Humu Humu Nuku Nuku Apuaa!

Just so you know, writing a blog is not all it is cracked up to be! I love doing it but sometimes find it difficult to think of topics. Then, on other nights, I cannot narrow down which topic I would like to discuss. This night is one of the former...

We did have some wonderful things happen today...

A rescue group from Hawaii decided to make a very generous donation to the care of Sasha and Little Princess's medical needs after reading my previous blogs. They are both doing very well and are now listed for adoption on our website... www.jewellvetonline.com on our adoptable animals page, then follow the link to http://www.adoptapet.com/shelter69897-pets.html .

The group from Hawaii is Starfire Companion-Animal Sanctuary or www.starfire-sanctuary.org . They are battling a problem that cannot be handled in some of the ways we handle them here in the Midwest. If a Golden Retriever in Missouri or Iowa is in dire need because our own rescues are full, generous people pull the dog from it's current location and transport it to a breed rescue in another state like RAGOM www.RAGOM.org so the dog is safe and another cage is open for the next stray. We are fortunate to share our problems when we need help, and to extend our hands when we can be of help.

In Hawaii, they are unable to move animals on to another state's group because of obvious geographical hurdles, they are surrounded by ocean! Their problem is local and will remain local until they can get a handle on it with assistance from grants such as Maddie's Funds, and hopefully with help from groups like the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (formerly RAVS Rural Area Veterinary Services). HSVMA is a group that travels to remote areas in the US and around the world to aid animal welfare movements via no cost spay and neuter programs. World Vets is another group they should consider for assistance. www.worldvets.org . I hope to someday assist these groups and travel with them when my children are older. I hope Starfire will look into these programs, and that one or both of these programs will consider helping them. I am not familiar with the qualifications for getting these groups involved, but hope Hawaii will qualify. I sometimes wish separate states did not require individual licensing. I would love to just fly to Hawaii at my own expense and volunteer to do spays/neuters there for a few days!

Starfire's donation means so much more to me knowing that they are working so hard in an area with limited resources. Yet they extend their paws across the ocean to help two of my homeless huggables in need. Thank you Starfire Companion Animal Sanctuary! We appreciate your kindness! Please visit the links page on our website to see a new link to our Starfire friends.

Another wonderful happening was the sharing of some new video and photos of one of our adoptees! A family who adopted a young pup from us last year read my previous blog and posted the following...

"We adopted Jack (Brady) this time last year, and I was checking out the website and saw your blog. We try to keep up to date on him and our cat through our youtube (www.youtube.com/jackandbaileyshady) and photos (www.photobucket.com/meganandbrett). We are so glad you found/rescued him because some days (when he's nice to the cat) we don't know what we would do without him!"

The videos are just adorable. Take a look at how Jack (formerly Brady) has grown! What a handsome guy, and a professional water drinker, LOL! One video has him drinking water falling from above his head! So funny! I just love stories that come back to us in this way! They rarely come to us in video format, so this is even better!

So many people forget to share their stories with us! We just love to hear them. We don't always respond to them due to lack of time. This is no excuse, but it is our reason. We so often feel overwhelmed. But, we always take time to read and share these updates amongst all of us. You will just have to trust us there. Some of them make us cry, some make us laugh, but most of all, they make us feel good. They make us remember why we are doing this.

When our days, as in recent months, have few adoptions, and many requests to take in more dogs and cats than we have no room for, we can get to feeling rather down in the dumps having to say no, and wondering where the animals we say no to end up going. These adoption stories keep us going. So thank you for sharing. (Read as: If you have room to adopt even just one more pet, please do so, now...hopefully from us?!)

One more thing about the confusing nature of "the blog". I have a program that measures how many people are reading "the blog" (sounds like some sort of primitive creature or old movie title, doesn't it?). It tells me that so few people read the blog. But I have so many responses from people locally that read it, and people not locally that read it (ie Rhode Island (Wallis), Illinois (Lisa), Georgia (Kim), Hawaii (Torun)) , that the numbers I am getting could not possibly be accurate. I sometimes feel like I am taking time to write a blog that few people read according to my "feeds". I need to focus on you, my readers, my "remarkers" to remember more than 3 people are reading this, and continue my efforts in educating, entertaining, and asking for the occasional assistance. Even if the number is only 4, thank you for listening.

Thank you all for making this blog fun!
Now, what is your take on the title??? No cheating, don't google it!