Twist of Fate, and Two Dogs get Rescued!
Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:35 pm
Warning this is a story, rainy day in NE, leave yourself some time to read.....
Many of you have discussed bringing back dogs from STJ. We've thought about this also, and during the past six months we've rescued two dogs from Rincon, PR. Here's our story for those of you wondering if this is difficult or not.....bottom line, it's not! This is the story about how some people through twists of fate can make a difference.
We have (or had) two old labs, a black and yellow. The black one (Ellie) passed away in December, and we were left with just one dog. Our kids are older now, one out of college, one in, and one graduating from HS. I'm thinking okay, dog vacation for a few years here after the next lab goes to dog heaven (sorry meine frau!).
In the meantime, we started taking surf vacations in Rincon three years ago, and they also have a huge stray dog problem. In PR it seems there's a reluctance to have the dogs fixed, not sure why, so dogs/puppies are often abandoned on the beaches/streets, quite often the females are left behind.
There are many organizations (like the ACC in STJ) in PR. In Rincon the organization is called ARF, gotta love that acronym! www.facebook.com/arfrincon (The story about our 2nd rescued puppy is on this site, by "413geek"). The way the system works there, the dogs are rescued by good Samaritans, who foster the dogs in their homes, and register them with ARF in hopes of finding adoptive homes. ARF also pays for vaccinations and fixing of the dogs if they're old enough. There are no kennels involved. There's a $25 adoption fee, and a $25 health certificate fee from the vet, if you choose to adopt.
Of course my wife (STJDreams) has been talking about adopting a dog for a few years, but I didn't know she was communicating with ARF before our last PR vacation this past Christmas. While we're in Rincon she mentions one day that she wants to visit ARF and I happily talked her out of this, I mean hey, we're there to surf, right???
Two days before our return, it was a bad surf day, so we went to this specific beach in the morning. As we pull in to parking space, there are two women walking dogs through the lot to the beach. They're directly behind our car as we get out, my wife immediately goes to them and says what cute dogs they have. The women say that one of them is in fact up for adoption through ARF (they are the foster parents). The one woman lives in Rincon, originally from CA, and her parents were visiting for a few months. The week before they were walking on the beach and a little stray dog (that they named Sandy) followed them back to the condo. They took her back to the beach 3-4 times thinking she might have a local home. She kept finding her way back to their condo, and it was apparent she was abandoned on the beach and wanted to stay with them. She was so persistent, they gave up and said okay you can stay, and subsequently registered her with ARF in Rincon. By the time we met them in the parking lot, they had had Sandy for one week and had already organized all shots required at the local vet.
I'm telling my wife, okay skip the dog and lets hit the beach. This of course didn't work, the next thing I know she's exchanged phone numbers with the women, and that evening we visit their condo to check out the dog some more. Bottom line, we decide to adopt, but we're leaving in two days.....how do we do this? These people were the most wonderful people, They spent the entire next day (which happened to be New Years Eve) getting all the medical papers ready and even went to K Mart to purchase a small flexible dog cage for the flight. We picked up Sandy to bring back to our rental the night before we were leaving, to get her used to us at least a little before we throw her in the car for the trip home to frosty NH (we head back on Jan 1!)
1st night in Rincon with Sandy....
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/t ... site"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zHYS ... 6.jpg"></a>
US Air will let you bring a small dog on the plane with you in a flexible cage, to sit under the seat in front, it costs $150 and you have to add this to your reservation beforehand. We arrive at San Juan airport to check in with the dog, pay the extra $150 at check in. We had all the papers with us, I asked the check in attendant if she needed to see them....she said why?...you just paid $150, right? Get on the plane, so we did. There is no customs in SJU airport, so I'm not sure how this works going through STT airport, maybe more difficult??
Sandy on US Air....
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jqpD ... G_0131.jpg" height="478" width="640"></a>
Sandy slept in her cage the entire trip, arrived in snowy Manchester NH airport the evening of New Years Day. I think our house never gets as warm as the beaches in Rincon, so this was quite a shock....but the little rascal adapted to our house very quickly and has now taken over the place!
