And the Winner's are.....

Pepper - The Miracle Story 

 Pepper was surrendered to YTNR from her owner who did not have time to care for her.  Her owner had a three year old daughter who had dropped Pepper down the stairs and fractured her hip.  

 The owner did not tell YTNR about the injury and it was noticed when she first came to her foster home and could not use her leg.  Pepper had a hard beginning after being purchased at a pet store and was not gaining weight as a young puppy.  She was 6 months old and only weighed 1.5 pounds.  The vet told her former owner to put her on baby cereal which helped her gain up to 3 1/2 pounds which she weighed when she came into yorkie rescue on January 1st.  She was taken to the YTNR vet on January 2 and diagnosed with a hip fracture requiring immediate surgery.  Pepper had a hard time eating following surgery and got frequent diarrhea.  We finally found a food that agreed with her and added chicken to help her hip mend.  After a few days she started her rehab which involved ice packs followed by warm packs and range of motion exercises three times a day.  Pepper had a strong will to survive and she was a trooper during her rehab which was painful.

 Once Pepper's hip began to heal, she accompanied us to a fund raising event at Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company.  YTNR was collecting donations and selling booklets for the Carson's Community Days sale.  We were there about an hour when Renee and Jeff walked into the store and immediately feel in love with little Pepper.  We set up a home visit 4 days later and Pepper joined her forever family that day.

"Pepper immediately captured our hearts when we saw her that day at Carson's dept store. The wonderful folks at YTNR were at the entrance with a few of the adoptive dogs including our very small  yorkie angel named Pepper. I was able to hold Pepper in my arms and knew immediately that I needed to be her new mommy. I had never had a dog, so this was really a special moment for my husband to see how much I loved Pepper. She was only 3 1/2 lbs and still recovering from her serious hip surgery. We discussed Pepper on our drive home from the store and immediately filled out the adoption application and said a prayer that she would join our family.

 Pepper has been a total joy for us every day. She has made a terrific recovery, and now weighs a healthy lbs.  Like most dogs, she loves to get her naps in during the day but her snoring can be incredible!  She loves to help out in the flower garden, bringing us all the flowers that fell off the plants or ones that "almost" fell off.  Pepper is a social butterfly, everyone we meet seems to fall in love with her cheery personality and awesome kisses. She loves to go shopping with me and fits nicely in my bag. I love to buy my little girl cute puppy dresses.  We thank God that we found this little angel and for the wonderful folks that saved her life."

~ Jeff and Renee Stytz  

First Runner Up..... Jasper

Dear YTNR,

I am writing to nominate myself for the SMOKEY award. It may seem arrogant but I love to share my "forever story". 

I would like to start at the beginning of my journey as much as I can recall. My name is Jasper and I am originally from Edmonton Kentucky. I have a lot of secrets so I can will start with the phone call the Humane society placed to my foster parents Karen and Anthony Simone. I am not sure if you all know them but Karen is a YTNR representative in Kentucky who foster's Yorkshire terriers. She came to the Humane Society one afternoon and rescued me. One of my secrets that I will share is I tended to run away if there was an open door. Karen is pretty sure that is how I ended up at the Humane Society. My first family did not contact her so that is when my fostering began. Karen and Anthony welcomed me into their home with open arms and it was a great place. They have six other dogs and lots of cats. My foster home was a nice farm with lots of room for me to roam. I was getting along great with them until the oddest thing happened. I heard Karen and Anthony talking about this dog named Lulu. I knew she had to be great dog because we can sense that sort of thing!

One day the phone rang Karen teared up during the conversation in July. I heard her talking with Lulu's forever Mom. They spoke of Lulu and I knew Lisa was coming to visit. As the car pulled up from Tennessee Karen and Lisa hugged each other and laughed and cried. Soon after that they spoke of Lulu but what I did not realize was Lulu had passed away and they were celebrating Lulu's life together at her funeral. Anthony had dug a place in the ground beside of Lulu's favorite tree and they placed Lulu's fragile body in the ground. Beautiful flowers were placed on her grave and the whole family again laughed and cried. Karen had assured Lisa and her family that coming to bring Lulu back to the KY farm would be peaceful for all of them. The family ate a meal that Karen had prepared and I was so good. I always knew that Anthony would give me a morsel of food as long as there was no begging during the human meal. As Anthony cleared the table, Lisa and her family sat in the den. I was so excited that her family sat on the floor with ME!.. 

