One year old Bowser is a Chocolate lab who has not had a very good start in life, spending most of it so far inside a crate. His former owner decided he was getting too fat, so limited this youngster's food to one cup per day. Bowser arrived at Safe Harbor terribly thin with very little muscle tone. He also was not neutered and had never seen a veterinarian or had any vaccines.

A Good Samaritan helped get Bowser to us. He's a very sweet, forgiving Lab who just looks at you with those beautiful eyes, grateful to be out of his former situation. Wait until he finds out how Labradors REALLY live now that he's safely in our arms!

We very much appreciate your thoughtful donations that are so helpful in getting Labs like Bowser the medical care and love that they so desperately need. What would we do without you!

Click here to provide help for the Labs of Safe Harbor.

We are happy to report that Bowser is now with his forever family. After showing off his calm nature and good manners, Jeff, Stacy, Joe and Anna took a family vote and unanimously decided that he needed to go home with them. He is now called Jagger.

When Heidi, a fourth grader at Evergreen Country Day School, was planning her 10 year old birthday party, she told her mom there really weren't any presents she wanted and she would like her party guests to make a donation to Safe Harbor instead. Her very generous guests donated over $400 to help the Labs!

Heidi's family became involved with Safe Harbor when they fostered Carlos, an adorable Chocolate puppy, who quickly became a permanent member of the family.

Happy Birthday, Heidi, and thank you from all the Labs!

Click here to learn how to provide foster care for a Safe Harbor Lab.

An extremely overweight Dakota arrived at Safe Harbor last fall, weighing in at 155 pounds! A gorgeous, dark honey-colored sweet guy, he was placed on a weight-loss program by his wonderful and committed foster family. With lots of walks (and green beans) along with his diet food, he lost 20-plus pounds prior to his adoption in early January (photo on right).


Seven year old Dakota is now in his "forever home" with his "forever family" - Tami and David, their 10 year old daughter, Emelia ... and seven month old Walley, a Lab-Golden mix. David describes Dakota as "a gentle, mellow gentleman" who likes to hang out on their patio.

Dakota loves snuggling on his pillow with Walley and taking walks with his canine brother at his side. He is healthy and happy and currently weighs 95 pounds.

Lookin' good, Dakota!

Almost a year ago, Sue took on the job of Transport Coordinator. The realtor in her organized a system to email "blast" the 75 transport volunteers whenever a call came in for action. It works very well, except when a large volume of requests comes in at one time.

Sue coordinates transports from shelters state wide, as well as short local trips to take a foster dog to the vet or even just transport meds needed by one of our dogs. A long distance transport may involve organizing 3 different transporters or teams to ensure a Labbie gets into our "safe harbor".

Sue and her husband, Joe, were Lab-less for a year or more when they found a filed away article on fostering Labs and decided to go for it! Their first "foster" was an 18 month old yellow Lab named Dixie. The foster placement failed - they adopted Dixie! Now three years later, they both continue to be involved in caring for and loving and letting go. Their 26th Labbie, sweet and special Sandy, is ready for her "forever home", and Sue and Joe will wait expectantly for #27. (As we go to "print", the news just arrived that Sandy was adopted and Sue and Joe have welcomed their #27 foster, Dooley, into their home.)

Sue says she continues to be impressed by the professionalism and dedication of the volunteers and is proud to be a part of Safe Harbor. We are grateful, Sue, to have you as our Lab travel agent!

Thank you to our "pup" reporter, Ginny Smith, for the Spotlight articles, and for Dakota's story.

Follow this link to find out how you can become a Safe Harbor Volunteer.