Strengthening the bond between people and animals is built right in to our mission. It's part of what we do every day!

One excellent way to nurture and deepen the bond between you and your dog is to participate in dog obedience classes. We're pleased to be able to offer these basic classes, taught by volunteer certified trainer Gary Harrington, for the eighth year in a row.

Gary is one of those special people who seem to be able to communicate with animals with no effort whatsoever. For the rest of us, it helps to have someone like Gary show us the way.

I encourage you to register for a session and see how training and interacting with your dog can be a fun, positive experience--and how rewarding having a well-trained dog can be!

On behalf of the animals-

Kirsten Eddins

President

Board of Directors

P.S. Gary generously donates the class fees to us so we can help more dogs and cats find their lifelong homes. Let's have a little fun and thank Gary by donating "In honor of Gary Harrington" today!

We brought Angel home with us last week and have been thrilled ever since. What a fantastic dog! 

She's a big cuddle-bug and spends most evenings on the sofa, preferably with a human to pet her and give belly rubs. If we stop, she flops her head up on the person's chest and looks at them as if to say, "um, I think you need to keep going." She's very sweet and is so well behaved. We hit the jackpot!

She had her first vet appointment last Monday. The doctor thought her ears were clearing up OK, but her tail was a bit "gooey," so she didn't take out the sutures yet. We went back to the vet on Friday, and her tail looked good enough then to have the sutures taken out. We're keeping an eye on that "happy tail," but it seems to be healing nicely, no bandage. She's also gaining weight steadily, so her ribs aren't sticking out quite so much.

We got her a tag for the dog parks in Iowa City. She's been to the park three times so far and loves to play fetch. We haven't taken her into the main section of the park yet (with all the other dogs) because of her tail, but we'll probably try that soon. She's met a couple of dogs in the neighborhood, plus several people, and she's charmed them all. We also have been walking with her in the mornings and evenings to get some exercise. She walks really well on leash.

She has two beds, one upstairs and one downstairs, but usually she uses the sofa when she's downstairs. She sleeps in our room all night without any fuss (she doesn't care much for crating). We've even tried leaving her out while we run errands for a while and come home to find her lying on her bed looking very calm, no barking, nothing chewed up. We just can't believe how lucky we are to have her.

Thank you all for the wonderful work you do and for letting us give Angel a new home. We're going to keep doing whatever we can to give her the fun, loving life she deserves.

Take care-

Wendy F.

Remember, YOU can send us your Happy Tail, too!

My cat brought me a toy. I thanked her and threw it. She sat there gave me a look that made me realize people and dogs are the crazy ones.

-Dan Harmon