Rescue knows no boundaries..

luckily, so that when we have a situation in Minnesota needing our help, we have the volunteers who say "just tell me when to get on the plane to help". And we have people willing to donate miles to defray the cost of the plane trip. And we have rescue people in that part of the world willing to help with saving the life of a special little boy!!! Its what makes doing rescue with ARWNY so wonderful -- we have such a devoted group of people willing to help in almost every way possible -- without them, we couldn't do all we do here to help the Akitas in need!!

It started out by ARWNY being contacted by a "breeder" about a puppy she bred that she stated was deaf and blind. Carla Boyd contacted her back immediately asking for more info. Carla, who is very involved with the blind dog organizations since she owns a blind Akita, Pawlee, wanted very much to help this pup who was only 5 weeks old when we were contacted. Seems others closer to her were not wanting to save a deaf and blind puppy; but while we knew this would be a challenge, Carla felt she was up to the task.

Then the "breeder" (btw, I use the term breeder VERY distastefully because she is obviously NOT an ethical nor educated breeder by any standard) writes back that she had already dumped this little guy on a sanctuary, www.thesanctuaryforanimals.com in MN because she no longer wanted to deal with him.

The wonderful lady that runs the Sanctuary, DJ Rotter, was happy to care for this little boy, naming him Polaris and taking him immediately to her vet for consultation. It was found he was starved, dehydrated & probably has cerebellar hypoplasia http://www.upei.ca/~cidd/Diseases/nervous%20system%20disorders/cerebellar%20hypoplasia.htm but most likely only partially deaf and not blind!! Now, I still wonder how anyone that is breeding dogs cannot know a puppy in their care was starving, not feeding correctly nor getting hydrated carefully enough? That alone makes me sick -- but her continued correspondence with Carla in which she calls herself a good breeder who does NOT intend to stop breeding nor feels there is anything wrong with her breeding program is the worst part -- she will continue doing breedings and we wonder how many other poor puppies will suffer in this way?

Anyway -- it all has a happy ending for this one puppy -- Polaris will be coming to us here at ARWNY as soon as our volunteer Deb Karfs flies out to bring him back to ARWNY -- if he has any neurological issues as he grows a bit, we can work on them through our army of wonderful vets, trainers and behaviorists. We have a geat home lined up for him already with lots of Akita experience to foster him, our wonderful Heather & her new hubby Julius along with big sister Tasu. So with Carla's help & experience with this disease and Heather's wonderful care, this pup will be in fine hands!! Once he is here and thriving, I will post more including updated pictures of the little guy!!

*****NOTE**** I may be off line for about a week, due to having my right knee replaced on 2/19/10 but will post more about this baby as we get to know him better!