Gifts for the Animals and WARL staff!

This the season......We have the greatest adoptions team and kennel staff.  The animals depend on them for their care in the shelter and their ability to find  them the  very best forever homes!   Yesterday, a visitor  came to our lobby with a cake, holiday card and happy pictures of WARL alums, now named Roxie and Bailey.  People who work in shelters do so because they love animals.   And,  cake!  Many thanks kind adopters. 

WARL dogs are getting new tug toys thanks to Ross Elementary School 4th grader, Noemie.   She braided toys for the dogs.  The toys are a bit different than the usual braided tugs, these are stretchy.   Noemie used cast-off leggings.  Leggings with holes are the perfect material for tug toys, Noemie explained.  The spandex in the leggings makes for fun stretchy tugs.  Kozy Girl, WARL alum and regular classroom visitor, checked out one of the toys in the classroom and declared the toys dog-tested, winners.

Vote for Vixen!

Vixen lounging near her favorite
window in her forever home!

Only four more days to vote for the League in the ASPCA's Challenge to Save Lives grant opportunity.  Money awarded to the League will go directly to our adoptions program.  Help us place more wonderful animals in permanent loving homes.   If you viewed our adoptable dogs a few months ago you would have run across Vixen, a cute, fluffy Chow mix up.  Here's an update from her forever home!

[Here's] a photo of Vixen in front of her favorite window. It looks down on the street so she can watch the neighbors and their dogs pass by. Vixen prefers to be outside meeting them in person,
but watching them is the next best thing.

Thanks to Juanishia and all the other staff who took care of Vixen and helped my family adopt her. Vixen adds so much love to our lives, our happiness meters have all jumped up since she arrived.

Help the League jump start more happiness meters, please votes.  Post the link on facebook pages, email the link to friends and family, spread the word.  Click here http://challenge.aspcapro.org/vote-your-shelter

Flynn and Friends Find a Forever Family

UPDATE!! Little Flynn, the kitten who was almost forced roadkill because of a couple of uncaring teens who tried tossing him into a busy street, is happy in his forever home. Less than 3 months old, Flynn has been rescued at least twice in his short life. Once, when a passerby "bought" him for $20 from the uncaring teens, and most recently by his forever family. Soon after Flynn came to the League, a couple interested in adopting two kittens, encountered a teeny gray and white problem. Little Flynn was in the same kitty condo with an adorable pair of siblings, and the threesome were stuck together like glue.

Could they be separated? Yes. Would the League let the couple adopt all three kittens? YES!!

Within hours we received our first update complete with happy home photos. Cooper, Izzy and Flynn are snoozing in their new home, can you pick out Flynn?

Meet Guest Blogger Alana and the Newest Member of her Family!

I am very happy to share this space today with Alana, WARLKIDS' very first guest blogger.

Even though we have only had our dog for 48 hours it seems like she already owns the place. Her name is Bashert which in Yiddish means meant to be, soul mate…. She is a standard poodle who is apricot colored and a little bit white. She is 3, almost four and she weighs 60 pounds.

We adopted her from WARL and they got her from a puppy mill but she is nothing like [a puppy mill dog] -- she is very social and relaxed in her new home.

The first day she would not pee outside, she went 2 times inside but on the newspaper. And the next day she went outside almost all the times we took her out, and she has not had an accident inside yet.

We even got her to respond to a command (come). She did chew on her harness but we fixed it. All in all it is pretty good and the best part we have a new family member.

(Pictured above is Alana, her brother Aaron, and Bashert preparing to sleep on the kitchen floor on Bashert's first night in her forever home. Also pictured is Bashert checking out the sofa.)

The Puppy Mill Dogs & Those Animals Left Behind

Yesterday the puppy mill puppies and dogs, confiscated during the execution of a search warrant of the Almost Heaven Kennels and brought the Washington Animal Rescue League, were made available for adoption. You would have thought that we were giving away 100 dollar bills. Prospective adopters started lining up outside our doors before 9:00 a.m. -- the League opens at 11:00 a.m. People were nice. They talked about how excited they were, they asked about the conditions of the dogs and, then when we opened, they visited with the dogs and made their selections. It is WONDERFUL to see animals, former cast-offs, adopted into loving, permanent homes.

I wish we had people lining up at our doors every day to consider adopting the many wonderful dogs and cats who are patiently waiting for their forever homes. We NEVER have empty dog dens or cat condos. There are always animals who have been given up for one reason or another -- she's too big, he's not big enough, we don't have time for a dog, the dog isn't playful enough, the dog plays too much, the cat scratches the furniture, my child doesn't take care of the cat, I just don't want him anymore -- Imagine, someone saying that they just don't want the dog or cat any more like an old pair of jeans or a broken toy.

I hope that all of our puppy mill dogs are loved and cared for by their new families forever. They deserve it. They've lived in horrible conditions. But Irina, Knox, Tomtom, Angel, Peeko and Saraya deserve good homes, too. And, they are still here.

(Pictured above is Knox, a basset hound mix, who looks like he could be on a greeting card and has the a very sweet disposition.)

A Serendipitous Adoption discovery

I was on a power walk with friends the other day when we ran into other friends who were walking an extremely cute and energetic dog. I didn't know that they lived with a dog, but I knew that the family -- four people and two cats -- had been thinking about adopting a dog for a long time. They were waiting for just the right time and just the right dog. And, they found her at the Washington Animal Rescue League.

I asked what it was about the dog (formerly Blossom, now Leah) that made them choose her; it was love at first sight.

Update from a Happy Home

There are never enough happy adoption stories. We love it when an adopter sends a note, an email or pictures. Recently we got an update from Jenn who adopted Venture. Venture was one of those dogs who needed a little extra work, he had had a hard life prior to coming to the League. It was important that his new person understood that it might take some time before Venture was totally at home. Lucky for Venture, he got that person. (Venture is safe and secure snoozing in bed)

...Venture had made himself at home now and is finally settled into the family. He loves to play outside and to go for walks in the neighborhood. I have introduced him to my aunt's white german shepherd, Sitka , and they both seemed to get along/play/interact rather well. Venture still has a tendency to bark at people when they walk past the house or come to the door, but he isnt not as bad as he used to be. He is learning to accept guests when they visit and wants to interact with them, but I am still working with him on that. I am also still working on nail trimming with him....he is a great dog and I am glad that I adopted him! :) I really couldn't ask for a better dog!

Thanks, Jenn, for adopting Venture and letting us at the League know that all is well.

Pit Bulls -- Heroes and Friends

Despite a bad rap in the media, pit bulls are typically loyal, loving, intelligent family dogs who are often known to take heroic action to protect those they love. Jasmine, a pit bull living in Alexandria, Virginia, recently saved her family from disaster. When a fire erupted in the dryer vent of the family's home in the middle of the night, Jasmine barked nonstop waking her family so they, and Jasmine, could escape unharmed.

The Washington Animal Rescue League adopts many wonderful pit bull dogs into loving, caring forever homes. Two staff members adopted pit bulls in recent month. One lives with a baby and other animals; the other lives with another dog and comes to work with her guardian every day. Trixie is another successful League pit bull adoption. Her new family, including two boys and another dog, reports that Trixie has lots of energy but knows how and when to chill, too. That's her in the picture above, snoozing with her buddy Jack.

For a wonderful fiction story highlighting the hard luck life of a pit bull named Cash, check out Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee discussed in the March 5th Post