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!

Bosco Wins in Court... Flies to Sanctuary at Smiling Dog Farms!

Bosco, the embattled black lab from Pelham, NH, won his court case on June 14 and was spared the death penalty demanded by that town's police chief. Instead, Bosco was allowed to come live out his life in the sanctuary at Smiling Dog Farms.

Bosco's legal troubles began when he escaped his yard. Roaming the streets of Pelham, he was spotted by Pelham Police Sgt. Pickles, who attempted to pick up Bosco to get him out of harm's way.

Unfortunately, Bosco did not know Sgt. Pickles and communicated to him that he was not comfortable having a stranger pick him up up by nipping the sergeant on the hand. After that, things just spiraled out of control.

Bosco ended up inside the sergeant's patrol car with doors locked. As Bosco sat proudly behind the wheel smiling, several of Pelham's finest stood around the car fuming and fussing.

Everyone who heard the story was amused -- except the Pelham police and their chief of police.

Chief Roark demanded Bosco's death, labeling him a vicious and dangerous dog! I will let the reader make up his own mind about Bosco's level of danger by watching this video of Bosco and his owner saying good bye: http://bcove.me/hgf01rod

Here is Bosco arriving at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport on Saturday, June 25. Note the red lobster toy in front of the crate. That is clearly his favorite toy. He picks it up in his mouth and makes it squeak! This is Bosco in his new home at Smiling Dog Farms. Thanks to Terry Sublette in Denver, CO and his friends, the money was raised to build this new home for Bosco. Note the loft and the ramp to access it. And there is a tall window to allow air to move freely, so that Bosco will have a nice breeze. You can see the puff for Bosco to sleep on behind him. What is not visible in this photo is the metal roofing that covers 1/3 of Bosco's play yard, which provides shade and protection from the rain. That is a feeder bin, on the left of Bosco's townhome. It is always filled with kibble, so Bosco can eat whenever he is hungry. We also have daily "treats" which go in food pans -- some days the treat is baked goods from Mrs. Baird's Bakery Outlet and some days it is raw meat from the Houston Food Bank.

This is Bosco exploring his new yard. Note the proximity of his favorite toy, just next to him! He really loves that lobster. Perhaps it reminds him of New England!

This view of Bosco's yard shows that he backs up to the pasture. He has beautiful views. You can see him smiling!

This is Bosco's introduction to Amos and Ona Mae the donkeys. You can't see it in the photo, but there is a fence wire that separates the donkeys from Bosco's yard by about 4'. But they can get very close to one another and check each other out!

What was interesting was that Bosco did not bark and fuss at the donkeys. He was curious about them, but he was not aggressive toward them at all. Notice again the smile on his face!

Here is Bosco with his favorite toy yet again! He spent a lot of time exploring and getting comfortable in his new home. He figured out the feeder bin in no time, and he soon mastered going up the ramp to his loft!

Bosco looks out his window, smiling after a long day of travel and new experiences. He has not yet growled at anyone here, nor shown any signs of aggressive behavior.

We hope to find Bosco a friend to share his townhome and play yard with. Someone to run and play with, and someone to nap with. Once he is fully acclamated to his new home, we will start introducing him to potential friends!

There are many who played a part in Bosco's rescue from certain death. His owner, Deborah, who went to bat for Bosco and got him an attorney to represent his interests, and would not let herself be intimidated by the Pelham Police, who pressured her to let Bosco be killed ... his friend, Mark, who was booted from the rescue which works out of the Pelham Police Department, solely for his advocacy and caring for Bosco... his attorney, Jim O'Rourke, who negotiated the release of Bosco to our sanctuary... Pets In Need, a local Dracut, Massachusetts rescue which provided transport from Pelham PD to the airport... and certainly John Collins from the Lowell Sun and his editor who wrote an editorial supporting Bosco's right to live... these men are examples of the best of American journalism... John Collins wrote articles that provided the truth, while most of the other media outlets in the area simply regurgitated the Pelham Police Chief's spin on the Bosco story.

Here is the link to John's story about Bosco winning in court and preparing for his trip here. The only minor glitch in the story is that we did not raise "thousands" of dollars for Bosco! lol I wish we had! Terry Sublette and his friends raised the money to build Bosco's house. But we still need to fundraise to recoup the $543 we spent for Bosco's airfare. We agreed to pay the money up front so we could get Bosco out of Pelham as fast as possible!

Here is an excellent example of journalism as it should be, without bias or cowtowing to the police chief's distorted version of Bosco's story! http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_18352274?IADID=Search-www.lowellsun.com-www.lowellsun.com

Bosco Goes to Trail Tomorrow, June 14

Many of you have been asking about Bosco. He is the dog from Pelham, New Hampshire who ran afoul of the law for biting an officer -- but ONLY after the officer attempted to pick up Bosco! Since Bosco did not know the man, nor his intentions -- he bit him! Not a horrible, mauling kind of deep wound, but a warning bite that said, "Don't try to pick me up. I don't know you."

