Monday April 2, 2007

Gem of the Day:


I am back home in Tulsa, Ok. now but this just in! One of our construction worker friends named ROCKO from NEW YORK just called in a hard sighting of our Annie. His 4 man crew chased her for one hour to an area where she is laying down resting. She runs when they get close but, we know where she is right now and EARS is on this and will get our humane traps moved to the area she is in right now. Please pray! We have not had a sighting since Saturday at 4 O'clock in the afternoon and were beginning to get worried! She is there right now and alive and able to run 20 miles an hour, which is what Rocko clocked her at. I clocked her at 30 miles an hour when I was there!
The red line shows where she has traveled since Thursday night on this map!

SEE WHERE WE HAVE TRACKED ANNIE SO FAR!

(By requests, we're going to be including the "How to Donate to Small Paws " links at the VERY beginning of our newsletters,
so you don't have to go hunting through them! Thanks, all, Robin)

To donate to Small Paws Rescue you may use your major credit card securely, at this site.
This is our own credit card server. It is secure!

If you have made a past donation using your credit card, you may e-mail Stephanie Hunter, at SPRFluff@aol.com and let her know the amount of your donation to help these Bichons.

You may also call your credit card donation in to Janet Byrn at 508-801-3106. She is on Eastern Standard Time!

In January of 2007 we paid $23, 119. 55 in vet bills

In February, 2007, We Paid Vet Bills Totalling $36, 450.23

So far in March, 2007, we have paid vet bills totalling $33, 026. 56 and we still have a week left to go in March


Last Monday night we paid $7593.25 for just one week of vet bills.

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Small Paws® Rescue Outreach: Puerto Vallarta Mexico

Dear Small Pawsers,

Welcome to the newest members of our online mailing list, especially if you have seen us featured in one of our recently updated media articles , read about us in the best selling book "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul", or if you saw Small Paws on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams!

Small Pawsers everywhere welcome you with open arms! We sincerely hope that you enjoy "Small Pawsing and reading Small Paws!"

If you are new to Small Pawsing, this may look as if it is coming only to you but really it is going out to fellow Small Pawsers all across our country and in 22 foreign countries as well!

Adoption information is posted below. Turn up your speakers!
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I'll try to get a normal newsletter out as soon as I can with reports of recent SPR Bichon Bashes, medical updates, etc.

I wanted to let you all know that I'm back at home base, here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. this morning. I flew back home yesterday afternoon.

Do not worry! We have not ended our search efforts for Annie!

I had to come back home to do a commercial kennel pick up of fou Bichons this week in Mo. The owner doesn't want anyone else but me coming there, and I'm grateful that she does trust that I will not share her information or location with anyone else.

As you know, some rescuers threaten these commercial kennel owners, some even threatening to burn down their homes. When that happens, it makes them distrustful of all of us.

Ok! I want to give you all an update, with pictures, on the ever continuing search for Annie, our puppy mill rescue who bolted from her new adoptive owner near Englewood Florida, 5 weeks and 4 days ago. And we have some pictures for you. If I had time while I was there, I would have sent them for you to see, sooner!

This is one of the canals that run behind every other street in these Florida neighborhoods.
The streets either have a green belt or a canal. Alligators live in the canals. I can't remember if I took this picture at dawn or dusk, but it was one of those two times.


This is one of the less dense areas of terrain. Notice how all of this is open and the brush is low to the ground, giving her man places to hide. These hiding places are also home to 30 pound bobcats.


The GMC envoy that I rented. It was barely large enough to hold all of our cages, the net gun case, and our other tools. I'm glad I rented an SUV. We needed it. I was very impressed with this vehicle. I didn't think I would ever be really impressed with anything other than a Volvo, after driving my 1998 Volvo V70 T5 wagon. I was wrong!
The magnetic signs looked great and served two purposes. One was to let residents know that I wasn't a burglar, and the other was to give them a chance to write down the phone number in case of a sighting. I felt like the ice cram man the way the residents would see me coming and would rush my vehicle with sightings of Annie. Again, notice the terrain.


I saw this vulture eating something with white fur and my heart dropped. When I investigated further I found it was a dead possom.


Armadillos were everywhere out there.


Jay Crocker met me at a Circle-K where I stopped to get something to drink. He saw the sign on the car and offered this humungous honkin' big hog trap. When I first saw it the neighbors said I said, "Oh my God." seventeen times in a row. I felt like God himself had sent this trap to us, as we had done nothing to procure it for ourselves!

Lauri Caron from the Octogon Wildlife Sanctuary OK'd the hog trap as a safe trap for Annie.
It's out there and set, but we believe that Annie has since moved to another area as we have had no sightings since Sat afternoon at 4.

