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Permanent Fosters - What Are They?

Permanent Fosters are dogs who cannot be placed in adoptive homes and who live out their lives under MBR's care. Why can't they be placed? Usually its due to age. Sometimes a dog just adapts so well to the foster home that we feel rehoming it would do further damage. Maybe the dog has a behavior issue that we can control but are not comfortable entrusting its care to other people. Whatever the reason, these dogs are sometimes with MBR for years and that costs money for medical care & food. Please donate to help us continue caring for the special dogs.

Gramma OG (stands for Old Girl) came to MBR in August 2007 at the age of 7. She was pulled from a high kill shelter where she had been dumped at the end of her puppy-producing years. Gramma is probably close to the worst physical specimen of bloodhound breeding we've seen but her personality is top notch. She is missing the bottom 1/2 of one ear, she's short & blocky, & "cooper's droop" does not begin to describe her under-carriage. We had no one interested in her for over a year and, by that time, she had bonded well with her foster home. We decided that it would be unfair to Gramma to rehome her at this point. So, she will live out her life with MBR. We think she's beautiful!

RIP OG......OG crossed the rainbow bridge in March 2011 at the ripe old age of 11 years. She may not have been the prettiest bloodhound but her sweet & gentle soul made her true beauty shine.

Name a headache-causing event before a big trip & it happened to either Hope or Sandi! Nothing went right and we got a very late start for Chattanooga. Oh well....we would soon be in the land of Chik Fila's and Jack in the Box's...first one open wins (yea, Jack in the Box's egg rolls!!! Sorry, Hope)!

We got to our hotel in Chattanooga (Quality Inn) at 1am. After rousing a very sleepy desk clerk, our first room had suspicious looking stains on the settee and spiders all over the pillows..... hundreds of them. Ewwwwww!!! After re-waking the clerk, he gave us another room. Couple this with Hope having just watched a documentary on bed bugs and you had 3 very paranoid, itchy women. A thorough search for creepy critters & several showers later, we finally got a little bit of shut-eye. Hope is now known as Bug Woman.

The Knoxville transport with Red & Gunner was the first to arrive. While waiting for the Alabama transport, we decided to grab some grub at Hardees. Not a wise choice before a 12 hour car ride. However, we did meet a very charming individual who thought Sandi was "Batman" and was very excited about being 54 years old and having a purple phone.

At that point, we decided to get the **bleep** outta Chattanooga. Samantha politely asked Sandi to never, ever take her there again, please.

We only had to drive a little out of our way to meet the wonderful folks from Alabama. MBR had agreed to help Maggie the bloodhound, and since we had the big van and lots of extra room, we decided to fill 'er up. See, some of Alabama's shelters leave a LOT to be desired. They don't abide by the law, the rules are very loosely kept and, if they can't breed it, they'd just as soon kill it.

Some wonderful volunteers helped by pulling the dogs out of the shelter, taking them to the vet (who got them fully vetted in record time, thanks Doc!) and then driving to meet us. Believe it or not, they had 11 dogs in that little red car! Our new traveling companions were:
Paisley - 8 week old Corgi pup
Molly - 5 mo. old Basset x
Bella - 1 yr. old Heeler x
Bennie - 3 yr. old Dachshund x
Gordi - 5 mo. old Basset x
Meggie - 5 mo. old Basset x
PJ - 2 yr old. Spaniel x
Howdie - 1 yr. old Basset
Maggie - 3 yr. old Bloodhound

After getting everyone loaded up, we hit the road for the long drive home. It didn't take long before we were pulling some of the little ones out of the crates to cuddle on the ride. Samantha curled up with Paisley for a long nap. Bella & Bennie took turns driving & enjoying the scenery. PJ was scared to death. Gordi & Meggie have BIG mouths & won't shut up. The bloodhounds were actually the well-behaved ones of the trip!

Of course the teenager in the car had to take that one lovely picture of her mother to remind us of why animals sometimes eat their young.

We got a wonderful surprise about half way home - Hope's father had heard about our trip and decided to donate $500 to MBR to offset the medical bills! Thanks, Dad!!

All in all, we had a pretty uneventful ride back - only a few messes and no bad traffic. Everyone got settled in at Sandi's house and Hope headed home in the van with Bella (guess who drew the short stick?).

I don't think we will be very eager to take a long drive again soon and definately not to Chattanooga! Then again, you never know where the adventures of Batman & Bug Woman will take us.........

Rescuer's Humor
(which is definately warped and not to be taken seriously):

A Rescuer's Answering Machine Message (we've heard all of them)

Hello, You have reached 123-4567, Tender Hearts Rescue. Due to the high volume of calls we have been receiving, please listen closely to the following options and choose the one that best describes you or your situation:

Press 1 if you think we are veterinarians and want free medical advice.

Press 2 if you know we are a rescue organization but want to save money and have us give you free, untrained medical advice anyway.

