Madonna of the Mills

Laura Guyer Rieger is known as "The Madonna of the Mills." She makes it her mission to rescue dogs from the puppy mills of Pennsylvania. Laura and her work, through her rescue No More Tears Rescue, have been featured on a HBO show, called "Madonna of the Mills." Her inspiring life and work on behalf of all the voiceless pups are now on view for the world to see. NEBTR is privileged in having been able to work with Laura. She pulled Rosie from a mill, and Rosie was fostered by Tammy Trivelpiece until her forever home was found. Most recently, she was involved in the rescue of 20 dogs from West Virginia, of which several were Bostons now in the care of NEBTR. LuLu is now in Renee Posey's foster home after being first cared for by Carolyn McCarthy of Kamp Kanine, and Sweety is with Elly Monfett.

Laura says about NEBTR, "Thank you guys for always helping us out with the Mill dogs, you never ever say no. I am so proud to work with your rescue! NMTR"

God bless Laura and her work!

Prints to Benefit Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue

Check out the adorable Boston Terrier print below! Samantha Heckathorn of the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue made it to benefit the Rescue, which has been swamped with medical bills for their fosters. Her note and all pertinent information is below, so please contact her to purchase one to support their rescue!




"Dear Friends at Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue,

I am selling prints of a pencil drawing I did of my little Boston, Mandy, to benefit Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue. MWBTR is hurting for funds right now because of some expensive vet bills for a few of our recent fosters. I adopted Mandy from MWBTR and have done some volunteering for them, so I am trying to use my artwork to help them as well. The prints are going for $30/print, and can be shipped anywhere in the U.S. Please spread the word to all Boston Terrier- and dog-lovers! This drawing will look great in any living room! If you have any interest, please direct e-mails to me at sammyantha07@yahoo.com. I have attached a picture of the drawing here, as the original is currently hanging in my living room. Please help out your fellow Bostons!

Sincerely,

Samantha Heckathorn
4th Year Journalism Student, The Ohio State University"

Otis Goes to a Rescue Event

Otis pictured above with a rescue pup named Bam Bam.


Otis did a great job at the event I was at over the weekend. He played with 9 4-7 year old kids for over an hour. He adores them. It's too cute. He cried for hours after they left. Broke my heart. He just wants to be surrounded with people and other animals all the time. Precious boy. He can be alone about 2 hours now before he starts digging himself, and he isn't chewing his feet anymore. We are getting there. I think being handled by different people is helping him. Otis is a very special boy. Seeing him become more confident he won't be abandoned and that people come back is so rewarding. He's got the best faces.... He's super expressive.

I can't believe Otis is 29lbs now :) He was 11 when we got him. Now he's a big muscle brick house. Ava should be a doggie personal trainer. She gives him quite the workout. Ava is our 1 1/2 yr old apricot brindle Boston terrier. She was supposed to be 11 lbs, but is 19 lbs of muscle. She is super high energy and is just pure love. She and Otis (& Fernando the dog-kitten hybrid lol) are non stop all day. Gives the rest of the guys a break.

Love you all!
Meredith Festa
Rocky Point, NY

New Foster Koko

Joy picked up wee little Koko (13lbs) today from the Bucks County Shelter where she was fully vetteod, including spay, enucleation and dental. She does have a bunch of eye drops for ulcers in her one good eye. Joy says she is "just precious". She stopped and bought her 5 new toys of her very own. I hope you got her another duckie. She seems to love this one in her pic.

Joy - thank you so, so much.

-- Sheryl Trent

Joy says, "What a SWEETIE!! She has played NON STOP since we got home. We played tug for 30 minutes. Obviously, she missed the memo that she'll be 12 on 10/1!! Her little tail never stops moving-even smelling the others through the gates. Once again, Beadoe smelled of her and walked off. Go figure.
I'm keeping her in the suite until she figures out this one-eyed thing.
I suspect she's going to be just fine with my crew.
Here's a picture I took when she FINALLY stopped moving!! It's blurry, but you get the idea."

-- Joy Riley

Update on Tucker

Doesn't he look handsome?

Happy Gotcha Day Norman!

Today is our Normie Boy’s 2nd Gotcha Day. Two years ago today Sayre met me at McDonald’s in Lancaster County with my very first Boston foster. After being in foster care for several months, he was adopted to a family who returned him 4 days later. We anxiously drove to Harrisburg to get him back. Typically very nervous in the car, Norman curled up on my lap that ride home. I knew at that moment he wasn’t going anywhere. I could write a novel of all the hysterical stories we have had with this boy. He’s 11 ½ now, has poor vision and occasional incontinence issues, but is still very active, crazy as ever about his bouncy balls, and snuggles up with me in bed every night.



