Wordless Wednesday: Meet Lizzy

This is Lizzy, she is a dog in hospice care with the St. Louis Senior Dog Project. She is a 3lb, completely blind and deaf pooch, she is very senior and has suffered several health setbacks that have placed her in hospice care rather than in the adoptable ranks in our organization. She is a precious senior lady that will stay in our care for the rest of her days. Through out October we are doing a raffle to raise funds for all our precious dogs in hospice care please join us as we Trick or Treat for Hospice Pets (click)

Be the Change: Forever Fosters

Hi all, today it's the human behind this blog typing and I can't tell you how excited I am to be participating in the Be the Change blog hop once again. When we first participated our non-profit the St. Louis Senior Dog Project had just started using facebook, twitter and letting the dogs do blog posts and I can't tell you how much I have learned since then and how many wonderful people and anipals I have met in the twitterverse and the blogosphere that are committed to helping animals in need and committed to spreading the word. So many thanks to all and today a special thanks to Be the Change for Animals!

My favorite topic of choice is always fostering, however today I will add something to the mix and write about fostering pets in hospice care. The reason I want to bring attention to these special kind of foster pets is because just recently I started learning more and more about the dogs that are in hospice care in our organization. As a volunteer for a non-profit that focuses on senior dogs I expected to once in a while end up fostering a senior dog with a special need like arthritis or cataracts and taking care of them until they found a home.

However in some situations a foster pet becomes a Forever Foster.
What is a Forever Foster? They are special needs pets with  severe health conditions ranging from liver disease to cancer and due to these conditions they are not considered easily adoptable. Many foster families out there tackle the charge of taking in a pooch or kitty or bunny and more in to their homes knowing they will have them perhaps only for a few months or maybe for a few weeks. And they do it with great love and attention while at the same time taking care of the daily medication, emergency vet visits and more.

While most of the dogs with St. Louis Senior Dog Project are adoptable we have a few dogs in hospice care. Some of our hospice dogs  are dogs that have been with us for a while and have fallen ill and can't fully recover, others join us later on disposed off by their families or breeders after falling ill.  I cannot imagine the amount of love all animals in hospice care receive from their foster families and I am truly thankful for the existence of people willing to help out in this way.No pet should have to cross Over the Rainbow Bridge alone or without experiencing the love of a home. 

Thank you foster parents out there and keep it up!

If you want to learn and help out more please check out the links below, it is only through fostering and donations that organizations can keep up taking care of special needs pets:

-Our Trick or Treat for Hospice Pets, we are raising funds for dogs in hospice care

-Mary's House a sanctuary helping rehab puppymill dogs with several forever fosters in their care.

- Elmsford Animal Shelter a no kill shelter in NY

-Angels Gate a shelter dedicated only to animals needing hospice care

-YOUR LOCAL RESCUE! Even if a local rescue is not 100% dedicated to pets needing hospice care chances are they have a couple of animals in their care that are considered hospice cases please consider fostering or sponsoring a hospice pet!.

-FOSTER!!!! any dog, cat, bunny, ferret or lizard. Open your home and your heart.

Trick or Treat for Hospice Pets!

Hi everyone!
During the remainder of October and beginning of November we will be doing a donation drive to raise funds specifically for the care of our pets in hospice care  and during this time we will be introducing to you all of these wonderful animals. One of these special pets is Suzie a 12 yr old sweet senior dachshund gal with lung disease that receives daily medication, regular X-rays and vet visits.

All our donors are special to us so as a token of our appreciation each donation gives you a chance to win an awesome Gift Basket! use the ChipIn button below to purchase (virtual) raffle tickets. The higher the donation to Trick or Treat for Hospice Pets!, the more chances you have to win. Scroll down for pictures and a description of the Gift Basket contents. Wow!

• $5 donation -- 2 (virtual) raffle tickets
• $10 donation --  5 (virtual) raffle tickets
• $20 donation -- 15 (virtual) raffle tickets
• $50 donation -- 40 (virtual) raffle tickets

The first 15 donors will automatically win one of our new support bracelets!

Please use the ChipIn below to donate 
and enter the raffle .

Once you click you may donate using Paypal or a credit card. 

IMPORTANT: Do not forget to include your email.

What is in this special gift basket?


A great $50 online gift card for the online store Senior Pet Care Products selling great products for seniors and all age dogs and cats! (not pictured)
A beautiful set of wing earrings from Artis Elemental.
Four super cute handmade cards donated by MaggieTKat. A fab cat mug and two cat theme kitched towels from the Cornucopia store donated as well by Maggie Kat. And that's not all!
A dachshund magnet and a bag of Crunchy Woofs (dog treats)
And finally a super useful  Flexi Retractable Leash including two attachments:  4 pocket leash saddle and flash light perfect for those fall and winter evening walks.
For extra pictures of the earrings and leash plus attachments please go to our facebook photo album.

Think that's not enough? We have three additional prizes...


- A bag of Crunchy Woofs (dog treats) , a dog magnet and a cat book separator

-A wonderful handmade necklace from Artis Elemental

-A cool dog salt and pepper

During the rest of the month we will have opportunities for those that have already entered to win extra entries so please stay tuned.




Why do we have dogs in hospice care? 
A large part of our mission is to rescue and find homes for the most amazing senior dogs :). However sometimes some of these senior pooches have special conditions and they become our forever fosters. These pooches stay in our care until they are called Over The Rainbow Bridge and we strive to provide them a loving home and the best possible care and to maintain their comfort during their days with us.




Other rules:
1.Winner must be 18 yrs or older
2. To be considered for entry in the drawing you must provide a valid email address
3. Winners of the four prizes will be selected using Random.org
4. Donations must be provided via the ChipIn Gadget so your entry can be tracked.
5. Final day of entry is November 5th at 11:59pm Central Time
6. Winners will be selected and notified via email on November 6th.

Bell is Over The Rainbow Bridge

Today the dogs are taking a break after a hectic adoption event and so they are letting me, the human, come over and type away for a bit and talk about Bell one of our pooches that sadly went Over The Rainbow Bridge this last week.

Miss Bell was a senior lady pooch that had been in foster care for a little over a year. She came to St. Louis Senior Dog Project in April 2009 picked up as a stray in the Webster Groves, MO area. When she received vet care we were told that Bell had cancer and that she was not going to survive an aggressive treatment because of her age. So her foster mom took her in and prepared to give her a few weeks of good life, however Miss Bell was a fighter and a spunky old gal and she lived 18 months more!

She was never considered adoptable due to her disease but she had a loving foster home with  fur brothers and sisters that kept her company and a wonderful foster mom and dad that gave her lots of attention and most importantly she was kept as comfy as possible in her last moments. Our leader Ellen tells all of us during hard moments that  we can consider a dog very lucky if a human cries at their passing and Bell's passing brought tears to many. We remember her and we remind ourselves of our mission to help senior dogs find new homes however we find ourselves with more and more hospice pets like Bell that can't find a new home because of their illness and we try to give these senior dogs lots of love and comfort in their remaining days whether its a day or two years.

Farewell Bell.

Miss Bell

Wordless Wednesday: T-rex

T-rex is off to dominate the world! He is fostered by the St. Louis Senior Dog Project and is looking for his forever home.