All under one rooftop....Reunion No Kill finally a reality!

Amber getting down on Kong

It's been a long, long time since I was able to wake up in the morning with a song in my heart. I am very grateful for all the Reunion Rescue dogs living great lives and the ones who haven't found their homes yet, living a good life at Reunion Rescue No Kill Refuge, the only raw feeding holistic no kill pit bull shelter in the world.

It ain't perfect yet, but it's a hell of a lot better than it was. For years, we've boarded our Texas and California dogs while thinking we just were not set up to be a shelter. The Texas dogs were boarded at Spindletop which was raided last summer. We made four trips to Conroe to get some of our dogs back, but Stella was killed with 37 others in the Morgan Building. Many other dogs are still missing and presumed dead.


Just as the dust was settling over the Spindletop tragedy, we began making plans to bring our three remaining California dogs which were being boarded in Lodi. What's three more, right? Once you've set your mind to run a sanctuary, it's really not that hard.

BeBe at the lake

We are set up here on the river outside Austin, Texas to comfortably house these animals. Each of these dogs came from nasty beginnings.

Amber and Stella were butchered and noosed in a hot Houston vacant lot. Stella still had blood running down her head when she was found and we raised money to board them at Spindletop.

BeBe doing some Christmas shopping

BeBe burying her Kong

BeBe, formerly known as Batgirl, was beaten severely with a baseball bat and scheduled to die in Austin.

Merry Christmas from Nolan

Nolan was starved nearly to death outside Dallas and on his way to Spindletop when news of the raid and seizure hit. Luckily, his transporter turned the car around, but not before Leah Purcell pocketed over a thousand dollars which had been raised for his care. Heartworm positive and down to 70 pounds, this beautiful Great Dane/American Bulldog mix is thriving at Reunion on a raw diet and lots of sunshine and exercise. He's even well enough to finally be neutered for Christmas.

Peanut and Scott

Peanut was named 'Feo' and pulled illegally by Purcell from city of Alvin shelter last December. It's anyone's guess how much money she made off this dog. Since The American Pit Bull Examiner covered his story in the first place, Reunion felt a kinship with Peanut, so here he is. Peanut had a lot of fearful problems he's working on and goes to work with Scott these days. Along with his herbal remedy and raw diet, Peanut's 'job' has turned out to be the very best medicine.

Peanut and Scott..just a job

Angel overcame his abuse from Spindletop so quickly, he was able to join Murmur and Barbara in Minnesota where he's now called Hub and enjoying a Dickinson life in a small quaint town.

Our sweet brave William

William was one of the three left boarding in California. There was a lot of rumor and innuendo about William, but he is proving them all wrong. He came from the hellhole Stockton shelter after being burned, starved and drug behind a truck.

He was transported all the way to Texas with Guido and Kingston, a.k.a. King James/Spuds, and is thriving in a fab foster home. He is living the high life in a doggy day care Disneyland, eating a raw diet and happy for the first time in his whole life.

Guido Sarducci on the trail

Guido, from Wasco, and Kingston from Marin Humane, who is blind, arrived quite obese. They've been under-exercised and over-crated. Although Reunion is all about the crate as it provides a safe and confidence inspiring environment, mimicking the wild instinct, the crate is certainly not intended to be utilized 24/7. Kingston's muzzle was scarred and covered in dried bloodied marks which look as if he'd been stressed from over-crating.

Guido and Kingston were a very hard sell on the raw. Who knows what these two have been eating? We've tried just about everything from raw ground chicken blend to ground beef blend, chicken livers, yes...even kibble...but nada. I tried boiled chicken spiked with cottage cheese and even some cheddar flavored 'Easy Cheese' to no avail.

Kingston hoofing it the natural way

This morning we had a major breakthrough. Green tripe is the daily blue plate special for these two persnickety customers. First, I filled a couple of empty marrow bones with tripe and when that was snarfed down, filled a couple of big Kongs. It was a winner! Finally, getting some raw meat into these two boys. From experience, I know it's all gonna be easy pickings from here on in. Kingston's face is healing with new pink skin growth. Both these boys have relaxed and begun to settle in very nicely.

I've not had the time to sit down and write an update on these guys. Each day, I try to get each dog a nice nature hike. It's amazing to see these precious dogs doing what dogs are supposed to do. They are enjoying good healthy diets filled with ingredients their bodies were created to eat. They are exercising and learning to love the sounds of wild birds and lizards scurrying through the brush, the smells of browning leaves and sound of flowing fresh water creeks. They feel the freedom of warm sunshine on their happy faces and are slowly learning that tomorrow is another day and holds something new and fresh, an adventure. We are learning this together, that this sad old world can really be a happy place if we just put one foot in front of the other and believe.

