Winter 2023 Newsletter shamrockrescue.org
Winston is the latest Shamrock dog to find his forever home. Read his story, along with those of other dogs who have found their loving families, on Page 4
Second chances for those who need them most
Rescue Spotlight Go to shamrockrescue.org to read more about these and other dogs
Name: Charlie Age: 6 years Breed: Pekingese Sex: Neutered male Charlie is the cutest little guy with a big grin, wagging tail and lots of kisses for his favorite people. Becoming one of Charlie’s favorites takes a little doing, because he is a bit of an insecure guy. We don’t know what his life was like before he became a Shamrock dog – sadly, that’s the case for most of the dogs we take in – but we don’t believe it was very good. He isn’t comfortable with strangers, but if he’s allowed to get to know you on his schedule, he will learn to trust you and give you all that love and happiness. Charlie has Cushing’s, which means his adrenal glands don’t work properly, and he is on daily medication. The medicine has really helped him gain confidence and be a much happier boy. We just love him. Maybe you will, too.
Name: Primm Age: 2 years Breed: Shiba Inubeagle mix Sex: Spayed female Primm is the sweetest girl. She loves being petted and giving kisses in return. She also loves to play and run. She has lots of energy and would make a great partner for a serious walker, jogger, runner or hiker. While she does well with dogs in social situations – on walks or at daycare – she wants to be the only pet in her home. See, she doesn’t like to share her living space with other animals. An adults-only home would be ideal for her. The best home for Primm also would have a secure, fenced yard. And, just in case you missed our first reference, she would really, really like to have an owner or owners who like being active as much as she does.
Name: Larry Age: 4 years Breed: Shepherd mix Gender: Neutered male Maybe it’s because he’s big (about 65 pounds). Maybe because he’s a sort of generic-looking shepherd mix. But no one has shown any interest in Larry since we got him. And that’s a real shame, because Larry is one of the sweetest, nicest dogs we’ve rescued. He loves people and other dogs and gets along with everyone. All he needs is a chance to prove what a wonderful boy he is. w 2 | Shamrock Rescue Foundation | shamrockrescue.org
‘Dogs Are Our Link to Paradise’ When Charice, Maryanne Dell and I started Shamrock Rescue Foundation in 2006, we didn’t realize what a blessing it would be. Dedicated to focusing on dogs that, because they were older or medically challenged, might have less of a chance of getting adopted, or even surviving in a “kill” facility, it has become a noble and satisfying cause. Because of the amazing financial and personal support of you, our donors, and the amazing, Herculean efforts of Maryanne and countless volunteers, we have had the wonderful opportunity of saving animals, fixing them when necessary, and after evaluation and adopter vetting, placing them in loving and safe homes. Yet, the need for your continued support is still great. You have, no doubt, heard or read that during COVID lockdowns, it was a special time for animal adoptions. It’s true. Many folks, because they found themselves at home, went out and adopted animals in record numbers. It was part of a “Golden Age” for rescuing animals. Unfortunately, after COVID restrictions ended, for personal, financial or callous reasons, many animals were abandoned and returned to the shelters. Those shelters and the associated rescue organizations are overwhelmed and need your help. What can you do to help these helpless animals? Of course, you can donate funds to your favorite organizations. There are many fine ones to choose from. Many organizations need and accept food and supplies, and all need volunteers. You can have your animals spayed, neutered and microchipped. This all helps moving forward, and you can pray for all the animals, and people throughout the world, who are suffering through no fault of their own.
the scores of volunteers, who have given so generously of their time and money. As I believe you know, 100 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to the rescue and care of needy dogs. We realize that when times get tough for people, they also get tough for animals. Thank you so much for loving them. In closing, I have included two of my favorite dog quotations. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace.” – Milan Kundera
“I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.” – Doris Day Ron King President, Chairman of the Board
Stitch was one of Shamrock’s early saves. Read his story on Page 9
Charice, Maryanne and I want to thank you, and Shamrock Rescue Foundation | shamrockrescue.org 3
Adoptions
Meet some of the dogs we have been fortunate to place in loving, forever homes.
When we learned that WINSTON was at a local shelter with a broken leg and no interest from anyone, we saved him. A generous Shamrock benefactor paid for his surgery. Finding his perfect home took awhile – we figure being a black chow had something to do with it, since a lot of people are scared of one or the other, or both. But we found the perfect family; actually, they found us. And now we all have something special to be thankful for this year.
BROWNIE came from a Southern California shelter, where his time was soon to be up. His foster mom fell in love with him, and now he shares adventures with his sister Lola, right, and The Colonel, center.
