They have arrived!

Well it has been an exciting weekend at Camp Bobe

Heather headed out to pick up a very pregnant Angel. She is working with a wonderful group of animal people that has worked so hard to help Angel and all the Lakeshore dogs. In fact Allison and Heather talked on the phone last week until the wee hours about the Lakeshore dogs and rescue. These are our kind of people. Angel was close to whelping so they were planning plans b, c, & d.

Friday morning Heather left for STL about 4.5 hours into the trip Heather was notified that Angel will probably go within the next 24-48 hours. Really what can a girl do? She kept driving.

Angel started whelping on Saturday morning. Angel had 9 puppies! 5 boys and 4 girls. Mom and babies are doing well at the home of our temp foster that was only suppose to have them for a few days that has now turned into whelping and having the pups through Thanksgiving.

Nine pups is a lot of shots and Angel still needs surgery on her leg ($1500-$2000) and possible other medical treatments and of course a spay!

Puppy care is estimated at $2100.

Can you help?


She and the kids are doing great! They will need shots and deworming ($450) soon.
We need to raise a lot of funds for these guys. Every $1 helps. So don't worry if you cannot give big. Just give what you can!!!

For All You Cardinal Fans...

Lucy with her very own Rally Squirrel!

Who are you people anyway?

I have to be honest most of us at Camp Bobe did not start out to be "rescuers" or "animal experts" our purpose found us and beckoned to us over and over. Over the next couple of weeks we will be featuring interviews with our founders and Board of Directors so you can get to know this crazy crew.

We have a former English teacher with pink hair and a nose ring that is now a vet tech and our Director of Animal Health.
We have a consultant with a Masters Degree, a certificate in Animal Behavior and is a classically trained Soprano that is our CEO & Animal Behaviorist
We have two very successful retired business owners that are on our board of directors who are amazing role models.
We have a Sales Rep that sells an annual volume of $18 million for a sports lifestyle company who is our COO and in charge of our hospice care.

Oh and of course our Chief Animal Officer Matilda, who as a Border Collie is in charge of...well...everything.

Angels We Have Heard On High!

Those of you that follow our Facebook page know about our desperate search to find Angel and her unborn pups a foster home. I am going CRAZY. I am annoying everyone I meet begging the to foster her.

"Have you heard about Angel?" I ask.
Responses:
"Yes, Heather we talked about her during Lunch." or
"Yes, Heather I am friends with you on facebook." or most clearly
"Yes, Heather and no I cannot foster her."

It is driving me crazy. I see her pretty face in my mind's eye daily. She pulled me in from the moment someone emailed me her photo.

My intake team and I are pretty darn strict about our intake policy. Since our organization focuses on those with medical or behavioral issues we have to make sure we keep to our true north.

Angel fit those criteria. When Angel was first found by the rescue team living on the streets they noticed how beautiful she was but also that she was only using 1 leg. The man that had been feeding her said she was purposefully run over about 6 months ago (broken front leg). She no longer uses that leg so it may not be "fixable" and may need to be amputated.

That being said they noticed her sweet and loving nature. At that point they could only take the worst case animals from the trailer park where the strays were living. And believe it or not Angel was in pretty good shape compared to the others.

The team contacted me and we began to talk about bringing her to Nebraska and her health needs. We work with an amazing surgeon here in Nebraska and we knew if there was ANY chance of saving the leg she would be able to do it. We were not optimistic but we wanted to give it a chance.

When they returned about 10 days later to get the next round of dogs. Angel had a bit of a surprise for them. She was pregnant. Not completely unexpected when you have that many dogs that are not spayed or neutered running around. She is still as sweet as ever "singing" at you when she wants your attention.

So that is where we are at today trying to find her a foster home in Nebraska. The only options for her and her pups if they remain there are the streets or a shelter where the the chances of her survival would not be great because of her injury. An injury like that is a death sentence in a shelter environment because to fix her leg would cost money.

She has a vet appointment on Friday. We seriously have no placement for her. We need a generous heart to step up and foster this beautiful girl through whelping of her puppies and then her leg surgery.

We support our foster homes in every way possible with vet care, training plans for the animals, food, and adoption events. Please consider fostering and if you can email Heather at heather@campbobe.org

Here are some pictures with her caregivers down in Arkansas.

I love Kitties!

We look so much alike!

A cute shot of how loving she is and her pregnant belly.

Hello Everyone!

Kitty Kisses!!!

Smokey's Story

One of our recent success stories is Smokey. This HANDSOME boy had some hard times before he came to us at Camp Bobe.



