Love comes, goes, but always endures....

You think dogs will not be in heaven?

I tell you, they will be there long 

 before any of us.       

                                                                                   
                                     ~ Robert Louis Stevenson                                                                                                                                                

As Jesus was surrounded by "dumb" animals in the manger, so will we be in heaven - thank you, God!  

Silverwalk is a small, private, licensed dog sanctuary in Cape Girardeau County, MO. It specializes in Beagles, other hounds and senior dogs. There are always dogs needing adoption and sponsorship. Please see our website Silverwalk Beagle & Hound Sanctuary, Inc. for more information about Silverwalk and our dogs needing homes.

Reason for the Season

The reason for this season of Christmas is love - the love of God for the human race and the earth He made. 

Welcome to the Babe, God in human form as Jesus, humbling Himself into a human body as Love personified.

Silverwalk in particular remembers Joan in her healing process, Penney, Spanky and Bodie in their new heavenly home and all those, human and animal, who are in need this season and every day of the year. 

  

Silverwalk, Inc. is a small, private, licensed dog sanctuary in Cape Girardeau County, MO. It specializes in Beagles, other hounds and senior dogs. There are always dogs needing adoption and sponsorship. Please see our website Silverwalk Beagle & Hound Sanctuary, Inc. for more information about Silverwalk and our dogs needing homes.

Everyone is okay....

Oh, my, not nice things have been happening to very nice people.  Please check out the blog of my friends at PAWS in Marion, AR.  It is in my list to your right.  Their adoption coordinator, Joan, was in an auto accident in which she suffered a concussion and a broken leg.  My initial sight of Joan several years ago was her pulling up in her van filled w/dogs.  She would drive all over w/her rescues, go home and let them potty, then they would all pile back in for more errands and rescue work.  No dogs were in her car at the time (I think - if there were, none were hurt).  So, if ANYONE can help this rescue a bit, please do.  My rescue dog Scout is from there as well the two I am fostering for them, Oxford and Lady Bird. 

Which leads me to the next accident (or MVC - motor vehicle crash).  Lady Bird had been slated to go to ME this week to her new foster/rescue via PAWS.  She was still on track until the Puppy Bus was totaled!  Again, no one hurt but Lady Bird's transport is delayed.  Actually, it is just as well.  I am going to bring her back home from boarding  - yes, if anyone wants to help w/her boarding bill, please send donations to La Croix Pet Hospital or Busch's Kennel - I have become very, very flabby since I haven't been walking her every day.  The others get their exercise in the yard and w/the volunteers and yes, I need to be walking and working them, too.  Lady Bird has to be walked as she cannot be free in the yard - and this is the dog who can pace my car at 25 mph; we walk fast! 

My home for the holidays dog, Cindy Lou Who, was adopted last Friday; I am hoping her foster mom will foster someone else; she really liked Agnes :).  I did have a call from someone else after the article in the paper Sunday asking to foster a Beagle.  You bet I have a Beagle - in fact, both Oxford and Little Lenny would very much benefit from a short term foster home for Christmas. 

Oh, what article in the paper?  Practically the whole Good Times section! There is Pause before giving Paws,  Deed of the Week and the rest of the story, Program give Pets a Home for the Holidays.  My personal spin on this idea would be to short term foster after the holidays, when people are not so distracted.  Those who want to foster Silverwalk dogs, however, are very aware of how to manage, adapt for their foster during holiday times.  We are very, very thankful to the Southeast Missourian as well as Petfinder.com and Iams for helping Silverwalk find good fosters for a few of our dogs. 

Silverwalk is a small, private, licensed dog sanctuary in Cape Girardeau County, MO. It specializes in Beagles, other hounds and senior dogs. There are always dogs needing adoption and sponsorship. Please see our website Silverwalk Hound Sanctuary for more information about Silverwalk and our dogs needing homes.

A New Normal

We are easing into our new "normal."  For the first part of the week, I struggled to feed or rather, not feed, dogs no longer here, emptying bowls multiple times.  Going anywhere in the car has proven challenging, as either Spanky or Penney had been with me - mostly Spanky since her arrival.  The pack has been much more quiet, hanging around "mom" more, even Shiloh.  He will still go out and make his neighborhood rounds but then is pretty much home for the day at lunch.

