October 2008 Archives

This letter came to WHLR from Kelley Cook, who adopted Hannah, my very first foster, back in March 2008.

The day that heaven blessed us with Miss Hannah

It all began with an email. It was email about a young, yellow lab that needed to find a home before the end of the day, or else he would be put down. My heart hurt. I called your daddy crying and trying to explain to him why we needed to adopt this dog. Your daddy, I'm sure, was taken off guard. It was the middle of a work day and here I was crying like a baby for this dog. He said, 'honey, let me call you back.' Well, I immediately called the shelter only to discover that someone else had just adopted the dog. I sank in my chair and somehow composed myself enough to say, 'Well, I'm just glad that he will have a good home.' Inside, I was dying. I had my heart set once I read the email. It had been almost 2 months since Hagen had passed away. Meantime, I had probably heard you say, 'Doggie' 5,679,432 times! I knew I wanted you to grow up with a dog. Well, the lord works in mysterious ways. The email got my wheels turning. I now knew, that I had to rescue a dog. So I got online while you slept. For hours, I researched dogs...yellow labs. I had come across two dogs that really stood out. One was named Gus, who was about 7 months old. And the other was Hannah, who was around 1 year old. I truly wanted to save them both, but Gus had an adoption pending over the weekend and from the sound of it Hannah seemed like she would be the better pick anyways. Her little caption said:

Hannah is a little gorgeous, active doll! Another castoff of our disposable society, this lovely lady is 1 year old and ready for her fun, responsible, Lab loving forever family to come along and rescue her from rescue! Her foster dad is teaching her how to be a well behaved lady-she's learning house manners, leash skills and basic obeidience commands. She's very food oriented so learning tricks will be a snap. Hannah is a people, cat, kid and dog lover who enjoys her toys, rides in the car and hanging our with her dog buddies.

Please join us for the first annual Holiday Art & Gift Barkzar to benefit the Labbys with Wild Heir Labrador Rescue. We are looking for local artists and vendors interested in selling their work and goods, and helping to support WHLR.

Wow! 4 adoptions completed the week of 10/20 so far, with 2-3 more being finalized this weekend. This is bringing us somewhere in the 150 adoptions range for 2008. (Gotta stop and count one of these days...)

Woohoo!

Wild Heir Labrador Rescue now has its own dedicated photo gallery! The gallery (powered by Gallery2) currently contains event photos from the past year or so. If you have photos you'd like to contribute (your adopted dog from WHLR, event photos, pictures of your foster, etc) feel free to send them to me at eugenemah@gmail.com and I'll see that they end up in an appropriate album in the gallery.

WHLR will be at the Mt. Pleasant Farmer's Market again October 21 from 3-6:30PM. Come on out and meet some of our dogs and help support the rescue!

Dove arrived Sat., Oct. 11. She is a darling, angelic 11 week old chocolate girl who was rescued from a high kill shelter in NC. Beautiful, sweet and playful Dove is learning all about being a spoiled princess.

Update: Dove has been adopted!

Update: Jimmy has been adopted!

Little Jimmy made his way to rescue on Thu., Oct. 9. He is the most handsome, 8 week old puppy you have ever seen! Jimmy is a black, block-headed little chubster who is all about playing and snuggling.

Roman is fully recovered from his leg surgery and is doing very well, although his leg does get a little stiff when it's damp and cold outside.

Roman is one of the sweetest labs you'll ever meet! He came to us from a shelter in Greenville, where he was brought after being hit by a car and left at the emergency vet. After extensive surgery, he's all healed now. Although he walks with a slight limp, it doesn't hold him back a bit! He loves playing games, and is a fierce tug-of-war competitor.

He also is a lover. He will follow you around from room to room, just

to keep you company. He loves giving kisses, and as soon as you begin to pet him, he falls to the ground in pure happiness. Once he's gotten enough attention, he's happy to sit on the floor, chew on a bone, and then take a nap until you are ready to play with him again. He's crate-trained, is great on car rides, extremely social, gets along great with other dogs, and is very adaptable to whatever the situation calls for.

If you are interested in meeting or adopting Roman, or any of our other dogs, please fill out an adoption application.

Update: Barkley has been adopted.

Barkley is a 10-11 month old lab who was rescued from Colleton County Animal Services in early September. He's a handsome lab with all the enthusiasm and energy of a lab puppy. He's a little bit goofy, likes to run around and chase things, and wrestle with other dogs. Like all labs, Barkley is very food motivated which makes training him very easy. He knows Sit and Inside (to go into his crate) and is working on Down.

Most afternoons, Barkley can usually be found hanging out at Hampton Park Dog Park working off some of that extra lab energy chasing other dogs (and being chased by them), running after the ball and just having a good time playing.

Running with the Flying Squirrel

Barkley found a discarded water bottle to chew on

Barkley goofing around with one of the other dogs

Wild Heir Labrador Rescue will be at the Mt. Pleasant Farmer's Market on October 14 showing off some of our adoptable dogs. The Farmer's Market runs from 3-6PM and is located on Coleman Blvd near Moultrie Middle School. Come on out, meet some of our dogs and help support our rescue!

Join us on Saturday, October 11 for Daniel Island Park Day to meet some of our adoptable dogs or to find out more about us.

We are asking you to help us reach our goal of 1500 bones @ $10!

Please throw us a bone - a $10 donation - so we can continue our labor of love on behalf of unwanted Labrador Retrievers (and Lab mixes) throughout South Carolina!

In 2008 we were successful in rescuing close to 175 abandoned, neglected and abused Labradors and placing them in loving responsible homes.

Unfortunately, many of these precious animals come to us with health issues and need medical treatment before they can go to their forever homes. Even the 'healthy' dogs require a full range of vaccinations along with flea and heartworm treatments. The number of dogs in rescue that require treatment for heartworms - a very preventable disease - is staggering; nearly 30% of our rescues come to us with heartworms. This costly treatment requires several months of recuperation.

Additionally, some of our more critically ill and injured dogs have required extended vet visits and even trips to the emergency room. As anyone who has ever visited the ER knows, this is not inexpensive and there is no payment plan - it's cash up front!

We have also been short on foster homes and have had to board some of our rescue dogs until we can secure their forever homes. Although we do all that we can to avoid this, it is sometimes necessary and much better than the alternative - euthanasia at a shelter. So would you please throw us a bone?

Thank you from all the Wild Heir Labbys!!!