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BEAU’s foster mom decided to make him hers forever recently. After all, he’d already become a much-loved member of the family.
Aptly named, BRAVEHEART had a damaged leg that had to be amputated. Like most dogs, he recovered quickly and has never looked back.
BUNNY followed some people home from a park one day. Unfortunately, their own dog didn’t care for her, so Shamrock stepped up and found her a home, after trying for 30 days to find her owner(s). She’s now Zera, a pampered peke pup who gets to go nearly everywhere with her mom and dad.
When FRANKIE’s owner died, her daughter realized she couldn’t care for him. We have a huge heart for oldsters in need, so we found a foster home for him right away. Now it’s his forever home, where he has lots of love and all the care he needs.. More on the next page >>
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Adoptions
>> From the previous page
PENNY and POPPY lost their home in 2019 when their owner died. The Tibetan Spaniel Club of America Rescue & Health Trust, knowing we have a soft spot for these wonderful little dogs, contacted us and asked if we could take them in and find a home for them. We said yes, of course, and they were adopted by a lovely woman in Orange County. Sadly, in 2022, she passed, leaving the girls once again homeless. Shamrock took them in and again found them a home. They’re still California girls living the good life, with all the furniture privileges they desire.
BOGART was found on the streets by one of Shamrock’s adopters. She quickly bundled the big, friendly guy into her car and took him home. Bogart was nothing but a gentleman and, within a couple of weeks, was on his way to his new home in Arizona.
We were contacted by San Francisco Animal Care & Control about this boy. The chow mix was a favorite, and the shelter reached out in hopes of finding a savior. We found a foster who went to the shelter and got him out. GHOST never left his foster, and he’s now found his forever home.
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DONNY, left, and BONITA were running on the streets in Los Angeles (sad how many dogs end up this way) and were found by one of Shamrock’s foster moms. She took them in and together, we found wonderful homes for both of them. They weren’t bonded, so we don’t know if they came from the same house. Donny has a cat brother, while Bonita shares her home with a smaller pup.
ELLIOT is such a cutie, but he could be reactive with many people, so finding his forever home wasn’t easy. But when Shaun met him, it was love at first sight. Elliot and Shaun go everywhere together and share great adventures. Welcome home, Elliot!
FANNY also had her issues. She was very scared when we met her. Settling into her new home provided a bit of a challenge for her new mom and dad, but they were determined to make it work, and they did. More on the next page >>
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Adoptions
>> From the previous page
Hiro’s owners also fell on financial hard times. A relative took him in but couldn’t keep him, so she reached out to a friend. The friend knows us at Shamrock and contacted us. Together, we were able to find a loving, forever home for the little guy. And his original owners get pictures of his new life!
Guss and Jaq’s owner fell on hard times, and she approached Shamrock, asking if we could help. Given our soft hearts when it comes to chows and little, smushy-faced dogs, how could we say no? We had space, so we took the duo in. We flipflopped on whether they needed to be placed together but ultimately decided they did. We met a woman who agreed wholeheartedly, and Guss and Jaq found their forever after. Rusty was at a shelter in Los Angeles, and no one seemed interested in adopting him. He needed some medical help – nothing life-threatening, but still things that needed to be taken care of. Once he got totally healthy, he went to a home where he lives with another pup and their mom. 8 | Shamrock Rescue Foundation | shamrockrescue.org
Stitch’s Story
Stitch lived up to his namesake – the sometimes cute and cuddly, sometimes evil star of the movie “Lilo & Stitch” – for years after being adopted. He really mellowed after he started competing in nose work, a sport in which he had to tell me where specific odors were hidden. In his later years he was a much mellower dog. Most of the time ...