PR dogs can adapt to snow!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/y ... site"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3z7v ... C_0040.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
The story continues for those of you still reading. My wife has continued to email back and forth with our new friend in Rincon (and her mother in Alaska), sending pics of Sandy as she's growing up. They loved her as we have grown to also. Two weeks ago she gets an email from the daughter in Rincon, that her massage therapist in Rincon has taken in three puppies, was able to get two adopted through ARF, and had one left that we would love.....very friendly, not crazy out of control, likes to hang with people.
This massage therapist woman is from CA, moved to Rincon with her husband two years ago, and has taken to helping with the dog issues in PR on an active basis. She found three puppies abandoned on the side of the road near Maria's surf beach in Rincon, the last week of April. After getting them some food, getting them registered with ARF, they brought them into their house as foster parents.
They already had 3 dogs, so now there were 6 in their house! Okay, this is even crazy to think about.....but these people have hearts of gold. They named the dogs by the color of their collars, Roja (red), Rosa (pink), and Verde (green). By the time we were contacted, only Roja was left. Apparently she was too calm for the locals, no one wanted her. In early May they got all three puppies fixed in PR. The doctors there give special rates to ARF in order to facilitate adoptions.
So here's the picture.....the initial woman we meet in the parking lot last winter continues to email with my wife, she turns us on to a 2nd dog 5 months later. Of course my reaction is the same, I'm calling my wife totally insane and this isn't far from reality at this point! But in the end females tend to get their wishes, the next thing I know we've agreed to another dog. The question is, how to get her up here to NH?
The foster parent of Roja had a good friend flying to Newark on business a few days later who volunteered to get the dog on the plane. They donated a crate to us, got the medical stuff organized, fronted the $220 required to get her on Continental (she was 32 lbs) to get her to Boston with connection in Newark. We paid her back through PayPal, very easy.
Roja arriving at Logan....
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/V ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2-QB ... 252529.JPG" height="478" width="640"></a>
Roja meeting her new PR buddy for the first time!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/z ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c4QA ... C_0015.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
For anyone interested, Continental has an excellent system for moving pets. Its called PetSafe, and it includes special handling for pets along with a 24/7 phone number to check on issues, and tracking capabilities on the internet. Roja landed in Boston Logan at roughly 7:50am this past Monday, she arrived at the cargo center by special van at 8:10am and we picked her up immediately. It was all very simple, very clean, and she made the journey well. There was food and water in the cage, and the Continental employees obviously do this a lot,....they were very nice with the puppy!
So the end of the story has arrived.....we have two wonderful rescued puppies now from PR, both under a year old, and they spend each day playing like crazy. One of them was alone on the beach in the winter, and a week later was living in the snow in NH. The 2nd one was found abandoned near a beach with her siblings, and a month later is living the big life. We ended up changing Roja's name to Rio, because its easier to say for us gringos.
Hey guys, we're from Puerto Rico!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/l ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-lhgb ... C_0022.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
There aren't enough hours in the day to play!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/u ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MmNe ... C_0039.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
The twist of fate was.....waves were no good one morning in Rincon, we go to our favorite hang out beach and happen to meet these women at that exact time, and end up with a very special little dog. Then, the same person who had the 1st dog is introduced to the 2nd dog, then emails us and we end up with another. So, if the waves hadn't been good that day, we would still have just one old lab, but the twists of fate worked for the dogs, and we now say that they won the "dog lottery"!
We've both had dogs all of our lives, last two were pedigree labs, and we've decided that any future dogs will be rescue dogs....they're incredibly friendly, and they need us. We're hoping that this story will inspire others to do the same.
I need to keep these PR puppies in line!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/g ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-HIq0 ... C_0010.jpg" height="640" width="428"></a>
Please don't forget to pet me every hour!!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/c ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-m6_Z ... C_0035.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
Life at their new home.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yHj_-Icoz4
Happy ending to the story......