Press 3 if you make $200,000 a year but still want us to pay to spay the "stray" in your yard (house).

Press 4 if you have a 10-year-old dog and your 15-year-old son has suddenly become allergic and you need to find the dog a new home right away.

Press 5 if you have three dogs, had a baby and want to get rid of your dogs because you are the only person in the world to have a baby and dogs at the same time.

Press 6 if your dog is sick and needs a vet but you need the money for your vacation.

Press 7 if you just got a brand new puppy and your old dog is having problems adjusting so you want to get rid of the old one right away.

Press 8 if your little puppy has grown up and is no longer small and cute and you want to trade it in for a new model.

Press 9 if you are elderly and want to adopt a cute puppy who is not active and is going to outlive you.

Press 10 if your relative has died and you don't want to care for their elderly dog because it doesn't fit your lifestyle.

Press 11 if you are moving today and need to immediately place your 150 pound, 8-year-old, unneutured, aggressive dog.

Press 12 if you want an unpaid volunteer to come to your home today and pick up the dog you no longer want.

Press 13 if you have been feeding and caring for a "stray" for the last three years, are moving and suddenly determine it's not your dog.

Press 14 if you are calling at 6 a.m. to make sure you wake me up before I have to go to work so you can drop a dog off on your way to work.

Press 15 to leave us an anonymous garbled message, letting us know you have left a dog in our yard in the middle of January, which is in fact, better than just leaving the dog with no message.

Press 16 if you are going to get angry because we are not going to takeyour dog that you have had for fifteen years, because it is not our responsibility.

Press 17 if you are going to threaten to take your ten year old dog to be euthanized because we can't get to your house in the next hour.

Press 18 if you're going to get angry because the volunteers had the audacity to go on vacation and leave the dogs in care of a trusted volunteer who is not authorized to take your personal pet.

Press 19 if you want one of our perfectly trained, housebroken, kid and cat friendly purebred tiny dogs that we have an abundance of.

Press 20 if you want us to take your dog that has a slight aggression problem, i.e. has only bitten a few people and killed your neighbor's cats.

Press 21 if you have already called once and been told we don't take personal surrenders but thought you would get a different person this time with a different answer.

Press 22 if you want us to use space that would go to a stray to board your personal dog while you are on vacation, free of charge, of course.

Press 23 if it is Christmas Eve or Easter morning and you want me to deliver an eight week old puppy to your house by 6:30 am before your kids wake up.

Press 24 if you have bought your children a duckling, chick or baby bunny for Easter and it is now Christmas and no longer cute.

Press 25 if you want us to take your female dog who has already had ten litters, but we can't spay her because she is pregnant again and it is against your religion.

Press 26 if you're lying to make one of our younger volunteers feel bad and take your personal pet off your hands.

Press 27 if your two year old male dog is marking all over your house but you just haven't gotten around to having him neutered.

Press 28 if you previously had an outdoor only dog and are calling because she is suddenly pregnant.

Press 29 if you have done "everything" to housebreak your dog and have had no success but you don't want to crate the dog because it is cruel.

Press 30 if you didn't listen to the message asking for an evening phone number and you left your work number when all volunteers are also working and you are angry because no one called you back.

Press 31 if you need a puppy immediately and cannot wait because today is your daughter's birthday and you forgot when she was born.

Press 32 if your dog's coat doesn't match your new furniture and you need a different color or breed.

Press 33 if your new love doesn't like your dog and you are too stupid to get rid of the new friend (who will dump you in the next month anyway) instead of the dog.

Press 34 if you went through all these 'presses' and didn't hear enough. This press will connect you to the sounds of tears being shed by one of our volunteers who is holding a discarded old dog while the vet mercifully frees him from the grief of missing his family.

Author Unknown

Note to adopters: Lassie and Cleo and Rin Tin Tin and Toto don't show up in rescue. We don't get the elegantly coiffed, classically beautiful, completely trained, perfectly behaved dog. We get the leftovers. Dogs that other people have incompetently bred, inadequately socialized, ineffectively "trained," and badly treated. Most Rescue dogs have had it. They've been pushed from one lousy situation to another. They've never had proper veterinary care, kind and consistent training, or sufficient company. They've lived outside, in a crate, or in the basement. They're scared, depressed and anxious. Some are angry. Some are sick. Some have given up.

But we are Rescue and we don't give up. We never give up on a dog. We know that a dog is a living being, with a spirit and a heart and feelings. Our dogs are not commodities, things, or garbage. They are part of sacred creation and they deserve as much love and care and respect as the next Westminster champion. So please, please don't come to rescue in the hopes of getting a "bargain," or indeed of "getting" anything. Come to Rescue to give, to love, to save a life -- and to mend your own spirit. For Rescue will reward you in ways you never thought possible. I can promise you this -- a rescue dog will make you a better person.