Happy Gotcha Day, Norman!!

-- Amy Jansky

Lexington Ready for the Rain

Update on Mitzy

This is our little Miss Mitzy. We have had her for about a year and a half. She definitely loves her momma (me) and likes her daddy. Her "guy shy"-ness is almost gone. She loves harassing her "brother" Boyd, a shihtzu I inherited from my mom. Thanks again to her foster mom Jodi and of course kudos to NEBTR.

Bj Rutledge

911 Dogs: Do They Remember?

The twelve 9/11 search dogs who are still alive:

Their eyes say everything you need to know about them. Just amazing creatures.

True heroes of 9/11 still with us today...




Moxie, 13, from Winthrop, Massachusetts, arrived with her handler, Mark Aliberti, at the World Trade Center on the evening of September 11 and searched the site for eight days.



Tara, 16, from Ipswich, Massachusetts, arrived at the World Trade Center on the night of the 11th. The dog and her handler Lee Prentiss were there for eight days.


Kaiser, 12, pictured at home in Indianapolis, Indiana, was deployed to the World Trade Center on September 11 and searched tirelessly for people in the rubble.



Bretagne and his owner Denise Corliss from Cypress, Texas, arrived at the site in New York on September 17, remaining there for ten days.



Guinness, 15, from Highland, California, started work at the site with Sheila McKee on the morning of September 13 and was deployed at the site for 11 days.



Merlyn and his handler Matt Claussen were deployed to Ground Zero on September 24, working the night shift for five days.



Red, 11, from Annapolis, Maryland, went with Heather Roche to the Pentagon from September 16 until the 27 as part of the Bay Area Recovery Canines.



Abigail, above, was deployed on the evening of September 17, searching for 10 days while Tuff arrived in New York at 11:00 pm on the day of attack to start working early the next day.



Handler Julie Noyes and Hoke were deployed to the World Trade Center from their home in Denver on September 24 and searched for five days.



Scout and another unknown dog lie among the rubble at Ground Zero, just two of nearly 100 search and rescue animals who helped to search for survivors

During the chaos of the 9/11 attacks, where almost 3,000 people died, nearly 100 loyal search and rescue dogs and their brave owners scoured Ground Zero for survivors.
Now, ten years on, just 12 of these heroic canines survive, and they have been commemorated in a touching series of portraits entitled 'Retrieved'.
The dogs worked tirelessly to search for anyone trapped alive in the rubble, along with countless emergency service workers and members of the public.
Traveling across nine states in the U.S. from Texas to Maryland, Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas, 34, captured the remaining dogs in their twilight years in their homes where they still live with their handlers, a full decade on from 9/11.
Their stories have now been compiled in a book, called Retrieved, which is published on Friday, the tenth anniversary of the attacks. Noted for her touching portraits of animals, especially dogs, Charlotte wanted 'Retrieved' to mark not only the anniversary of the September 2001 attacks, but also as recognition for some of the first responders and their dogs.

'I felt this was a turning point, especially for the dogs, who although are not forgotten, are not as prominent as the human stories involved,' explained Charlotte, who splits her time between New York and Amsterdam. 'They speak to us as a different species and animals are greatly important for our sense of empathy and to put things into perspective.'

The Real Story of Toto

History hounds, perk up your ears! Did you know that Terry, the Cairn Terrier who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, was once a rug-wetter who wound up being abandoned by her people at a Los Angeles dog training school? This very same pup would go on to make more money a week than the Munchkin actors on set and was so beloved by actress Judy Garland that she tried to make a pet out of the canine superstar.
Bone up on Toto trivia here.

Boston Terrier Pins to Benefit Rescues

Missy makes Boston Terrier pins to benefit Boston rescues.

Let a little Boston flower brighten your day and benefit BT rescue, too! The handmade scrappy fabric flower “pillow” pin is made from my ends/pieces fabric stash. The Boston fabric is my original design, too. The flower is stuffed with polyfil for added puffiness. Available until scraps run out : )

The pin is made to order, please allow a day or two to make. Every unique pin will be different. The pin you will receive may not be the one in the picture, but each one will be just as cute. If you would like a Brown BT (sort of like the brown heart pin in picture #5), just put your request in the "note to seller" section during check out. Sorry, I am not able to take a return on this item.

