Estrella

Another rescue friend brought a dog to Lighthouse today. She will stay here for a couple of weeks to heal and then Isham will find her a new home. Isham is the man who rescued her.
Her owners put a very tight collar on her when she was a tiny puppy and never bothered to make it bigger as she grew. It grew into her flesh and had to be surgically removed.
The photos are graphic. Not for the faint of heart.
What is it with humans anyway?
Sad tailwags,
BudBud

Choices (A beautiful story)

CHOICES
(Author unknown)

The little white dog stopped. Behind him, doggies were playing, chasing each other and wrestling in the warm sunshine. It looked like so much fun, but in front of him, through the clear stillness of the pond's water, he could see his mommy. And she was crying.

He pawed at the water, trying to get at her, and when that didn't
work, he jumped into the shallow water. All that got him was wet and Mommy's
image danced away in the ripples. "Mommy!" he cried. "Is something
wrong?"

The little white dog turned around. A lady was standing at the edge
of the pond, her eyes sad but filled with love. The little white dog
sighed and walked out of the water. "There's been a mistake," he said. "I'm
not supposed to be here." He looked back at the water. It was starting
to still again and his mommy's image was coming back. "I'm just a baby.
Mommy said it had to be a mistake. She said I wasn't supposed to come here
yet."

The kind lady sighed and sat down on the grass. The little white dog climbed into her lap. It wasn't Mommy's lap, but it was almost as good. When she started to pet him and scratch under his chin like he liked, he wagged his tail. He hadn't wanted to, but he couldn't help it. "I'm afraid there is no mistake. You are supposed to be here and your mommy knows it deep down in her heart," the lady said.

The little white dog sighed and laid his head on the lady's leg.
"But she's so sad. It hurts me to see her cry. And Daddy too."

"But they knew right from the beginning this would happen."

"That I was sick?" That surprised the little white dog. No one
had ever said anything and he had listened when they thought he was sleeping.
All he had heard them talk about was how cute he was or how fast he was or
how big he was getting.

"No, not that you were sick," the lady said. "But you see, they
chose tears."

"No, they didn't," the little white dog argued. Who would choose to
cry?

The lady gently brushed the top of his head with a kiss. It made him
feel safe and loved and warm--but he still worried about his mommy. "Let
me tell you a story," the lady said.

The little white dog looked up and saw other animals gathering
around.

Dogs --Sally and Baby and Morgan and Rocky and Belle. Even a
lizard named Clyde and some rats named Saffron and Becky and a hamster named
Odo.

Cats too--Big Boy and Snowball and Shamus and Abby and little Cleo and
Robin. Merlin and Toby and Iggy and Zachary. Sweetie and Kamatte and
Obie.

They all lay down near the kind lady and looked up at her, waiting.
She smiled at them and began:


A long long time ago, the Loving Ones went to the Angel in Charge.
They were lonesome and asked the angel to help them.

The angel took them to a wall of windows and let them look out the
first window at all sorts of things--dolls and stuffed animals and cars and
toys and sporting events. "Here are things you can love," the angel said.
"They will keep you from being lonesome."

"Oh, thank you," the Loving Ones said. "These are just what we
need."

"You have chosen Pleasure," the angel told them.

But after a time the Loving Ones came back to the Angel in Charge.
"Things are okay to love," they said. "But they don't care that we love
them."

The Angel in Charge led them over to the second window. It looked
out at all sorts of wild animals. "Here are animals to love," he said. "They
will know you love them."

So the Loving Ones hurried out to care for the wild animals. "You
have chosen Satisfaction," the angel said.

Some of the Loving Ones worked at zoos and wild animal preserves,
some just had bird feeders in their yards, but after a time they all came
back to the Angel in Charge.

"They know we love them," they told the angel. "But they don't love
us back. We want to be loved in return."

So the angel took them to the third window and showed them lots of
people walking around, hurrying places. "Here are people for you to love,"
the angel told them. So the Loving Ones hurried off to find other people
to love. "You have chosen Commitment," the angel said.

But after a time a lot of Loving Ones came back to the Angel in
Charge. "People were okay to love," they said. "But sometimes they stopped
loving us and left. They broke our hearts."

