We Are Not Alone!

The following article was published in St. Catharines Standard in Ontario Canada (1 hour south of Toronto and 15 minute north of Niagara falls):

Puppy love: Woman brings strays back from Bahamas
By DON FRASER
Posted 4/24/08
Jill Gandza took one look into the row of glistening puppy-dog eyes and was hooked. She knew there was no turning away from these helpless mutts. During the March break, she and her family travelled to the Bahamian island of Great Exuma, where she stayed at a home co-owned by her friend Donna Baer and Baer’s mother, Flora. Great Exuma is known for its stunning Caribbean beauty and mixed-breed dogs called potcakes. Many of those pooches are strays, whose lives are shortened by starvation, disease or run-ins with cars.

“When I was near our house there, I noticed this mother dog running around with all kinds of puppies,” she said. “We stopped our car, saw one run underneath an abandoned van and there were 12 little heads peeking out. Because I’m an animal lover, I was upset and started to cry. It was very disturbing,“ said Gandza, who lives with her family in west St. Catharines.
“I knew there was no life for them.”

Last week, the nurse at St. Catharines General Hospital returned to the island to bring those pups that had stolen her heart back to Niagara for adoption. To her dismay, she learned all but five had been killed by vehicles along Queen’s Highway, which runs the length of the 60-kilometres-long island.

Because of airline restrictions, only four dogs could be brought back. So Gandza decided to take the four females of the litter and leave the male pup, in an effort to help control the breeding of the island strays.

In all, she and her son Greg, 13, took about an hour and a half to round up the dogs. The pup’s mother could not be caught. The puppies were deloused and de-wormed on the island. They will be immunized and will be spayed.

On Thursday, a day after their flight from the Bahamas in two crates, the pups were seen safe in Gandza’s garage, sniffing around their temporary home. A moment later, all four — Flora, Potcake, Santana and Bahama — flopped on top of each other like a canine layer cake.

The four animals are not the only ones to be rescued from the island, thanks to the efforts of Donna Baer and her business partner Dale Halsey. The two co-own the Pet Valu store at the Pendale Plaza in St. Catharines. Aside from the latest animals, two dogs and five kittens have been rescued from the island in the past five years, Baer said. All now have homes.

“It started when I found a stray dog that was so skinny and eating garbage,” said Baer, who has since adopted that pooch, and named her Potcake. “Last year, I went down and found one living under a hut.” That dog’s name is Mango and she also found a home with Baer.

Baer and Gandza say people have asked them why they’re concerned about animals in a foreign country, when others in Canada need adopting. Their answers are the same.

The stray pups are in jeopardy. The women come face-to-face with them. It’s a circumstance that compels them to do something. Baer tells these questioning people, “Well, these animals cross your path, you’re there and see it and you can’t just turn your back.”

Gandza also describes a gut reaction. “I saw the puppies. The image I saw remains, and I have to go back,” she said, as her rescued babies drifted off to sleep inside their cage.

Meanwhile, Gandza said she’s trying to convince her husband, Ron, to let the family keep one of the potcakes. Their house already has four rescued animals.

The other three animals will be adopted through the Pendale Pet Valu, with a charge for each animal to cover the cost of spaying. Donations for further rescues and efforts to spay and neuter stray animals in Great Exuma will also be accepted at the store. A donation from a Pet Valu customer helped defray some of the costs of the Gandza mission.

“We’re all hoping to continue the potcake rescue missions,” Gandza said. “There is a problem on the island, so if we can help, we’ll do it.”

Caption: ST. CATHARINES, APRIL 24, 2008 -- Four puppies, Potcake mix were brought from a Bahamian Island looking for good homes. The puppies were brought over by the Gandza family and will be at the Pendale Plaza Pet Value. Front are Greg and Jill Gandza with Donna Baer and Dale Halsey. Staff photo by Bob Tymczyszyn

P.S. Jill did keep one for herself and calls her Flora!

Hi, my name is Caroline and I was one of the girls that donated the proceeds of our lemonade sale to help your foundation grow and especially to help your dogs. From left to right in the photo are Anya, Myself, Connelly, and Anna. We all are very passionate about animals and all want to do every thing in our power to help them. I was especially fascinated by the fact that you rescue a lot of these dogs from the Carribean islands because one of my dog's names is Flea. We think Flea was the runt of the family and so she couldn't get to her mom's milk and got kicked out of the litter. My mom and I were driving around Grenada, West Indies and she popped out onto the road. We took her home and washed her (she had worms, mange, fleas, ticks, etc.) and took her to the vet. After my brother and I had begged so much my parents said we could take her home, and we did. Now she's a healthy dog with her best friend our lab Sunshine. Thanks to you guys more dogs can have better lives in nice comfy homes in the U.S.

Sincerely, Caroline

Wow!!! We had an incredible group of young ladies come into Petsmart today to present us with their earnings from lemonade sales! They decided to donate their earning to help homeless pets, and we (and the pets) were the lucky recipients! It is always so great for us to see young people who care for animals, and you can see that our animals benefitted from their extra loving today! Thank you very much!!!

Fortunately for us, we were very busy, but unfortunately we did not get the names of these girls. So if you know these girls, or you are these girls, please drop us an email so we can acknowledge you personally!

Another Update!