I noticed that Lisa had leaking eyes so I gave her kisses that she would never forget. What a day for me! So many new humans and so much attention.  I could tell that Lisa's mind was wandering after the meal. She asked her husband Greg to step outside so they could talk. Again, I had no idea what was about to happen. They came back inside and asked Karen about adopting me. She offered to keep me so that they could think about it and even offered to drive me to Tennessee. Karen is very careful with her forever families and a lot of people had come to meet me. Well, I had won their hearts and we were brought together all because they had loved Lulu so deeply. I had my NEW whole forever family to ride to back to Tennessee with.

As you all know dogs are gifts to our humans and Karen assured my NEW forever family that I was the last gift from Lulu who had given them all so much. I know live in Murfreesboro Tennessee with my three cat brothers. I am the only dog but that is fine with me. I get lots of human attention. My forever parents work sometimes at night and you might think that would be a problem. Oh no! They take me for a car ride and I spend the night with my forever Gran. She loves my kisses and has special treats for me. I also have two human cousins named Stephen and Ellen who love me. They are at Gran's a lot on the weekends.

So, this is my forever story for now! I would like to dedicate my nomination to Karen and Anthony Simone for all they do for YTNR. Adding to that in memory of the forever sister I hear so much about.  Precious Lulu....

Hugs and kisses,

Jasper Stoddard, Approx 3 yo male Yorkie rescued by Karen and Anthony Simone

Forever Family, Greg and Lisa Stoddard

Second Runner up...... MAISEY

 

Once upon a time there was a little 6 lb Yorkie girl about 10 years old and blind that was dropped as a "stray" to the Santa Cruz shelter.  Little did she know that I was looking to get Mom a cute little Yorkie-   she had always wanted one.  Mom had open heart surgery earlier in the year and I wanted to give her everything she wanted.  I submitted an application via the website but unfortunately that Yorkie had been adopted already.  But as things should work out, I got a call from  the Southern California YTNR representative  - Patti.  After a wonderful conversation,  in which I let her know we were  open to getting a yorkie of any age, sex, medical condition, etc.  We loved the seniors and thought they were very special.

Patti , knew of this little girl and had photos emailed to us. Little girl was in quite a state, in a little box of a cage - if you could call it that.  Were we willing to adopt her --- absolutely, looking at that face who could resist.  Emails were sent, photos went back and forth. This little girl was to be euthanized the next day if we had said no.  We were absolutely excited.  We named her Maisey, this 10+ year old girl who had never been spayed, who had terrible teeth, was blind from severe cataracts, and had a mammary tumor.

Everything was set in motion, she was pulled from Santa Cruz and they provided a voucher for vet services to dental and spay.  She got a good bath after being at the shelter she had a bit of a stink so I was told. Not surprising she had been in a tiny cage with no where other than that space to do her business.

She was to be transported to Southern California after her dental and spay which was to happen within a few days. However, after being seen by the Northern California Vet it was determined she had gotten Kennel Cough and the dental and spay would need to be delayed.  She was also found to have a heart murmur.  The transport had been set up for that weekend and if we waited for the procedures to be done in Northern California we didn't know when we would be able to get her.

We opted to take her and treat her and get her dental and spay and mass removal done when she was over her kennel cough.   So down she came and we met her in Orange County. Love at first site. Kisses for everyone.  What a love.

That was January,  since that time she has had her dental - still has teeth and a very healthy, hearty appetite. She may be blind but she can smell her food and barks to let us know she is ready to eat. She has her own high chair at the dinner table.  She was spayed, and a mammary tumor removed.  She was placed on heart medicine for her murmur and does wonderfully.  We take her out in the yard and we smile at her as she "walks to china", she goes and goes like the energizer rabbit.  She barks when she wants something.  She knows how to go out the sliding glass door to our enclosed patio to do her business (when not in the yard with us) and is able to find her way back in. And the cutest thing after she does her business she kicks at the ground, letting everyone know what she did.  She is very smart and has us wrapped around her little paw.  She loves to camp out in a very big round bed during the day in the TV room; snuggling up to the sides of it. Oh yes and her wardrobe - dress after dress she is quite the fashionista.  She loves the attention she gets and deserves. We can't imagine life without this little girl who almost left this world but for the wonderful YTNR person Patti who knew we were the match for her.  We look forward to the years we have together they may not be a large quantity but the quality is there and we appreciate every moment we have with her.  

So we all have our happy ever after !!!      Sylvia Gyimesi    

 
We would like to give a special Thank You to Patti Kushnir for Chairing this committee, sending out 91 letters to all of the homes that adopted from YTNR in the past year, for putting the Smoky Committee together and arming them with their box of kleenex as they read through the nominations.  Thank you to Ronnie and Jon Birdsong for printing, framing and getting the Awards to Nashville.  Thank you to Jessica Frias, Maria Boyle, Melanie Reizner, Stephi Luken, and Michele Dawn for all your help.