Alumni Updates

Zipper: Thanks again for all your help with Zipper.  He is doing great and is an absolute joy!  He has been sleeping well, eating and drinking normally and has had no accidents in the house.  His first day of doggy daycare was yesterday and he did awesome.  Everyone loved him and he wanted to make friends with all the dogs!  I have attached some pictures of his first day at doggy daycare with his sisters.  

The doxies are getting along well with him and he is very gentle with our youngest smallest girl.  We are planning on training Zipper and our youngest at the same time.  We took them all for a short walk last night and Zipper walks really well on a leash and knows how to sit.

Belle: We just thought we'd send you a picture of the puppy we adopted from you. Her name is Belle and VERY adorable!!! Everyone who meets her wants to take her home with them. Here is a picture of her - she had her first haircut last week....did very well!! Thanks again for allowing us the privilege of adopting her.

Nancy and Jeff Mogenson

Mickey: Mark and I (and Mickey too) had a great weekend at Camp Dogwood.  Thank you for telling us about it.  We were all very tired last night.  Now to implement some of the techniques we learned and incorporate them into our routine.

I'm including a picture of Mickey at Treiball.  He caught on quickly - I can see how this would be a fun thing for us to do in the basement when the weather gets colder.

Mickey says, "Thank you for helping them [my new family] understand me better. And for the yummy treats."

Madra: Here is a little story about a cute little chihuahua named Madra who was saved by Bichon and Little Buddies Rescue.  Madra was purchased at a dog auction in March 2009 with her puppy and saved from a miserable life as a breeder at puppy mill.  Madra was extremely frightened at the auction and kept her head in the corner of her cage while her puppy was draped over her.  Her puppy was adopted a few weeks later, but Madra stayed at the rescue for a year.  It must have been fate that brought her to her forever home.  We volunteer and foster for a beagle rescue group and we always admired the little chihuahuas that would come to the pet store at our adoption events.  At our event in February I even said out loud that I will adopt a small breed dog some day!  Well the very next day, our good friend Susan posted a picture of Madra on her Facebook page and we fell in love!  We adopted her on March 13, almost exactly a year after she came to the rescue.

Madra is exceeding all expectations as she settles into her new home with us.  She has only been with us a month but already she has been able to trust us enough to come up to us, to cuddle with our dogs and let us hold her on our laps.  She does wonderfully walking on leash as long as we have another dog with us.  Sometimes we have to stop and wait for a car to go by or pick her up if we are going by an especially noisy house (if someone is out with a leaf blower for instance).

She frequently comes in the back door on her own, and when she wont, she will stop for us and let us pick her up to bring her back in.  There are days when it seems like she's forgotten what she's learned and she'll get nervous and afraid, but she always warms back up to us quickly.  Considering her puppy mill background, we are just so impressed that she isn't cowering in a corner all day long.   Everyday is better and better for her and she does little things to let us know she is happy.

We are so glad to have her in our family.  She is teaching us a great deal about patience.  She reminds us to always have a calm, firm voice with our dogs and not to overreact.  Everyday she surprises us in some little way.  Just yesterday on a walk she went right up to a young neighbor girl and when presented with an outstretched hand, Madra licked her!  We look forward to seeing her grow and trust more and more in the coming years.  As for now, our beagle Sally is appreciating Madra's ability to imitate a pillow!  We will always be grateful to Patti, Tammie, Susan and all the other volunteers at Bichon and Little Buddies Rescue who saved her and worked on her rehabilitation.  They may not have seen it at the time, but all the work they did with her made her transition to her forever home very smooth.  Thank you for helping to make Madra part of our family! Brian & Charla Fleming

Lexi came from a hoarders house in Mauston last June. After a few weeks with us she turned into the perfect dog.  I have never had a small dog, always preferred large ones, but after having Lexi we will always have a small dog.  She has added so much love and is inseparable from our 10 year old daughter.  She sleeps with her every night and is exactly the kind of dog she was looking for.  She barely ever barks and what a lap dog.  She will sit in your lap for hours and never move.  Very content to be held.

Our other dog Sasha and Lexi get along wonderfully as you can see from the picture.

Aspen was truly one of the hardest mill dogs we had gotten into rescue. He was one of the last mill dogs we had gotten from the WI Humane Societies  buy out of the Haven puppy mill. Time didn't break down his shyness.

He had been with us for about 10 months when our wonderful volunteer, Kathy Pobloskie, decided he would be her next project.  Every dog Kathy took under her wing blossomed into the best dog they could be but I  wasn't sure what she could achieve with Aspen.  Kathy taught him how to walk on a leash.  It took patience and a lot of peanut butter.  Many days I would see Kathy and Aspen doing circle after circle in the parking lot.  Kathy said to took along time before he could do straight lines and she make fast progress when she walked him with another dog.  On rainy days she would take him for car rides which he loved.  She took him for sleeps over and eventually he rarily came back unless she was going out of town but she was not in a position to adopt him.  At this point Aspen had been with us for 1 year and 3 months. 

Kathy was going on vacation she asked if instead of bringing him back to rescue if he could stay with friends of hers who were experienced at fostering.  They only had Aspen a week and they made the decision to adopt him.  Thanks to Kathy, Aspen has gained confidence to go places and do things that a year ago would have put him in a panic. It certainly took a long time to find a happy ending to Aspen's story and like a child it sometimes take a village to save a rescue dog.   I would like to thank Victoria Wellens  (who has since passed) who negotiated the entire buy out which saved the lives of over 1,500 dogs.  The wonderful staff at WI Humane Society, who worked longer and harder in caring for and placing those dogs, then anyone will ever know and to Kathy for being Aspen's angel.