Jake & Kate

Remember this guy?

This is Jake.  He’s one of the seventeen dogs that Agape Animal Rescue has taken in from Operation Sweethearts, the cruelty case busted by Animal Rescue Corps on Valentine’s Day.  He was kept outside 24 hours a day, living in filth, hungry, cold and scared.  Guess where Jake is now?

Recognize his snuggle buddy?  That’s right!  That’s former foster Kaylee (now Kate) – Jake was taken in by her amazing furever family to help nurse him back to health and get him ready to find People of his very own!   Kate’s superstar dog trainer mom, Kandice, reports of Jake’s first night in his new pad:

“You can see by the picture Jake is loving his new place. He will come to me on first day but very cautious…Will keep you posted as to his progress. I think Kate and Jake are going to be best friends.”

I look at these two together, warm and safe and happy, and I can’t help but think that the beginning part of Kate’s life has an eerie similarity to Jake’s…she’s going to be such a good foster-sister to Jake, because she can relate to the pain and uncertainty he’s been through.  And thanks to Agape and ARC, neither of them have to worry about going back to that kind of life ever again!

For information on adopting Jake, please contact
Agape Animal Rescue.
A lot of the Sweethearts that Agape took in from this rescue operation continue to need extensive medical care.  Please consider donating towards their needs.

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I’ll See Your Egg & Raise You a Cube

Oh Cooper, our little piggy.  Or maybe hippo (as in the “hungry hungry” variety) would be a better suited nickname?  Either way, you just rocked that Egg so quickly and expertly that you’ve graduated, sir! 

Here is Cooper’s first attempt at The Cube…I probably didn’t need to record nearly three minutes of this, but trust me, it gets pretty good around the 1:40 minute mark: 

The Cube (which is actually called a Buster Food Cube) is a little more challenging than The Egg because there is only one “exit” for the food instead of two like on The Egg.  You can also adjust the difficulty level, allowing more or less food out at a time.  Since this was Cooper’s first go at it, we had it on the easier setting.  Another plus necessity for any food dispensing toy – it’s completely dishwasher safe. 

For information on adopting  food-puzzle mastermind Cooper, please contact Agape Animal Rescue.

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Foxy Roxie

Roxie has been running around nekkid, and that is just not appropriate behavior for a lady.  We let her slide for a day because she’s young, and just doesn’t know any better.  But Sunday we decided she must put on some duds.  Unfortunately everything we have in her size is leftover from when Oscar was a (very cute) puppy, which means boy colors.  No no no, Oscar’s hand-me-downs simply would not do.   Young Roxie needed some swag of her very own, fitting of her personality.  So we put a temporary old boy collar on her and headed out in search of the perfect bling for Roxie.

There’s a flea market near our house at the end of each month, so we made the trek down the hill to check it out.  We happened across a vendor named Donna with some merchandise that fit the bill perfectly: girly and adorable with a touch of sass – just like Roxie.

Donna was awesome. As we were chatting about the little lady I was shopping for, and the story of how Roxie crossed our path, she told me she has 10 (!) rescue animals of her own.  Talk about a full house!  Donna donates a portion of her proceeds to animal rescue organizations, and also offered me a discount when she found out that we’d be fostering Roxie and finding her a home.  She has an online store called Pandora’s Jewel Box, in memory of one of her feline friends who passed away.  She even engraved Roxie’s new tag right on the spot.

So what do you think of Roxie’s new swag?  Is she stylin’ now, or what?

We’re still holding out hope that Roxie may already have People who love her and miss her.  If you recognize Roxie, found in South Nashville on 2/24/12, please let us know!

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Puppy Therapy

Just as I was looking for blog inspiration, this little nugget came into our lives:

This is Roxie. Poor girl almost got hit by a car (OK, our car) on our way home from dinner last night.  No collar, no microchip, long nails, filthy dirty and skinny as can be.  Sounds like someone else we met recently, right?  Well if that experience taught us anything, it was to never assume.  So we are going to operate like Miss Roxie just wandered away from her People who are desperately searching for her.  We’ll do our best to find them, but if we can’t – she is welcome to stay with us as long as she likes, until we can find her People of her very own. 

