Three little guys are looking for short term foster in Victoria from November 29th for about 3 weeks. What’s involved? They will be going to the Man and his Dog Fashion Show – Stan will pick them up and return them. Then they will be speutered in Victoria so taking them to the vet hospital for surgery and recovery time is also involved. You will meet and greet prospective adopters after they have been approved. All you need to add is love, kindness and guidance. They are between the ages of 12 and 14 weeks old and have two vet checks and vaccinations. All food, collars, leashes and vet care is provided.

Who are they? I am thinking Frankie Blue eyes Too, Trista and one of the Mellow Yellow Trio! 3Penny a rehabilitated Sherriff dog is also going but she has a foster to go to!! So if you can foster one or two or all three please email me and let me know as soon as possible! This may be ongoing – pediatric speuters are new for us!

Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #71 with 200 votes!! Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!

And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #25 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), email family and friends. The animals are counting on us! Click Here!

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

Hey Momma Yvette

My mom’s been teaching Princess MollyDawg to sew and they just finished sending out yet another BIG order of bandanas. I’m glad Jillian and SweetPea like the personalized ones I sent for them. That was MY Idea you know. Molly didnt think of it! Did all the doggys like the cookies my mom baked for them too?

Guess what, mom says the Bandanas are selling like Hotcakes! Yummy I love hot cakes! Oh drat my mom said Im not allowed to eat hotcakes any more. She says my doc says I have to watch my weight in this cold weather. If Im too heavy it might hurt my leg when The Princess and I play. I have to take these yucky pills every day now. Something called “Glue cozy mean” and “Cal zee um” or sommat like that. But its okay ‘cuz then she gives me a yummy dog vitamin to crunch the yuckie taste away.
I bin reading yer blog momma Yvette and I saw you say you had to use the treadmill. Well guess what? Im doing it with you!

Im hoping people will sponsor you lots. Then you can make some money to buy all the doggys at TG some stuff for Xmas! Food, meds etc! (cookies) [[wink wink]]
How COOL WOULD THAT BE?

Hey did you like the awsome water mugs I sent ya? Now you can drink while you exercise like me!

Oh Yea and mom said I should send you the link to the posters of the bandanas she and Mollys been sewing. So here ya go. There’s one for the Christmas fabric and one for the personalized ones. Hey, Im even in there. ( giggle, Im such a STAR! )
XOX
Double Doggy Hugs
The King

Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #81 with 178 votes. Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!

And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #27 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), email family and friends. The animals are counting on us! Click Here!

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

What the heck does that mean? Stan has been telling me what I need to do to “optimize” my web site. Why I ask. And he gives me all his reasons – when people google to look for a rescue dog your blog doesn’t come up in the top 10 – he says. You need more readers for a bigger donor base. Not enough traffic. Why does that matter?

So I goggled it to find out: from wikipdia

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym “SEO” can refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

Well that make sit clear as mud doesn’t it?

And he says make sure you add tags on every post. Ok, not knowing why but I do it. He checks every blog to see if I remember.

So I googled why and found this: At Social media and web marketing coaching
When you start setting up a blog, you’ll notice that you are given the option to add “tags” to your blog post. Very interesting web site.

What is a tag you ask? A tag is simply a keyword you use to label your posts as well as make it easier to find your entry. For example, you have a blog about your coffee shop that specialized in organic, fair trade coffee. You like to blog about when new flavors of coffee come in, free tastings, etc. It would be good to use tags like “free-trade”, “organic coffee”, after each blog post.

Here’s why tags are important and powerful

1) Using the same tags over and over again. Why? So you can come up in searches when users are looking for the same keyword. It’s critical not to vary the tags too much, but instead reuse them, like in the example above: “organic coffee”, “free-trade coffee” ,“independent”.

2) Use tag clouds in your blog – tag clouds are commonly seen on the sidebar of blogs, are easy to scan. A list of tags can be easily read if it’s in a cloud. It squeezes a ton of information into a small space.

