Thor

You may have heard this story already, but please bear with me as I have more to share.  Several months ago I received a phone call from a neighbor – he had found a stray dog and wanted me to scan it for a chip.  We were both surprised to find the dog did have a microchip.  The dog’s name is Thor, and through his microchip we were able to find that he was nine years old, and his owner had recently passed away.  We learned through family members that Thor had been very much loved, and had been well cared for.  He had problems with ear infections his entire life, and had already undergone double-ear surgery to try to correct the problem.  That surgery, known as a bi-lateral ear resection, did not resolve the problem.  The family asked us to find Thor a new home, so Thor became an All Paws Rescue dog, and he came to my house as a foster.  Since then, Thor has received several different ear treatments including being sedated and having his ears packed with a high-powered anti-bacterial drug – twice.  When even this did not help, and the ear cytology still showed bacteria in the ears, the vet recommended a procedure known as a Tecabo – a Total Ear Canal Ablation and Bulla Osteotomy.  This surgery has to be done by a specialist, and it is very expensive and can result in a significant loss of hearing.  I immediately wondered - is it worth it for a nine-year-old dog to put him through this painful surgery?  And where would All Paws get the money? 

So I spoke with another vet and asked her opinion.  She knows the issues that rescues face with trying to pay for medical care and the challenges of adopting out a senior dog.  I was hoping she’d say that we could just put him on some sort of pain medication instead of doing the surgery.  I know he’s in pain from the way he shakes his head and rubs his ears, and I don’t want him to continue to be in pain, but I was really hoping for another option.  Unfortunately, the vet told me that this surgery was really his only option if we didn’t want to euthanize him.  So although I was sorry to hear there was no easy fix, it made the decision easy.  Even though Thor is a senior dog, he’s still an active, loving dog who has a lot of life left to live.  We had to do the surgery.  So now it’s just a matter of raising the funds.  The neighbor who found Thor is going to help by placing some donation boxes in the community, and I’ve created some on-line fundraising tools to help raise the money.  I may attempt to organize some other event such as a bake sale (don’t worry, I will NOT be the one baking!) or something similar to raise funds.  I may also give in and put some ads on this blog (in a very unobtrusive way hopefully!) in an effort to raise money for Thor’s surgery.  It won’t help much, but every dollar counts!  So if anyone has any interest in helping to raise funds for Thor’s surgery, please let me know.   You can help by sharing this link  on your Facebook page or blog, or by putting a donation jar at a local business, or by helping me organize a larger fundraising event.  Hopefully soon Thor will be ready for surgery and be pain free!

Shelby update, and Thank You

Shelby is feeling better!!  She has not had any more seizures in the last 24 hours, and she came home from the E-clinic and is doing well.  She is still ataxic, but that is hopefully just due to the medicine she is on.  If you don't know what ataxic means, well, here's a hint:

Ziggy enjoys a beer.

Unlike Ziggy, Shelby hasn't been drinking, but she walks around like she's drunk, bumping into things and occasionally falling over.  But she's starting to act more like her old self, and hopefully within a few days will be back to normal.  She'll be on seizure medicine the rest of her life, but that is not too expensive so she should be able to be adopted without much trouble once she is recovered from her heartworm treatment.  Someday she will have her Happily Ever After!

Merlin the cat is also fully recovered from his run-in with Ziggy.  Thanks for all of your well-wishes!

Rescue is expensive, and I'm grateful to work with a rescue group that covers all foster pet medical expenses as well as providing dog food for the fosters.  Shelby's emergency vet bill was over $600, and that doesn't include the several hundred dollars it will cost for her heartworm treatment.  Her adoption fee is only $125, so as you can imagine, the rescue group relies heavily on donations from the public in order to continue to help animals.  It always amazes me how many people out there are happy to give just a few dollars to help when they can.  Without so many people giving, we couldn't save dogs like Shelby.

