December 2009 Newsletter

RMLR Newsletter December 2009

Happy Howlidays

What a great year we've had at the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue. A great many thanks are in order for the hundreds of people that have helped out with transports, phone calls, donations, events help, fostering, feeding, vetting and for every other donation of time or money, large or small - thank you! Because of your help, in just two years as a rescue, we have rescued over 400 dogs and found them great forever homes! You are all an integral part of the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue.

We rescued dogs from as far away as Pennsylvania and South Carolina – and adopted these great pups to families all across Colorado, plus families in Georgia, New Mexico and California. With the help of Centaurs High School students, we organized and held the 2nd Annual Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue 5K and raised over $4,000 for the dogs. 2009 brought us great volunteers (both locally and nationally) and many friendships within the rescue community!

Once again – thank you and wishing you and yours the best and safest of holidays! And a prosperous 2009!

Meet our Dog of the Month: Athena

Athena is a sweet young girl, who gave birth to and lost 5 puppies at a shelter in Joplin, Kansas. Here's a little message from Athena:

I have finally put on some weight, gotten spayed, and really feeling more like myself after losing my 5 puppies in a shelter in Joplin, MO. I am now ready to find my forever home. My forever home needs to understand that I LOVE to be with you and I am still learning that a forever home is FOREVER and you will come back home for me. I don't really like kennels and would do best in a home where someone is home often AND there is a confident dog that can show me the way. I am still learning to trust new people so can come off as a little shy sometimes. I love the kids in my foster home as well as the resident dog. I have learned to like the two resident cats although sometimes I still chase them, but definitely don't want to hurt them. I just can't resist!! I can still stand to gain about 5-10 pounds and would love for someone to take me to obedience class!! I am still a puppy so will need my chew toys and lots of exercise!! The car has also been a new experience for me, but I am starting to get used to it. It is just the getting in part that makes me nervous!! Again, I just want a forever home that will have patience with me and show me what life as a dog SHOULD be!!

Check out more information about Athena and our other Labs for Adoption under Adopting on our website!

Giget's Success Story

Giget was a young girl from Alabama. She is very young and playful. She's been adopted by a great family in Littleton, CO. Here is their update!

We are writing to tell you how much we absolutely LOVE Giget and are so very thankful you allowed us the opportunity to adopt her. She is an awesome dog and really has already become a very special and important part of our family. I am including a few photos of her with our boys who have not stopped thanking us for bringing her home. We promise we will continue to love her and take care of her as our new "forever" dog and we will be her "forever" family. Thank you for all the great work you do to save dogs like her.

Sincerely,
Kristin, Jim, Trevor and Daniel McCord

Brand NEW RMLR Gear!

We have a TON of brand new Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue Gear. Sweatshirts, water bottles, tshirts, picnic blankets, fleece vests, and DON'T forget the 2009-2010 Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue We Love Our Recues Calendar! Stuff your stockings this holiday season with RMLR Gear and give to a good cause at the same time!

All the profits go right back to the dogs!

The calendar highlights some of our favorite RMLR Alumni and show off some of our best success stories (surgeries and great stories)! Buy yours today! CALENDARS HAVE BEEN REDUCED IN PRICE TO $15

A Call for Foster Parents

Attention potential foster family:

Daily, we are forced to turn away great dogs, mostly from high risk shelters, because we don't have enough foster homes to accommodate them. We feel that many of the dogs would be highly adoptable and would probably be placed quickly, but without the foster openings we must turn them away.

So many dogs are in jeopardy right now because people are losing their jobs and their homes. Please consider fostering, and please help us to come up with ideas for getting new foster homes. Please fill out a fostering application today on our website and give one of these pups a second chance!

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE RMLR!!!

It's time for the Animal Rescue Site Shelter Challenge! VOTE VOTE VOTE daily for the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue! There's a chance for us to win $100,000, plus weekly winners and state winners! So vote and cross your paws!

Holiday Etiquette for Dogs

1. Be especially patient with your humans during this time. They may appear to be more stressed-out than usual and they will appreciate long comforting dog leans.

2. They may come home with large bags of things they call gifts. Do not assume that all the gifts are yours.

3. Be tolerant if your humans put decorations on you. They seem to get some special kind of pleasure out of seeing how you look with fake antlers.

4. They may bring a large tree into the house and set it up in a prominent place and cover it with lights and decorations. Bizarre as this may seem to you, it is an important ritual for your humans, so there are some things you need to know:
- don't pee on the tree
- don't drink water in the container that holds the tree
- mind your tail when you are near the tree
- if there are packages under the tree, even ones that smell interesting or that have your name on them, don't rip them open
- don't chew on the cord that runs from the funny-looking hole in the wall to the tree

5. Your humans may occasionally invite lots of strangers to come visit during this season. These parties can be lots of fun, but they also call for some discretion on your part:
- not all strangers appreciate kisses
- don't eat off the buffet table
- be pleasant, even if unknowing strangers sit on your sofa
- don't drink out of glasses that are left within your reach.

