UPDATE ON "RESCUE"!!!

I opened my eyes this morning and waited for someone to call my new name. If I could just hear this I would be free from worry.  And then it happened, someone called "Rescue".  It is for real, a new name and a new start at life. I want to get up but I could not.  I tried over and over but I am just too weak. I needed to let them know I heard my name so I lifted my head.  Everyone around me looked very happy.  Now all I need is to hear that familiar voice who whispered to me just the night before.  And then she came and that voice made everything more real.  I am saved.  I need not worry anymore.  I trust my new friends.  They did what they said they would do, help me through this.  I feel a heartwarming relief that my new friends will not fail me as I have been failed in the past.  This is important to me for my healing because my emotional pain seems to be leaving me and that will give me more strength to conquer my physical pain.  I will forgive the humane who discarded me and begin my life with trusting people.  Thank you all for giving me the chance to trust again. I am told that I have badly injured my front left leg and I may loose it.  I also injured my front right shoulder but I must wait to see how bad it is.  As far as my back end, well, we just have to wait and see what happens.  It is way too early to tell.  I feel much better and have a positive attitude.  My spirits are good.  Without the help and prayers of you, I don't know if I would have opened my eyes this morning.  I realize now how important to my new friends it is for me to pull through.  I am trying very hard. Alex has been such a big part in my recovery.  She has gone over and beyond for me.  I want to soon get up and run over to all of you and feel you touch me.  I am looking forward to that day.  For now, I am tired and will need to go so I can get my rest.  My only wish for tonight is to wake up again and hear someone calling "Rescue".

"Today was a quiet day for me.  After looking out the window I am so glad that I am not wondering outside in this weather looking for food and shelter.  It makes me sad to think of all the others that are still out there waiting and praying to be saved.  There are so many humans that help us but more that discard us each day.  I once heard someone say that the soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tear.  My tears are not able to be seen by you but for now my tears are shed for others like I was only a few days ago."

"I received a beautiful letter from someone today.  She read my story and responded to me with kind thought and comforting words.  If you get the chance, take a minute to read this.  I will read it one more time and then return to resting.  Again, I will be looking forward to tomorrow and my recovery so I can extend my never-ending loyalty to you for all you are doing for me."

Faithfully,
Rescue

Letter which Rescue received:

"You never met me and probably never will, yet I know so much about you.  It breaks my heart when I think of all the torture you had to go through and I thank God you finally found so many people who love and will take care of you.  Think of the voice that whispered in you ear, she is the one that brought you here, she is the one that will stand by your side, she won't give up, she never does, she's your angel sent from above.  This angel's name is Sharon, she saves so many, but never enough, the job she has is really tough.  She's not looking for someone to blame, she just wants you to live for her, she's the one that gave you your name.  You have a long road to go down, you won't go alone.  When you get better you'll have a brand new home.  So PLEASE wake up each day and fight to stay alive, so many people are praying for you  to survive.  Right  now all we can do is pray, pray for you to get strong enough so the vet can decide  what has to be done to make you better and keep you alive.  You have come this far, PLEASE don't give up, be brave, stay strong, this was so very wrong, lets make it right PLEASE RESCUE WIN THIS FIGHT."

Thank You to all the prayers and love everyone is sending for "Rescue". She is one of many, but at least she has a chance now, thanks to Animal Rescues such as Adopt-A-Pet. Please keep those prayers and happy thoughts coming. I will be posting updates as I receive them. Can you imagine her being out in the streets in this snow? She never would have made it after being hit by that car. The thought is just too much for me to bear.

Much Love to all of you! Woof Soon!

Rescue's Story. Sure to bring tears to your eyes.

This isn't my normal post, but Josie and I have been so busy this past weekend with Hospital visits and snow, I just haven't had a chance to post yet.