It's great when people donate to the rescue, which by the way is tax deductible, but recently something even more amazing happened.  A very special person read about the problems I've been having with my foster dogs escaping my fenced yard.  Living in a rural area is wonderful, except for the mindset many people have about animals.  If people see stray dogs, they are as likely to shoot them as call the owner, even when the dogs are wearing collars and tags.  So when a neighbor stopped by to warn me that my dogs were going to be shot if they got out of the yard again, I was desperate.  I was out of work and couldn't afford a better fence, but had nowhere else for the foster dogs to go.  So I bought a fence and shared my concerns about paying for it.  I love writing this blog because I get to share the good and the bad of rescue, but I never expected what happened next.  Jess from At A Glacial Pace created a wonderful fundraiser to help me buy the fence!  She spent so much time and hard work, just to help keep my foster dogs safe and me sane (well, relatively sane).  The fundraiser was a lot of fun - an online Valentine's Day Party - and many people in the blog community donated.  I am grateful to each one of you who participated and made this a successful event.  My fence is up and is working perfectly to keep the dogs in the yard!

Shelby in the back yard

Thank you Jess, and everyone who contributed!

Jefferson - trying to help build the fence!

Introducing Ashlyn

Amber the Pointer mix was adopted last weekend!  I also managed to find the cutest puppy in the world (yes, really!) and I stole her from another foster home.  It's true - I used my amazing powers of persuasion to convince another foster home that this puppy should come live with me for awhile.  It was selfish, but I couldn't resist this face!

Ashyln is a nine week old pit bull puppy.  She's extremely cute and so small.  I haven't been able to stop carrying her around since I brought her home.  In fact, when I volunteered at a garage sale fundraiser this weekend, I carried her around in a sling most of the time:

She seemed to love it. She enjoyed all of the attention as well!

In addition to looking adorable, Ashlyn is a true entertainer.  If you're having a bad day, just watch this video of Ashlyn at the garage sale playing with a toy bigger than she is!

We're Having A Party: Guest Post by Remi

Remi

Hi everyone, remember me?  I'm Remi the Great Dane. I don't get to be in my mom's blog much anymore since she moved out to the country.  She really likes to help homeless animals, so she bought a house where she would be allowed to have foster pets.  But my dad is still living at our old house, so Noelle and I stay with him. He doesn't ever take my picture so I don't get to be in the blog very often.  But today I have some really fun news to share, so I get to post even though there are no new pictures of me!


Some of my mom's blog friends read about her problems with the foster dogs escaping the fenced yard and being in danger of being shot by the neighbors.  My mom is real worried about that, and she says the only way to make sure the foster animals are safe is to put up a privacy fence.  Now I don't know why these foster dogs would want to leave the yard in the first place.  But you know, some of them come from shelters where they ended up as strays, because they had become experts at escaping their yards at their old house.   So maybe they just have bad habits that they need to give up.  But since running around the countryside is not such a good idea, mom has to put up a fence that will keep them in the yard.  She just hasn't found a new job yet so she's not sure how she's going to afford it.  This is where the really exciting thing takes place.  Those blog friends decided to have a fundraiser to help my mom pay for a fence to keep all the foster dogs safe.  When my mom heard that she couldn't believe it.  She was so shocked that they would do that, and that so many in the blogging community would want to help.  She is grateful beyond words, which is probably why she's letting me tell you this news instead of telling you herself.  So here's the deal - we're having a party!!

Jess and Glacier are organizing the event, and it is going to be great!  There are even rumors that Ziggy has volunteered to help staff the Kissing Booth!  You can read more about it here.  Thanks to Jess and everyone else who is helping to put this pawty together - you are wonderful!

