A couple of months ago, a rescue group was informed of many dogs that were for sale. Upon investigation, they found that over 150 dogs had been transported from a puppymill in Idaho to a ‘dog broker’ in the Mt. Rainier area. This individual was selling them to anyone with money in their hands.
The rescue group managed to get 26 dogs away from this place. Seventeen were brought to Furbaby Rescue, 13 Coton de Tulears, and 4 Shih Tzu. The call for foster care went out, and all these precious souls found a place to recover, and start learning what being a dog really is. First step was taking them to the groomer, and get shaved down. Next was the vetting...over $7000 in vetting was spent, exams, neuter/spay/shots/microchip/dental...many treated for massive ear infections. Fortunately they were all young 1-3 years old and luckily they did not have any truly horrible illnesses or major disabilities. Their disability was their behavior; turning a puppymill dog into a happy adjusted dog is a lot of work.
Why you’ve been contacted:
Rehabilitation has been slow, but all the Cotons are doing very well, slowly but surely they are enjoying human bonding. Now they all need to find safe, understanding and loving homes. That’s where YOU come into the picture….we are respectfully asking for your help in getting the word out to the public that these rescued dogs are ready for their ‘furever’ homes.
Seabiscuit’s story reinforces why these wonderful little dogs need loving, supporting homes:
When the call went out to drive out to pick up some of the dogs from the puppy mill, 2 rescuers set out from the Eastside to the small community near Mt. Rainier.
As they loaded the crates with the 26 lucky dogs on their way to rescue, one rescuer kept her eye on a very frightened little guy. When they got to his kennel run, he wedged himself into a corner trembling and trying to melt into the fencing. The owner chased him out of the corner as the rescuers managed to throw a blanket over him and push him into crate.
When they arrived home and began to unload the crate the small single crate looked empty. A second check showed the small body plastered to the back of the crate trying to be invisible.
As the other dogs began to play and run through to house and even interact with people in their foster homes, this little boy would only eat or drink at night when no one was around. When anyone approached him he shook like a leaf and tried to hide.
Luckily Furbaby Rescue had a foster parent recently join our rescue who wanted to work with special dogs. She named this little guy Seabiscuit after the horse that came back to racing after overcoming almost unbeatable odds. She tells his story,” I was told that Biscuit was "the worst off of all the 80 puppy mill dogs." When I saw him in his kennel, trembling in fear, covered in vomit from his stress and trying to put his head in the back corner, I wasn't surprised by the assessment. After pulling him (kicking and screaming) from the crate I took him inside and held him in my chair. For many hours (until 3 in the morning) I held him and massaged him, and finally he let out a big sigh and relaxed his body and even rolled over onto his back. Since then his recovery has been amazing.”
Fast forward two months ~
Seabiscuit is house trained and beginning to walk on a leash. He is still too frightened to go for neighborhood walks, but that will come in time, too. This is one of the sweetest dogs I have ever met and whoever has the luck to continue his healing journey with him will have an unusually devoted and affectionate companion.”
Can you help us find homes for Seabiscuit and all the others?

Contact: Eleni Naslund, Founder of FurBaby Rescue (www.FurbabyRescue.com)
Email: elleny@comcast.net

Form/Space Atelier Exhibit August 14- Sep 6, 2009

Show Title: Outskirts

Show Duration: August 14- September 6, 2009

Opening Reception August 14, 6PM as part of the Belltown ArtWalk; www.belltownartwalk.com

Outskirts is a site-specific infiltration using photographs and a kiosk to narrate a previous site-specific exhibit by Rebsom developed during a residency at the Ucross Foundation in a Montana prairie dog metropolis. Outskirts is Rebsom's first solo show at Form/Space Atelier and her second show at Form/Space ATelier overall. Portland-based Rebsom is the recipient of the Jan Zach Award for excellence in sculpture and the AAA Dean's Fellowship Award from the University of Oregon, where she received her MFA.


Eric Kellogg II comments on Paula Rebsom:

My favorite show in Portland this year (2006) was Paula Rebsom at the Tilt Gallery. Her work is amazing. She brings a whole new flair to photography. Her photographs were of massive wood structures, cut out in the shape of wolves. Honestly, you have to see the work. It reminds me of Bev Doolittle—when I was younger, I would spend hours gazing at my mother's Doolittle collection. When I saw Rebsom's work I had to keep coming back, sometimes twice a day. In my opinion, Paula Rebsom is the Bev Doolittle of the contemporary photography world.

Jeff Jahn comments on Paula Rebsom:

Probably the best local show up is "When I can't be here, I go there" at Tilt gallery (run by PORT's own Jenene Nagy, I just can't ignore this gem, which comes on the heels of several other decent to good shows). In addition, "WICBTIGT" is the auspicious debut of recent University of Oregon MFA grad Paula Rebsom who seems to have become ten times the artist she was 6 months ago. With just two large format images Rebsom constructs impressive somewhat pensive scenes of moody artifice but it's the little touches that win the day here, including the conceptual installation.

