From Carol, now a 2-Potcake Owner:

Carol adopted Abaco (now Abby) a year ago, and adopted Polly Potcake (now Cooter) on Feb. 7. They also own Boomer, another rescue dog:

"Well, I had been protesting that the name Cooter was a tad redneck for an island dog. But I went to a gym meet on Saturday afternoon and when I came home David announced that she liked the white bread/mayo tidbit from his sandwich, loved licking beer off his fingers, and had figured out two ways to escape from the front yard. So, Cooter it is . . .She seems to be fitting right in. By the way -- hasn't Abby grown up to be a beauty???"

Cooter and Boomer:
Boomer's new chew toy:
The gang:

Abby Potcake:

From the latest edition of the Abaconian:
www.abaconian.com

Guest Blogger

A note from Susie McCarthy (cat foster parent, cat trapper, and pet rescue organization volunteer):

Recently, Best Friends Animal Society hosted a special meeting in Atlanta for its members in Georgia and for other animal lovers and supporters. Although I’m not a member of Best Friends – yet – I went to the meeting to learn more about the organization and its work. I thought it would help me in my work as a foster home for cats, as a proponent of TNR (trap, neuter, return) programs for wild cats, and as a volunteer for Royal Potcake Rescue. I couldn’t have imagined just how beneficial the meeting would be for me personally, though! Being in an auditorium of like-minded people who believe in the mission of Best Friends -- that “kindness to animals builds a better world for all of us” was amazing. Even though it was a weeknight and the meeting took place after a long day of work, I left the meeting feeling so invigorated and inspired, and I couldn’t wait to play with my houseful of animals: one dog, four adopted cats, and six foster cats!

Best Friends Animal Society is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and at the meeting one of the founders told the story of how the huge sanctuary that is home to about 2,000 animals in Kanab, Utah was founded. He said that Best Friends is unique not only for the animals but also for the volunteers who visit from all over the country and world. When it began 25 years ago, Best Friends’ “No More Homeless Pets” campaign created a new vision of reducing the number of unwanted pets and animals who are euthanized. The good news is that this number has dropped from approximately 17 million animals euthanized yearly in the 1980s to about 5 million animals currently euthanized each year. The bad news is that this number appears to have leveled off.

At the meeting I learned that Best Friends has four major initiatives going on now to break through the stagnant number of euthanized animals. These campaigns are:
1) Educating people about so-called “bully breeds” and fighting breed-specific legislation, such as passing stronger legislation against dog fighting. Visit http://www.fightdogfighting.com/ for more information.
2) Promoting TNR programs to prevent feral and outdoor cats from breeding, along with helping people to begin to look at outdoor cats as “community cats” that are beneficial rather than as feral cats that are a nuisance.
3) Putting an end to puppy mills: http://www.dontbuypuppies.com/
4) The First Home, Forever Home campaign to help people overcome problems with their animals and keep them instead of turning them in to shelters or abandoning them.

Best Friends works with members and humane groups to set up spay/neuter, shelter, foster and adoption programs throughout the United States. Soon the Society will launch “Go Local” pages to help people connect with local shelters and rescue groups, like Royal Potcake Rescue! Visit http://www.bestfriends.org/ to learn more about the great work of this organization, becoming a member or giving the gift of membership for only $25, or just to feel the inspiration that comes from sustained kindness to animals.

Susie is pictured below with "Obama" during Inaugeration Day!

We had another successful adoption day last Saturday, with 3 pups finding new homes and our rescue buddy Dana adopting out four of her “foundlings”! Because we had such a lovely group of highly adoptable puppies, folks gathered around all day to cuddle and love on them. Although I took my two little adult foster dogs, Lil Sprout and Edgar Allen Poodle, they were mostly overlooked -- which is a shame since they are little lovebugs and only want a warm lap to snuggle in. Both have such sweet personalities and both are housebroken – a big plus! Hmmm, I might just have to keep one… don’t we all need a little dog fixture in our lives???

I am so glad Rusty Potcake and Ashley (one of the firefighter pups) found great homes with two new families who had another dog for them to play with -- they love to play.

I want to tell you about Dana and her in-home businees. Since she lost her job, she has thrown herself fulltime into dog sitting in her home/dog walking/full-time fostering! She comes out most every Saturday to put in a full day of volunteering and brings her foster pups. If you live in the Smyrna/Vinings area and need to board your dog, give her a call! Dana's Doghouse, 404-275-7446

"Conchy" Nancy

Rusty Potcake was adopted today! After he picked out his new doggie bed, he promplty fell asleep in it while it was still in the shopping cart! What a cutie.