The angel just shook his head. "I cannot help you," he said. "You
will have to be satisfied with the choices I gave you."

As the Loving Ones were leaving, someone saw a window off to one
side and hurried to look out. Through it, they could see puppies and
kittens and dogs and cats and lizards and hamsters and ferrets. The other Loving
Ones hurried over. "What about these?" they asked.

But the angel just tried to shoo them away. "Those are Personal
Empathy Trainers," he said. "But there's a problem with their system
operations."

"Would they know that we love them?" someone asked.

"Yes," the angel said.

"Would they love us back?" another asked.

"Yes," the angel said.

"Will they stop loving us?" someone else asked.

"No," the angel admitted. "They will love you forever."
"Then these are what we want," the Loving Ones said.

But the angel was very upset. "You don't understand," he told them.

"You will have to feed these animals."

"That's all right," the Loving Ones said.

"You will have to clean up after them and take care of them
forever."

"We don't care."

The Loving Ones did not listen. They went down to where the Pets
were and picked them up, seeing the love in their own hearts reflected in the
animals' eyes.

"They were not programmed right," the angel said. "We can't offer a
warranty. We don't know how durable they are. Some of their systems
malfunction very quickly, others last a long time."

But the Loving Ones did not care. They were holding the warm little
bodies and finding their hearts so filled with love that they thought they
would burst. "We will take our chances," they said.

"You do not understand." The angel tried one more time. "They are so
dependent on you that even the most well-made of them is not designed
to outlive you. You are destined to suffer their loss."

The Loving Ones looked at the sweetness in their arms and nodded.
"That is how it should be. It is a fair trade for the love they offer."

The angel just watched them all go, shaking his head. "You have
chosen Tears," he whispered.

"So it is," the kind lady told the animals. "And so each mommy and
daddy knows. When they take a baby into their heart, they know that one
day it will leave them and they will cry."

The little white dog sat up. "So why do they take us in?" he asked.

"Because even a moment of your love is worth years of pain later."

"Oh." The little white dog got off the lady's lap and went back to
the edge of the pond. His mommy was still there, and still crying. "Will she
ever stop crying?" he asked the kind lady.

She nodded. "You see, the Angel felt sorry for the Loving Ones,
knowing how much they would suffer. He couldn't take the tears away but he made
them special."

She dipped her hand into the pond and let the water trickle off her
fingers.
"He made them healing tears, formed from the special water here.
Each tear holds bits of all the happy times of purring and petting and shared
love.
And the promise of love once again. As your mommy cries, she is
healing.

"In time, she will be less sad and she will smile when she thinks of
you.
And then she will open her heart again to another little baby." "But
then she will cry again one day," the little white dog said.

The lady just smiled at him as she got to her feet. "No, she will
love again. That is all she will think about." She picked up Big Boy and
Snowball and gave them hugs, then scratched Morgan's ear just how she
liked.

"Look," she said. "The butterflies have come. Shall we go over to
play?"

The other animals all ran ahead, but the little white dog wasn't
ready to leave his mommy. "Will I ever get to be with her again?"

The kind lady nodded. "You'll be in the eyes of every kitty she
looks at.
You'll be in the tail wag of every dog she pets. And late at night, when
she's fast asleep, your spirit will snuggle up close to her and you both
will feel at peace. One day soon, you can even send her a rainbow to tell her
you're safe and waiting here for when it's her turn to come."

"I would like that," the little white dog said and took one long
look at his mommy. He saw her smile slightly through her tears and he knew she
had remembered the time he almost fell into the bathtub.

"I love you, Mommy," he whispered. "It's okay if you cry." He
glanced over at the others, running and playing and laughing with the butterflies.
"Uh, Mommy? I gotta go play now, okay? But I'll be around, I promise."

Then he turned and raced after the others.

Best dog in the world

Me and Zipper! She was my first true friend. I was about seven years old in this picture and Zipper was about three years old. She was with me until I was eighteen years old.
I did not write the sentiments below but they speak so well for all of us who have been blessed with the love of an animal.
Frances, "Kitten", (BudBuds mom)


Best Dog in the World
By T'Mara Goodsell

Years ago, I owned the very best dog in the world. I was a child when we got her. She was a graceful brown hound, a foundling who taught me that our pets are not purchased, but ordained. She romped when I did and knew how to smile in that funny way that only some dogs have. She grew up with me, always there when I needed her. My grown hand still remembers the sleek bump on the top of her head and that gentle divot just past her nose that fit my index finger just perfectly. She passed away during one of my college vacations. My heart broke then, and I knew that there would never be another dog like her, and there hasn't been. I was sure that I could never love another dog as much as I'd loved her.