What I like here is that unlike Gregory Crewdson and to a lesser extent Thomas Demand, Rebsom's scenes are studies in revealed staging and rather spoiled artifice.

It is a nice installation as the two photos (one is a front yard, the other is of the back yard) seem to long for one another's phoniness… its like Breakfast at Tiffanies only with Joan Crawford as Holly and Mickey Rooney cast as Paul "Fred" Varjak not the intolerable landlord. That effect would be icky but you would have to watch that trainwreck.

Back to the photos, the house itself seems to be a non-entity, a prop for the props which sets up some nice rythms for the rest of the show. Also, like Ad Reinhardt paintings they need to be seen in person as tiny internet images can't possibly provide enough detail or contrast to represent them well. It is a nice touch of phoniness that demands there be no subsitutes.

The front yard photo, "North Dakota Badlands," sports a tiny dandelion in the extreme foreground, which highlights the simple and artificial cutout steppes in front of the ranch house and in "Howling Coyote" we can practically hear the yelping of a film foley that will never be added to this acknowledged contrivance. It's all chicanery and there is something refreshingly honest about the gloom here. Apparently all of it was accomplished with existing lighting, yet it hardly feels like an indie filmmaker's work and more like a darker and still cousin to Terry Gilliam's strange film, The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen.

In the crowded genre of cinematic and staged large format photography Rebsom has come right out of school with something to say of her own. It isnt behind the scenes but its rather refreshing that she doesnt try to delight her audience so much as not make any promises that her work can't keep. For me it delivered more. By Jeff Jahn, October 11, 2006.

Paula Rebsom comments on her work:

Outskirts

I could hear the prairie dogs barking miles before I arrived in their desolate town 5 miles down a dirt road from Ucross, Wyoming, population 25. As I got out of my vehicle to survey the location for a new suburban development, a family of pronghorn circled me curiously and marked their territory along the way. The road I walked along was littered with bullet casings. The prairie dogs continued to bark as they scattered to their burrows for safety. As they disappeared into their extensive network of underground tunnels a ghostly stillness settled over the town. All that remained were a few bleached prairie dog skulls and scat that I found lying next to their burrows.

All this was very familiar to me having grown up in western North Dakota. As a young girl I thought prairie dogs were cute animals you fed crackers to, as a teenager I shot them for sport (an act I am not proud of), and as a young adult I educated people on the importance of prairie dogs in the ecosystem as a ranger for Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Although prairie dogs are small and seemingly harmless animals they are quite controversial. Farmers and ranchers see them as competition for acreage and their burrows as a danger to livestock. Ecologists consider them a keystone species playing a central role in the survival of many endangered species that prey on them or use their burrows for nesting.

This new suburban development I scouted on the 22,000-acre ranch that houses the Ucross Foundation was not for humans, but rather for the prairie dogs themselves. I constructed 85 small house facades, each with its own set of pleated curtains, to be placed in a very active portion of a prairie dog town. Over the course of three days, I staked one house behind each existing burrow, creating a visual map of the prairie dog town. For the remainder of my stay I spent the mornings and early afternoons (when prairie dogs are most active) observing their interactions with this new development. Instead of embracing this new suburban utopia, the prairie dogs abandoned the heart of the town. Only the young, naive ones remained in the homes on the outskirts.

The installation in the prairie dog town on the Ucross ranch combined elements of urban sprawl, homesteads, and ghost towns. My role fluctuates between that of a rancher, a deputy, and a park ranger, leaving room for an ambiguous narrative to form within the sequence of images. In the Outskirts project I explored my own personal relationship with these animals and also created a domestic paradox of human and animal relationships that balances on the edge of absurdity. The images act as historical documents, offering a different perspective in the complex relationships that we have developed with animals and nature.

Scare up a howling good time with treats and activities for the whole family, including the canine members, at the free Boo in Burien Saturday, Oct. 31. From noon to 5 p.m., unearthly entertainments, ranging from pumpkin bowling and trick-or-treating to Wiener Dog Races, will materialize in downtown Burien.

Bring the little monsters out for trick-or-treating at businesses marked with an orange Boo in Burien sign. Shops will also serve supernatural store specials and hot treats.

Pumpkins will become bowling balls or works of art at two different locations. Paint a pumpkin at Grocery Outlet, 236 S.W. 152nd St., from noon until the gourds run out. Participants get to take their eerie creations home. Bowl with a pumpkin at Elliott Bay Brewhouse & Pub, 255 S.W. 152nd St., from 1 to 3 p.m.