Houston Pittie Pack

Kissa-bull is a blog written by Sandra about her dogs, known as the Houston Pittie Pack and the Wee Ones.  It was heartbreaking to learn this morning that Sandra's home was destroyed in a fire last night.  Sandra and her human family members survived, but she lost her home and five of her dogs.  As Mayzie's mom reported, "She tried desperately to get all the dogs out of the house but they were hiding under beds and in closets. She was only able to save Brinks and Bella. The rest – Guero, Coco Chanel, Tiger, Lucky and Shelby – are all now at the Bridge."  These dogs were so special, and so loved.  I can only imagine the pain that Sandra and her family are going through.  Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.  
A chip-in has also been set up to help with any immediate needs that the family has.  If you can help, please consider donating any amount to this family.  You can also leave Sandra a comment on her blog at http://kissa-bull.blogspot.com/ to let her know that you're thinking of her during this time.

Ziggy and the St. Louis Blues

Ziggy has always wanted to be a hockey player.  Really, it's true.  He doesn't talk about it much, but I think it's obvious in the way he acts.  For one thing, he's always practicing his body checks.  He loves to run around the house and body check other dogs or people.  Like some hockey players, he is ready to immediately defend himself if another dog tries to push him around.  And he spends quite a bit of time in his "penalty box", also known as a crate, as a result of his tough-guy hockey player attitude.  If Ziggy got to play hockey, I'm pretty sure he'd be the enforcer of the team. 

However since Ziggy is a dog, he can't play hockey.  But he was extremely excited to get to meet a real-life professional hockey player and get his picture taken with him.  Ziggy met Carlo Colaiacovo, and immediately tried to steal his jersey.  Once he realized he couldn't get away with that, he settled down and posed for a picture.  And now, that picture is going to be on a calendar being sold by the St. Louis Blues as part of their Pucks for Paws promotion. You can buy a calendar online here to support several area rescue groups. 

Now it's true that there are eleven other months of the calendar with eleven other adoptable animals, but in Ziggy's mind, this is his calendar.  His and Carlo's, that is.  So when he heard that Carlo would be signing autographs at the Pucks for Paws kickoff event, he decided that of course he should sign autographs as well.  This is why we spent thirty minutes yesterday with Ziggy's trainer, so he could learn how to pawtograph a calendar.  The event is this Sunday and hopefully it goes well.  Maybe a hockey fan will even be there looking to adopt a dog who loves hockey as much as they do!  If you're in the area and would like to come to the calendar kickoff event, find out details here.  Ziggy will be glad to sign his pawtograph for you.   

Highlights of the past week...

September 27th - Went to an area shelter to drop off Harry and pick up Molly and two more FIV+ cats.  Harry is a previous foster dog that wasn't doing well here with the other fosters, and since we currently have no other foster homes available to take him, he is temporarily staying at the shelter.  Molly wasn't doing well at the shelter so she became my foster dog.  And since this shelter doesn't adopt out FIV+ cats, I brought home Scotty and Charley until room opens up at another area no-kill shelter that has a free-roaming adoption room for just FIV+ cats.   

Scotty

   

Charley

 They have joined the rest of my foster cats - Kirby, Bandit, Belle, Thomas, and Pogo.  Mercury, Kona and Kimba have all been adopted! 

September 28th - Went back to the shelter and picked up Thumper, a Bearded Collie mix.  She's eight years old and very sweet.  

Thumper

September 29th - Helped set up the All Paws garage sale fundraiser.  Got to do some pre-sale shopping.  Spent  more money than I had planned.  

September 30th - Got up at 4:30 a.m. for the garage sale.  Spent most of the day trying to stay awake. Bought more items and spent even more money.  Realized I ran out of checks and had no cash.  Blamed it on lack of sleep and wrote an IOU.  

October 1st - Went to the Purina Pet Project Event.  Ziggy got to join the Purina Dog Show and pray for all the animals to find homes.  I didn't actually see anyone get adopted at the event, so I'm hoping that's not Ziggy's fault.  We had a great time and I met some wonderful people.

October 2nd - Held a small adoption event at PetSmart.  No one was adopted, and I came home completely exhausted.  Brought home Audrey, a temporary foster dog who is already scheduled to be adopted as soon as she is vetted.  