Fortunately, I was wrong about that part. My next dog came into my life when I was married. My husband traveled for a living, and I was often lonely. This dog grew into a lumbering Wolfhound and Sheepdog mix who taught me patience. He was a large, grizzled sentry, that dog. He rarely left my side until the children were born, and then he became their guardian, too. I can still feel that swirl of fur along his back and the weight of his chin when it rested in my lap. When he passed away, my heart broke. As much as I had loved that childhood dog, I had been wrong. This was the very best dog in the world. There would never be another dog like him, and there hasn' t been. I was sure I would never love another dog as much as I'd loved him.

I was wrong again.

We got the next one, a loping black Lab-and-Terrier mix, when the children were little. He taught me the importance of adapting. He was everyone's dog from the beginning, and that was just as it should be. When he played tug of war with the children, he dragged them across the kitchen floor as they shrieked with laughter. He always seemed to sleep in the room of the child who needed his company the most....These days his face is expressively gray, and he spends more time with me since the almost-grown children aren't around so much. The other day my oldest, home from college, played tug of war. We all laughed--just a little--as the dog was gently pulled across the kitchen floor. He is, of course, the very best dog in the world. I will never forget that exquisitely soft tuft of fur behind his ears or the tickly feel when he nuzzles. There won't be another dog like him. And that's okay, because we will never be at this point in our lives again.

Sometimes I've wondered why two species that get along so well should have such different life spans. It just doesn't seem right. And then I wonder if that's part of the lesson: To teach us that love itself has a spirit that returns again and again and never really dies. It's amazing, in a way, how they bring to our ever-changing lives exactly what it is that we need at the moment. They make room for one another, this family of dogs who has never even met. And they fit--into our families, into our lives, into our memories, and into our hearts--because they always have been and always will be the best dogs in the world.

To the world you are a rescue person,
To a rescued dog you are the world!

We need you to vote AGAIN!!!!

Hola Y'all!!

Thank you thank you thank you to EVERYONE who voted in the last shelter challenge!! We got the money today!!!
Mom says "EXTRA TREATS FOR EVERYONE TONIGHT!!!"

There is a new shelter challenge underway and we are getting a late start!! PLEASE go vote for us and get all your friends and relatives...heck....get your enemies to vote too!!! This one lasts through April 18th!!!! Yes, it's a long time but you are helping animals every day!!!
If you will go to the following web site: http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_home_from_ars_shelterchallengeresults_sitenav you will see a purple block in the upper right that says "click here."
When you do that it provides 6/10 of a bowl of dog food to the shelters that animalrescuesite supports.
Once you do that, click on the purple tab that says "shelter challenge."
Type in lighthouse for the shelter name and Costa Rica for the country. Look for our name and vote!!
Then they'll show you a picture of an animal to confirm your vote.

After your first time, it gets easy. When you go back to the animalrescuesite it should automatically bring up who you voted for the day before and you just click to vote again and then confirm your vote!!

Me and Mom will try to send out reminders every day so it helps you remember.

Thanks to EVERYONE who votes!!!!

Tailwags!!!!!!
BudBud

Beautiful poem. Author unknown

Tail tucked between your legs,
Confusion in your eyes-
I know it's hard to understand
That Someone heard your cries.
When loneliness is all you know
and pain is all you feel-
And no one can be trusted,
And hunger's all too real.
That's the time the Lord sees you
And lets you know He's there.
That's when He sends His messengers-
The hearts that love and care.
Yes, rescuers are angels-
You cannot see their wings,
They keep them neatly folded
As they do their caring things.
The medicine to make you well
Good food to make you strong,
And finally to help you learn,
That hugs are never wrong.
The perfect place then must be found-
The home where you can live
Secure and safe and happy-
With joy to get and give.
When you reach your Forever Home,
Your place to feel whole,
The Angels smile, and off they go-
To save another soul.