3) You can always include terms in your tags that aren’t necessarily in your blog. If you are located in Portland, Oregon, but it’s not mentioned in your blog post, you can tag “Puddletown”, “Stumptown”, “PDX”, or “Rose City”. These tags can alert search engines to which terms are most important and help lead the right people who really want to read your content.

Now that makes sense. But I still don’t understand the why’s or wherefore’s. But I do understand looking after dogs, observing their behaviours and changing feral/wild/stray/scared dogs into balanced stable family pets. So I will leave the techno stuff to Stan and Tyler. And remember to use tag words and keywords so more people can find Turtle Gardens who rescues dogs from Vancouver and to Vancouver and beyond.

And an update from Chester who lives in Port Coquitlam!

Just thought I would touch base to let you know that Chester is great. He’s happy and healthy and I completely love him.

I received your email about the challenge and put my vote in for you. I also emailed it to about 40 other people requesting same.

I was on petfinder this evening and found a Chester look-a-like …Click here to see

Quite a resemblance !

Attached a couple of pics for you.

Best of luck with the challenge!

Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #82 with 171 votes. Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!

And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #28 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), email family and friends. The animals are counting on us! Click Here!

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

The sun is shining and the dogs are playing! The storm did not materialize though we did get a snow flurrie last night. The dogs were running in and out covered in snow – making a mess and running back out again. They finally got tired out by 11 pm and slept til 7am. That’s very doable! It is warmer today a balmy +2!

The terriers are coming out of the crate and coming to me to be petted. How cool is that! One looks like Eddie – a wire coat jack russel type while the other has a nose like a scottie. He is very matted and a tad more growly with the dogs (he needs a neuter – quickly) but he is wagging his tail and soliciting pats. he is very cute – has nice brown eyes under his bangs. The other fellow is cute too. He is friendlier with Dave and the other dogs. But he needs a neuter sooner rather than later too. They are well on their way to family pethood and yuppie puppie-ville!

When he arrived everything scared him – he reacted with teeth showing!

Running bear is really coming around now. He is asking for pats and wagging his tail too. What a nice boy he is becoming. He will be an awesome companion and will soon be ready for his own family. No more chains for this boy. Or bullets.

The mellow yellow trio is a nice bunch of pups! The biggest is the mellowest, the smallest is the smartest and the middle child is the cuddliest!

And now an update and request for information. Maybe one of our readers know the answer!
Hi Yvette,
This is Whistler, adopted from Turtle Gardens what 12 years ago? She’s still a wonder dog. Active and strong and beautiful. We’ve discovered she is a Mountain Cur. We moved a couple years ago from Francois Lake to Vancouver Island.
Thanks for her!

We are wanting to bring a dog from a shelter in Indiana to Nanaimo and wonder if you have any suggestions or connections for transportation? We could travel to Washington state or Vancouver to meet her. And we can pay some but not the $1000 that the pet airlines charge.

Also I am missing having pups around and am thinking about fostering pregnant dogs and then their families. I see you have a foster family in Duncan?

Thank you,
Kee and family

Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #82 with 171 votes. Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!

And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #28 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), email family and friends. The animals are counting on us! Click Here!

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

It is milder with blue skies – but a big storm is coming! It is -3 just after noon – still quite chilly but the dogs are all outside playing.

Then a big pile up to warm up.

And pictures of Yvonne’s dogs!

And pics of Bella now Kaia!

Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #82 with 169 votes. Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!

And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #28 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), email family and friends. The animals are counting on us! Click Here!

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

-15 this morning!! But the sun is shining with no heat whatsoever. The dogs had slammed the door opened so t was just as cold inside as out! Why is it that some dogs don’t like the door to touch them as they go through! Willow and Ruthie are two such brats. They body slam the door then stroll inside. Sometimes the door will shut other times it is stuck opened. It doesn’t take long for the inside temperature to drop. Then move the furry bodies off and get up to shut the door. I suppose I could latch the door but then the deposits would really pile up. The pups are getting quite good at this house training stuff. It would defeat the purpose. They do ask for the door during the day when I do latch it – to teach them to ask. Homes don’t have open door policies – it just isn’t safe. But it is a good way to start their house training. They follow the bigger dogs in and out. Works like a charm but can get chilly!