If we didn't know better we would swear that Smokey was a bird. More specifically a Phoenix. You see Smokey's home burned down and he was thought dead. He was the next day under the rubble by his family. He survived but his family could not afford to continue to care for him after the devastating fire so they left his to roam. After roaming around for about a month he was taken into a local shelter where he developed a big fan based. (Yes, Smokey has his very own groupies!)

Since the shelter was a kill shelter his new friends worked hard and brought him to the attention of Camp Bobe. With the assistance of Furever Friends of the South, Smokey made his way to the Good Life in Nebraska. He was fostered by the Engle Family of Northeastern Nebraska.




His new home was only suppose to be a foster but when the Engles, who lost their St. Bernard Chewy 2 months ago, it was love at first sight. He was a spirited boy with a wiggly butt and kisses to give.

I (Heather) kinda knew that this was not just a foster situation when I got a text from them when they were still making the two hour drive back home.

"Almost Home. He is sound asleep in my lap"

A little over an hour and a half later I got another text:

"The cat and Smokey already kissed and get along. Cat just watches him. He is so cute. He ate and drank. Makin himself at home next to me on couch. I am pretty sure this his new forever home "

It was sent with a picture.


After getting the picture and the note I emailed her back asking it she wanted me to take Smokey of our adoption page. She emailed back saying:

"I am pretty sure he has his home. Already in bed sleepin with my husband. Pretty sure done deal."

The weekend passes and I focus my attention on getting our other intakes from that weekend settled into their foster homes and also check in on Piper. (Who by the way was playing ball this past weekend.)

Monday I get another message with a picture.

"This is where Smokey likes to sleep with his blanket.But some part of him has to be touching us for him to fall asleep. We are falling in love quickly."

Bright and early Tuesday morning I get the text I had been expecting for a while:

"It is official! We can't let Smokey go. We want to adopt him. We love him too much. He is wonderful. I will be foster parents if u need us to do so as well. we love him and he has touched us so much!"

This is why I feel so lucky to get to do what I do. God has blessed me with the ability to connect people and animals and I get to see the most wonderful outcome in the world...LOVE.

The dog is the only animal that has seen his god.

Long time no post and for that we are truly sorry. We have been so busy and that is a very good thing. Rescues and rehabs is our everyday.

I am posting today to bring you all some news. We found out last week that one of the our darlings, Piper, has bone cancer and it is terminal. At this point we are doing hospice and letting her lead the way.

She was taken off the adoption list and officially adopted by one of our founders, Laticia, so in her final days she had a home and a family that she belongs to. Piper is in good spirits. Today she was running around and rolling around like a pup.

We are going to let her dictate her final journey in partnership of our great vet Dr. L in California. Our goal is to enrich the short time she has left with us.
Don't be sad friends because she is not! She is living each day like a dog-- living in the moment and celebrating the joy that comes with that.



We have been comforted in this news with the release of Jon Katz's new book Going Home:Finding Peace When Pets Die.

Jon did a lot of research and on the book and talked to a lot of people who just plain love their pets. He look at rituals that have come about with animals passing and how we grieve.

I find it unique that society finds it foolish for us to grieve the loss of an animal. When telling someone about Piper this week one of our volunteers was laughed at because she shed tear while telling the story. She was told, "Look at yourself you are being silly crying over an animal." Our volunteer later noted that she realize the honest show of emotion made the woman nervous as she had never seen or had such an experience. You just don't understand if you have not known the love of a pet.

Here is a video Jon did to go with the new book.

Best Friends Training Day 2-It Begins

Hello Friends!
I have lots to share and some fun pictures too.

Arrival for us was at Lunch. I immediately met a group from Young At Heart from Chicago. Within an hour I was adopted by the group. I just love them. They are midwesterners that speak my language. Plus, their mission of rescuing senior pets just tugged at my heart. We had the Thursday "What is happening at the Sanctuary" weekly briefing.

After lunch we took a tour of Best Friends. I was the only one in my van that had been to Best Friends before so it was fun to revisit but also see others reactions for the first time. I was reunited with one of the Best Friends founders, Jana, who did my last training too.











When we got back we had time to sit and get to know everyone and have dinner. During dinner I sat next to Gregory Castle who is the CEO and one of the founders. He gave some great advice and insight. Being in the industry for 26 years and being in on it from the VERY beginning he has am amazing view of things.

AH-HA Moment/Quote of the Day:
"To be successful you have to lose your ego. Some of the greatest rescue organizations have been destroyed because of ego that causes infighting. Everyone involved checked their egos. That is one of the reasons were have been successful."-Jana