October 3rd - Got up early and dropped off Audrey and Carlos, another All Paws dog, at the vet.  Went back home and worked for several hours.  Went back to the vet with Elton and Thumper for their exams, and then took all four dogs with me to the shelter to pick up Roo, another foster dog.  Came home and got Roo introduced to everyone else.  Left and took Ziggy to Agility class.  Came home and collapsed.  Got a good night's sleep surrounded by Miley, Molly, Elton, Thumper, Roo, Audrey, Pogo and Charley.  

Special Events

This weekend is going to be very busy!  If you're looking for something fun to do, join us at one of these special events:
All Paws Rescue Garage Sale
Friday and Saturday
7:00am - ???
533 Rascal Crossing, O'Fallon MO

Purina Pet Project Event
Saturday
10:00am - 2:00pm
Purina Farms

Hope to see you there!

Mouse Race Results

A while back we had a contest to name a mouse at an All Paws Rescue mouse-racing fundraiser.  Frankie Furter was the winner of the contest, and he named his mouse "WINNER".  I thought this was a great name, so when the time came, I quickly bet all of my chips on WINNER. 

Perhaps I should have checked out the mouse before making this decision.  The mice each spent time right before their race in a small cage with a wheel so they could "warm up" for the race. 

Winner spent his time sleeping.

Still, he turned out to be quite a fast runner.  If only he hadn't had so much trouble with the hurdles.  I recorded the race on video so you could see the results yourself.  That's Winner in lane four. 

View on YouTube

Even if Winner wasn't the big winner, the important thing was that everyone had a great time and we raised money for three rescue groups at the same time! 

Mouse Naming Contest Winner

Today we had the drawing for the winner of the Mouse Naming Contest.  We used random.org to randomly select the winning comment.

Congratulations to Frankie Furter who won the mouse-naming contest!  Frankie, what would you like to name your mouse?

If you live in the St. Louis area, please order your tickets now to participate in the Mouse Races that will take place next month.  Frankie's mouse will be there!  Well, not the one that used to live under his front porch - but at least the one he will be naming.

Mouse Racing Contest

I recently learned that the rescue group I volunteer with will be participating in a Mouse Race fundraiser, along with two other animal rescue groups. Don't be concerned - no mice will be harmed during this event. Unless I talk them into letting me take Ziggy to the race with me. Then I can't make any guarantees. Did I tell you about the spider that was in the kitchen yesterday? Ziggy and Noelle chased it under the vacuum cleaner. Then Ziggy proceeded to guard the vacuum cleaner from Noelle so she could not have the spider. I don't know if it's because he wanted to eat the spider himself, or if he really is such a compassionate, nature-loving dog, that he was simply trying to protect the spider from Noelle. I never found out since the spider somehow escaped the vacuum cleaner and disappeared. Does anyone else hate it when big black spiders escape in the house and you know they are there but you can't find them? Ziggy does. Anyway, back to these mouse races.

Mouse Races have become the latest and greatest fundraiser in and around St. Louis. They don't seem to be catching on as fast in the rest of the country yet, but around here it seems that they are quickly replacing the traditional fundraising Trivia Nights. So in March, we will have Mouse Races to benefit All Paws Rescue, Metro Animal, and Pets Second Chance Corgi Rescue. As part of the fundraiser, we are selling naming rights to the mice. For a $20 donation you can name one of the mice that will be in the race! I thought about making the donation and naming a mouse Ziggy. Then I decided it would be more fun to let one of you name the mouse. So here's the deal. We are having a contest to name a mouse. The winner gets to choose the name of the mouse. Pictures of the event will be posted on my blog, and I will let you know how your mouse does in the race. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post on or before February 7th. Then on Feburary 8th I will use choose one winner at random and that winner will get to name the mouse. If you're commenting Anonymously, make sure to include your name so I know who you are if you win.

Catching Up

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and I have so much to say, that I'm not sure where to start.  So let me give you a quick summary, and maybe later this week I'll share more about some of these things. 

