Callista is not well

Please everyone, keep Callista in your thoughts. She has developed some type of neurological problem and the vet thinks there is a chance it might be distemper. Since Leda came from the same shelter she is at risk as well, if indeed it is something that came from there.

Both dogs have been quarantined and Callista is on diazapem to relax her. They are eating and drinking still, which is a good sign, and her tail still wags on occasion. I will be spending the evening with her to keep her company. Hopefully by tomorrow this will all be an overreaction and she'll be back to normal. I'll keep you posted.

We are losing! Please vote!!!!!

With only a few days left to vote, New Rattitude has dropped into 2nd place for the state of Georgia in The Animal Rescue Site's bi-annual rescue contest. We need you to vote on every computer and with every Web browser you can get your hands on. E-mail everyone you know and get them to help us!!!! If we come in first for the state of Georgia we will earn $1,000 grant to help pay medical bills of our rescued dogs. All it takes is a few seconds to vote so PLEASE help us.

Just go to www.theanimalrescuesite.com/shelterchallenge and then vote for New Rattitude with Georgia as your state choice (we are concentrating our votes so we have a better chance to win.)

Be sure to E-mail all your friends and family tonight! We need your help more than ever.

The girls have arrived!

I'm happy to announce that our two newest foster girls, Leda and Callista, arrived yesterday morning in Washington. They spent yesterday exploring the house and yard and finding their favorite spots on the couches. Both seem to have the beginnings of kennel cough and are a bit thin, but that's nothing we haven't seen before.

The girls are extremely skittish and avoid human contact. Callista, 2 years old and 12 pounds, desperately wants love and attention and will scooch as close to you as she dares but as soon as I reach out my hand to pet her she runs away. Leda, 3 years old and 7 pounds, is even more wary of humans. I can tell she'll turn around though, because the one time I was holding her she did relax and lay down after being rocked and pet for awhile. Their temporary foster mom in Texas said that it took awhile but they came out of their shell after a couple days and were fine with petting and loves.

Leda and Callista were originally in a Texas shelter and had been listed for euthanization in a gassing shelter when they were pulled. Since Washington had the only open foster homes (the South is swamped with tons of urgents, as usual) the girls were sent to us.

This evening 2 more foster dogs will be arriving at Sea-Tac for us to pick up, these ones to be fostered up in Kirkland. These two girls are five month old rat terrier-beagle mixes who were listed to be gassed in a Kentucky shelter due to overcrowding. A volunteer pulled them from the shelter and transported them to a New Rattitude volunteer in Indiana. She then put them on the plane this morning, Seattle bound. We'll have them for the night, tomorrow they'll attend an adoption event at Petsmart and then tomorrow night they'll finally make it to their foster home in Kirkland, WA. Thanks to Lesley in Kentucky and Julie in Indiana for your help in getting these little dogs to safety!

The latest on the girls

Well, flight plans fell through for Sunday when Alaska Airlines decided that no dogs would be allowed on the first flight of the day. Since it is hot in Dallas that is the only flight of the day when it is safe to transport animals so we had to postpone the transport. Now everything is arranged for the girls to fly here Friday morning.

They have been named Callista and Leda after two of the moons of Jupiter. Callista, or Callie for short, is 2-3 years old, about 12 pounds and looks to be a pure-bred black and white rat terrier from her photos. Leda is 2 years old, about 7 pounds and is a rat terrier-Chihuahua mix.

They have been pulled by a New Rattitude volunteer who will take them to the vet for their flight health certificate and get them on the plane Friday. She says that both girls were very shy when they first arrived but that they are starting to come out of their shells and even have done a few rattie runs around the house.

I'll post again once the girls are here and I have some photos of them.

A wild week of rescue

Wow! Talk about emotional rollercoaster. There were rat terriers being listed for euthanization everywhere it seemed and we had no place to put them all. The group would scramble to save a bunch of dogs that were scheduled for gassing and then at the last minute another group would pull them. Each time we were SO happy that they were safe but the stress really gets to you after the 3rd or 4th urgent E-mail begging you to save yet another dog that had been dumped.

The flight was all set for the 2 puppies that were supposed to come to Washington (pictured a few posts back) and then we discovered that another group pulled them. Okay, so then we worked to try to save some in Louisiana that were in a gassing shelter. The state coordinator was all excited, called the shelter and they too were gone. Then we were possibly going to get a pregnant dog from California but 2 dogs came up in a Texas shelter that were going to be gassed. Team California pulled together and found a spot for the momma and FINALLY, we knew who our foster dogs would be - two adult girls from the Dallas area.

So no puppies will be heading to Washington but instead well get two adult females. They each came to the shelter with a litter of pups and now that the pups are adopted and no one was interested in the moms, they were going to be euthanized.

We've named them Callista (Callie for short) and Leda after two of the moons of Jupiter. Some good samaritans are going to help us fly them here so on Sunday morning at 9:30 am there will be two new rat terrier girls arriving at Sea-Tac airport.

Above you see Callie and some of her pups. Doesn't she look sad and scared?

Dine to Donate!

On Thursday, July 30th, the New Rattitude Washington Team will be hosting a "Dine to Donate" event at Applebees. All you have to do to help us out is get ahold of one of the fliers and then come to the Federal Way Applebees to eat. For every diner on July 30th that presents their server with the New Rattitude event flyer, Applebees will donate 15% of your ticket to us.

These events will happen across the country and each NR state will participate for bragging rights of raising the most money. Can you help team Washington win this contest and at the same time help out a few little spotted furry ones?

Let me know if you would like a flyer or need a few for friends as well. You need one flyer per ticket so if you and friends will be paying on separate checks you'll need one flyer for each of you. I'll have fliers at The Pet Market and area vets or I can mail you one.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Calling all airline employees!

Daily I get E-mails from New Rattitude's Urgent Team checking to see if I happen to have an open spot for dogs in kill shelters in the South. There are so many rat terriers down there and young and old alike are ending up euthanized due to lack of space and funds. Thankfully the kill rates in PNW shelters (if they even euthanize) is incredibly low and we have a ton of rescues operating here. The result is that rarely to we end up needing to rescue a Washington rat terrier.

The problem is often the cost of transporting the dogs from places like Shreveport LA, Atlanta GA, and Dallas TX to the Seattle area. It can cost around $200 to transport one adult rat terrier from Atlanta to its foster home in Seattle.

One way we can get around this is to find airline employees to help us fly the dogs. Typically the rate an employee would pay for cargo is 75% off what the airline would charge the rescue organization. So for the price of one dog we can save 4!

If you have any friends or family living in the Puget Sound area who are employed by an airline that flies into Sea-Tac airport then would you please, please, please ask them if they would help us out? All it would take was occasionally working out a time that they could pick up a dog for us. NR volunteers would meet them and get the foster dog immediately.

Also, if y0u know of anyone who has been thinking of fostering, please let me know. Today I was informed of 4 dogs who will be gassed on Friday if the Urgent team can't find a placement for them - yep, that's right, gassed. Washington only has room for 1 of them right now. With the economy the way it is, the number of dogs in the shelters has shot up and the typical numbers of urgent rat terriers we are learning about is triple what we are used to.

Thanks everyone. Oh, and don't forget to keep votine at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/ . New Rattitude could really use the $1,000 grant.

BTW, the photo above is of two of the pups who will be flying here from Atlanta on Tuesday of next week. The litter was listed to be euthanized due to lack of space. Stay tuned for puppy breath reports!