This is the large cage that we ordered. We bought it at cost for $129.00 (Retail was $399.00)
and after hearing of our plight, the company generouly paid to overnight it to us for free. Previously, several hav-a- heart traps (on loan from the Suncoast Humane Society) were set but we believe they were too small to entice Annie.


Local resident, a very caring man who goes by "Buzz", prepares to set the trap on his property.


Local neighbors all came together for one purpose. To help us to find Annie. Don Olsen, the man who has Humane Society experience, told me that this was the best thing to happen to this neighborhood since he has lived there. Annie is bringing people togather without even knowing it.
Who is that on her knees in the front?


Laurie Caron, Lion Woman, poses for the camera. She and I became quite a team out there, tromping through snake infested brush, and using hand signals to try to sneak up on this little white dog who is obviously smarter than all of us put together.
We were the blonde leading the blonde. On one occasion we were referred to as "two female subjects" by the Sheriff's department. One of the neighbors was worried when they saw us behind their home at night with flashlights. We always tried to ring bells and let them know what we were doing but after my make up melted off in the evening, I guess I was too scary for this resident to even open her door so that we could explain what we were doing, snooping in her yard!
Lauri gave out free passes to her wildlife sanctuary to the residents who were actively helping us. Wow. What a gal.


The view from the deck of the Shallow's Beach House. 8 nights were donated to us on Annie's behalf. George and Dolores Lang put me up for my last night there, in their beautiful home in Venice, Fl. They took wonderful care of me, sending me out to the site with a hot packed chicken dinner and ice cold drinks in a portable cooler. Thank you George and Dolores! I treasure the short time I spent with you!

My days consisted of being out to the site first thing in the morning and driving until around noon when the temps hit 80. Then I would take a couple of hours off in the afternoons and use that time to contact local businesses or residents, hand out fliers, and locate tools that we needed for the search. (trap cages, nets, night vision binoculars, magnetic signs, etc.

I would go back out at around 4:30 P.M. and stay until I couldn't keep my eyes open around 1-2 A.M. Evenings were busy. I tried my best to win friends and influence people, updated neighbors and workers in the area, hopefully getting them to feel as if they, too, were a part of this rescue, because they are!

For those of you who don't know the story of Annie, this is what happened.

We rescued her from an Amish puppy mill in Wisconsin. She was in foster care for over 8 months.

Annie bolted from her new owner on her second day there in Florida. She was still dragging a pink leash. Her adoptive Mom surrendered Annie back to SPR after this happened because she was too upset by Annie's escape.

After Small Paws again owned Annie, we of course went into full LOST DOG mode.

Annie has been sighted in this same neighborhood, over 120 times. Until last Thursday night, we knew exactly which area she was in. This is a neighborhood in the round. Each piece of the "pie" has hundreds of homes and mile-long streets. Many empty lots covered with heavy jungle line these streets.

It's like trying to find a monkey in a jungle. Her survival skills are unbelievable. You would have to see it to believe it!

Before this morning, the last hard sighting we had of Annie, was from a resident at 4 oclock on Saturday, over one mile from her last sighting place.

I personally tracked this dog, by car, doing 30 miles an hour, for over one mile. If I had not seen this I would not believe it. I guess no one has ever had cause to see how fast a Bichon can run, or a place to do it safely. I now know that one can run 30 miles an hours and no I am not kidding.

These are the things we have done up to now to attempt to bring Annie back in custody. We have put 150% into recovering this little puppy mill rescue and will continue to do so!
(These are the things that have been done to get Annie since Feb 26, 2007)