By Maryanne Dell, Director & Adoption Counselor No one loved the little dog. He sat in a shelter, smoosh faced and sad, or maybe angry was a better way to see it. Folks at the shelter called him “The Biter,” because that’s what he did – or tried to do – whenever anyone moved to pick him up. He wasn’t going to be there long. He was destined for that sad room at the end of the corridor that no dog leaves alive. But I saw his picture, and I couldn’t let that happen. So, I adopted him, named him Alfie, and prepared to find a forever home for him. Several months after bringing him home, working with his angry tendency to bite anyone who dared
try to take something from him, his rage at being overhandled and his outrage when I tried to brush him, I succeeded. I realized that he was already home, because I couldn’t place him with anyone. Pekingese like him are a breed apart, or they can be. He was cute as a bug physically (if you like brachycephalic smoosh faces, which I do), but pretty darn ugly temperamentally. Pekes live their own lives. Sometimes they are truly adorable little love bugs. Sometimes they aren’t, thanks to bad breeding or a lack of socialization, education or nurturing – or a combination of More on the next page >>
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From the previous page >> the above. No one was going to fall in love with this boy and give him the space he needed to hopefully become a happy dog. Except me. I’d already fallen, learning along the road we walked that some dogs’ behavior can’t be changed much, just as some humans won’t ever change their stripes. So, I accepted that he needed his space, that he would seek attention and touch when he wanted it, and that the best thing I could do was let him have his opinions and decisions and support them. My roommate never liked his name. She thought Alfie didn’t suit him. She wanted me to name him Stitch, after the “Lilo & Stitch” character. Well, it certainly fit. Some days sweet, some days as evil-seeming as the science experiment 626 in the film, he seemed destined for the name. So, Stitch he became. Funny thing: Shortly after I started calling him Stitch, when he was about 5, he seemed to settle into himself. A little less crabby, a little more joyful, he became a bit more Stitch, a bit less 626. And then I taught him about nose work. Nose work is scent detection for fun – our dogs search for specific odors the same way drug detection dogs seek marijuana, cocaine or fentanyl. It’s my favorite dog sport, and at the time I was competing with my chow mix, Fly, and my Tibetan spaniel, Jitterbug. They both adored it. Nothing to my dog owner and dog trainer’s heart creates a better bond with our dogs than nose work. Why? Because we don’t train our dogs to compete in this sport. They don’t have to chase a ball or lure, follow cues or run fast. They just do what comes naturally: use their most powerful sense to find something. We are the ones who learn – we have to read our dogs and understand whether they are “in odor” or whether they’ve found its source.
Stitch had beds in many places. Still, he decided my laundry basket made a better resting spot.
As has happened with each of my nose work dogs, Stitch and I developed a bond whose depths we hadn’t plumbed before. Oh, how proud he was to be on the hunt. Many times at nose work trials, people stopped me and said of Stitch, “That’s a dog on a mission.” Indeed, his little face had a look of sheer determination as we walked to a search area, and one of great triumph as we returned – regardless of whether we’d actually found the odor. I was so proud of him, and of how much he’d grown. No longer suspicious of everyone, he welcomed people at nose work because, well – we were doing nose work, his favorite thing ever. We earned a few titles, but at a trial in 2019, he was struggling. He was, at best guess, 13 years old then. So our nose work career ended and Stitch became a homebody. When it wasn’t too hot, he came with my current nose work dog, Bumblebee, and me to trials in which she competed, until he developed canine cognitive dysfunction. That’s “doggie dementia,” and dogs definitely get it. No one knows why, any more than we know the whys behind human cognitive dysfunction. But he started putting himself in places from which he couldn’t escape, because his mind had >>>
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forgotten how to back out. Or he’d insist on trying to go in or out the wrong side of a door. He’d spin in circles, wander aimlessly, be unable to get comfortable enough to sleep. I used a myriad of supplements, tools like a blue light, and even bought a food – from a manufacturer I don’t usually recommend – purported to increase mental alertness to help him. They all – even the food, maybe especially the food – did just that … until they didn’t. Finally, I just made him comfortable. He was still healthy, physically, as far as I could tell. In hindsight, maybe I should have relieved him of this life sooner than I did. But when your dog is the one about to cross that Rainbow Bridge, it’s the most horrible, hard-to-make decision in the world. My dogs, to a dog, have always told me when they were ready. Stitch didn’t. But maybe the dementia wouldn’t let him.
The joy of finding hidden odor at nose work class.
nose work lover, my smoosh-faced, adorable boy who made me love a breed I never thought I would, move on. I’ll always love you, Stitch. And you’ll always, always live in my heart.
Until it did. And I let the feisty little fighter, the
Our Fabulous Fosters Our fosters are special people who open their hearts and homes to dogs in need. These special people provide not only care and shelter, but love and a home. While these may not be permanent homes, they are safe havens for dogs who would not do well in a kennel environment. Fosters give their time, energy and sometimes money. They also give love — so much love — to creatures who often have never known it before. We are eternally grateful for all they do. And, yes, some of our fosters even get so attached to their canine charges that they can’t give them up. We love when that happens! Interested in fostering? Contact us at 714-270-
Brownie’s foster adopted him, and he’s now a proud puppy school graduate!
4187 (texts preferred) or shamrockrf@gmail.com, or fill out the application on our website.
