Last Day for Freedom Weekend Food Drive...

Just 16 Bags of Dog Food Needed to Make Goal!

Thanks to YOU!

Bailey says, "Well, we went ahead and did it.

We ordered all 100 bags of dog food today, to get in on the special 15% discount that reduces the cost of a bag of dog food to just $18.69."

"We are counting on our friends to put us over the top! We just need 16 more bags of dog food and we will be at 100! (And the folks at the feed store said we can increase our order if we raise more!!

Come on Team Smiling Dog -- we need to go over the top today!

Please share this link on Facebook and the internet!

We Can Do This! Just click on this link: http://smilingdogfarms.chipin.com/freedom-weekend-food-drive

Butters Can Relax and Be Himself Here

Butters got a rough start in life. His family had allergies to him, so he lived outside and did not get socialized like puppies normally do. After several years of living outdoors and making up his own rules, he became difficult to live with!

Melanie and her husband felt sad for Butters, and offered to take him into their home. But Butters had lived by his own rules for too long, and had no desire to conform to even minimal standards. It is not his fault... still -- it's impossible to make him part of the famly.

Butters will snarl and bite. He is not real fond of people! Melanie believes he is insecure and misunderstood. But that really doesn't change Butters' inability to adapt to living with a family.

So she asked if Butters could come to Smiling Dog Farms, and we said "yes".

Butters still is not fond of humans. But he now has a little friend who loves him, and they romp and play together in Butters' play yard.

Butters is a classic sanctuary dog. He is too unsocialized to live in society around other people. But he has a great time every day chasing squirrels and barking at the birds and playing with his new friend.

Butters is happy in his new life at the farm!

The Freedom Weekend Food Drive ................ Now Just 32% from Goal!

Buddy says, "The Freedom Weekend Food Drive is really close to making our goal!

We want to take advantage of the 4th of July Sale where we buy our kibble!"

"Thank You EVERYONE who has donated a bag of dog food.

Thanks to YOU, we have 68 bags of dog food donated!

Just 32 more to reach our goal of 100 bags!"

"Go Team Smiling Dog!"

Please click on this link to learn more about our Freedom Weekend Food Drive

http://smilingdogfarms.chipin.com/freedom-weekend-food-drive

Rest in Peace, Happy the Boxer...

It is a sad day at Smiling Dog Farms. Happy the boxer died this morning.

Shown here is Happy this past Spring with Yvette, her mommy. This photo was taken at our beach house in Galveston. Happy would travel with us to the beach house, whenever we were there.

Yvette rescued Happy from a shelter in Virginia a couple years ago. Happy was quite old then, and was not expected to live much longer. Yvette did not want Happy to die in a shelter, or be put down before her time.

So she took her home, to let Happy die peacefully in a loving environment.

Except Happy didn't die! She lived on, and as time passed, Yvette faced another dilemma. Yvette is a member of the armed services. She was back in the U.S. but knew she would be deployed back to Iraq soon. And Happy was still alive and well!

Yvette left Happy with a friend when she had to report for duty. But soon the friend could not care for Happy, because Happy's use of her back legs had deteriorated and Yvette's friend could not carry her up and down the stairs to her apartment. (Happy weighed nearly 80 lb!)

So Yvette asked if Happy could come to live out the rest of her life at Smiling Dog Farms. And we said "yes".

That was last Fall. Once again, everyone expected Happy did not have a lot of time left. But she just kept on going! For a while, she lived in a townhome and play yard with several other elderly dogs.

Soon, however, we brought her into the house to live full time, because we feared the end was near. But she surprised us once again, and would go up and down the hallway with her two front legs dragging her body behind her, always interested and eager to see what was going on!

We used to joke that Happy would no doubt still be here waiting when Yvette returned from her deployment this Fall. But it was not to be.

Every time we came to the beach, we brought Happy. She enjoyed sitting in the yard with the other dogs romping all around her.

Her appetite remained strong right up to the very end, and she had a spark of life in her eyes that was unmistakable. Her life had changed, but she never stopped enjoying her life as it evolved.

She lived in Ricky's office. She had a large comforter and "pee pads" under her, to soak up her urine and keep it away from her skin. She had been incontinent since she came to the farm. We made sure she never felt badly for having "accidents" in the house!

About a week ago, she started slowing down measurably. She lost the use of her front legs and needed to be carried from place to place. We knew the end was near. For real this time.

Ricky and I had planned to take a quick two-day vacation at the beach house in Galveston. Of course, Happy piled into the truck behind Ricky and happily made the trip to the beach again. It has become a ritual she recognized and looked forward to.

Saturday afternoon, she laid in the yard with the other dogs, who would stop by to visit with her. Her eyes still said that she was interested and alert, even if her body would no longer do as she wished.

This morning we lost her. We were able to say our good byes and hold her and kiss her one last time before she departed on her journey, to a place where he legs will work perfectly again and she can run like the wind, just as she did so many years ago.

We will miss you, sweet Happy.

Thanks to YOU, the Freedom Weekend Food Drive is at 48%!

Bayou says: "THANK YOU for getting our Freedom Weekend Food Drive off to such a great start! The other dogs and I are pretty excited about this, and really grateful to all of you who are helping us buy dogfood! We really like our kibble. Ricky and Jay buy us kibble that has a really high protein and fat content... 27 and 15... and it tastes good, too!"

Please go to our Freedom Weekend Food Drive Chip In to see how we are doing! Just click here:

http://smilingdogfarms.chipin.com/freedom-weekend-food-drive

Snowing in July?

This is Duke Pendegast. It looks like it has been snowing in his yard... in July!!

Actually, Duke has just dismantled another one of his puffs! You can see from his expression how proud he is of his work! lol

Doskocil Industries in Arlington, TX donated several hundred puffs and dog beds to us a year ago so that all our babies would have a soft place to sleep. Duke sleeps on his for so long, and then he decides its time to take it apart and see what's inside!

Duke is an example of a Sanctuary Dog. He cannot be placed for adoption. Hard as it is to imagine when you see him with that impish grin and his playful manner, he has bitten and mauled his mommy. And he did the same thing one day to one of our team members who went into his yard just to put Frontline on him!

Sadly, Duke is unpredictable and that makes him dangerous to live in society.

So his mommy sent him here to live out his life. It is not the same as laying on the sofa watching Oprah. But it beats taking a needle in the arm, which was his only alternative.

Here at the farm, Duke has an oversize yard his mommy bought for him and he runs and barks at the squirrels and the birds and the dogs in nearby playyards. He gets lots of stimulation.

Duke is a classic example of why Smiling Dog Farms exists. He is a dog who had no where else to go.

And I think you can see from his expression that he is pretty happy here!

We Need YOU to Help Put Us Over the Top...... for the Freedom Weekend Food Drive!

Friday - Saturday - Sunday - Monday

Please click on this link... http://smilingdogfarms.chipin.com/freedom-weekend-food-drive

And send it to your friends on Facebook!

Thank You!