Operation Broken Chain: Updates

There have been a lot of updates on the Operation Broken Chain pups popping up on my newsfeed lately. I thought I’d share a few of them today, because who couldn’t use a little happy on your hump day?

Groucho has left his old life and name behind in Tennessee, and is now living the good life as Maverick in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Maverick is available for adoption through Sioux Empire Pit Rescue.

Norton has improved leaps and bounds, living with his new “Best Friends” in Kenab, Utah. Check out this beautifully written post about his improvement.

Photo by Molly Wald/Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

And finally, Spirit…oh, my dear, sweet wonderful loving Spirit….Spirit is (drumroll please) currently in his foster-to-adopt home!

He’ll be living with his new potential family for 30 days while they have time to bond and get to know each other, sending daily updates to Big Bully Rescue in Phoenix, Arizona. Should everything go well, Spirit will have his Furever Home by the end of August!

And all that happy doesn’t even include those pups who are lucky enough to have already been adopted!  To name just a few…

Dorothy (now Tia) was a foster failure success, and is now living in her Furever Home with her mom and standard poodle brother, Sam – who she adores!

Princess Tia (formally Dorothy) with her big brother, Sam. Photo by Tia’s furever family.

Tia recently completed her STAR Puppy Class, and hopes to eventually be a Delta Pet Partners therapy dog like her big brother.

Princess Tia (formally known as Dorothy). Photo by Amiee Stubbs Photography.

Winnie is becoming an ambassadog and Nashville PITTIE poster child, living with her dad and personal hero (and Animal Rescue Corps volunteer).

Winnie with her Dad

Jane, who is now “Pumpkin,” is loving life in her forever home.

Pumpkin (formally known as Jane). Photos by her Furever Family.

“Her mom owns Minnesota Twisters trampoline and tumbling gym and Pumpkin is their team mascot! She goes to work (the gym) with her mom every day and is surrounded by love and affection. She is an amazing dog and will know only happiness for the rest of her days. From the bottom of my heart THANK YOU ARC AND THANK YOU SNIFFING SNOUTS PITBULL RESCUE!”

It’s been ten months since these dogs were pulled out of the only life they ever knew, and started on their journey towards the rest of their lives. The time I spent volunteering with these precious babies in the emergency shelter last year was one of the most amazing experiences of my life – I fell in love with each one of them and I am so thrilled for them now! Huge thanks go out to Animal Rescue Corps and all of the wonderful volunteers and placement partners who’ve played a part in saving these dogs’ lives.

Fred – now Pork Chop – also adopted. 🙂

In related news, a trial date has been set for the **bleepity bleep bleeps** responsible for the pain and suffering these dogs endured. They have been charged with animal cruelty and dog fighting.

Many other OBC dogs have also found their happy ever after. If you have updates you’d like to share, please leave them in the comments below!

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Spill It!

…and in other news, holy crap you guys – we’ve been nominated for a Toast of Music City award!

If you live in Nashville, you know how cool that is. The Tennessean is our main newspaper, and they put on the Toast of Music City awards. Local Nashvillians nominate and vote on their favorite local places and services each year. They cover everything from health care services, to restaurants and entertainment, to – you guessed it – blogs.  Nominations closed this weekend, and voting is open through July 14th. Winners will be announced a bit after that, and published in a special edition of the paper, and of course online.

So, who’s got four thumbs, eight paws, and were nominated for the Toast of Music City Best Blog Award?

THESE GUYS!

Can you believe it??  Because I can’t. Seriously, I seriously, seriously can’t. Like seriously. I am seriously so overwhelmed and honored that I can’t stop saying “seriously.”  OK, so before we make with the shameless groveling for votes, I gotta know: who nominated us?? Spill it! Because we owe you a big fat La Hacienda margarita. You wanna collect? Give yourself up, you wonderful, loyal, fantastical reader(s?), you!!

Now on to the shameless groveling part: please vote for us!  Can you imagine if we won, and our blog were featured in the local newspaper, and on their website? We could reach so many more people – local people. Don’t get me wrong, you know I love all my readers far and wide, but the more local Nashville folks who read and share this little blog, the better the chances that Cooper’s Furever Family find him. So please – won’t cha vote for us? Pretty please with a peanut butter Kong on top?

It’s super easy, here’s how: First click here. You’ll need to register, all they need is your e-mail address. Then you’ll be able to vote for all your favorite Nashville stuff.  But here’s the cool part – you don’t even have to be a Nashvillian to vote. If you’re not local, or you just don’t want to vote in all 90+ categories, just bookmark this page and come vote for us every stinkin’ day.  Easy peasy!

Cooper is temporarily off the market, but Agape Animal Rescue has lots of super-amazing loving fur-balls who need furever homes. Check ’em out!

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Pit Bull Awareness Day, Music City Style

This past Saturday, pit bull owners and advocates across the country joined together to celebrate Pit Bull Awareness Day.  Here in Nashville, we celebrated PBAD with live music, vendors, a silent auction and of course plenty of pitties! Since Cooper is still “working on himself,” we thought a gathering of that many dogs would be a little overwhelming for him, so I tagged along with adoptable Olive and her foster mom to take part in all the pittie fun.

I couldn’t get enough of these two in their matching sweaters, they were so well-behaved! They just laid there politely while craziness ensued all around them. Some dogs are just far too refined for such silliness as costume and trick contests.