1)

First, let me assure you that life around here continues as usual.  I still haven't closed on the log home that I've had a contract on since September.  I'm told it could happen any day now.  In the meantime, Ziggy continues to be Ziggy (yes, he was laughing at me when I caught him chewing on the vacuum cleaner cord).  Please note that both the vacuum and the carpet spot cleaner have taken up permanent residence in my kitchen since they are put to use so often.  Also please note the silver exercise pen that has been turned into a fence to block off the kitchen from the living room.  This serves two purposes.  First, it limits the destruction caused by Ziggy to just the living room.  Second, it keeps Peanut and Cricket safe in the kitchen.  Please ignore the chew marks on the windowsill.  These were not caused by Ziggy! 

2)

Remember the thirteen puppies I talked about several weeks ago?   They grew up and got adopted.  At least ten of them did.  There are three left, including the one shown above.  I am guessing they will all be gone by next weekend!

3)

Cricket and Peanut are doing great.  I am so crazy about these puppies.  One of them actually went to their new home yesterday, and the other one has received two applications (we are waiting on the vet check and home visit to be scheduled).  I'll tell you more about them later this week - I promise!

4)

I was recently contacted by a teenager who lives in Illinois.  She is a volunteer with Forever Home Feline Ranch, a 501c3 organization that provides sanctuary for homeless cats in need of a forever home.  Owen has not only fostered special needs kittens for this group, but she's actually written a grant proposal that has been accepted by the Pepsi Refresh Project!  That's pretty amazing for a 16-year-old to do all on her own.  The organization sounds like a great group of people, so I hope you will support them and Owen by voting for them as part of the Pepsi Refresh Project.  You can vote every day, once a day, throughout the month of January.  And if you have a blog or a twitter account or Facebook account, please share the link below with others.

Vote here: http://www.refresheverything.com/felineranch

Ziggy Dresses Up For Halloween

Local Readers: Please don't forget that All Paws and Snuggle will be holding their annual spaghetti dinner and silent auction event this coming Sunday, November 7th!! The event will be at the Elks Lodge on Tom Ginnever in O'Fallon, MO. You can find out more at the Pawsta for Pets website.


As an update from my last post - all three of the adorable dinosaurs puppies have now been adopted. And a friend sent me some pictures she took of Ziggy as I tried to dress him up for Halloween. I thought you might enjoy them.

Ziggy the Alien

Ziggy stomps on my foot and tries to bite me in retaliation for turning him into an alien. 

Ziggy tries to escape so he can beam up to his alien spaceship.  Isn't his curly tail cute?

Ziggy with his devil cape, trying to chew up the leash in order to escape the crazy lady who keeps putting costumes on him. 

Ziggy realizes his best strategy is to put holes in any costumes that he is forced to wear, thus requiring me to either purchase each costume or stop dressing him up. 

Ziggy's strategy works, and I finally settle for dressing up a photo of Ziggy instead.



Back to reality...

Saturday was our Flea Market fundraiser, and it went very well.  I was amazed at the number of volunteers who were there to help - people donated flea market items, homemade baked goods, and various supplies.  Many people showed up to help set up, sell food, help with the adoptable dogs, and just lend a hand wherever was needed.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped to make this event a success.  We raised a lot of money for the dogs and cats, and we couldn't have done it without you.

A special thank you goes out to my fellow event coordinators - Lisa, Julie and Shuma.  They spent hours and hours planning this event and making it such a success.  You probably know that fundraising is one of my least favorite things, but these women actually made the whole experience fun.  I'm even a little bit sad that its over.  Although now I can get back to my normal schedule of taking care of my fosters and writing blog posts and sleeping.  I have missed that.  Maybe now I'll even find time to name these guys.... or girls.... as soon as I figure out which they are. 

