For the remainder of Summer we’re focusing on building our foster parent group. Our success is based on that special person who can open their heart and home to foster a dachshund. If you haven’t fostered a dog you will certainly have many questions.

Fostering is not scary nor hard. Pet owners who foster our rescue dachshunds provide love, training, socialization and food. Fostering a dog may seem like a formidable task, but it is a very tangible way to make a difference. Everyone benefits: The foster volunteer gets to spend time with a special dog and the foster dog gets a second chance at becoming a cherished pet. The new owners get a dog that is better adapted to home life, and therefore has a better chance of remaining in the new home permanently.

Perhaps you are only are in a situation where you can not have a permanent commitment for many years, are elderly and are concerned what may happen to a dog if you need to move to a different living situation and can’t have a dog of your own or you may want to help unwanted dogs to save them from being euthanized or re-sold for back yard breeding. Fostering may provide the answer.

Many dogs end up in pounds through no fault of their own. Their owner may not be able to keep them any longer due to changed circumstances, they may have been lost and not located, or they may have simply been not wanted. Many dogs have had previous owners who did not take the time to properly train their dog and now have issues with the dog that they do not know how to correct or have time to.

Some of these dogs are happy and friendly and untouched by their experiences. Some become timid and insecure. Some are toilet trained, some are not. When you foster for us, we supply 24-hour support and if for any reason there is a problem with that dog not fitting in your household, we will give you complete backup. All vet bills and extra expenses are paid by us. It is up to you whether or not you want to cover the food costs. If not, we will provide the food for you.

After caring for the dog for a few days, fosterers will then advise us on the personality of the dog, the good points and any negative ones; and we can then advertise the dog on our website, on Petfinder, through our newsletters, in local newspapers, etc., and match the dog to the right adopter. We ask that our foster parents bring the dog to our events to give the dog exposure and to provide socialization opportunities. If you can not bring the dog, please contact an organizer to make arrangements to have the dog at our adoption events.

We do not have shelter capabilities, therefore we are limited to our rescue abilities to the amount of foster homes we have. The more available foster homes we have the more dachshunds we can save. We are constantly turning dogs away from rescue because we don’t have the availability to bring them in. We are all volunteers and have our own family, work and personal lives. We commit ourselves to this cause to help these unwanted dogs. We can not do it alone and require more foster homes and volunteers. We understand that there are more dogs out there that need help then we have room or time for, which is why we work on “Saving the world one wiener at a time.”

Fostering can be an incredibly rewarding experience – to see the look of trust and growing confidence in a dog that has been rescued from an unfortunate situation, and to watch it go to a person who will love and care for it. It is amazing to see the transformation a little love, patience and training can do. Fostering also allows you to have many loved dachshunds during your life time by providing them a temporary home to live in until they find their for ever home.

Foster homes must be able to provide a loving home, secure fencing, daily walks and some time each day spent interacting with your foster dachshund. If you do decide you would like to try fostering then a rescue representative will need to do a home check and you will need to complete an application. >> http://www.lvhddcr.com/fosterapp.php

We place a very high value on our foster parents, they make the wiener world a much better place.

Foster parents are the ones who make the doxie world go around. Without caring and passionate foster parents how on earth would these cute and in need dogs ever get the homes that they so well deserve?  It takes a special person to open their home, arms, and heart to care for a dog in need. It’s these foster parents who care for the ill and injured dogs, give them love so that they can trust again, exercise, rehab, socialize, train, and pamper them all in preparation for their next chapter in life.  We have awesome foster parents at our rescue and wish to add to that group of special people. If you’re interested in changing the life of a doxie we would love to hear from you.  The start the application process visit this link to read about it  adoption application form

Currently we have an immediate need for a foster parent for Red. He’s a handsome boy.

Photography by Pet’ographique 

In closing take a look at the cutie pie doxies who are currently in rescue.

Treat your dog and help a doxie.

Samantha made these cute and cuddly blankets for Hot Diggity Dachshund Club and Rescue. She had offered to sew these blankets for use for the dogs in rescue and also as fundraisers as part of her school community service. Little did we know how many of these blankets made with love we would receive. Accompanying some of the designs were matching hand made tug toys. The blankets are $8.00 each and if you’re interested in purchasing any please contact sloane@lvhddcr.com or leilani@lvhddcr

Operation Santa Paws ended on December 10^th and all our Santa Paws Volunteers picked up the donation boxes from our various drop-off locations. All the donations were then brought to the SantaPaws Coordinators house and everyone sorted through them to get them ready for the shelters and rescue groups.Rescue groups have been coming by to collect the much needed donations and are very happy!

The donations are being given to: Adopt a Rescue Pet, Noah’s Animal House, Nevada SPCA, Sin City Saint Rescue, German Shepherd Rescue, LV Humane Society & Shelter Pet Rescue Network. Our top drop-off location collectors are: Doggie District (North & South), Aloha Animal Hospital , Foxy Hound Pet Salon, Culinary K9 & Flea Bags Barkery & Bow-tique.

We’d like to give a special thanks to our wonderful volunteers Betty Parker, Andy Aitken, Lizz & Scott Johnson, Linn Jacobs, Gary & Kathy Moore, Sloane Weston, Melissa Beecroft and Ginny & Danny Lupinick. You were so much help in making this possible. We’d also like to give thanks to our Sponsor Mix 94.1, all the rest of our drop off locations and everyone who donated to Santa Paws. You all really helped many shelter animals this Holiday season!