My good friend Sharon, sent me this email, and I had to share it with all of you. She runs a rescue called Adopt-A-Pet out of Freehold, NJ. Website: http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NJ05.html

"My name will be Rescue if I live. I heard my new name whispered in my ear several times today but I was not sure if that was me. As I lay here now, clinging to life, I will look forward to everyone calling me Rescue. Several months ago, many people saw me running the streets. They tried to call me over but I did not trust them. At one time I had someone to trust but as my life went on I must have done something wrong to be tossed into the streets. I am very street smart, even looking both ways when traveling across the street. Sometimes I had to wait a bit to cross, but I made it. I made it every time for months. I was good at getting food, not sure what it was that I ate, but I could survive. Then someone was tired of chasing me and set a humane dog trap. I knew if I went in it, I may have been caught by someone who would just love me for a short time and rid of me again. I could not deal with that anymore. I did not want my heart broken again. One day Ken came looking for me. He saw me, opened up a can of food and as I ran away, he tossed the food to me. When he turned around to leave I saw the dog food all over his back. I had to laugh but I didn't get that meal. I passed the baited trap every day but still would not trust it, even know the meals inside smelled great. I would just have to search for each meal on my own. The weather has been getting harder and harder to get around and find shelter and food. I was hoping the spring would come soon.  

As I wondered aimlessly late last night, my pads of my feet were starting to crack from the snow. I could not feel my feet anymore so I decided to walk on the part of the road that had no snow.  It made my feet feel much better.   A few more days and the snow would be gone again and I could go back to walking on the shoulder of the road were it would be much safer. But as someone whispers "Rescue" in my ear, they tell me that I will NEVER have to walk the streets again. I will never have to search for food again and I will be loved FOREVER. I only hope that this is true because  Ann came to pick me up off the side of the road where a car struck me. I am very badly injured and each second is a miracle to be here. Ann called the person who named me Rescue. She said she would one day soon save me off the streets but by the tears in her eyes I don't think she meant this way.  I will start to trust again if only I get a second chance at life. I ask for the sake of my humane friends that you say a prayer for me because their hearts are broken. They tried for several months to help me and I do not want to disappoint them. If I survive, I will ask again for your support for I will be in need of surgery. I hope that I will someday be able to meet all of you that listened to my story. If I do not survive, I will now know that I leave this world remaining in someone's heart. Thank you to all animal lovers."

2/9/10 Update: Those prayers seem to be working. Please keep them coming. Rescue has make it through the night and if she holds on for another day we believe she will make it. There is a chance that her front leg is so badly broken it might have to be removed, but that isn't something to worry about now.

Please keep the prayers coming for Rescue. Much love to you all. Woof soon!

Josie bringing her love to patients anyway she can

I don't know if any of you remember me talking about a patient named John and his wife Gertrude, whom we got quite attached too. (Re: Pediatrics and Germany! post) Well, on Monday, I actually dropped Josie off at their house in the afternoon so they could watch her while I was at work. That is how close we have become. When I went to pick her up after work I sat with Gert and she told me how much fun it was for both of them watching Josie and having a dog in the house again. They used to have a German Shepherd named Rex in their younger days, so watching Josie was a big thrill for them. Josie hung with Gertrude in the kitchen for a while and eventually ended up sleeping with John on the couch. All-in-all it was a fantastic visit. It felt really great to give them the opportunity to spend some "alone" time with Josie. I mean, Josie and I visited John and Gert while John was in the hospital almost every day since November, and then once he was in Rehab, we visited him there too. He has been home now for about 3 weeks, which is great. He is on the road to recovery!!

Unfortunately, I received a call from Gertrude yesterday morning that John had been brought to the emergency room and was being admitted to the hospital. He had contracted pneumonia. So Josie and I went to visit him and Gertrude last night. We had a good visit, although John wasn't doing too well, but he was stable. He was basically just unsettled.

I heard from Gertrude this morning that he slept last night and that he was doing a little better (yeah!). Josie and I will be going there right after work to spend time with the two of them. Hopefully, the doctors will get his pneumonia under control and out of his system and he will recover and he can go home (soon). But if it takes a few days or weeks, as long as he recovers, well, that's what matters. I know he is fighting an uphill battle, but we are right there along side them both. And I know Josie's visits make a difference and mean something to both of them.

Now, the photo above is of a patient we visited on Monday night after I picked up Josie from John and Gert's and went to the hospital for a visit. We went to the ICU unit. We met a nice woman whose husband had been in ICU and had been unconscious for a week. He finally woke up and she wanted us to visit him. I wanted to show you how she lays on the bed and how patients hold her "nose" for comfort. They just keep petting and stroking her nose and face. She can lay there for hours like that. See how her paws are outstretched too. Sometimes they hold "paws" with her. The red blanket is a blanket that I lie down on the patients bed so Josie lays directly on that blanket as to not get "doggie hair" all over the hospital linens. That patient is doing VERY WELL and they really appreciated our visit.