Many of you have discussed bringing back dogs from STJ. We've thought about this also, and during the past six months we've rescued two dogs from Rincon, PR. Here's our story for those of you wondering if this is difficult or not.....bottom line, it's not! This is the story about how some people through twists of fate can make a difference.
We have (or had) two old labs, a black and yellow. The black one (Ellie) passed away in December, and we were left with just one dog. Our kids are older now, one out of college, one in, and one graduating from HS. I'm thinking okay, dog vacation for a few years here after the next lab goes to dog heaven (sorry meine frau!).
In the meantime, we started taking surf vacations in Rincon three years ago, and they also have a huge stray dog problem. In PR it seems there's a reluctance to have the dogs fixed, not sure why, so dogs/puppies are often abandoned on the beaches/streets, quite often the females are left behind.
There are many organizations (like the ACC in STJ) in PR. In Rincon the organization is called ARF, gotta love that acronym! www.facebook.com/arfrincon (The story about our 2nd rescued puppy is on this site, by "413geek"). The way the system works there, the dogs are rescued by good Samaritans, who foster the dogs in their homes, and register them with ARF in hopes of finding adoptive homes. ARF also pays for vaccinations and fixing of the dogs if they're old enough. There are no kennels involved. There's a $25 adoption fee, and a $25 health certificate fee from the vet, if you choose to adopt.
Of course my wife (STJDreams) has been talking about adopting a dog for a few years, but I didn't know she was communicating with ARF before our last PR vacation this past Christmas. While we're in Rincon she mentions one day that she wants to visit ARF and I happily talked her out of this, I mean hey, we're there to surf, right???
Two days before our return, it was a bad surf day, so we went to this specific beach in the morning. As we pull in to parking space, there are two women walking dogs through the lot to the beach. They're directly behind our car as we get out, my wife immediately goes to them and says what cute dogs they have. The women say that one of them is in fact up for adoption through ARF (they are the foster parents). The one woman lives in Rincon, originally from CA, and her parents were visiting for a few months. The week before they were walking on the beach and a little stray dog (that they named Sandy) followed them back to the condo. They took her back to the beach 3-4 times thinking she might have a local home. She kept finding her way back to their condo, and it was apparent she was abandoned on the beach and wanted to stay with them. She was so persistent, they gave up and said okay you can stay, and subsequently registered her with ARF in Rincon. By the time we met them in the parking lot, they had had Sandy for one week and had already organized all shots required at the local vet.
I'm telling my wife, okay skip the dog and lets hit the beach. This of course didn't work, the next thing I know she's exchanged phone numbers with the women, and that evening we visit their condo to check out the dog some more. Bottom line, we decide to adopt, but we're leaving in two days.....how do we do this? These people were the most wonderful people, They spent the entire next day (which happened to be New Years Eve) getting all the medical papers ready and even went to K Mart to purchase a small flexible dog cage for the flight. We picked up Sandy to bring back to our rental the night before we were leaving, to get her used to us at least a little before we throw her in the car for the trip home to frosty NH (we head back on Jan 1!)
1st night in Rincon with Sandy....
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/t ... site"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zHYS ... 6.jpg"></a>
US Air will let you bring a small dog on the plane with you in a flexible cage, to sit under the seat in front, it costs $150 and you have to add this to your reservation beforehand. We arrive at San Juan airport to check in with the dog, pay the extra $150 at check in. We had all the papers with us, I asked the check in attendant if she needed to see them....she said why?...you just paid $150, right? Get on the plane, so we did. There is no customs in SJU airport, so I'm not sure how this works going through STT airport, maybe more difficult??
Sandy on US Air....
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jqpD ... G_0131.jpg" height="478" width="640"></a>
Sandy slept in her cage the entire trip, arrived in snowy Manchester NH airport the evening of New Years Day. I think our house never gets as warm as the beaches in Rincon, so this was quite a shock....but the little rascal adapted to our house very quickly and has now taken over the place!