WILD, SLEEPLESS NIGHT IN COSTA RICA!!!

Hola Y'all!!!

First of all let me tell you we live in a REALLY quiet little farming village. It is extremely quiet here, especially at night. Well....except for this goofy rooster up the road who has a TOTALLY messed up schedule.
But last night we had a REAL lively night!!

Me and the other perros usually always go to bed before Mom cause Mom has trouble going to sleep so she stays up late. Some nights she just can't sleep at all.

Anyway, Mom finally came to bed about 1:00 and we were all snuggled in but Mom could not get comfortable so she tossed and turned trying to find her "sleep spot." (Kinda like us dogs turning in circles as we settle down for a nap.)

Anyway, she could not get to sleep so at about 2:30 she got up and got back on the computer to see if there were any new rescue posts she needed to take care of. She came back to bed about 3:30.

We're still having the Vientos de Navidad (winds of Christmas) so the ol' wind was howling pretty hard outside.

The cats would get up on the roof and have to hang on for dear life and we could hear 'em scrambling for a foothold.

Anyway, we all settled back in and Mom was ALMOST asleep when we heard LOUD BOOMS!!!!!
Mom sat up real quick and all us perros started barking and trying to crawl under Mom!!! We do NOT like loud booms!!! Some of us even jumped on TOP of her and pushed her back down in the bed!!

Then there were MORE LOUD BOOMS!!! Two in a row!! Then another!!!! Then another!!!
Mom was trying to figure out what in the world was goin' on at 4:00 AM and trying to untangle herself from eight frightened (but willing to defend her. We WERE barking after all.) perros who had managed to get on top of her, under her, and wrapped around her neck, pinning her in bed like a mummy!! The bed was vibrating cause us perros were all shaking so much!!

All of a sudden us perros saw someone at Mom's glass door!!
Being the ever so brave guardians we LAUNCHED ourselves off the bed, leaving Mom in a total tangle of sheets and blankets, and ran barking fiercely at the intruder.

Mom finally got herself untangled enough sit up and see the man at the door!! She's blind as a bat without her glasses and she could only see a silhouette!! But she DID see that he had a GUN in his hand!!!

She jumped up, grabbed her shotgun, and ran to grab us perros out of harms way and saw that it was just Dad, on her landing, with his gun.

He asked her if she was ok and said the booms had waked him up and he was checking to see where they came from.

He checked the yard and everything was ok. The booms had stopped so we all went back to bed.

Mom thought she might ACTUALLY get an hour or two of sleep when she heard ..... .....music???

We all heard it too and we jumped up and started looking all around. Mom got out of bed ....again....and looked out her front window where she thought the music was coming from.

There was a truck coming down our road with a group of men in the back playing drums and trumpets and stuff. Not REAL loud but HEY!! It's 4:30 in the morning!!

The truck pulled into our driveway, (we're kinda at the end of the road)on the other side of our gate, and stopped. They parked there for a few minutes playing their music!!
Mom stood in her window in the dark, watching them to see what they were going to do. She called downstairs to Dad and asked him, "Are you seein' this?"
(Mom thought maybe all of this was a bad dream)
Dad said he thought he had heard music but figured maybe some idiot had a radio on too loud. He got up and went to the front window to look out.
Yep!! There was a truck, in our driveway, with men in the back playing music.

They finally turned around and headed back up the road, playing their music.

Me and Mom just walked around the room for a few minutes, shaking our heads and asking each other, "Did you see that?"

By now it's turning daylight and the other furbabies have decided it's time to go out and pee.

Mom starts toward the door when suddenly a really weird, loud noise sounds right outside her upstairs window. As she opens the door, so the others can get out, she sees Lisa (aka Supermom) chasing the black and white cat that comes over here sometimes and tries to fight with our cats. Cat yowling and Lisa barking.

I ran out with the others to see what all the fuss was about. Normally me and Mom sleep in but today I had business to tend to so out I went.
Milana, who is too small to get off the bed by herself, was the only one left in the room with Mom so they snuggled back in and Mom got maybe an hour and a half sleep.

When she got up she called our neighbor and asked him what all the noise was about last night.