Sitting by the door.

Running Bear has “turned” – he now comes inside the house and has actually has come up to be petted! How cool is that!

Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #83 with 162 votes. Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!

And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #28 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), email family and friends. The animals are counting on us!

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

Enjoy a fun evening with the latest in mens fashions and the greatest in mens friends as 12 guys and their dogs take to the ‘catwalk’ at Outlooks for Men. Tickets are $25, available in store. All proceeds benefit animal rescue. Cash bar.
Outlooks for Men
534 Yates Street
Downtown Victoria
250.384.2848
www.outlooksformen.com
email dale@outlooksformen.com to reserve your tickets

December 2 at 7:30 pm, a dozen men and their dogs will take to the stage to showcase fall fashions for men and fantastic furs for dogs.
It will be a great evening in aid of a great cause – animal rescue. Read more about the recipient of this year’s funds below and be sure to get your tickets early – only 150 available.

About Turtle Gardens

Turtle Gardens is an animal shelter in Northern BC, operated by David and Yvette Labatte, an amazing couple who have rescued and placed almost 4,000 animals since opening their doors to unwanted pets. At Turtle Gardens dogs are not placed in kennels to await a new home but are brought into the family with free run of the house and yard, learning to be good canine companions from the minute they arrive at this safe haven. Three of the dogs in the Outlooks show are from Turtle Gardens so it seemed fitting to send them the proceeds.

Question from Outlooks: “We will donate at least $2,000 Yvette, what could that amount do for Turtle Gardens?”

Answer: “Thank you so very very much! $2000 could do a lot here! That would spay/neuter 18 dogs or vaccinate 66 puppies or 33 puppies will have 2 vaccinations. It will buy 250 drontal plus worm tablets that will deworm 71 large dogs. $2000 will buy gas for 66 dog trips to the veterinarians or 7 TG Bus trips – just the gas. It would buy mega bottles of cleaners, bleach, viricide, paper towels, mops etc. Or it could go directly to the veterinarians for medical costs for damaged dogs, hurt dogs, ear infections, bites, cuts and bruises, lab pathologies for tumors, dentals for seniors. We also have need for a small sturdy u-haul type trailer to haul dog food and supplies on our TG Bus Runs. Dog food is often donated but we don’t have a way to haul it. Transportation costs us $212.69 per pallet by Bandstra. We use 40 to 60 kilograms of kibble per day, plus extra puppy food. And canned food for medications – a tablespoon of canned food hides a pill very nicely! (Glucosamine, immune boosters, vitamins, antibiotics etc) Our dogs are all silverware trained! I am sure I can think of more but $2000 goes a very long way here – the dogs thank you!!

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

It was 3.30 am and all of the dogs were outside noisily playing in the falling snow!! They were having a blast! Scrooge got up and turned off the yard floodlights and chased them all back to bed! Get a grip guys – it is too early to play!!

The little male terrier is out of the open crate and letting me pet him! Good boy!

The weather is really fierce on the Coast and Island – it looks like another delay in the TG Bus Trip. Dave is very slow in recovering from the flu. That is another reason for the delay – will I get it too? This time of year is always a worry for weather, road conditions etc. It certainly makes rescue difficult in the North.

But the dogs sure love this weather!

Rain on the coast means raincoats are the fashion of the day! Beautiful Sid models her new rain wear! Sis is our wonderdog from Tsawassen.

And of course our reluctant models from Turtle Gardens wearing their personalized bandanas!

Pretty in pink!

A perfect fit!

And of course puppy models – Trista!

And Tansy!

Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #89 with 152 votes. Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!