Sunday Scoop: Fundraising

Many rescue groups like the one I volunteer with survive solely on donations.  They are completely volunteer run, so no paid employees.  Every penny they take in goes directly to help the animals.  The biggest expense by far is for vet bills.  Even though there are many wonderful veterinarians out there who will offer a reduced cost for rescue groups, the expense is still very great.  Part of the cost can be recovered through adoption fees, but a much larger part needs to come from donations and fundraisers. We don't get money from large groups like the Humane Society, or from the government.  It all comes from individuals making small donations at adoption events, or from the various fundraisers we try to hold in the community. 

I recently signed on to help with a Flea Market fundraiser, and it's been a huge amount of work, but I have been fortunate to work with several wonderful people who have made the whole experience much more fun than I expected.  I am looking forward to the event, which will be held this Saturday.  If you live in the area, please come check it out!

It's Virgil Day!

My friend Amy at the House of Cats is holding a commentathon today. For every comment left on her blog from now until midnight, she will donate 25 cents to Cat Guardians, which is a no-kill cat shelter. Please stop by and say "Hi!" to Virgil, her cat whose picture is on the Cute Overload cat calendar today.

What's with all the voting?

More and more sites are offering money to groups who get the most votes.  There are different companies and organizations getting in on the newest way to garner publicity, and PepsiCo is no exception.  They are giving away $1.3 MILLION dollars each month to various organizations.  That's a lot of money!  I don't really see anything wrong with this - I'd rather they gave a portion of their marketing budget directly to the organizations in need instead of to the radio and TV stations and marketing companies.  But I also usually don't share these types of voting requests because it is just one worthy organization competing against another... and in the end, whether the animals in Texas or Missouri are helped, its still animals being helped. 

However in this case I'm making an exception, because in this case the animals are competing against things like providing motivation for high school students to improve in school, or producing and publishing 10 minute plays written by young writers, or driving drunk people and their cars home.  I'm not saying these aren't worthy causes, but I would rather that Pepsi give their money to an animal welfare organization. 

Especially one like North Mecklenburg Animal Rescue in North Carolina.  Their old location was wiped out by a flood, and they need funds to build a new permanent shelter for the dogs.  From everything I've heard and read about this rescue, they do a great job, and really deserve our votes.  So please, join me in voting every day for NMAR to win a $50,000 grant from Pepsi.  They have to be in the top 10 by the end of the month (right now they are in 24th place).  You do have to register once with Pepsi, but they won't send you junk mail unless you ask them to.  And then you can vote every day until April 30th to help them win.  You can also tell others through a widget on your blog, or through Facebook.  And if you're busy, you can give your e-mail address to NMAR and let them create the account and vote for you by proxy.  See how convenient it is to be a part of changing the world?  If every doggie and kitty reader out there would ask their mom and dad to go vote, and tell their dog and cat friends, we could really make a difference for a lot of dogs who need our help.  Check out the links below for more information.

Vote Here: http://www.refresheverything.com/northmecklenburganimalrescue  (You have to click "Vote for this Idea", then sign in, then make sure to click "Vote for this Idea" AGAIN or you won't have actually voted!)  You can vote once each day. 

Read about NMAR on the PBRC (Pit Bull Rescue Central) blog: http://pitbullrescuecentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/have-you-voted-for-gubbys-rescue-today.html

NMAR's Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vote-For-North-Mecklenburg-Animal-Rescue-to-win-50K-for-Homeless-Dogs/108356965862632?v=wall

I'm Tired Of...

I just purchased this bracelet.  It says "I'm Tired Of Homeless Animals."  Half of the purchase price will be donated to the Cesar and Ilusion Millan Foundation.  I'm not a fan of Cesar's training methods, but his foundation not only promotes the need to spay/neuter animals, but also helps non-profit animal shelters and rescue groups around the country - and that is worth supporting. 

The company I'm Tired Of... who is selling these bracelets (made of recycled tires) also sells a variety of other bracelets and various products to raise money for a lot of different causes.  They have items to support Best Friends Animal Society (I'm Tired Of Animal Cruelty) and Last Chance for Animals (I'm Tired of Puppy Mills).  They also support causes other than animals, like cancer, world hunger, AIDS, and diabetes.  You can visit their website to see if they support a cause you care about. 