I'd just like to ask all of you, if it's not too much trouble to please keep John and Gertrude in your prayers for us. I will keep you up to date on their progress and Josie's visits. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Much love everyone.

Dog-Ma Thought for the Day:
Always stand by the one you love,
And remember to lick their face. (slurp)

Lost My First Patient. God this is hard....

My patient, Steve, passed away this morning. Sorry for the sad message. But this is the first patient that I've lost. Steve was the best patient in the world to visit. My mom made him this get well card (pictures of it below) yesterday that we were going to give him tomorrow after our Pediatrics visit. We never got to give it to him. I only saw him two days ago and he seemed to be doing fine. Sickness can do that, though. It never really reveals its ugly head. And we never really know what is wrong with someone when we visit them. And we don't ask. I know it's a hard lesson to learn. My mom is really upset. But I know the times we shared together with Steve and his wife Joyce were special. We lifted their spirits and took their minds off the sad moments about to come. He obviously was much sicker than he looked, but we didn't know that. I just hung with him and put my head on his chest or stomach. And the last visit, which was on Wednesday, he was sitting in a big chair beside the bed, smiling with both legs up, crossed with his feet resting on the bed, so the only way I could touch him was to curl up and put my head on his feet/ankle area, so that's what I did. And he LOVED it. He was singing to me...."Josie! Josie!" as he fed me a whole bag of treats! We had a great visit and I got to meet his daughter Kelly. (she's really pretty!) I waved "Good-Bye" to him and my mom kissed him good-bye and we said we would see him on Saturday. Well, we actually said we'd see him tomorrow, meaning Thursday, but then we got a call from Joyce on Thursday saying he was rushed into ICU for a Biopsy early Thursday morning. So when I spoke with Joyce Thursday afternoon, she said to hold off on our visit and come visit him on Saturday after our Pediatric visit. My mom called today to see how he was doing and that's when we got the sad news. Like I said, my mom is really upset. But I tell her to focus on the good times. And that his family was probably a lot more prepared for his passing than we were. God Speed Steve! I'm glad we got to meet you. Now you get to be with all your Furbabies that went to the Rainbow Bridge. We love you and are going to miss you more than you know. Much Love. We love you!

Dog-Mas and a Hospital Visit on Tuesday

First day back since turning three. Thank you everyone for all the Birthday wishes. I took the day off to play with my owner and relax. Chew some bones and eat some peanut butter. Boy, do I love peanut butter. So does my Uncle Dave. LOL!

I wanted to share a Dog-Ma from a book a received from a friend of mine named Sharon for Christmas. It's called "Dog-Mas: Simple Truths from a Wise Pet" as reveled to Bill Zimmerman.

"Greet each day with hope and expectation.
Wipe from your memory an hurt or slight from the day before.
By doing so, you set a good example for your humans."

Isn't that a great quote? I just love that. ;-)

(mean people suck and they can hurt you pretty deep. But it is good to remember that each day is a new day, don't you think so!)

Okay now, well, back to my Tuesday Hospital visit on January 26th. We visited the Telemetry Floor. We like to start on the highest floor of the hospital beginning of the week and work our way down, so by the end of the week, we have usually covered the whole hospital. We really are only supposed to do one hour of Volunteer hour a month. But I can't help but do more. Once you get in there and you see people straining to see the dog walking the hallway, you just gotta stop in each room and ask if they want a visit. Also I told you I would post some pictures of me in my vest. Sorry about the quality, but it's hard to do hospitals visits carrying around a nice huge camera, so we had to settle using our little Olympus that we slipped in my mommy's pocket.

So when we go to the Telemetry Floor, first we visited the Nurses and there was one Surgeon there too. He was quite smitten with Josie. That was fun. After asking permission from the Charge Nurse to visit the rooms, we were on our way down the hall way. Our first room was eager for us to enter. We were met with two sets of smiles. One from the patient, Fran and one from her daughter, Caroline who was visiting her mom. I laid Josie's blanket down on the bed and Josie jumped right up and laid down next to Frances. We visited and talked and you could tell Frances completely forgot where she was. Her face lit up and she just pet Josie the whole time smiling as she did so. Again, Josie did her customary "good-bye" wave and we went on to visit more patients.

The whole night was like that. We met one patient after another who was so happy for a visit from Josie. They always say "Thank you for doing this." And I always answer "It's our pleasure."