The family hound has two opportunities to put his or her best paw forward. First, decked-out canines compete in the Costumed Dog Parade, which starts at 3 p.m. Immediately following the parade, watch dachshunds wiggle in the Wiener Dog Race. Register participating pooches for a $2 suggested donation beginning at noon. Participants will receive doggie gift bags while supplies last. Canine-appropriate prizes will be awarded to costume and race winners. The two events, including registration, take place on Southwest 152nd Street where it intersects with Ninth Avenue Southwest in Olde Burien.

The phantasmic fashion competition isn’t going just to the dogs. Youngsters can enter their spectral threads in the Children’s Costume Contest. Prizes will be awarded for most original, scariest and cutest costume. To compete, show up at 4 p.m. on Southwest 152nd Street where it intersects with Ninth Avenue Southwest in Olde Burien for judging. Goodie Gumdrops is sponsoring the contest.

Raise some goose bumps in the haunted house at Moss Chiropractic, 612 S.W. 152nd St., from 1 to 5 p.m. Dr. Jonna Moss and her staff, family and patients have 16 years of terrorizing experience. The haunted house is not bloody, but it is definitely not suitable for children ages 5 and younger, including babies.

From 1 to 4 p.m., Burien Little Theatre actors will tell Halloween tales at Goodie Gumdrops, 816 S.W. 152nd St. Stories will be adorable and amusing for younger children and spine-tingling for those a little older.

The event centers on Southwest 152nd Street in downtown Burien. Free hayrides will be provided along 152nd Street from noon to 5 p.m., courtesy of Taproot Church, to give fatigued phantom feet a rest.

Primary sponsors of Boo in Burien are Prudential Northwest Realty Associates and the Discover Burien Association. Other sponsors include Moss Chiropractic, Grocery Outlet, Goodie Gumdrops, Elliott Bay Brewhouse & Pub, Taproot Church and Burien Little Theatre.

Discover Burien is a nonprofit organization that works on the economic development and marketing of the city. For more information, call 206-941-7199 or go online to www.discoverburien.com.

CHAINED DOGS
Living as Prisoners
Longing to be Pets
www.DogsDeserveBetter.org

Hey Seattle! It's all about the puppy, puppy, puppy! If your not having fun with your puppy it's because your not in classes with Puppy/dog classes with Puppy Manners! Puppaccino [Puppy Kindergarten]

Live in Seattle? In just 20 to 25 minutes you and your Seattle Puppy can be having fun and learning with Seattle's number one dog trainer, Becky Bishop! Puppy Manners puppy training classes named by Seattle Magazine and City Dog magazine as their top choice for dog training!

There is often a waiting list for these popular puppy training classes. Please enroll early! Puppy training classes NOW available at www.puppymanners.com

*No prerequisite classes required. If your dog is the right age, you may attend the Puppaccino class, Seattle's number one choice for puppy classes! Close to Seattle, beautiful location and your puppy is worth it! One day week for 5 weeks, plus socializing parties for Seattle Puppies! Your criticle window for your puppy is now, do not wait to start your puppy training classes.

This is a puppy training class designed for puppies 8 - 20 weeks, (small and toy breeds up to 24 weeks). If your puppy is on the "border" age-wise, feel free to drop us an email so we can guide you into the right class. What? Your vet said your dog shouldn't be around other dogs? The unsafe things your vet is referring to include dog parks, public parks, the beach and other "unsafe" doggie areas where we don't have control of the dogs they meet, or the environment to which they are exposed. All puppies in our classes have been vet checked and are current on their shots.
Puppy socialization is vital to your dog's overall healthy attitude. There is a prime "window of opportunity" to socialize a puppy and that window is prior to 16 weeks of age. So don't miss out! Many dogs end up in shelters due to the lack of socialization. Lack of socialization can cause many other issues such as aggression. So embrace every chance you see to socialize your pup!
Along with teaching your puppy sit, down and wait, you will learn how to handle your puppy's interaction with children - I call it "Good Games and Bad Games." You will be cautioned about games that children play which foster aggression. You will be encouraged to play alternative games that teach your dog good manners and build confidence. Of all the classes that are most important we think this class is it. You can't turn back the clock and socialize a puppy. Plus it's great fun for the whole family! It helps for families to hear the advice and coaching come from our experienced and humorous puppy coaches.
Puppies must have their first series of vaccines, a clear fecal exam and a wellness visit with a veterinarian. If your vet agrees, we would prefer that your puppy has a bordetella vaccine prior to class, but this is optional and the decision is up to you and your vet. Some vets like to give the Bordatella vaccine to pups AFTER 16 weeks of age. If your puppy has not had the first series of shots, you may still come to class without your puppy or bring your puppy and crate him during the socialized play period. As soon as your puppy receives the first series of shots, he may participate in the socialized play part of class. Some students prefer to leave their puppy home and come to class without their puppy and bring their puppy when he has his second vaccine. It's up to you. Many people come to class without the puppy. After all it's your lesson too!