I had a hard time deciding which cause to support.  I was going to support one for Haiti, but when I saw the one that said "I'm Tired Of Homeless Animals", I just couldn't resist it.  It is so appropriate for me.  Because not only am I tired of people dumping their animals when they don't want them anymore, but sometimes...just occasionally... I get tired of taking care of those homeless animals!   I'm pretty sure I should have bought one for my husband Dave also.  Because there's no question that he is very tired of homeless animals.

Raise money through Internet Searches; Poll Results

Here's a good way to raise money just by searching the Internet, or shopping online.  Go to http://www.igive.com/, and enter your chosen cause (my cause is All Paws Rescue, Inc.)  Then if you want to shop, you can search by online store or by the product you want to buy.  Or if you just want to do a search for information on the Internet, go to http://www.isearchigive.com/, and type in your search criteria just like you would at Google or Yahoo.  Right now each search raises $0.02 for your chosen cause, and each purchase to a qualified store raises a percentage of the sale to your store.  So far I've raised over $25 for my chosen causes (because I like to shop online).  You can even install an igive.com toolbar to make sure that you don't forget to shop through their site.  The more people that use this, the more money your cause makes, and it doesn't cost you anything.  Currently igive.com has raised over $4 million for various causes!

-------------------------------------
And now, for the results of the poll. 

I decided to write a more in-depth blog post about a few subjects, and wanted to find out what you wanted to read about.  I didn't expect the results to be so close.  Now I can write about all of the subjects and know that at least one person out there will be interested!  But your favorite topic was about the challenges of fostering.  Which surprised me.  Because I thought that might sound like a depressing post.  But the great thing about this blog is that I can tell you the truth about my experiences, both the good and the bad.  I'm not trying to recruit anyone to a cause or to convince you of anything.  I just get to share my thoughts with anyone who cares to read them, and so if you want to hear all about the challenges I face with fostering, I will tell you.  In a few days.  First I'm going to post about some of the other topics.  Because I already started writing those blog posts and it's easier that way.  Thank you for your understanding.

P.S.  I like including pictures in my blog posts.  So I'm going to put in some random pictures of my previous foster pets in these upcoming in-depth blog posts.  They will have absolutely nothing to do with the posts, so don't bother trying to find a connection.  They just give you something to look at while you read.  Besides the text, I mean.  Nevermind.

Celebration of Lights

The city of O'Fallon, MO has an annual drive-through Christmas light display at Fort Zumwalt Park.  Each scene is designed and funded by local organizations, churches and businesses.  All Paws Rescue is one of the local organizations that participates each year.  So if you get a chance to visit, make sure to look for the All Paws display.

The event was started in 1991, and it attracts over 8,000 vehicles each year, and over 5,000 individuals on walk-through night.  The one-mile long display has over 1 million lights!   I set up five of those lights.  Okay technically they probably don't count the spotlights as lights.  But I helped to set up a few of the spotlights, and the Santa in this picture.  Other All Paws volunteers did the rest of the All Paws scene set-up.  They did a good job. 

Here's a close-up picture of the manger scene, with one of my favorite reindeer - Binky the reindeerdog!  He was just a temporary guest though - I don't think he'll be there every night.  He has better things to do, like sniffing out hidden Christmas presents.  And cookies.  I think Christmas might be Binky's favorite time of the year. 

There is also a walk-through night on December 8th between 6:00pm and 9:00pm.  On that night, you can walk through the park, visit with Santa and his reindeer, and visit booths filled with holiday crafts, gifts, and fesitval food.  There will be fireworks at 7:25pm. 

All Paws will be selling hot chocolate and cookies - yum!  Please stop by and say hello.  I may be helping to sell  the hot chocolate and cookies, but they may have me doing something different since I can't be trusted around cookies.  Binky and I have that in common.

Click here for hours, cost and directions.