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Our Miss January!!! "Clementine"
Beagle of the Month: Our 100th Beagle Rescued, Miss Clementine! Devoted Foster Parents: Catherine &
Bill of Sheba's Haven
It made perfect sense to let our 100th beagle rescued wag in the
New Year as Miss January 2012! We think the below article to be published in the next issue of the BEACH METRO NEWS sums it
all up best!
PET OF THE MONTH (my column in BEACH METRO NEWSPAPER - to be published in January 2012 issue)
“Ugh! I’ve been kissed by a dog!
Get disinfectant!” (Quote
from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”) I’ll never understand Lucy types. Receiving a kiss from a dog can be life-changing…in a good
way! It was only a bell’s
jingle before Christmas when I burst into a revised version of a Katy Perry song while driving home from Toronto Animal Services
(North Region): “I
kissed a dog and I liked it!” There’s nothing terribly odd about that given the fact I’ve traded in a normal life to rescue appreciative
beagles. Kisses have been plenty. But this particular kiss will go down in beagle rescue history as the one that mattered
most. It’s not because the dog delivering the kiss (she kissed me first) happened to be our 100th beagle
rescued since Big On Beagles (B.O.B) began its work a decade ago. I didn’t make that observation until
later. What made this kiss
so special is how it gave me the reason I needed to keep the pet repair shop open for beagle #101. On December 8th, I received an email from the shelter asking
if we had space for an approximately 12-year-old beagle riddled with suspicious lumps. She clearly wasn’t adoptable
to the general public. Heck, she wouldn’t be adoptable at all if any of the lumps proved malignant. Accordingly, she
was an ideal candidate for BOB. We have this thing about coming to the rescue of the Charlie Browniest of dogs, i.e.
the seemingly hopeless. But
we already had our quota of hopeless hounds. A few days prior, we’d taken in two beagles that had sadly lost their elderly
owners. 10-year-old, grief-stricken Beowulf had been deposited to the Barrie SPCA. Winston, aka Winnie the Pooh, had been
home alone with only the neighbour to feed him. Our foster homes were officially bursting with beagles. I couldn’t possibly take another. Or, was
there hope for Miss Hopeless? Catherine, founder of Sheba’s Haven, could fit in one more palliative
care beagle for us if needed. Off
I went to the shelter to see if she fit the bill. Of course I got lost first, after taking the wrong exit but eventually arrived
albeit in a Charlie Brown woe-is-me kind of mood. That changed quickly once I got the whole scoop on lumpy lady. It had been a cold night in early December when the animal control officer
came to her rescue. She’d been left tied to a shopping cart in a mall parking lot. I hear such heart-tugging stories all the time and had begun to wonder
whether my heart was willing to be tugged at any more. Apparently it was. It gave way as soon as she walked through the door.
With all her lumps, she looked like a 4-legged Christmas tree with ornaments hanging from every limb. But those lumps didn’t
weigh down her beagle tail! With every exuberant wag, I felt an equally exuberant tug. The intention was only to assess temperament, gauge the extent of the
health concerns and return to home base to ponder the next course of action. But within seconds of my inspection, I was scooping
her up into the beagle-mobile while proclaiming her “Clementine” in honour of the season. The way home was filled with my usual one-way conversation. But when we
stopped at a street light, something better than words happened. Clementine had been backseat-wagging in polite response to
my nonsensical chatter. I turned to whisper yet another sweet nothing in her ear when she gave me a shy little kiss. I kissed
her back and started to sing. Clementine
had her surgery a week before Christmas removing the worrisome lumps. Two were likely malignant but with any luck, gone for
good. Her heart will need monitoring though. An ultrasound confirmed mitral valve disease, but thankfully no evidence of congestive
heart failure. Paws crossed, there’s plenty of time for more kissing! On Christmas Eve, I introduced Clem to her foster parents at the Belleville Dog Park halfway