PR dogs can adapt to snow!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/y ... site"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3z7v ... C_0040.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
The story continues for those of you still reading. My wife has continued to email back and forth with our new friend in Rincon (and her mother in Alaska), sending pics of Sandy as she's growing up. They loved her as we have grown to also. Two weeks ago she gets an email from the daughter in Rincon, that her massage therapist in Rincon has taken in three puppies, was able to get two adopted through ARF, and had one left that we would love.....very friendly, not crazy out of control, likes to hang with people.
This massage therapist woman is from CA, moved to Rincon with her husband two years ago, and has taken to helping with the dog issues in PR on an active basis. She found three puppies abandoned on the side of the road near Maria's surf beach in Rincon, the last week of April. After getting them some food, getting them registered with ARF, they brought them into their house as foster parents.
They already had 3 dogs, so now there were 6 in their house! Okay, this is even crazy to think about.....but these people have hearts of gold. They named the dogs by the color of their collars, Roja (red), Rosa (pink), and Verde (green). By the time we were contacted, only Roja was left. Apparently she was too calm for the locals, no one wanted her. In early May they got all three puppies fixed in PR. The doctors there give special rates to ARF in order to facilitate adoptions.
So here's the picture.....the initial woman we meet in the parking lot last winter continues to email with my wife, she turns us on to a 2nd dog 5 months later. Of course my reaction is the same, I'm calling my wife totally insane and this isn't far from reality at this point! But in the end females tend to get their wishes, the next thing I know we've agreed to another dog. The question is, how to get her up here to NH?
The foster parent of Roja had a good friend flying to Newark on business a few days later who volunteered to get the dog on the plane. They donated a crate to us, got the medical stuff organized, fronted the $220 required to get her on Continental (she was 32 lbs) to get her to Boston with connection in Newark. We paid her back through PayPal, very easy.
Roja arriving at Logan....
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/V ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2-QB ... 252529.JPG" height="478" width="640"></a>
Roja meeting her new PR buddy for the first time!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/z ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c4QA ... C_0015.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
For anyone interested, Continental has an excellent system for moving pets. Its called PetSafe, and it includes special handling for pets along with a 24/7 phone number to check on issues, and tracking capabilities on the internet. Roja landed in Boston Logan at roughly 7:50am this past Monday, she arrived at the cargo center by special van at 8:10am and we picked her up immediately. It was all very simple, very clean, and she made the journey well. There was food and water in the cage, and the Continental employees obviously do this a lot,....they were very nice with the puppy!
So the end of the story has arrived.....we have two wonderful rescued puppies now from PR, both under a year old, and they spend each day playing like crazy. One of them was alone on the beach in the winter, and a week later was living in the snow in NH. The 2nd one was found abandoned near a beach with her siblings, and a month later is living the big life. We ended up changing Roja's name to Rio, because its easier to say for us gringos.
Hey guys, we're from Puerto Rico!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/l ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-lhgb ... C_0022.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
There aren't enough hours in the day to play!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/u ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MmNe ... C_0039.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
The twist of fate was.....waves were no good one morning in Rincon, we go to our favorite hang out beach and happen to meet these women at that exact time, and end up with a very special little dog. Then, the same person who had the 1st dog is introduced to the 2nd dog, then emails us and we end up with another. So, if the waves hadn't been good that day, we would still have just one old lab, but the twists of fate worked for the dogs, and we now say that they won the "dog lottery"!
We've both had dogs all of our lives, last two were pedigree labs, and we've decided that any future dogs will be rescue dogs....they're incredibly friendly, and they need us. We're hoping that this story will inspire others to do the same.
I need to keep these PR puppies in line!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/g ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-HIq0 ... C_0010.jpg" height="640" width="428"></a>
Please don't forget to pet me every hour!!
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/c ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-m6_Z ... C_0035.JPG" height="428" width="640"></a>
Life at their new home.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yHj_-Icoz4
Happy ending to the story......
...