Perhaps it was the margaritas we enjoyed at dinner that encouraged us to take on this little project.  After a warm bath, a nail trim and a nice meal, Roxie showed her true personality, bounding around the room playing with The Boys.   At bed time, she curled up in the crate and only cried a little bit before drifting off to dream land.  We had almost forgotten that having a puppy means late night potty breaks….but Roxie reminded us. 

In the light of day, Foster Dad and I looked at each other – what have we gotten ourselves into?  A Puppy??  This was sooo not in the plan.  We are a two dog house – that’s 1 perma-dog  + 1 foster. 

But come on, what were we going to do?  Leave her in the street??  Pshhhh, right.  So for now, since Cooper and Oscar both seem to be big fans of this little lady so far – we’re just a happy Foster Family of Five! 

If you recognize Roxie as a missing pup in the Nashville area, please comment below.  More information on where she was found on our Facebook page.

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Cooper Being Hilarious

I admit, I’ve had a little trouble finding inspiration for thoughtful, insightful, interesting blog posts lately.  So while I search for it, here is a picture of Cooper being hilarious:

Yep, he’s sleeping like that.

If you want to laugh at Cooper all the live long day, please contact Agape Animal Rescue for inforamtion on adoption.

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Operation Sweethearts

If you follow us on Facebook, you may have seen me posting links to articles about a recent bust in Kentucky, that liberated close to 100 dogs from a life of unimaginable abuse and neglect.  Animal Rescue Corps had been working for months off of tips, gathering enough information to serve a seizure warrant on the property, which had been opearating under the guise of a “rescue organization.” 

On Valentine’s Day of this year, these dogs finally were able to start their new life.  They were taken from the property to an emergency shelter here in Nashville.  They were groomed, vetted, fed, and loved.  Last weekend, the majority of them were placed into foster homes with local rescue organizations – and wouldn’t you just know that our super awesome rescue was one of them?  They jumped up to the plate and volunteered to take not three, not ten, but seventeen of the these sweet babies! 

**WARNING** video contains some graphic content.

So now, without further ado, I’m thrilled to formally introduce you to a handful of the newest members of the Agape family:

Nancy

Cookie

Jake

Francis

Smiley

Hershey

Sugar

Harley

Gracie

Rasta

Buster Brown

Bette Davis

Don’t you just wanna smooch and love on all of their little faces??  There are five more dogs that we don’t have pictures of at this time, but all of them will be on the Adoptable Pets page of Agape’s website once they are socialized and healthy enough to begin looking for their furever homes. 

As you can probably imagine, some of these dogs are going to need some very expensive care in the near future, to get them into tip-top adoptable shape.  Many of them needs medications, treatment for broken bones or bite wounds, and some are even going to need surgery. If you can sacrifice one morning latte this week, even $5 would help towards putting a dent in some of the medical bills that Agape has taken on with these Sweethearts.  If you would like to  donate, or sponsor one of these dogs, you can do so here: Agape Animal Rescue Wish List.

So WELCOME to the Agape Family, Sweethearts!  You’re safe now, the worst is behind you – and the best is yet to come.

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The Streak is Broken

November 21st – Tucker became a young couple’s first fur-baby.

December 21st – Kaylee found her People just in time for Christmas.

January 21st – Molly Tamale joined another Agape veteran in her new family.

We were on quite a streak for a while there – three for three, getting our foster kids adopted on the 21st of the month.  Cooper, however, is spending February 21st with us.  We haven’t had a single inquiry (?!?!) on Mr. Cooper, but that’s OK.  Something tells me he just isn’t quite ready to leave us yet. 

…and that is perfectly fine with us.

Perhaps some Luck ‘o the Irish will fall on Cooper next month, and March 21st will be his Lucky Day? For information on adopting Cooper, please contact Agape Animal Rescue.

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