Reunion Rescue Singing Pit Bulls 2013 Calendar

Just as I got all the photos up and running along with a dedicated song for each Reunion pit bull, the whole thing came crashing down. I clicked the link and nada! I lost everything that had taken weeks to create.

After sweating a ton of bullets, I did what every self-respecting pit bull rescuer does. I started over. That's one thing I've learned from these wonderful dogs. Life comes at your sideways most times and the best you can do is dust off and go at it again.

Amazingly, I was able to get the calendar up and running in just a day.

This year's calendar features Reunion pit bulls who have something to sing about. Some of our dogs like BeBe were pulled from the horrors at Spindletop while other longtimers like Pip and Bruce Willis found amazing forever homes.

Guido Sarducci, King James and William are on their way to Texas to join us at the Reunion Rescue No Kill Refuge, the only holistic raw feeding sanctuary and refuge in the world.

Take a look at our little songbirds like Toot Toot, Peanut, BeBe, Amber, Nolan, Bruce Willis, Casper, Benny and the rest of the gang yodeling their little hearts out in the calendar.

All royalties from calendar and other product sales go 100% toward saving dogs at Reunion Rescue. No salaries, no mortgages, no trips, no parties..just saving and caring for the animals.

To order the Reunion Rescue 2013 Singing Pit Bull Calendar, click the following link and help us save the world, one pit bull at a time:

http://www.zazzle.com/reunion_rescue_2013_singing_pit_bulls_calendar-158688580284453985

Good girls get the cookies

I learned an expensive and good lesson from BeBe the other day. People don't give you cookies if you misbehave. Hmmm. For years I've been claiming it's no accident I rescue pit bulls.

I've never been one to back down over things that matter to me. There's an old saying, 'if you stop to fight with every barking dog, you'll never get to town.' That has come back around to bite me in the ass more than a couple of times. I guess the trick is to qualify what really matters.

Peanut sits for a cookie!

So how can I expect BeBe and the other dogs to behave, not bark, sit pretty and be nice without a reward? They all want a cookie. And...the nice girls get the cookies. A little secret, I call them all girls. Little Peanut from Alvin who was salvaged from the Spindletop raid had the hardest time learning a sit, but today he became a man. Today, Peanut offered his first sit for a cookie. Huge.

Peanut has the slim build of a habitual criminal. You know, the guys you see in prison, somebody's punk, like a Barney Fife who just fell in with the wrong crowd. Peanut came here very stressed out. He'd survived the high kill animal control in Alvin only to be pulled by Leah Purcell of Spindletop under Reunion Rescue's 501(c)(3). Slight problem, Reunion didn't even know until long after the raid and Peanut, then known as Feo, was being held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds by the authorities.

Since I'd written the initial story about Feo, I felt responsible for him. After all, he was a Reunion dog. Full here with the defacto no kill shelter we had to set up with limited resources, Feo was placed in boarding.

Angel, now Hub, was adopted by a longtime Reunion adopter who has relocated to Minnesota which opened up a spot for Feo. When Feo arrived, he was a total mess. He vomited everything and has terrible diarrhea. This went on for a couple of months. After several recent horror stories with conventional vets, I was certainly reticent to subject poor Feo to a battery of tests and what I knew they'd prescribe, nasty ass Metronidazole (Flagyl) which would leave him certainly worse for wear in the long run.

I held true to what I've learned homeopathically and started Peanut on a quality kibble diet, even though all the rescued cats and dogs here at the sanctuary are fed organic raw. I knew the jump to raw diet would stress his system and patience would win in the end.

It took a few weeks and slowly Peanut was transitioned to raw. First he, like Nolan, started on chicken necks and a beef blend, but eventually, he was chomping down on a chicken quarter like the best of them. Little narrow-ass Peanut had won. I knew he was truly on the road to recovery.

I also knew that Peanut would be a hard sell on the sit. For weeks, I could only get one sit per session from him, truly a half-ass sit, if you get my drift, by use of the tennis ball. Peanut is a ball freak. Loves to fetch.

He was not food oriented for obvious reasons. Who knows what and when he was eating at Spindletop and his gastro-intestinal problems dogging him from place to place had been very hard on his little system. Food was not Peanut's friend. He needed time and good nourishment on a steady basis to learn that food was a good thing.

Also, and very importantly, Peanut had probably never even seen a cookie. I had to remember this. Here is a poor boy whose system has been ravaged by bad food and some crazy lady waving more of it in his face saying, 'sit' which sounds like something in German. Poor baby.

But, today, he made the final step. Peanut sat for a cookie. And sat for another cookie. And again and again and again. I was ecstatic. I had to stop, because I knew I'd give him an upset stomach if I kept it up. Peaunut is a winner. He is going to be a wonderful pet someday when he learns he can trust people. I don't blame him for being a little slow to believe. I'm still trying to learn to trust people.

I'm also learning to be a good girl since good girls get the cookies in life. It works on people, too.