$10 from each brooch will be donated to a 501(c)3 non-profit Boston Terrier rescue of your choice. Please list your rescue (with the rescue’s website if you have it) in the note to seller section during check out. If a rescue is not chosen, the donation will go to www.BostonBuddies.org.

You can purchase them on Etsy by clicking on this link.

Daisy May is Adopted

Some good news to share - My little foster dog, Daisy May has found a forever home. She has been adopted and will be going home to her new family the end of September. She has come such a long way from the skinny frightened little dog who came to stay with us. I am so happy for her and glad she is being adopted locally so that I may see her from time to time.

Daisy May is very petite and weighs about 13 pounds. She was pretty skinny when I picked her up and I have been feeding her well. She has gained almost two pounds since I got her but needs to put on a bit more weight. She is very loving and quite a cuddler. She will make someone a great companion. When she arrived, she did not know how to play and had to figure out what grass is for. She is very smart, already having learned which is her food dish and where to sit and wait to be fed, what it means when Mom shakes the treat can. I bought her a new collar and harness with daisies on them as fits her name.

She will be a wonderful addition to her new home!

-- Joan Watt Stark

Update on Elena

I've had my NEBTR, Elena, three weeks today and it's hard to imagine my home without her. Here she is, tennis ball at her side, enjoying a game of fetch!

--Krista Dooley

Update on Chubba Bubba

Here's former foster Chubba Bubba who was adopted Janice and Ray Boyer. Chubba Bubba is deaf, so he is sleeping super soundly!!

Molly is a Dog Food Model

Congratulations to Molly, who owns Jim and Alyson Thelin Davison. Molly has been chosen as a model for Dr. B's Natural Raw Pet Food. And Molly says the product is terrific! Dr. B and Shell Huber take good care of her at the Holistic Pet Center in Little Falls, NJ.

BT Cruisers Raise Funds for NEBTR

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A big thank you to the BT Cruisers of New York. They made the front page of their Rochester NY newspaper, which lauded their recent fundraiser picnic which raised $2,124 for the NEBTR. Their event included contests for dogs, a silent auction and even a Boston terrier kissing booth. Way to go Cruisers!!

Foster Otis

Meredith and Matt Festa took in a little guy into their care from a very bad shelter where he had been for weeks without them reaching out to a rescue group to help him. We even had to adopt him to get him out of there. He was neglected and covered in sores and his feet bleeding and swollen. He's already on the mend. She and her husband are calling him Otis.

Surfing Bulldog

Bulldog Wants and Indoor Pool

Fostering and Lucky Dog Rescue

Often we hear people say, "I would love to foster but I'm afraid I won't be able to give the dog up once he's here". Or, "I would love to foster but I'm afraid I would want to keep them all". Here's something that might help you to sway the other way.

This is an amazing, beautifully written article by Ashley Owen Hill from Lucky Dog Rescue. You can visit her blog by visiting:

http://luckydogrescueblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/test.html

There are many things she has written on there but this is one of my favorites:



"Every day, people make the decision to have children… knowing that their kids will one day grow up and leave them for families of their own. That’s a painful, heartbreaking time for any parent… the day their child leaves them forever. But does the inevitability of that day dissuade people from having children? No.


However, when it comes to fostering a pet, I constantly hear the excuse, “It would be too hard for me. I’d get too attached. I could never give them up.” And thus, people opt not to foster, and dogs die.


But those very people… who say they can’t take the pain of letting go… have children, children who will soon leave them for college, marriage, and lives of their own. Those very parents often dread that day in the distant future… the day that their kids no longer need them. But when the time comes, they’ll deal with it as best they can. Sure, they’ll likely cry. Their hearts will hurt as they let their baby go… and send them off to start their own life with their own family. But does that pain outweigh the years of joy, laughter, and love with their child? Never.


It takes a lot of strength and courage to be a parent. Parenting requires patience, love, and selflessness. For a while, you’re everything to your child. They depend on you to be all that they need, to provide them with love and care, and to guide them through this life. The entire purpose of parenting is to prepare your children for that day in the future… when they’ll go off to their own life and family. People don’t expect their kids to stay at home forever, just to avoid that dreadful pain. Because if they did, those children wouldn’t be fulfilling their own needs, dreams, and purpose in this world.
Fostering a pet is no different. Well... it's slightly different in one aspect… when people don’t step-up to foster… animals die. That’s the cold, hard reality… a reality that YOU have the power to change.


