Hopeful Hearts Weekly Review.

By now I'm sure most of you have heard about the seizure of the 500+ (now 600+!) dogs from Paws "R" Us, a "commercial breeder" in Quebec. One of our very own, Jennifer Rose, was on the front lines while this was taking place, and helped day and night to care for these dogs.

Photo courtesy of HSI Canada

 Jennifer shared her experience with Pawsh Magazine:

"I am still reeling from exhaustion and emotion. Both sadness and happiness. Seeing the sadness and fear in the dogs' eyes, meeting new friends, being covered head to toe in dog poop, seeing a little dog's slight tail wag with a glimmer of hope in their eyes. There was one dog that when you talked to him he'd smile a big smile with his lips pulled right back to show his front teeth then he would slowly, tentatively roll over to show his belly - he melted my heart."

To read the entire interview, click here.

Some of our own angels have come from Paws "R" Us, including Piglet, Dudley, and Joey.

Piglet and Dudley found their forever homes, but Joey remained in palliative care with Hopeful Hearts. He came to us last last year in horrific condition from years of neglect as a breeding dog. With the tender loving care of his foster Mom, Doogie, Joey flourished from a pathetic dog in the throws of heart failure to a silly old fart with an adorable personality. As you may remember, his heart failure progressed to a point where our old boy was having troubles breathing. In May we came to the difficult decision that, after enjoying a week laying in the sun and sniffing the grass, our Joe Joe would join the other Hopeful Hearts angels at the bridge.

Bringing in these special needs dogs can be challenging, but it is also incredibly rewarding. Most often these angels are turned down by rescues due to difficulty with finding adoptive homes, but not by Hopeful Hearts. We were created in 2007 especially to help fill a void in the local rescue world for senior and special needs dogs, and we have continued this mission today. We have an incredible team of foster parents but as always, we are looking for more people to help us. If you're interested in fostering with Hopeful Hearts, please email us at fostering@hopefulhearts.ca.

The Humane Society International stated that the cost of caring for these animals is a whopping $6000.00/day, so if you would like to help these dogs in need, please visit the Humane Society International website for details. A Facebook group called Ottawa Rescue Donation Drop off locations was created by our volunteer, Brittany, and lists the items the HSI is asking for and the stores in Ottawa that are accepting these donations. For those of you not on Facebook, the same information can be found in a Google Document titled Ottawa helps!

Jennifer will be heading back again this weekend to help these 600+ dogs, along with some of our other volunteers: Laurie, Doogie, Sarah, Mel, Christine, and Brittany. 

We hope everyone has a great weekend and if you get the chance, please stop by one of the stores that are listed to make a donation!