Massive Prayer Effort around the world in 22 countries.
Hundreds of flyers with Annie's picture have been handed out to local residents and businesses.
Newspaper "lost" ads have run, telling about the $500.00 reward.
Vicki Nixon alone, tried laying on ground with food in her hand enticing Annie
Vicki tried sitting on ground with food being quietly tossed to Annie
Vicki tried running on foot on golf course trying to see Annie
Driving in golf cart around entire golf course searching for Annie's
hiding spots
2 people - 1 in front of house, 1 behind house trying to catch her
4 people - around different sides of house/empty lot to catch her
10 -11 pm Driving and dropping food down side of street (no cars)
hoping to entice Annie to come out
Jumping at leash that Annie was dragging as she ran by
Baiting live traps with food
Placing bait and urine of foster dog brother in and around crate
Foster mom walking and calling for Annie with her scent and
foster dog brother's urine scent in container
Foster mom urinating around trap area to bring Annie out
Getting 4 surrounding counties of Animal Control assistance
Getting assistance of the Florida Game and Wildlife commission
Bringing other breed dogs out looking to attract Annie
Bringing retired search dog (German Shepherd) out looking
Bringing 2 Bichons & 1 Cairn Terrier (on 3 separate streets) looking
Vicki & 17 volunteers walking street together (including a group of Eagle Scouts)
Vicki & 17 volunteers splitting up on 2 streets and walking
Vicki & 17 volunteers splitting up between 4 houses/lots
where Annie is running between and making "wall of blankets"
(2) 16 yr old boys waiting with nets to put over Annie
Feeding stations to get Annie to trust, with no traps around
Media coverage - newspapers running info every week
Live Radio program (daily on 1530 AM to alert public)
Meat with sedative in hoping Annie will eat and slow down
Laurie (from Octagon Sanctuary ) - fish with sedative to get Annie to eat
Bigger live traps with food set inside
Loose nets to put over Annie (circular, weighted, elongated)
Throwing nets, dropping nets, nets on ground over food
for Annie to get caught in
Lauri (Octagon) dart gun hitting Annie - Annie running. Lori
searching bushes for over 3 hours & again next day
Used night vision binoculars loaned by a Rotunda West resident.
Trying to locate GPS system to include:
Contacted 4 companies that manufacture GPS system. None are available for darting guns that match Lori's syestem. New system would be close to $10, 000.00 and cost prohibitive. Having such a system doesn't guarantee the dart would remain in the dog. If it fell out, so would the GPR chip.
Private wild life relocators were contacted and they won't come out for domestic animals.
Animal Parks, Zoo's, Sanctuary's were contacted.
Attempts to get assistance from Jack Hannah of Columbus Zoo
Attempts to find bigger traps (5 feet long)
Commercial fisherman brought to the site with casting nets. He can throw these nets 30 feet with 100% accuracy.
Recording of dogs barking in a kennel being played out the window as Robin drove the street where Annie was last seen.
Set tiger sized large trap used for trapping wild boars. This trap is 8 feet long by 6 feet high by 4 feet wide.
Set 29X24X60 humane trap.
Robin put 1560 miles in 12 days on the rental vehicle, (unlimited milage contract) searching for Annie's location. Lodging was 6.9 miles away. The majority of these miles were done at the site, at 10-20 miles an hour.
Magnetic signs advertising reward and phone number were on vehicle doors at all times of the search. We left those signs with Katie from EARS to be used by volunteers in their continued search.
10 residents are being led by one couple on site with humane society experience.
Robin returned home after 12 days in Florida. We shored up the volunteer base there, including local residents, who will continue local rescue efforts and man traps .>

We continue to track her and to try to trap her with human traps. Please pray as neighbors and EARS take over moving these traps!

Next, we have sad news about little Boundary. Thanks to those of you who tried to help him. His foster Mom was Vicki Inglee, (vette99@tampabay.rr.com).

Bounder Small Paws went into emergency surgery on Thursday, for a suspected intestional blockage. When they opened him up they found cancer everywhere. It was malignant. The tumor was wrapped in and out of his intestines and they could not remove it. Bonnie and I gave the order for them to euthanize Bounder on the table, while he was still under.
Bounder is ok now. I know right where he is. His former owners turned him into a shelter there in Florida because they would no longer afford the vet bills. We had him in rescue two days before determining that emergency surgery was needed. Godspeed little Bounder.
He suffered terribly with this huge tumor. He was five pounds underweight. He is suffering no more.
My Jesus has him now! He is just a wagging his little tail! (Bounder, not Jesus)

Ok, I have a stack of email a mile high, a stack of laundry a mile high, and at least a stack a mile high of dust on the furniture. Dale is good, but a housekeeper he is not. He's a man. He can't help it.

I'll try to get a regular newsletter out to you as soon as I can. It may be tomorrow morning. I love you guys and felt your prayers while I was down in Florida. Praying for me was the greatest gift you could give.

I was not snakebitten, injured or sick. I learned that I was a lot stronger physically than I thought I was. The 92.5 # change in my weight is what enabled me to be able to do what I did for 12 days in Florida. I would not have even attempted it before. Thank you for praying for me and for continue to pray for Annie.

We have lost 29 Bichons or Bichon mixes, out of over 6000 rescued, since 1998.

We have recovered 28 of those lost dogs giving us a 100% track record, until Annie.

Annie will be coming home too. You can just hide in the bushes (with the snakes and alligators, lions and tigers and bears oh my) and watch!
God has protected her thus far from all of these things. He has always sent someone to sight her and report it to us.

This isn't a coincedence or an accident. This, my friends, is God! All My Love, Robin

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