Our Pal’s Place Animal Rescue and Education

We want to let you know that all monies donated in excess of the $1500 for Brinks will allow us to take the next step in helping Brinks and one of our other dogs, Lucy.  While Lucy does not have the severe emotional wounds that Brinks lives with, she has enough scars which make adopting her into a home environment very difficult. As with Brinks, we need to find her an environment more conducive to her needs than what we are able to provide at OPP.

The Washington sanctuary accepted both Brinks and Lucy into their program. Our desire was for them to travel together and have each other’s company during the transition into a new home. Because we were concerned about raising $1500 for Brinks in such a short amount of time, however, we opted not to include Lucy in this fundraiser and send her at a later time. Now that the $1500 funding is secure for Brinks, we want to extend the fundraiser by $1000 so Lucy can move to the Washington sanctuary with Brinks. ($1000 includes the sanctuary fee and pet insurance; the $500 already raised for estimated incidental expenses will cover both Brinks and Lucy.) If the following story touches you as much as Brinks, please continue to spread the word about this fundraiser and help us send Brinks and Lucy to a safe place more conducive to their needs!

November 2006, OPP co-founder and professional trainer, Susan Giordano, brought Lucy to OPP out of concern for her life. Lucy was living outside in a pen on property in Douglasville, and Susan had been hired to socialize her. (Lucy had spent much of her life in confinement and bad situations which make her weary of strangers. Susan was trying to socialize her with new people and situations.) One day Susan received a phone call from Lucy’s person stating her son was going to shoot Lucy. Lucy had retrieved a steak bone from the trash and when the grown son tried to take it from her, Lucy bit him. He reportedly said, “No dog is going to bite me” and went for his gun. The mother intervened and called Susan.

In the past 2.5 years, some of our volunteers have bonded with Lucy (see picture!) and people have been interested in fostering and adopting Lucy but back out just as we get our hopes high that Lucy will have a home. This past year, we placed Lucy into a home but she was returned within a couple of days. Why? Lucy - like Brinks - has emotional issues from her past abuse, barrier frustrations from being housed in a run, fear of storms, and food aggressions which make living in a normal home environment difficult and unsafe. As with Brinks, we have done all we can for Lucy and want her to have the freedom of not being confined, the constant companionship of other dogs, and the care-giving and love of people who know how to meet her special needs. Thank you for helping Lucy, too!

….and we promise there are no other dogs from OPP who need to make this transition. Thanks for your understanding and help! 

Help Us Get Brinks To A Safe Place

August 20th, 2008

Meet Brinks, one of our OPP dogs. Brinks was found by Brad during a hiking trip at Deep Gap. (Click here to read about how Brad found Brinks). Brinks has led a very troubled life that has left him with severe emotional wounds that has made it difficult for him to bond with many humans. So, after two years of trying every means possible to help Brinks…traditional, homeopathic and osteopathic veterinarian medicine coupled with animal communication and energy healing alternatives…we now are working to place Brinks in a sanctuary that is equipped to handle his special-needs. To place Brinks, we must raise $1500 to cover his sanctuary costs, pet health insurance for 1 year and travel expenses. (Any left over monies will be put into Lizie’s Legacy account to help other special needs dogs.)

We are raising funds through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.  Please help us get Brinks into an environment that is more conducive to his needs by donating to his fund and sending this cause to your network. No amount is too small to save a life! We must raise this money by mid-September.

Thank you for helping Brinks!

Responses from our Volunteers to Today’s AJC Editorial

June 27th, 2008

OPP has responded to a letter posted in the AJC today in the editorial section.  Many of our volunteers have requested a space to respond to the article.

Please use the comment section here if you would like.

Please note, these comments will not appear automatically– we get 20-30 spam comments per day so they are moderated.

June 20th… Take Your Dog to Work Day

June 20th, 2008

Thanks to KP’s Dog Blog and Beth’s Blog for reminding us that today is Take your Dog to Work Day.

An article in the USA Today newspaper reviews the benefits of having animals in the workplace.  They include:

• It helps in recruiting employees
• It helps to retain employees
• Makes it easier to stay late
• Creates connections
• Makes everyone happier

Being fortunate enough to have a had a pet friendly employer, I have to add that having a dog in the office is the best stress reliever.  Just think… you’ve just gotten off a stressful, emergency, gotta put out the fire conference call.  What better way to allay your ragged nerved than to reach over and give your pet friend a good scratch behind the ears?  Honestly— you can feel the stress just melt away.

Sniffles Update: Sad News

May 22nd, 2008

Having a Dog Around the House Is Good For the Immune System

May 12th, 2008

Here is an interesting article that suggests that having a dog around the house may protect children from developing allergies later in life. Click here to read the article

“Just why this should be is unclear but scientists believe youngsters may get beneficial early exposure to germs carried into the house on the animal’s fur, which helps their immune systems develop.

Our results show clearly that the presence of a dog in the home during subjects’ infancy is associated with a significantly low level of sensitisation to pollens and inhaled allergens,” said Joachim Heinrich of the National Research Centre for Environmental Health in Munich.”

Sniffles Update: Heartworm treatment on hold

May 12th, 2008

Sniffles has really not been feeling well at all over the last week. He had a brief respite at the lake with his foster mom last weekend. He returned to NRVC on last Monday. Last week, he stayed at NRVC because he just wouldn’t eat. The kind folks at NRVC gave him fluids, lots of love and encouragement. We even had our PET team on the job. Finally on Saturday he ate on his own and this continued through the weekend.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that he will continue to eat on his own. Nonetheless, Sniffles is very weak and the vet decided to postpone his heartworm treatment until he begins to regain some of his strength.

We hope and pray Sniffles continues to hang in there. We know there is a loving home for him out there. We just need him to keep eating so we can begin to move forward on solving some of the health issues that have made his life so hard.

Sniffles Update: Sprung from the Vet but will begin Heartworm Treatment

May 3rd, 2008

Sniffles improved enough over the last couple of days so he was released back to his lap of luxury at his Foster Mom’s house. While at the vet, Dr. Shepherd found some blood levels out of whack and this may be contributing to Sniffles feeling poorly. Dr. Shepherd believes that the abnormal levels are likely due to the heartworms. So– eventhough he is not as well as we would like, Dr. Shepherd thinks it is best to start the heartworm treatment on Monday.

Sniffles did gain a couple of pounds at the vet. However he remains significantly underweight due to his multiple medical conditions. Prayers and positive thoughts his way would be most appreciated. His foster mom will be showering him with TLC this weekend to get him all ready for the difficult heartworm treatment ahead.

Sniffles Update: Doing better

May 1st, 2008