6. Likewise, your humans may take you visiting. Here your manners will also be important:
- observe all the rules in #4 for trees that may be in other people's houses. (4a is particularly important)
- respect the territory of other animals that may live in the house
- tolerate children
- turn on your charm big time
7. A big man with a white beard and a very loud laugh may emerge from your fireplace in the middle of the night.
DON'T BITE HIM!!

Holiday Woes

Many dogs have a sweet tooth, but candy can be deadly, so make sure those Candy canes and holiday boxes of chocolate are put out of Fido's reach.

Chocolate contains theobromine, an alkaloid similar to caffeine, that can cause nerve damage and even death in dogs. Different types of chocolate can have varying amounts of theobromine, so if Macho eats a bag of M & Ms or a chocolate cupcake, he may not be affected, but a dish of dark chocolate candies may do him in.

Iams Company veterinarian Dan Carey makes the following recommendations to safeguard pets from theobromine poisoning.

Resist the urge to share any candy -- chocolate or otherwise -- with your pet.
Give your dog or cat a healthy treat instead of candy.
Bring your dog trick or treating with you. Better yet, dress him up in a costume. Your dog will enjoy the exercise and you will probably get more candy!
Keep a bowl of dog biscuits handy for the trick-or-treaters who bring their dogs to your house.
When sorting your candy, make sure to pick up all candy and wrappers.

The holiday season is full of dangers for Phydeaux. House plants, chemical salts used on icy walks, antifreeze, and chocolate candy all pose hazards to man's best friend.

Many popular house plants have poisonous leaves, stems, or berries, including dieffenbachia, holly, philodendron, and poinsettia and should be kept out of the reach of pets.
Halite, the chemical salt that melts ice on sidewalks, is also poisonous. If Rover walks on treated sidewalks, wipe his feet with a damp cloth when returning home. Sand makes a good alternative to chemical salt; it doesn't melt the ice, but it does improve traction. Kitty litter is OK in a pinch, but when wet, it clumps and loses its gritty texture.
Anti-freeze is a definite hazard. Highly toxic, it has a sweet taste that appeals to dogs and cats and can be deadly in doses as small as a teaspoon for a large dog. Spilled anti-freeze should be flushed from driveways to avoid even tiny puddles that pets could lick.

The 2nd Annual Howliday Fundraising Drive

Running a dog rescue is no easy task. The funds associated with each dog can often be unpredictable and expensive.
Take Hailey for example. Hailey is a 2-3 year old Chocolate Lab girl. She was found as a local stray in Colorado. When she arrived
in foster care we took her to our vet and discovered she had a terrible case of kennel cough. She was immediately put on
medication for that. Then we noticed her limping quite a bit. The vet took x-rays and discovered that Miss Hailey had surgery on
her right front leg once before and that vet had apparently done a crummy job. She needed a surgical procedure called Arthodesis.

Thankfully, the vet’s office gave us a discount on a potentially $4,000 surgery so that we could give Hailey the medical
treatment she needed. It helped out Hailey greatly and she’s no longer in any pain! When her foster went to pick her up
after the surgery the vet shared a story. He had performed two surgeries that day, one on Hailey and one on a Husky male. As
the two were waking up from the surgeries they sang to each other back and forth all afternoon!

Hailey was adopted by a great family in Thorton, CO. She loves her two boy human siblings and new feline friend, going to soccer games, meeting new people and dogs and going on
long walks on the local bike paths! They have helped Hailey greatly in recovering from her surgery and giving her a fantastic forever home!

Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue’s cost for Hailey’s medical treatment was about $2,000. Hailey’s adoption fee is only $250. Hailey’s story is only one example of the expenses that Rocky Mountain
Lab Rescue faces. We use adoption fees to cover basic expenses such as transports, vaccinations, spay/neuters, microchips, and basic foster care. However, the adoption fees are
frequently much less than our actual costs to provide the care that some of our dogs need. Fortunately, there are many wonderful people who are willing to help us, and who donate generously
to provide our dogs with another chance at life. It is because of your generosity that we are able to rescue dogs like Hailey, and to give them an opportunity for a healthy and comfortable life with
a new forever home.

Thank you for your support of the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue through out the last year. You are giving back to the dogs across the country that we rescue from shelters that they normally wouldn’t
get to leave. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of all money donated goes directly to helping the dogs.

$1 will feed a foster dog for a day
$10 will pay for the dog to be microchipped (helping locate the dog if ever lost)
$15 can pay for a heartworm test to save a dog’s life
$25 will cover transportation costs from the over populated shelters of the midwest to Colorado
$50 covers x-rays to check for broken bones and hip dysplasia
$100 can cover a spay/neuter for the dog and an update of basic vaccines

Please mail all checks (please don’t mail cash) to Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue PO Box 1623 Broomfield, CO 80020 or visit our website
and donate via PayPal! Thank you and happy Pawlidays!