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Gone to The Bridge By Maryanne Dell, Director & Adoption Counselor Remembering those we have loved and lost ... we wish you could have stayed forever. But forever is how long you will live in our hearts.
“Just this side of heaven, there’s a place called Th last, glorious day of food and fun and love, and then he was gone. Too fast and too young, a beautiful boy taken far too soon.
2022 was a record year for adoptions for us, with 29 dogs finding homes. It may also have been a record year for loss, though I haven’t kept a tally of those dogs; it’s too depressing. There isn’t enough room here to tell each of their stories, but here are a few, along with photos of the rest. REGGIE Reggie was at the Orange County, California, animal shelter, yet another dog with a broken leg. (We’ve saved three dogs with broken legs in the last couple of years. All were front legs.) We had surgery done to fix it and give him some internal hardware, then called on one of our longtime fosters to care for him while he healed. All went well until he was taken off cage rest and allowed to roam the house. He managed to open a not-quite-closed door and chased the resident cat, so he had to move to the kennel where we board some of our dogs. He didn’t garner much adoption interest, but a woman called me one day, saying she saw his picture and fell in love. She asked to foster him to make sure he and her other dog, Beau, got along. They did, and Reggie had his family. But not for long, sadly. Just a couple of months after Reggie was officially adopted, he was discovered to be riddled with cancer. He got a
Fanny, right, and her foster friends Dolly, left, and Merry. Dolly and Merry are also at the Bridge.
FANNY Fanny was 15 when her owner died. Her owner’s family wanted nothing to do with this sweet senior, so they cleared out her owner’s home and left Fanny there, alone. Fortunately, a friend of her owner rescued her and got her home, and Shamrock took her in. One of our wonderful fosters (who’s foster failed and kept every one of our dogs she’s taken in) saw her picture and said, “I’ll take her.” Fanny lived three more years in her new home, had other Tibetan spaniel friends and lots of love. She developed canine cognitive dysfunction, and that may have contributed to her body wearing out. She’s with her first mom now, and with some of the dog pals she met at her foster’s. We love helping senior dogs and are so glad we were able to bring Fanny her last years of comfort and joy. MIA Mia looked so much like my Jitterbug that I had to save her. A lovely couple from Phoenix
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he Rainbow Bridge ...” adopted her, driving out to meet her foster family and me, then driving back with her. We kept in touch, and I learned that Mia loved to give kisses and follow her dad everywhere he went. In true Tibetan spaniel fashion, she guarded the family against intruders real and imagined. Suddenly, one day earlier this year, she collapsed. An ER vet told her owners that she had had a stroke. A brain tumor was suspected, based on her behavior of the past few months. Her mom and dad knew what they had to do. A day of all her favorite things – a good day, her mom told me –and she gently passed into the next step of her journey from her own bed on her back patio. It’s never easy to say goodbye, but we are comforted knowing that Mia had the best last years of her life with the most wonderful people. Reast easy, little girl.
BOBBY I found out about a little dog in Las Vegas who needed a home. He was the cutest senior Pomeranian – but how was I going to get a dog to Southern California from Las Vegas? I posted on social media, asking if anyone was traveling from there to here, and – serendipity! – two Shamrock supporters were! Bobby got a ride to Orange County, and shortly thereafter found his forever home with a couple who were more than happy to ensure that his kidney disease (the reason a rescue had been sought) was taken care of and that he lived the best life possible. And he did, wanting for nothing and bringing much joy and happiness to their lives for a year. The saddest thing about saving seniors is the short time they are with us. But the best part is knowing that that short time was the best time of their lives. I’m sure it was for dear little Bobby.
I was so happy when we saved Daveny. And when she found her home, her new mom was ecstatic. They had so many adventures. But her life was cut far too short far too soon. Fly free, little furry angel. You were the best girl. More on the next page >> Shamrock Rescue Foundation | shamrockrescue.org 13
Gone to The Bridge This newsletter would need 10 more pages to tell all of their stories. But I want to honor all of them, because they all deserve it. Fly high, all of you ...
Addie
Bear
Jax
Kee-Ni
Kismet
Nacho
Phineas
Sampson
Tiger
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Chelsea
Frosty
Napolean
Precious
Cinnamon
Zivah
Wolfy
Sno Ball
Percy
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Welcome home
These are just some of the many dogs given a second chance by Shamrock Rescue Foundation. With your generous assistance, we can provide care, nurturing and rehabilitation for dogs like these who otherwise would not have the opportunity for fresh starts. Then we find forever homes where they can be safe for the rest of their lives.
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