He laughed and said the neighboring village was having a fiesta and it is traditional, sometimes, to go around to the neighboring villages and wake the people up. They set off loud firecrackers that sound like cannons and ride around playing music.

Now we've lived here for four years and it has never happened before. Mom says she hopes it won't happen again for a lot more years!!

I also heard her plotting with Dad about getting even with the people in the neighboring village. Mom says she's willing to load her sound system up on the back of a truck and............ WMFWB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kisses and tailwags from a very tired Perro Primero
BudBud

Gotta tell you about what Laika did

Hola Y'all!!!

I just gotta tell you about what Laika did!!

Sassy and Mieko are here with us now. They LOVE runnin' and playin' in the big yard!! Mieko is bigger and tries to boss Sassy around but Sassy can hold her own!!

One day Mom was callin' everybody in from the yard and Mieko didn't want to come in yet. Sassy started runnin' up the steps to Mom and Mieko would catch her and grab her tail and pull her back down the hill.
Mom kept callin' and Sassy kept tryin' to come to her but Mieko had different ideas.

Laika, our BIG german shephard mix was standin' on the porch, next to Mom, watchin' all this happen.
Laika is a total sweetie and has NEVER offered to correct any of the other perros since I told her I am the boss. She just lays back and lets me do my job.
Well this day I was inside the house so I couldn't take care of the situation.

Laika looked around for me and saw I was not there. So she decided she needed to help Mom out after Mom had called about ten times and Mieko was still pullin' Sassy back down the hill. Laika all of a sudden LEAPS off the porch, runs toward the two of them and HEAD BUTTED Mieko!!

She never growled, she didn't bite or even show her teeth!! Just head butted Mieko off of Sassy giving Sassy time to make it up the hill to Mom!!
Then Laika comes back to the porch with a big smile on her face!! She now considers herself my "Backup."
Mieko came up then too. Guess she figured enough was enough!!

Lisa, the SUPERMOM who raised all the litters that came in, has finally run out of puppies and has been spayed!! Now she has decided that she needs a job.
There is a black and white cat that comes into our yard and attacks our cats. So Lisa has decided she is the "CAT GUARDIAN." She likes to sleep in the garage in one of the 6 comfy beds. Sometimes she shares a bed with one of the cats, sometimes she jumps up on the bed on the garbage can and sleeps there so she can see the whole yard!
In the daytime she is in the house with us and she loves to play with the younger kids who have not been adopted yet.

Hope you guys had a GREAT holiday!! All us perros and gatos had a pretty neato time!!!

Tailwags!!!
BudBud the Perro Primero with BIG backup!!

Dad and the Christmas tree

Hola Y'all!!

Christmas and New Year have passed so me and Mom have a few minutes now to sit down and write to y'all.

All us perros got lots of stuffed toys to tear up and sleep with!! I think maybe y'all saw the video!! It was a real FLURRY of doggies under that tree I can tell ya.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you a funny story about what happened to Dad. Ya just gotta picture this ok?

Before Christmas, the day after Mom and Dad put the Christmas tree up, dad decided that the window behind the tree needed to be cleaned. It had some smears on it.
So while Mom and me were still sleeping he tried to move the tree out of his way so he could clean.

Everything was goin' fine until the tree stand folded up!!

Down came the tree on top of Dad with Dad trying to hold it and keep all the decorations from gettin' broke. Lots of the balls did fly off and the star on top went sailing across the room.

There he lay, under the tree, with nobody to help him out from under.

He put one leg out, to try to get a foothold and try to get up but in doing so he puts his foot through the garland that is wrapped around the tree.
So there he was, trying to move the tree off the top of him while it was tied to him by the garland.

He tells us he struggled for quite some time trying to extricate himself from all the greenery, broken glass, garland and tinsel. Every time he put a hand out to try to raise himself up he ended up tied even tighter to the tree.

He told Mom about it when she and I got up. Mom looked at him and said, "MAN!!!!! I wish I had that on VIDEO!!!!!"

Anyway, Dad was not injured and neither was the tree. Only a few glass balls died in the accident.

Just thought that might give you a laugh.

More later!!!
Lots to tell.
TAILWAGS!!!!!!!!!!!!
BudBud