I need and want to thank EVERYONE who sent comments to this blog or via email to me or Silverwalk for their prayers, condolences and offers of help of multiple kinds.  My friend Rochelle made a collage of Penney photos (she is a photographer extraordinaire) which warms my heart every time I see it.  Another friend, Melanie, who was part of the group who saved Spanky and "her gang" (HA - for those old enough to remember or fans of Nick at Night), railed in her online newspaper blog about rescues needing to be responsible enough to not send on dogs with aggression issues to other rescues or adopters.  Bodie did have aggression issues which had been handled in his smaller foster home but which escalated here :(.   NO ONE meant for any of this to happen.  As the director and chief pooper scooper of Silverwalk, the responsibility for the well being of every dog here rests with me.  It is up to me to monitor the health of each dog as well as the health of the pack as a whole.  I then, in collaboration with the board of Silveralk, need to do something about it if necessary, if only to keep it healthy.  This is why Silverwalk is not accepting any more dogs till at least January - so I and the new board can review what and who we have, formulate and update policies/procedures and address the future of our beloved dogs, personal and rescue. 

I was sent a link to a Bloodhound in need in TN.  OMGoodness.  He was thin but gorgeous.  Thank God when I called he had been adopted that morning :)!  He would have been too tempting.....

Again, thank you.  I look forward to moving on but keeping the treasure of the kind and numerous responses to our loss in my heart, remembering to act myself on behalf of anyone else facing despair in whatever form.

Pawprints on my and others' hearts : Penney, Spanky, Bodie - may you all RIP.

Silverwalk is a small, private, licensed dog sanctuary in Cape Girardeau County, MO. It specializes in Beagles, other hounds and senior dogs. There are always dogs needing adoption and sponsorship. Please visit Silverwalk Beagle & Hound Sanctuary website for more information about Silverwalk and our dogs needing homes.

Disaster at Silverwalk

Silverwalk is a small, private, licensed dog sanctuary in Cape Girardeau County, MO. It specializes in Beagles, other hounds and senior dogs. There are always dogs needing adoption and sponsorship. Please see our website Silverwalk Hound Sanctuary for more information about Silverwalk and our dogs needing homes.

I am copying to you, my readers and fellow dog lovers, the email I sent out at the end of Saturday, December 5, 2009 re: the events of that morning.  I simply cannot re-write what happened so I beg your indulgence and most of all, your prayers.

Penney - "my" hound of diverse ancestry who marched to her own drummer and blessed my life.  Godspeed as you are beloved in heaven. 

"It is with a sad and heavy heart I write this to you today -

This morning before 0900, a skirmish in my dog pack turned silently deadly.  When it was over, my beloved Penney, my hound of diverse ancestry who had been rescued pregnant from a ditch by Lisa E., was dead - her throat ripped apart and her internal jugular torn.  Penny had been w/me about 7 years.  She had just had about the best check up of her life w/Dr. Ann Seabaugh, who was available to us this morning.   Most of the dogs were blooded - it is how I knew something terrible had happened.  I saw little Sheila the Sheltie w/her front bib streaked w/blood not her own.   When I found Penney, she was still breathing and growling at dogs coming near her.  She was passing, though.  By the time I got a towel and blanket in which to transport her, she was in heaven.  Penney had never, ever sought a fight.  She would walk away, turn her head; however, if pushed, she would stand up for herself.  I don't know how many were pushing her :(.  I do know from the blood spatters that both Bodie and Spanky were intimately involved with Spanky making the kill.  Bodie was already slated to be euthanized due to his persistent human aggression; how I wish I had taken him to the vet earlier this week.  I don't know how Spanky was turned to be so vicious to Penney.  Both Bodie, who I no longer trusted after his aggression to me several times over the course of his stay here and Spanky, who I could never, ever trust again, not after seeing w/Dr. Ann exactly what had happened to Penney, went to heaven today as well. 

Please, do not ask nor suggest to anyone that I can/could take in any more dogs.  Silverwalk is in mourning as well as observing a moratorium on intake till at least January.  I need to learn the lessons of today, to apply them to myself, my dogs and the future of Silverwalk.  I do ask for your prayers for those who have died, for myself, for the dogs left and for the future of Silverwalk as we seek to recover.  Silverwalk will cont. as a licensed rescue, will be smaller in numbers than I had allowed it to become and will have a board to help with management as well as applying for 501c3 status.  With God's help, it will cont. to collaborate w/rescues/shelters as previously and seek to save Beagles and hounds on a limited number basis. 

I need to thank Melanie for coming out ASAP when I texted her, for Dr. Ann's support and those at the clinic making this tragedy as bearable as possible, for Mark and Katie understanding what was happening even as it broke their hearts....

"Weeping only lasts till the morning....""