And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #29 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), emails family and friends. The animals are counting on us!

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

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

We have had a busy week at Simond’s Sanctuary, we have seen new loving homes finding our little shelter, opening up their hearts to our little orphans and welcoming new additions to their families. Thanks to our award winning photographer’s FANTASTIC posters of our long term resident Maude, she has found a new home! The perfect home, a quiet man looking for someone to keep him company. He has no other pets so Maude can rein as princess! We also saw Blackie find a new home and just this Saturday a lovely family with two little boys and one little girl adopted both Jet and Shadow. Kuro went to live with one of her dedicated rescuers. Good luck to all our new families!

New Home Updates:
Oprah is settling in quite nicely and rules supreme around her new home, I’m not sure if her and Tubbs will be friends but Harley and her are making progress. This afternoon OPRAH and Harley had a joint effort in capturing a big fat mouse that Harley had chased out of the grass in the back yard. Oprah seems very bright but seemed very anxious the first few days, we thought maybe she was looking for the kittens she was with. She is very affectionate and seems to be happy.

Foster Home Updates:
3 of Kuro’s kittens (Callie-Onyx-Abbie) went to Oprah’s previous foster home. They are all still very frightened and we know that this will be a long road to building respect and confidence.

Lucky is still with her foster home who says she has a very sweet personality towards her human, she has a high pitch squeal when she sees you, and yearns for affection. Lucky has come a very long way, from being fairly aloof and non-responsive to seeking love and sleeping with her human. Lucky is a tabby and a polydactyl.

Schnae is a very happy and affectionate kitten of about 4 months old. She was left at a local foster home suffering from a terrible case of ear mites. She has been treated and vaccinated and now she is waiting for her new home.

Olivia is a mature lady who was a long time resident of the shelter a while back. She was re-homed locally, ran away and ended up back at the shelter. While taking pictures of her to get her advertised, our award winning photographer recognised her meow! We tracked down Olivia’s home who decided they did not want her back. After reconsidering they took her home where she promptly ran away again! She is now staying with a foster home and she is back up for adoption. This lovely lady really needs a home where she is the only kitty and she has access to outside.

Shelter Update:
We have little Lizzie at the shelter. This little girl needs someone with love and patience to help her become the happy kitten she deserves to be. Yesterday I stroked between her eyes, over the top of her head and behind one ear with one unobtrusive finger. I had her purring with her eyes contentedly closed. Then she realised I was standing there and she bolted and hid in her kitty house. I see huge potential in this beautiful little kitten.

Allana is at the shelter as well. We brought her down to the clinic to visit with clients on Saturday. She loved the attention and could not get enough of it! She is very loving and very lonely. She is about 1 year old and she is spayed and vaccinated. She has beautiful green/yellow eyes.

My focus this week is on Pinky. Pinky is a one year old spayed and vaccinated kitty who was abandoned when her and her two sisters were very young. A young lady found them hiding under the railroad tracks in town and took them home to rescue them. As the three kittens grew they started having litters of kittens of their own. One sister (Saugwa) had three little tabby kittens. The other sister (Oprah) had 4 little kittens. The lady that rescued them decided that 9 cats were too much to handle and she moved out of her rental and left all of the cats with an overwhelmed ex.roommate. The roommate called us for help and we spayed Pinky before she could add more kittens to this situation. The roommate agreed to foster Pinky as we worked diligently to place the other 8 cats. Pinky is all that is left and she has gone to a new foster home. The new foster home says that Pinky is a very cuddly, loving cat who loves to chase imaginary mice around the bath tub until she gets dizzy! She loves to snuggle into the foot of the bed at night. She gets along well with the other cats and she is getting used to the resident dogs. Keep an eye open for more stories on Pinky!

Please call the Burns Lake Vet Clinic if you are interested in any of the cats you see here, 250-692-7476. To see more cats up for adoption logon to facebook under “The Burns Lake Veterinary Clinic”

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