His trial has been postponed twice. Meanwhile, Bosco has been kept in "secret" hiding places so that no one Bosco knows can even visit him. The fact that he has been isolated by his tormentors -- the very people who want to see him dead -- worries me that their real intention is to "bait" Bosco into biting someone again, so they can point to that and allege he is just an aggressive dog! (I understand how paranoid that sounds... but keep this in mind: You are only paranoid if you imagine someone is trying to do you harm. If they actually are trying to hurt you, you are not paranoid but perceptive!)

We have a clear plan in place to help Bosco, which Bosco's attorney will be presenting to the court tomorrow. A friend has managed to get Bosco's Chip In completed, so all the money has been raised for Bosco's townhome and playyard here. We have offered to pay for Bosco's air fare. Pets In Need, a rescue in Massachusetts, has offered to pick up Bosco from the police and deliver him to the airport. We have already signed a Release of Liability so that the city of Pelham will no longer be responsible for Bosco or his behavior once they turn him over to Pets In Need. Some of our references have even provided statements for the court about our facility and our practices, so the attacks of the Police Chief from Pelham will be shown to be half-truths and outright lies to justify his bullying behavior. He has never visited the farm! Our references have!!

Please click on this link www.lowellsun.com/ci_18246193?IADID= to a related story about the Pelham Police who TASERed a poor cow! As usual, we can look to John Collins and his newspaper, The Lowell Sun, for truth and honest reporting. If you have any doubts about the barbaric intent of this batch of cops, check out this story and their "reason" to taser the cow!

Someone needs to reign in these animal-abusing cops! I am shocked that the good people of Pelham are tolerating this level of behavior from their alleged protectors! The Pelham cops' refusal to let Bosco come to our sanctuary, and their subsequent refusal to keep Bosco in a neutral third party boarding facility -- as well as their treatment of this cow -- speaks volumes about their attitude toward animals!

You can write a letter to the editor to post your feelings about the Pelham PD at http://www.lowellsun.com//writetobacktalk.

You can also call the Town Administrator... ultimately he is responsible for the police chief whose department has such a deplorable track record toward animals. Call Tom Gaydos at (603) 635-2040. Urge your friends to do the same.

Sometimes, We Just Don't Understand...

I know I have not been writing the Smiling Dog Daily News as often as I want to. There just never seems to be enough time.

But I wanted to tell this story because we are at a loss to understand this person's actions! Maybe one of you can see something we are missing!

Today, we received a "dispute" notice from Paypal. Someone from Atlanta donated $10 to Smiling Dog Farms, on May 25, using Paypal. The implication of filing a dispute is that she asked for her money back, and we refused to give it to her.

But that is not what happened. Not even close!

If I had been writing these posts daily, you would all know by now that our former website manager had to quit managing our website for us. She made a huge positive impact on our ability to communicate information, and one of her major accomplishments (among many!) was that she was updating our donor lists daily! When someone donated, their name would go on the donations page right away!

We do have another wonderfully experienced website manager on board. In fact, she is just starting to get in and update data this weekend. Hopefully, she will soon have us back up to speed.

But there has been a period of about six weeks when we have not been able to update our donor lists and our website has just been "frozen" where it was.

I don't know if our failure to recognize her is what motivated this person or not. It was about all I could think of that would make someone want to donate to us, and then two and a half weeks later change their mind.

If anyone else has donated to us for the first time, or signed on as a monthly sponsor in the past six weeks, but has not been recognized on the website yet, we will soon be getting you listed among our donors, who are the lifeblood of Smiling Dog Farms!

So -- back to my story about the lady from Atlanta.

Today we received a "dispute" from Paypal. But here is the part we don't understand.

She had never contacted us directly and asked for her $10 back!

We would have happily given it back to her.

Please don't misunderstand -- we are always working hard to raise funding to support our work with the dogs. But we don't want someone's money if they don't want us to have it! We want our financial supporters to be cheerful givers who donate from their hearts and who want to help our dogs!

Because she did not contact us directly and let us send her a refund of her $10 ...

But instead created a "dispute"...

We not only gave this woman her $10 back, but we were charged $20 by Paypal because it was set up as a dispute!

We wish she had just told us she wanted her $10 back.

As much as we need donations (we have not had a fundraiser since Dec-Jan), it would have been better if this person had never donated in the first place!

Melanie Gets A Family of Her Very Own!

This is Melanie. Today she got a family of her own to love her and appreciate her forever! And it is a great family, too! Sensistive, caring people who understand and consider Melanie's feelings!

Melanie came to Smiling Dog Farms from a local shelter whose Animal Control Officer works very hard, and often on her own time, to find homes for the dogs who come into her shelter. Melanie was running out of time when we called.

We had just taken in a mommy with puppies -- and the mommy suddenly, unexpectedly died the day after arriving! The puppies were too young to wean, so we called the shelter and asked if there was a dog there who could nurse our puppies!

Luckily, Melanie was available! She came to the shelter with a litter of pups, and hers had just been removed... but she still had milk!

We dashed over to the shelter and brought home Melanie, who was the perfect surrogate mommy to that batch of puppies. She was tender and gentle with them, even though they were not her own and did not resemble her in any way.

Today, Melanie was rewarded for her kindness and gentle nature. A very special family chose her to become part of their family. A very happy ending for Melanie!