…but not Princess Fatso! She won the costume contest dressed as a 50’s car hop waitress – see her cute little roller skates?

Of course, Olive was right there to congratulate her.

Princess Fatso narrowly beat out the wicked witch…

10-month old Tank even dressed up like his Person…or maybe his Person dressed up like Tank?

Not only was this sweet little girl a complete and total love bug, she has excellent taste in sports team apparel.

(Oscar has the same sweater.)

Williamson County Animal Control was there too, with lots of their adoptable pitties looking for their furever families. We love WCAC, because it’s the former home of both Cooper and Molly Tamale, and unlike many shelters, they happily adopt out pit bull type dogs to approved applicants.

I absolutely fell in love with this little guy – he’s a pit bull/Jack Russel terrier mix!  How cute is he??  Olive was a little smitten, too…

And of course, the highlight of the day….The Pittie Parade!

It was an amazing turnout and a super fun day. Thank you so much to Nashville PITTIE for organizing Nashville’s 6th annual Pit Bull Awareness Day – we had a great time, and I can’t wait ’till next year!

Olive outtake!

Cooper is still on the market! If you’re interested in adding Cooper to your family, please fill out an adoption application with Agape Animal Rescue.

…and don’t forget to VOTE for COOPER!

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You Oughta Be in Pictures

Saturday night was the Impression-a-Bull exhibit at the UltraViolet Gallery here in Nashville.  Local photographer and animal lover Amiee Stubbs joined forces with pit bull advocacy group, Nashville PITTIE, to shoot photos of Nashville pit bulls and their responsible owners, to show the public that there is more to “pit bulls” than the negative side that they might see in the media.

Photo by Amiee Stubbs Photography

Photo by Amiee Stubbs Photography

A total of 24 families took part in the exhibit.  They included State Representative and animal advocate Janis Sontany, teachers, nurses, dog trainers, lawyers, business owners and Tennessee Titan Michael Griffin.  Foster Dad and I got a big surprise when we walked in and saw that in addition to our family picture, Amiee had also chosen a picture of  Oscar to display in the exhibit.  Not that we can blame her – we might be a little biased,  but we think he is the most handsome man around.

Photo by Amiee Stubbs Photography

As for the “bad press” that pit bulls so often get, we were thrilled to see coverage for the event from three out of four major news networks in Nashville.

We even had a surprise little guest show up to support the project.

Photo by Amiee Stubbs Photography

She posted this adora-bull picture on her Facebook page…what she didn’t share was what the rest of us saw:

You know you’re a dog photographer if…

 Amiee is nothing if not dedicated!

Anything to get the shot!

If you missed the exhibit and would like to see all of Amiee’s beautiful photographs, here where it gets really cool – you can!  Amiee and Nashville PITTIE will put together all of the photos into an art book, available October 20th.  All proceeds from the book will go towards free spay/neuter programs for Nashville pit bulls.  If you’d like to donate to the project, you can do that here.  More information on how you can pre-order a copy still to come.

We couldn’t be happier with how our family photo turned out.  We decided to include Cooper in our photo because even though he’s a foster dog, he is a part of our family.  Just like all our foster dogs, even after he finds his furever home he will always have a place in our hearts.  And just maybe, his future People will meet him because of this exhibit?  Fingers and  paws crossed!   

Cooper is still looking for his furever home!  If it’s you, please fill out an application with Agape Animal Rescue.

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Impression-a-Bull

If you’re one of our observant Facebook followers, you’ve noticed a new photo and a tease of an “exciting project” that our little Foster Family is involved in.  I’m ready to spill the beans, but first I’d like to introduce you all to Nashville PITTIE.

Nashville PITTIE stand for “Pit Bull Initiative to Transform Image and Educate.” Says founder Jana Mendes, “The goal of Nashville PITTIE is to restore the Pit bull’s positive image by: dispelling myths surrounding the breeds called ‘Pit bulls’ through education, promoting responsible ownership, and promoting spay/neuter programs and the importance thereof. Nashville PITTIE strives to bring to light the true character of the Pit Bull and the invaluable contributions they make as family pets and service companions, as they have for generations.”

 Jana and her team of dedicated volunteers take part in various local events throughout the year, to get pit bulls into the public eye in a positive way.  They put on a Pit Bull Awareness Day each fall, and organize walks through town during established high-profile events and festivals.  They set up information booths at local events such as the Nashville Earth Day Festival, Nashville Pride Fest, and the Celebrate Healthy Pets fair.  They’ve even marched in the annual Nashville Christmas Parade.

Foster Dad and I, along with the pups of course, have the tremendous honor of being part of their latest endeavor, a super-duper-awesome project called Impression-a-Bull.  Nashville PITTIE has partnered with local photographer extraordinaire Amiee Stubbs, to photograph Nashville pit bull owners for a project to help to change the negative stigma attached to “pit bulls,” and at the same time raise funds for spay/neuter programs in Nashville.

On Saturday, August 4th, the Impression-a-Bull project will be on display at the UltraViolet Gallery, during downtown Nashville’s monthly First Saturday Art Crawl.  Oh, did I mention that admission is free?  If you’re in town that night, you’re not going to want to miss it.  If you need some more convincing, here’s a sneak preview…and there’s bound to be even more beautiful brindle furs on display!

The Impression-a-Bull display will be featured during Nashville’s First Saturday Art Crawl on Saturday, August 4th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, at the UltraViolet Gallery in the Arcade.

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