between our farm and Sheba’s Haven. Despite her post-surgery cone-head, my darling Clementine marched up to her foster
daddy and planted a confident kiss on his face. That’s when I knew she was going to be just fine. 100 beagles saved should be worth celebrating but for every 100 you save,
there’s a thousand more you can’t. While we’re seeing positive change in the plight of homeless pets, there’s
still so much more to be done. It can make you feel hopeless sometimes. That is, until a pathetic-looking Christmas tree with
barely any needles left on its branches nudges you away from your pity party. I watched the Charlie Brown special over the holidays as I always do but
this time, I really got it! Poor Charlie Brown was in search of the true meaning of Christmas. He might have given up entirely
if not for rescuing that silly old tree. Lucy and the gang laughed but for some reason, they decorated it anyway. In the end,
that tree was the most beautiful tree of all. Thanks to Clementine and Charlie Brown, I’ve learned it’s okay if you don’t always see
the forest for the trees. Taking on one seemingly hopeless little tree at a time is far less complicated…just like
a dog’s kiss. Clementine is the 12-year-old beagle that kissed this dog rescuer back to life! Of course, she’s
got a lot more life-saving kisses to give! Clem and I thank the staff at Toronto Animal Services (North Region), Catherine
& Bill of Sheba’s Haven – www.shebashaven.petfinder.com , and the generous supporters of Big On Beagles (B.O.B) Rescue for getting us to 100
beagles saved so far – www.bigonbeagles.ca.
Little did we know just how important our BEAGLE
BASH FOR CASH would be this past November.
Thanks to you, our supporters,
and to all our corporate sponsors, we raised just enough to cover some very hefty veterinary bills we were about to incur
in December. The Bash brought in $3,130.69. Our total veterinary cost in December was $3,138.46. Every dollar was put to extremely
good use. That's because it was spent on some very special beagles indeed - one of whom we've chosen to wag in the New
Year as our Miss January 2012! Yep, Miss Clementine took the lion share of those earnings. She needed life-saving surgery
to remove some mass cell tumours.
And then there was Beowulf needing a few touch-ups of his own to
ensure his golden years are golden.
Then, there was our adorable Christmas (the beagle, not the season)
who became terribly sick and needed our financial support. As it turns out, she has Cushings but we're delighted to see
a vast improvement with her already after starting her treatment through our vet!
Lastly, there was our beloved Luke who needed comfort in his final days.
We tried all we could medically to keep him with us for Christmas, but his body had simply worn out and we had to bid him
farewell.
As you can imagine,
these costs have put quite a dent in our funding given the fact we spent all the Bash money already but we'll keep soldiering
on for the beagles that mean so much to us. Like we've said before, we share the eternal optimism of the beagles we save.
We just know there's a miracle right around the next corner to keep us going!
In the meantime, we want to thank the sponsors that got us through the last bit of 2011. We
owe you a great debt for the miracles you made happen for our homeless howlers. Like Jakey says in his sign above...THANK YOU with all our hearts.
Introducing ~ Our Beloved Corporate Sponsors for the 6th Annual BEAGLE BASH FOR CASH:
Alpha Pet Beagle Bakery Buddy Belt Dr. Maggie Face Painting Fun (by Ester!) For the Love of Animals Global Pet Foods Gordon Stimmell
- Gord On Grapes Lake Edge Cottages Muddy Paws in the Guild Murals By Marg Pet Pointe Pets In Motion Sadie's Diner And Juice Bar Sleeman Breweries Wellington Brewery
Also, individual sponsors ~ our friend, Karen McLachlan, for her lovely Spa
Basket, the lovely & talented Tina for her glorious Beagle Bash for Cash People Cake, and the equally talented Debbie
Parry for all her hand-made treasures!
As
always, BIG BEAGLE THANKS to our BOBateers for playing and working so hard at the BASH:
Erica & Rob Deanna & Andrew Tina & Dave Anita &
Arnie Barby Kathy Debbie Mary & Jan Rocky Robin Last but never least...my darling husband Bill!
And,
of course, the wonderful staff at PAWSWAY!!!

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