One man, Ron and his daughter Nancy, were pretty funny. Ron was eating some vanilla ice cream. He as actually sitting on the side of the bed. So I brought Josie into the room and after asking the usually questions and placing her blanket, she was up on the bed next to Ron, just staring at him eating his ice cream. Not moving a muscle. Just staring. His daughter Nancy thought that was so funny. She commented that their dog would never survive such a trial. Josie just laid there and watched him eat his ice cream, never making a move for the ice cream, and SHE LOVES vanilla ice cream. I was very proud of her. I just told her to "leave it!"

One of the things you train for in Pet Therapy Classes is leaving food or pills alone on command. And Josie was one of the worst in her class, in the beginning, that is. But as I worked with her, she got much better. And as time has gone by, she gotten MUCH better. There have been many times we have visited patients, and they deliver lunch for dinner, and she will just lie there and sleep and snuggle with the patient.

When we were done in Telemetry, I was going to leave, so we got in the elevator and I pushed "G" for the Ground Floor, and as fate had it, it opened on the First Floor, so I figured let me go to Oncology (which is on the First Floor). Well, I'm so happy we did. First, I went to go visit the Nurses and say hello.

If you read my earlier Posts (Re: Back to Our Hospital Visits), I mentioned about a whole family who was visiting a young man that we stopped in to visit a couple of times, well he was still there. Unfortunately, his white blood cell counts were low and I couldn't visit with Josie, but I did pop my head into his room to say we were thinking of him and wish him "Love and Good Wishes" and to "Get Well Soon!" Josie needs to make a Get Well Card for him. We do that for "special patients" from time to time. His fiance was in the room with him. They all smiled when they saw Josie at the door. But with low white blood cell counts, I cannot let her in the room.

So I went back to the Nurses station to see if any other patients would benefit from a Josie visit. So one of the Nurses went to check on a patient Taylor and she actually came back to the station with him. He had his I.V. and everything. I told him I could come to his room and have Josie visit with him there. And he explained that if I did that, that Josie would be going home with him. That's how much he loves dogs. I laughed. I understand. I gave him some doggie treats and he fed them to Josie. He smiled huge smile and I had Josie do some tricks for him. I told him I would stop by tomorrow and have him come out again to visit with Josie and he said that would be fantastic.

And the night ended on a very good note. Then one of the Nurses said, "I have one more patient for you to visit" and she led Josie and myself down the hall and she opened the door to a room and there was a patient who I knew, Steve. Steve was the patient (also mentioned in the earlier Post: Back To Our Hospital Visits) whose wife intercepted me and asked me to visit him when he was Respiratory. Josie had visited him back in late Nov/early Dec, I believe. Anyway, I was SOOO happy to see Steve. I said, "I've been looking for you! But I was hoping you were released and went home." And he said, "No, not me" Turns out he's fighting a few things, but I believe he's going to get better soon. He looks good and boy, did he perk up when he saw Josie. Just like our last visit, he started patting the bed and said " Come 'on Josie! Up! Up!" and up on the bed she went, after I laid her blanket down, of course. Took her a few minutes to get used to the breathing bag he had on his face for oxygen. Josie's funny that way. Anything new, she has to check out. Then once she does, she settles in. By a few minutes into the visit, she had her head resting on Steve's lap all comfy and cute, sleeping. Steve was petting her, all cute too. Then his wife, Joyce arrived, and as she walked through the door she says, "Ahhh!!! We have Josie and the Pussycats visiting us! You found us!!!" She was so happy to see Josie there. It was so apparent. I ended up staying for about 45 minutes talking with them. What a nice couple they are. I promised them I would definitely visit them again tomorrow.

It's really hard not to get attached to certain people. Especially the ones you see night after night. If you see someone one night and you come back and they've gone home. Well, at least you know you did your job and cheered them up and they are feeling better and got to go home. But, for a patient like Steve, who is there for more than a week or two. Well, you just want to help them. You want to fix them somehow. And the only way I know how to do that is to visit them with Josie and lift their spirits, cheer them up, take their mind off their sickness or the disease they are fighting. Give them hope. Make them laugh and smile. Share a story or two. Be their friend. And I don't take it lightly. I give all of that whole heartedly and so does Josie. She gives 200% of her doggie heart. And it's all volunteer work.

Now for all of you who are are asking for photos of the Pussycats...come back tomorrow as I will have pictures and a story posted of all the Pussycats for you to see and read about. Meow..


But for now....Much Love and Woof Woof!!!