ANOTHER STROLL DOWN MY RESCUE MEMORY LANE...

I remember AMY - Amy was 18 yrs old when she died (the oldest Airedale I’d ever met or known about) and had been placed in her adoptive home with Kathie & Ahmed at the age of 13 1/2. Before that, her life had been very chaotic– her original owner in California killed all his dogs except Amy (she was found hidden in a cabinet in the garage) and killed himself. Amy was rehomed by her breeder, but when that couple got a divorce, the wife came to NY, then moved back to California and left Amy with her elderly parents. They finally contacted me saying they were too old to take care of a large dog and it also hampered their retirement activities.

Meanwhile, Kathie called for an update on their application and I said I just had this 11 yr old Airedale female coming in (at that time I’d been told by the parents that Amy was 11). Kathie’s response at first was that they’d consider a dog up to 7 yrs old; however, she called me back the next day and said that they had discussed it and felt they could give an old dog a loving home. When I finally got Amy's paperwork, I discovered she was actually about 13 1/2 yrs old so now I had to call the potential adopters back and tell them that news.  However, these Aire Angels’ response was “we are still interested in giving her a home”.  So Amy lived with and was loved by them for 5 years. She was their first Airedale. People who will take a Senior or a Special Needs dog are special people in my book. God always seems to send the right home when it is needed I've found. 

And I remember LUCY - Lucy was another older (11+) Airegirl, who was surrendered by her owner because his wife didn't want the dog anymore.  Fortunately I had an application from a local family that was Airedale-experienced and I called to ask if they would be interested in fostering Lucy until I could find a home for her.  Well, they had Lucy for just a couple of days and Stacie called me to say they had a family meeting and decided that, even though Lucy was "an old dog, she was their dog" according to her young son and they wanted to keep her.  Lucy lived several more years with this family.  I believe she was 15 when she died, but she had a wonderful loving home during her last years.  She would let the young children dress her up and share their tea parties or play soccer with the son and his friends in the yard.

Shortly after she was adopted, Stacie told me she had taken Lucy in the car on her errands, stopping for takeout Chinese food for dinner, then the grocery store for Halloween candy, and finally the cleaner's to pick up dry cleaning.  Stacie said she was only in the cleaners for maybe 5 or at most 10 min. and when she came out, found Lucy in the front seat of her van. Lucy had climbed over the seats from the back of the van and found the packages of Halloween candy bars that Stacie had stashed under the front seat.  Lucy had eaten several bags worth of candy bars!  After a call to the vet, a couple of doses of a purging remedy, and finally a a trip to the vet, Lucy vomited up 24 wrapped candy bars! Fortunately a crisis was averted, and Lucy lived to age 15 none the worse for her candy binge.  In relaying this story to her original owner, he told me that they were always finding foil wrappers from Hersey kisses around their apartment - it seems that Lucy raided their candy dishes!  


Be sure to read Lydia's Brown Bread Recipe below and see her Ann Curran print of Alice and Dave baking!

*Incentive #11 ends on Wednesday, Sept. 18th at 8 PM EDT.*

And remember that the Surprise Drawing for "A is for Airedale" wall hanging runs from Sept. 15th until Sept. 19th.

Not only does your donation make you eligible to win Incentive #11 and the Surprise Drawing, but also the main quilt or one of the 4 bonus quilts.

Thank you for supporting Airedale Rescue. All the Rescue Airedales thank you! And so do all the Airedale Rescue volunteers because your donation makes it possible for them to continue to do what they do best – rescue Airedales in need.