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!

Andi Hocking at the Rainbow Bridge

6/20/10
It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that this morning, I held our precious Andi as she made her way to the Rainbow Bridge to be with her brothers Columbo and Buck and sister Patches and her long time friend, Reba. When I came downstairs she was lying on the family room floor, obviously in some sort of distress and I suspected she was bloating--a huge fear of any basset owner. I rushed her to the Emergency Animal Hospital but she was already crashing...apparently she had several cancerous tumors around her liver and stomach, and one of them had ruptured and she was bleeding out. Emergency surgery was not even an option at that point, so I had the vet give her the euthanasia shot so she wouldn't suffer any longer, and held her in my arms as she slipped peacefully away. This all happened very fast--she was fine earlier, and we had absolutely no idea she had this cancer...she never showed any symptoms. This beautiful girl, one of our BHRA fosters who we ended up adopting, had so many gremlins when she came back into rescue for the second time--and over time she became confident and trusting and simply adored Earl, despite her fear of men. She was even the perfect lady at the annual basset bash this past May. Andi was funny, could be a real clown and was very much the grand dam of the house. I cannot even imagine how I'm going to tell Earl when he gets home this evening..... Andi was his special girl and our house will be immensely quieter now. So say a little prayer for Andi as she journeys over that rainbow.

Helen Hocking

A Big "Thank You!" From BHRA

BHRA is so very lucky to have wonderful friends that step up when we need their support. This is a recent "thank you" that went out to some of our good friends. We just wanted to share how very important these donations are to Rescues like BHRA.

Dear Kind Donor,

Thank you so much for your continued support of BHRA. This means so much to us and the hounds. I will see to it that we send you a receipt at the end of 2010 for the total contributions you make during the year.

These donations help as we have Flashy Lady who is in need of continual medication for the urinary tract and we just brought in Happy who had to have one eye removed due to glaucoma, cataract or an accident. He was a stray that a sweet young lady found. She took him to the vet & paid for the eye surgery, shots and neuter, $388 that she took from her meager living expenses as she is out of a job. Then she called us as she could not keep him. We have had him checked out at Calera and he will be ready to go to an adopter or foster this coming weekend. He should be on the website, hopefully next weekend.

Foster homes are scarce as are adoptions currently. But we are trying to make sound decisions.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and a great summer.

Trudy M. Phillips

This is a wonderful note we received with a another greatly appreciated donation this week! What a sweet note! We are really moved by the generosity!

Adopting an Older Hound...by Martha Crow, BHRA Trustee

We have thoroughly enjoyed our “special needs older hound”. She is about 12 years old now, diabetic, almost totally blind and does not hear well…but she is also the sweetest dog ever! Even if she can’t figure out who is calling her or where they are calling her from (as she stands with her head tilting from side to side and ears lifted high), or she hears a doorbell ring on TV and runs barking to our door (and we have to convince her no one is there), she always has a spring in her step and a wag in her tail. (plus she makes us laugh!) )! Even the cats love her and cuddle up with her every chance they get. We know we don’t have years and years with her like we will probably have with our other younger dogs, but we will take what we can get. She is just a blessing in our lives. She loves her people and we love her! Caring for her takes a little more effort, but well worth every bit of it! Mercedes (aka Steve) has been the best addition to our household (as she lies sleeping at my feet.)

In Loving Memory of Cherry Emerich

Miss Cherry, a.k.a. Cherokee, came into BHRA rescue from MS in the year 2000. She was a stray weighing 19 lbs., with cherry eye, heartworms and a lung infection. After recovery, she was adopted by Diane Emerich in Birmingham, AL. Gertie joined the group ( a puppy mill mom ) along with Ethel (a runaway walking down the interstate). Gertie and Ethel are gone, and Cherry passed last week at age 12. She enjoyed her home in Texas with her basset friend Baxter and wannabe Mr. Flint. She was my cupcake, my princess, my baby gurl, my heart.
--Diane Emerich

BarkIt! Market at Ross Bridge

Please join BHRA on June 5, 2010 from 8:00 am until noon on the green at the Ross Bridge Welcome Center near the Renaissance Ross Bridge Hotel and Spa. Come out and show your support for BHRA, bring your special hound, and enjoy a great morning out! We will even have a few available hounds on hand that day for you to meet!