I'm sending a link to the photo I took of Petunia (AKA Morgan Le Fay Potcake - adopted 11/08) and Milo (AKA Tom Tom Potcake - adopted 2/08). We met on the trail at Stone Mountain last weekend randomly! The pups LOVED each other immediately and ran around like Tasmanian Devils, so the fact I was able to take a photo is a miracle.

--From Michele

We had a very successful adoption day on Saturday -- adopted out 4 Potcakes and two of our long term foster cats! Check out the pictures on the website to see the lucky families. Now how is it that I've added another one to my pack? Judy and I find it really hard to say no when it is a very adoptable animal. Tiny little Edgar Allen
Poodle has taken up residence on my bed and after the initial scuffling, has fit right in. Also take a look at the Inauguration Day photo Judy took of two of our chocolate lab puppies visiting with President Obama - he dropped by Pet Smart the Saturday before! ;-)

Wow – my ‘cakes are doing so well! I don’t trust them on carpet but they are bouncing in and out of the doggy door with no problems and I didn’t have any accidents at all last night when I left them alone at dinner and during the night. They are all now piling into my bedroom and sleeping on various pillows. Just an occasional house shoe is taken outside. We are supposed to have a mob at Pet Smart tomorrow so I’ll report on Monday as to how many went to their new homes.

On Sunday, I am going to a memorial service for my two dogs that crossed the Rainbow Bridge this past year – Rascal passed in August at 14+; he had a stomach tumor and rapidly deteriorated. And then Sadie passed in her sleep in October. She was only 6 but had problems since she was born and I think I was lucky to have her for as long as I did. I had them both cremated at Paws, Whiskers, and Wags on Ponce de Leon, and they hold an annual memorial celebration to honor all pets that passed. I will be attending with some friends of mine who also lost their beloved companion. I also want to commend the DeKalb-Gwinnett Animal Emergency Clinic for their care and concern when I took Rascal there. They provided plenty of privacy and time while Judy, her husband, and I got to say goodbye and hold Rascal while he slipped away peacefully. And when I left, they also gave me a little clay imprint of his paw to take with me. Very sad but it provided closure. I sincerely believe all my companion animals that have passed are still around me and help me choose the next. One of my favorite quotes is “Saving just one dog won’t change the world… but surely the world will change for that one dog” and I intend to keep rescuing until the day I cross over.

Hi! I’m Nancy, Secretary for RPR, and instead of writing a weekly newsletter or report, I thought I’d blog (almost) every day to keep you updated on current events and other items that I think you might be interested in. Judy will add in the pictures, too. Feel free to also send your contributions especially if you want to give us an update on one of our rescued animals! I’m also a foster mom and currently I am fostering 5 dogs and puppies and 3 cats at my house including the latest two potcakes, Rusty and Rosie, brought back this past trip. My animals include Poochi (rescued from PAWS), Gypsy (found neighborhood dog), and Hugo (permanent foster as he is a special case), then Lil Sprout, Hershey Kisses, Ashley and 2 cats, Max and MS Gator Bait. I am really leaning towards keeping Hershey, he is so sweet and smart and is good with all the other animals (very important).

Judy and Jennie spent a somewhat restful week (Jan 24 – Feb 1) on Tilloo Cay on a pet sitting gig with Janie’s crowd (saying how many animals they took care of would make it really scary), and then brought back three little ones on the plane with them and shipped 10 older ones via Delta Cargo, two per crate. The folks in Abaco are trying to get the moms spayed. The first night, Judy kept 8, I took two, and Al & Sandra took the littlest three (Jennie took 4 of Judy's 8 after they were spayed yesterday). As of today already, they have all been spayed (and one neutered) so we are looking for these potcakes to go like hotcakes this Saturday. My two 'cakes have already learned to navigate the doggy/kitty door and are well on their way to being housebroken. Rusty has a little food aggression and picks a little on his sister so he would probably do better by himself or go with an older dog, but he is very trainable. They are also both on Albon as they’ve both been stressed and had a food change. Rusty sure hates the taste of that! They are very sweet and friendly. And I’m very happy to say that they seem to have adapted to the cold weather fairly well (although I can provide sweaters).

Today is Judy’s birthday! She is my sister, and since we're only 11 months apart, we are now twins for a month! I won’t say the age though; we like to say we are ageless…