Updates are so important to us. When we adopt our dogs out, we miss them very much and we often wonder how they are doing. Please send us a photo of your Royal Potcake baby!

Here's one from Avis (formerly known as Trixie) who we adopted out in August 2007:

Just wanted to update you a little on Avis. (Not the car rental place- we named her after a song) She is doing great! She is full of love, likes camping, playing disc golf, and hanging with her best buddy Cooper- the white fluffy thing in the last picture. She is also very good at playing by herself- throwing a ball around etc. We get left out of the game quite often!
She is very smart- knows a lot of commands and after a little training, has become great on a leash. She loves stuffed animals- some get the stuffing taken out in about 40 seconds, and others she keeps for months! Still trying to figure out what makes her choose the ones to keep.
There was an occasional shoe or cell phone charger that was eaten, but now she is almost always well behaved. She goes everywhere with us- not sure how she is going to handle being left at home more when it gets really hot out.
Well, enough of the proud mommy stuff. Thank-you for the blessing of our baby. She makes our world a better place. You couldn't possibly know how much we love her. You do a wonderful job going and getting these babys. Let us know if you want to see her sometime.

Jay wants another one. I want a bigger house! We'll call you once we have more room.
Take care!
Jay, Amanda, & Avis

Report from Treasure's Mom:

We love hearing from our adopters! Here's a report from Treasure's Mom -- Treasure was the first potcake we ever rescued!!!

Hi Judy, I took Treasure to the beach last weekend and he loved the sand, did not like the water at all, you'll see in the one photo he is actually running from the water. They were having a dog walk on the boardwalk to benefit the local shelter, so we signed him up, got a bandanna and walked with the other dogs, he loved it. And this week I'm going to start taking him to doggie day care 1 or 2 days a week, we checked out the place Friday at their "Yappy Hour" and he made so many new friends. Can we say spoiled!??!!
--Roni

We now have a litter of 4 kittens, just a week old today, along with their momma. Sandra , the lady who's been feeding momma wants to keep her (indoors) so at least momma has a home when she's done with these little ones (after we spay her!)... Momma's sister also just had 3 babies, and Sandra will also be adopting her too. So needless to say: kitten season has officially begun, and we'll have kittens available for adoption in a couple of months! See one 7-day old kitten:

Franz & Cainin Make the AJC!

These sweet boys made the Lifestyle section under the Petdish column. Sandy Eckstein has featured them as an example on caring for your pets in the event of your death or incapacitation. Hopefully this article will help get them homes. Dottie has been great as a foster mom but they need to find a real home! They graduated a week ago from a 3-week intensive training program from Man's Best Friend -- kindly donated by Jon Bolander, the owner. Anyone who adopts them gets a free lifetime of training for them (and for you)! They also come with Heartguard and Advantix. Please tell your friends to check them out in the AJC!

Kitten season has officially started! Yikes -- please get your kitties spayed and neutered! Here's the latest product -- a formerly feral mom and her 4 babies. Today they are 4 days old. Mom is hiding, but I got a picture of the little ones.

The Story on Roo by Nancy Foster Mom

Roo, short for Kangaroo, earned her name right on the spot when she came home with me on March 23rd. Judy and I had already rescued and adopted out her two pups (Pearl and Ella), the Norcross family that found them adopted the third (Bear Bear), and now it was her turn. Roo hung around the Norcross house where she was appeared as a stray, but could not be contained by a newly installed chain link fence. We all assumed that she dug out as her puppy tried to do. So we didn’t think too much about that when she came home to my house. She initially seemed to fit in and got along with everyone. But as soon as I turned away to do a few chores outdoors, she took the 4’ fence in a single bound and was gone! Eek! She didn’t know me, she didn’t know the neighborhood, she hadn’t even eaten anything – how much worse could it be? So I called Judy, who had just left; she turned around and came back and we then searched for the next two hours in my neighborhood. Finally Judy spotted her heading over to another neighborhood behind a cul-de-sac but she wouldn’t even look back. We both went home to make posters and I headed over to the other neighborhood later on in the evening. I had to go 2 miles all the way around to get there – I never knew my neck of the woods was literally so woodsy and had these pockets of homes. I posted a few signs and then saw her! She looked at me from about 50 yards away, then turned and went in the other direction – darn! Now what? I lost sight of her, put up a few more signs and went out to dinner. After dinner, I came by again, saw her again but she just wouldn’t come to me. I was off on Monday so I went looking for her a few more times and didn’t see her at all, but the folks I talked to said they saw the posters so I suppose that was good. I widened my search a bit and put up a few more posters, but still no luck. On Tuesday on the way home from work, I went all over the neighborhood again, talked to a woman walking her dog who hadn’t seen her, and headed across the bridge to Stone Mountain Middle School -- and there she was at the edge of the woods and parking lot -- looking longingly at the woman walking her dog! Was she hungry? Lonely? Tired? I think all of the above because when I put down a little wet food, walked away and held the rest out, she gradually crept up to me to finish the meal. Then I got her! And now she is never without a leash or lead. Needless to say she needs a privacy fence and would love some agility training to be the perfect companion. She also sits, shakes hands, and is crate trained and housebroken. I think she wouldn’t run away now that she knows me, but I just can’t take that chance. Look at her sweet innocent face! Ha!