Otherwise, the foster experience is very much like parenting a child, and every bit as rewarding… if not more so. Fostering is about taking a deserving creature into your home during their time of need, nursing them back to health, removing the pain of their past... loving, teaching, and guiding them… and then sending them off to live the lives they deserve. Fostering is about giving a dog (or cat) the one thing they’ve never had… hope. And with the simple act of opening up your home to them, YOU are able to grant their one wish. YOU are able to make their dreams come true. YOU are able to save their life.


How many times have you actually been able to save a life? I don’t mean watching on the sidelines as a life is saved… I mean literally pulling a dog or cat from death and bringing them back to life. It’s an incredible experience… there’s nothing like it. But far too many people let the inevitable pain at the end of the experience blind them from the joy of the journey.


Consider this: Everyone who is currently on this earth will one day die. Death is painful—often devastating—for those left behind. But death is an inevitable aspect of life. So, if we know in our minds that the people we love will one day leave us, should we never love at all? Of course not… because then we’d miss the entire purpose of life.


I also think back to my parents the day I left for college. I’m lucky to have incredible parents, who have loved, encouraged, and supported me all my life. From the day I was born, they knew I would one day leave them to go to college… which was their ultimate goal for me. And so, they treasured each day with me along the way, and prepared me for my own journey.


When that day came, my mother’s tears conveyed the indescribable pain in her heart… a sadness that was ever-so real for her, because her baby girl was all grown up and leaving her. But on that day, did my mother regret ever having me? No. Did the pain of that day outweigh the years of overwhelming happiness she experienced as my mom? Of course not. That day was bittersweet for my parents, because everything they’d done for the last 18 years… had prepared me for that day. Along with the tears in their eyes, I saw something else… pride. Pride for what they had accomplished, joy that their dreams for me were becoming reality, and the resolution in their hearts that everything in my world was exactly as it should be.


Would my parents have ever stopped me from leaving for college, just so they could keep me with them? Never. That’s exactly why they gave me life… so that I may one day leave to have a life of my own. The act of loving enough to let go is the greatest gift one can give in this world. It’s always about the journey… and when the end-result is bittersweet, it makes the journey that much sweeter.


Often, I write about the pain I feel at the end of each foster journey. I write about that heartbreak, because it’s a very real emotion for me, and a very relevant aspect of fostering. However, these stories from my heart are never meant to discourage others from joining in the incredible experience that is fostering. It’s never meant to say that I regret the weeks, months, or years of unbridled joy, uncontrollable laughter, and unconditional love. That journey is what I live for.


For a short time, I am everything to these dogs. I am their world. I represent comfort, love, and hope… when they’ve only known pain, hatred, and despair. In providing these gifts, I receive so much more in return… more than I could ever describe in words. During that time, I make them whole, and in turn, they make me whole. They remove any sadness, anger, or hopelessness I may feel, and replace all of the bad in the world with the purest good that exists. In truth, they repair my soul.


At the end, I will feel immense pain as I let them go. I feel this hurt, because I love them. But when I let go, I’m releasing them to amazing families, who will pick-up where I left off and cherish them forever. Incredible homes… that they never would’ve had… without me.


I take them into my home… knowing they will one day leave me. But that’s exactly why I save them… to catch, restore, and release. And each time I let go… I’m fulfilling my purpose in life, and I'm able to save another.


Just as with any parent… you let your children go, because you love them more than you love yourself. It would be selfish for me to say that my pain is worth more than their life… that my sadness at the end is somehow greater than the hurt they’ve known since birth. Without me, they would’ve died… but now, they live.


Never forget, that without YOU, others will die too. Please don’t let your fears, anxieties, and anticipation of the pain be the reason for their deaths. I’d say that the sadness of their unnecessary deaths is far more devastating than any heartbreak we could ever feel. And trust me… the love you’ll receive during your time with them, is far greater than the pain of letting go.


To put it simply, this is why I foster:


Fostering is the most rewarding thing I've ever done. It’s given me more joy, laughter, and love than I deserve. At the end, there's always heartbreak. But never for a second does the sadness outweigh the joy. Never do the tears outweigh the laughter. And never does the pain outweigh the love. Heartbreak heals... but love is forever. "

-- Contributed by Debra Brigham