Thanks for that nice posting (above) Pam. I still have Tanner and he still needs a permanent home - hopefully somewhere where he can get more exercise and have more freedom than he does with me! He really has a great, easygoing temperament! And for people who are not familiar with Coonhounds I have put some info below. This is the article I wrote about Tanner and the other hounds he was rescued with for Pam's NEW blog site- which is really great by the way! Check it out when you can. And if you can, please click on "follow us" when you get there so that more people will see the info on the animals we are trying to help! ( Not sure, but you might have to copy & paste the site info below into your browser)
Hearts To The Rescue
http://www.heartstotherescue.blogspot.com
http://www.heartstotherescue.moonfruit.com (under construction)
heartstotherescue@groups.facebook.com
heartstotherescue@gmail.com
info@heartstotherescue.com
"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL,
PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UNAWAKENED" Anonymous
It was a dreary day outside, but I felt glorious inside! I was on my way to pick up Tanner. Tanner is a 2 year old Tree Walking Coon Hound. He doesn't know it but his life had been saved the day before by a woman who loves hound dogs and had been watching the situation at Sussex County Pound in Stony Creek, VA. Urgent emails had been posted and crossposted among animal rescue networks. They told of a shelter, a kill facility, where even though they had free dog runs - these dogs were scheduled to be destroyed!? If anyone can explain that to me - please do!! Actually the vet had been scheduled to be there on the Tuesday right after Christmas, but due to bad weather he did not make it. But he was definitely coming on Jan. 6,'11 - and the majority of dogs to die would be hounds.
I had been seeing the urgent messages with photos of the dogs and felt like I really wanted to save at least one. Really I wanted to save them all but didn't really have the means to do that. Who really does? Well, Jessica, an independent animal rescuer in lower VA did do just that. She went to see the dogs and did not want any of them to die. When I made contact with her she explained to me that even with sponsorship money for some of them - rescue groups weren't taking. She told me that for some reason Hounds get treated rather shabbily. If you asked her she would probably say that she doesn't know how she did it - but she did it. In 10 days She pulled 16 dogs. 6 before "D" day and 10 on "D" day. The first 6 went to rescues, and she took the 10 to a boarding kennel. On January 7th I went and picked up Tanner who I will foster until he finds a really great home, because he is a really great dog. I can tell you it is a wonderful feeling to be part of a rescue mission like this! Of course I met the other 9 when I went to pick him up and they are all great, sweet dogs also. Most of them are Coon Hounds.
In case you aren't familiar with Coon Hounds let me give you a description. This information is from the web site of the Northeast Coonhound Rescue which has been very helpful to us with these efforts we are making.
"Coonhounds make great pets because they are calm, gentle, and playful with families and other dogs. Coonhounds range in weight from about 45 to 70 lbs and come in a variety of types including, Redbone, Black and Tan, Blue-Tick, Treeing Walker, Red-Tick, and the Plott Hound. Because they were bred to be hunting dogs, coonies have a strong prey drive and must always be contained in a fenced area or walked on a leash. They need their daily exercise, but once they've had it, they can snooze for hours. Coonhounds are affectionate and love being with their people. Enthusiastic and eager to please, coonhounds are also sensitive; nothing looks more miserable than an unhappy hound dog. As great snugglers, coonhounds make excellent companions when watching TV or curling up with a book.
Coonhounds are a distinctly American breed of dog, bred by the early settlers who needed dogs that would tree their prey in the forested colonies of America, unlike the foxhounds who chased ground prey in the open fields of Britain. They were bred from foxhounds crossed with other European hunting dogs. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both kept coonhounds. The Disney character Pluto, with his floppy ears and tail, was based on a coonhound. The expression 'barking up the wrong tree' orginated in the 1800's and refers to a coonhound's hunting behavior."
My name is Karen and in the past couple of years I have developed a passion for helping animals. I have a special interest in handicapped pets and my friends Christine, Pam and Jacqui, from
http://www.handicappedpets.com have joined with me in trying to help these 10 dogs. I live in Va, but they live as far away as GA, TX and AZ - yet they are still helping these VA hounds! Now we desperately need to find permanent or foster homes for these dogs as boarding is expensive and our own donations have already been spent for the first week's board. We are currently working to raise some funds in the event that they must be boarded a little longer and for some veterinary care and other
necessary expenses. These wonderful people and more are helping with many things besides their own generous personal donations.
We are researching rescue groups who might be able to help these sweet hounds, and preparing the info to post the dogs on the internet, writing this article for the Daily Tail, and Jacqui, an artist - who has helped us before with a beautiful red dog named Reva - you may have read about her here too!- is going to paint a picture of these dogs and donate the money from the sale of it.
If you think that you can help in any way - please contact us. If nothing else please say a prayer to St. Jude, who is the patron saint of difficult situations and lost causes. These dogs deserve good homes!
So that was what I wrote. I am not a writer but , there it is. And just FYI some of those dogs have been taken in by rescue groups or are being fostered or adopted, but there are about 5 left - including Tanner.
Thanks for reading!
Karen
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