Hi I’m Winnie,
I’m a Doxie mix who was hit by a car and left in the parking lot of a local 7-11. Dr. Foreman of Tropicana Animal Hospital was leaving work that night and saw me just lying there with my leg badly broken. He immediately took me back to the hospital and stabilized me. The Dr. called the Las Vegas Hot Diggity Dachshund Club and Rescue asked if they could take me in and care for me until I was able to be adopted. Dr. Foreman explained that I would need an operation to repair the damage to my leg, and that this operation would be expensive. Leilani (the President of Hot-Diggity) was called and she said “of course do the operation and we will raise funds for her) So thanks to Leilani and Dr. Foreman and other caring people that I received the operation that I needed and I’m in a loving foster home recuperating. I’m told I will be available for adoption as soon as I have recovered, meanwhile I have some medical bills that I need to pay and I would love to ask for your help. If you can donate any money to my medical bills I would appreciate it so much and my tail will wag with sheer doxie joy!!!

If you click the magic link below you’ll be able to donate

DONATE

I appreciate it is not a Doxie rescue story, so I hope you will indulge me, as it is in the spirit of rescue

My Step-daughter Alisha (who is currently visiting from England) and I were out walking my 2 dogs

Tia (Japanese Akita) & Mac (Pitbull/Akita Mix)

As we walked down our lane, a little black dog, shot out from one of the
houses across the street and ran towards us. Tia (as she often does) barked at the little dog and after realising that TIa was considerable bigger than she was, quickly retreated back to the house she came from.

Alisha, the dogs and I continued down to the park and had a lovely walk as the day was quite cool. As we entered back into our lane, the little dog was still there, but sitting on the front porch of the ladies house across the street. Unfortunatley, said lady is quite disabled and already has a Chow Chow that is not the most friendly dog, so after I delivered Tia and Mac back home, I decided to go and investigate.

She was sat, quite timid, on the front porch still and hadn’t moved and I could see that she was still very much a baby. I slipped a spare leash onto her and then knocked on the ladies door to ask her if she knew anything about her little visitor.
She told me that the little dog had been hanging around her house and because it was quite hot, had put out water and food for her. Unfortunately she could not invite her in because her dog would be very unhappy.

I asked her is she would like me to take her and try and find out where she had come from, and in a relieved tone of voice said ‘That would be wonderful’

I knocked on a few doors to see if anyone knew where the dog had come from, but no-one had any idea who she was, or who she belonged to.

As she was quite hot and obviously thirsty and hungry, I decided the best thing to do would be to take her home and give her something to eat and drink and then resume the search.

Now I will stop here, because as I was thinking this another thought was going through my head. My Husband would be very unhappy about the idea for 2 reasons. Tia is not known for her friendly demeanor towards other dogs, however anyone that knows Vic, knows that he is a huge softy and would instantly fall in love with her. So as I took her home, he decided it would be best to take the kids out for lunch, so he couldn’t spend any time with her

Before he managed to escape, however I stole away to Hualapai Veterinary Centre to see if she had a chip as she didn’t have a collar on or any tags to identify where she came from. The nurses all loved her and agreed with me that she should not be handed in to the pound or animal control. The vet too a quick look over her and told us that she was healthy enough, but quite dehydrated, and estimated her age at approximately 2 months old.

He scanned he but there was no chip. It was so sad to think that such a gorgeous little thing like this was not well enough taken care of to even have a micro-chip. She was so friendly and loving and just seemed so glad to have someone to play with and take care of her.

Realising that she was going to be staying with us for a few days, I swung by Petsmart to pick up some puppy food and a collar for her and called my husband to tell him the news. He was not happy, only because we have tried fostering before and that’s how we ended up adopting Mac, he cannot say no any dog. Regardless I put my foot down and said that we were taking ownership of the problem, because if it were one of our dogs, we would like to think that someone would do the same for us.

So she arrived home.
Tia and Mac were a little apprehensive at the little bundle of black fur that was squeaking with excitement to meet her new friends. She settled in very quickly and after eating a hearty meal and having a brush she found her spot very quickly next to Vic on the couch!!

Tia and Mac had a good sniff (it was like a sniff train going around the kitchen counter for a while) and were eventually properly introduced.

We posted information all over the neighbourhood and on-line – but so far we have not had any calls about her. Its a real shame, but at the same time, I am quite glad, because she seems to have already fit in as a member of my pack and has been happily rolling around the floor with Mac for most of the day. The funny thing is, he is quite happy to let her pull at his face and his tail and his legs (Not so much the other parts though ) because he now has another pup to play with.

I spoke to my great friend Sam (Vegas Rock Dog) about it and she said, as I suspected, that someone probably dumped her, as any reasonable family would have posted information on lamp-posts etc to try and find her.
<img src="http://doxiediaries.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/l_1600_1200_b21edb18-5e8a-4116-a431-6ac841d4e487.jpeg" alt="" class="alignnone size-full"
So one mans loss is (at least for now) is our gain. The kids and hubby decided to call her Missy, (I wanted to call her Stella, I am hoping I may still get my way lol) because she is a right little cheeky Miss sometimes. Jumping around on everything soft, including the other dogs and all the family and using them all a chew toys. However she has found her place in the heirarchy very quickly and is a very happy, playful normal puppy.

I hope this story inspires more of you to send in your stories about the dogs that you have rescued.

Please send them directly to me on suzanneburkeconsultant@googlemail.com