Girl is a living legend at almost 15

Girl in her prime

Girl is the dog in the Reunion Rescue logo. She is much more than that, though. As immortalized in Pit Bull Nation, she spent two months on death row in the high kill shelter where Reunion Rescue got its start.

As the volunteer photographer for the dogs and cats at the high kill San Francisco shelter, it was extremely depressing to continue to walk and try to promote these gorgeous dogs only to see them routinely put to sleep. I'm not one of those types of people who can deal with 'humane euthanasia.' I couldn't see killing all those dogs then and I certainly can't understand it now.

Girl...still kicking it!

I'd been walking Girl and placing her photographs all over town the entire time she was sequestered in Room 116, better known as the 'pit bull room.' The weekend after we walked in Gay Pride 2000, Girl was scheduled to be put to sleep. I couldn't let that happen.

I was still in the very beginnings of establishing Reunion Rescue. Looking back, I cringe at the time I wasted during the first year in meetings. Those people at animal control had absolutely no intention of working together to create a solution for the hundreds if not thousands of pit bulls being killed at that facility. The numbers at that same animal control today reflect the killing still going on.

I was younger and green. I thought because I loved these dogs, everyone would. Boy, was I wrong. Direct me to the ignorant section, please.

Today, at almost 15 years old, Girl has out-lived, out-lasted and out-played her way to a strong and happy life. She truly is a champion. Girl turned out to be quite the frisbee queen in her day. She was captain of the Reunion Rescue Pit Bull Frisbee Team and wowed the crowds to the tunes of Charlie Daniels and Guns and Roses.

She's moving a little slower these days, but with all the dignity and grace of the regal girl I saw for the first time all those years ago in the pit bull room. We both share a little white around the muzzle now, but the years Girl has spent with me have made my life a good life. I cannot imagine what my path would have been like had Girl not come home with me for good...literally.

In rescue, it's hard to not remember the ones you couldn't save. Right after Girl, a beautiful pit bull named Blondie was killed. Then Martha, the best ball dog I've ever encountered was killed. I still hurt when I remember those lovely dogs and the lives they could have lived if only someone like me had wandered into the pit bull room and saw what I saw.

I've spent the better part of the past 13 years begging people to see what I see in these dogs. It really doesn't take so much time and for the few minutes invested, the dividend is infinite. Who can put a price tag on the quality of life and joy

Here is what I've learned from Girl. A raw fed dog treated with non-conventional method will lead a strong healthy life. I hear about so many over-vaccinated dogs barely surviving on a kibble-fed diet stricken with cancer and other horrible fates. I want to share Girl's and the Reunion Rescue raw fed animals good stories with these dogs' owners.

Feeding a raw diet is easy and much cheaper than paying some vet a huge monthly bill for toxic flea and heartworm preventatives. I hear so many dog owners repeat diagnosis that at age eleven, the dog has incurable cancer and must be put down....with a backdrop of Hill's Science Diet for sale along the walls of these clinics. It's simply maddening. We are paying for a slow kill!

What I can do is continue to share Girl's good health and the dogs and cats here at the Reunion Rescue No-Kill Refuge. Girl had a scare last Memorial Day, but was totally fixed with homeopathy and some eye-drops. Her blood work was run by vet whose prognosis was dim. He actually told me Girl was dying and couldn't be saved! Her homeopathic vet selected a remedy which immediately turned her around and she's been fine since other than cataracts in the right eye.

This is how a raw fed dog (or cat) will respond when treated holistically. Often times, after the conventional vet has thrown in the towel, desperate pet owners will turn to alternative means. Unfortunately, after a lifetime of miserable kibble and toxic vaccines and medications, the animal's immune system is too weak to respond. This is heartbreaking. A dog or cat who might have survived doesn't have the strength to fight through the malady.

It is so sad to meet these pet lovers who find out only too late how they could have prevented early loss and discomfort. I can only keep trying to share Girl's story and helpful resources like our Home Remedies to Heal Animals Facebook page in hopes that prevention might help save others.

Girl and our Reunion Rescue animals are proof, living proof, that a healthy immune system is not only within an easy reach, but can sustain itself through huge challenges.

Just yesterday, Girl slept on her right rear leg too hard. She wasn't putting weight on that leg and I hit the panic button. I immediately fixed up a homeopathic concoction I give to animals with any tendon/joint issues and within a few minutes, she was going up and down three flights of stairs with the pictures to prove it.

Girl is pretty special, but she is not superhuman. She will eventually pass on to join the others who've lovingly shared our lives. One thing is for certain, though. Girl, will not die in pain or from some long and terrible illness. It's never easy to lose a beloved companion, but knowing they will pass away in a final peaceful sleep adds comfort.

But, for today, Girl and I will enjoy the sunshine. She'll chomp on her organic chicken quarter and some ground choice beef organ and bones. Today, life is good.