thank you.

Only a few more days for me to start my journey south. I am anxious to meet my TG Alumni and hold happy furry faces in my hands. It will be a renewal for my spirits to see families and dogs so happy together. And a reaffirmation of why TG runs my life! So Happy Together! That is why I will leave my safe haven and travel. You are why and we will make some very good memories for the coming blogs!

And an update from Diggory who lives on Vancouver Island!
I have had great intentions since adopting and can’t express enough appreciation for the joy our dog has brought to us. His name is Diggery and he is the happiest little guy with a personality like no other. I have owned dogs all my life-big, little and in-between but this little guy is super. I almost lost him on the second day he came here. Thinking he could do with a walk, I attached the leash to his collar and out we went. Ten steps later he had pulled his head through the collar and was off on a wild run. He headed for a busy street and almost gave me a heart attack trying to catch him. Luckily, some ladies stopped their car and several more cars and he eventually made his way back to me. Wow, what a lesson that was. I bought a nice soft harness and he is great with it. Bought him a choke chain and he coward in a corner and froze. Obviously, I have now learned my lesson and stick to the harness. I would love to know a little more about his first year as I surmise he had been tied up and therefor has bad memories of collars. He is the most lovable little creature and responds to affection from everyone. My children and grandkids now visit more frequently just to play with Diggery. He does have a problem with cats (there are plenty of them around here)but since that is his problem he will have to somehow learn from them. He has boundless energy and the vet says he is in A1 shape. I will send some pictures but just wanted you to know how grateful we are that he came into our lives. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are wonderful people doing wonderful work. Best wishes, Norma

Here is a picture of Diggory when he was here. He was a pound pup so we have no history about him at all. He was born again when Norma adopted him!!

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

To everyone who’s mailed all their ticket stubs and cheques – thank you so much for being so prompt – otherwise please ignore the rest of the blog.

Ok, it’s countdown time to the draw….and I’m still waiting for about 6 people
(all out of towners) to reply, haven’t heard boo from them since I sent the tickets
up their way. I hope all my reminder emails haven’t gone to the spam box.
We need those ticket stubs by this Friday, Aug.29th at the very latest! If you’ve by
chance changed your mind and decided you didn’t want to sell or purchase any
tickets – no excuses, you still have to mail everything back. Otherwise we’ll be in big s*** with BC Gaming Enforcement Branch. I signed on the dotted line for the application form (BC Gaming Event #8775) which means I am accountable for EVERY single ticket (yes 5000 of them were printed).

If there is even ONE missing ticket and Revenue Canada decides to audit, then TG will have to fork up money for all ‘irregularities’. If 5 books (3 for $10) get lost or get eaten up by your dogs, that’s $500 TG will have to pay Revenue Canada – get the picture?
Even worse – this may jeopardize Turtle Gardens chances of acquiring another gaming
event license number in the future.

If you know of someone who still has tickets sitting around, remind them please!
So…..I will expect those ticket stubs to arrive over the next few days so Jude and I
can plan an evening to fold the rest of the ticket stubs….

Here is a pic of the ticket stubs.

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