In Loving Memory of Rosie Bloetscher...

You can't know Molly & Tom without knowing their awesome Basset, Rosie. They always had great stories about her diva ways. Rosie has been a fixture at our Bash for several years now and we can't imagine one without her. This is the sweet note her parents sent out to announce the passing of their dearly loved girl, Rosie...

8/16/2010

To all of Rosie's friends,

It is with great sadness that we must tell you Rosie passed away early last week. As you can imagine, it's hard to lose such an important part of our family. Almost everything in our home revolved around "the Rose". For instance, Rosie was the one who made us get out to walk and meet our neighbors. I'm glad she did it, even though she really gave us no choice. There's a good possibility that without her, we may have never met some of you. It's hard to imagine that! We are very lucky to have such good friends who appreciated and loved Rosie just like we did. It's hard to say goodbye, so there have been lots of tears. But in addition to sadness, there have been lots of laughs and stories shared about Rosie. I'm sure we'll share a few more stories when we see you next.

Molly & Tom

Foster Homes Desperately Needed...

BHRA is in desperate need of foster homes. We are well over our capacity to house any new dogs. We are faced with the heartbreaking decision to have to turn needy hounds away until the ones we have already brought in get adopted or we find new foster homes. As I type this there are two basset hounds at a local kill shelter that will likely be put to sleep simply because we have no place to put them. We receive one to two calls everyday from people with hounds that need us...and right now we can't help them.

Being a foster is a very rewarding experience. There are different ways to foster and here are some ideas:

1. Fostering is a great way to "test run" a hound before adopting. You can pick a dog that you think might work with your family and foster it with no obligation. If the dog isn't a perfect fit, you have made no long term obligation to the dog.

2. Fostering takes little financial obligation. Lets face it...dogs can be expensive. If you don't want to worry about vet bills, but would like to have a dog around the house periodically, fostering would be great undertaking for you! All you have to provide the dog is food, shelter and love until it is adopted.

3. Fostering is a great way to temporarily add an additional dog to your pack. It helps socialize your dog, which is great for homes with one existing dog. Knowing that you played a small part in keeping a wonderful hound safe and loved until it's family finds it and takes it home to love for the rest of his life is absolutely priceless.

Whatever category you might fall into, we would greatly appreciate the help...you would be saving the lives of many wonderful hounds! This is Livingston. He was adopted from BHRA back in 2003. He was found as a stray by a BHRA volunteer down in Baldwin County. He was brought into the Rescue and found a wonderful forever home (my home actually!) He is the love of our lives...along with our other two hounds. If not for BHRA and the wonderful couple that fostered him, we would have never known the joy of having this funny man in our lives.

Think about fostering! It is very rewarding...and the hounds of BHRA would be grateful!