Whitley is a Poodle, Terrier mix who came to Real Good Dog Rescue along with her buddy, Emeril. She was a real sweetheart in her time with us, even though she tested positive for heartworms and had to undergo that treatment.

Jan and Dave Stevens adopted our Whitley. They renamed her Daisy. And they sent us this update:

I’m pleased to report that Daisy has achieved two milestones:  She is heartworm negative on her follow-up test and she has logged her first hundred miles in power walking. Thought that you would like to hear the good news on both accounts.  The good life continues for all of us.

We are so pleased to hear of Daisy reaching these milestones. This is wonderful news! Thanks for taking the time to let us know!

Dave and Daisy - no doubt relaxing after one of their power walks

Despite her adorable good looks and sweet, outgoing personality, Delilah the shih tzu had some odds stacked against her when she came into rescue from a regional Animal Control facility.  The AC had picked her up injured with a pelvis broken in three places.  Her left leg was totally dangling (blown ACL or nerve damage, we weren’t sure) and she had ‘young dog’ bilateral hip displaysia (her femur heads look like cauliflower).

But Delilah was not one to let this keep a GOOD DOG down.  Crate rest, good medicine and time worked their magic.

Phillip and Beth Woods in Little Rock were surfing the net when sweet Delilah caught Phillip’s attention.

He confessed she had him at WOOF today when he came to claim her.  This picture tells it all.

Welcome, Wood’s family into the extended GOOD DOG family…keep those pictures and updates coming!

It was a small band of dedicated volunteers, with a small number of adoptable dogs and puppies, who attended Good Dog Rescue’s 2nd adoption event of the weekend. Several potential adopters stopped by to visit with us and the dogs. The dogs did their best to show themselves off! Here are some pics from yesterday. Video coming soon!

Chris Peck wrote an important editorial in The Commercial Appeal today. He describes the need for responsible pet owners – people who don’t merely view animals as objects to be bought and discarded at will. He points to the responsibility of the public for the more than 13,000 annual euthanasia’s at the shelter. He reminds us of the poor city management that couldn’t properly run the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center … and how that same management was responsible for the animal shelter.

Peck reminds us of these important points:

Feed your dog. Care for your dog. Spay or neuter your dog because we don’t need more puppies.
And cheer on the new mayor as he takes on Job 1 in City Hall — cleaning up the mess.

Take time to have a look at the letters to the editor about the animal shelter situation. Today’s Hot Button reader responses were interesting.

Please convey your continuing concern to the Mayor, Sheriff, and District Attorney (contact information for each of these people in an earlier blog post).

Thank you for reading and caring about the situation of defenseless animals at the Memphis Animal Shelter.

What a great day for adoptions…we had 5 great families adopt from Good Dog Rescue today. Seemed like we were busy all day. Many came in to visit and obtain information or adopt. We still have lots of good dogs available to adopt.

Rissa gets adopted

Bindi gets adopted

Marmee gets adopted

Ollie gets adopted

Bunny gets adopted

We have many other dogs that were at the event and still need to be given a great ‘fur’ever home.

Ernest Alexander, Animal Services Director, is OUT. YAY!

Darrell Eldridge will be a temporary facilities manager.

Lucy Shaw, prior CEO at The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, is a consultant.

Mayor Wharton says that the level of care at the shelter will be comparable to the care given at hospitals.

High level of care AND high level of oversight is promised. The Mayor has communicated with members of the city council, especially around a need to reinstitute funding for an operations manager that had been cut from the budget.

The Mayor says he is very hands on, he loves pets, and he loves details. He says this is the difference in why things will improve with his administration versus in the efforts of other administrations.

The Mayor describes how he had never received a threatening telephone call during any of his court cases – until he defended a person charged with animal abuse (he never had phone calls when defending murderers, assault cases, etc.).

Links to coverage of Mayor Wharton’s press conference:

• WMC TV 5 story & video
• WREG TV 3 story & video
• ABC 24 Eyewitness news

Want to see the live cameras at the Memphis Animal Shelter? Here’s the link!

Thank you, Mayor Wharton, for your actions on behalf of our vulnerable animals.

Last evening many of the Good Dog Rescue volunteers participated in the candlelight vigil at the Memphis Animal Shelter. Pictures are never good at dark with a phone, but we’ve got a couple below. Attending (that I saw) for Good Dog Rescue was founder Lisa Trenthem, along with volunteers Julie Clark, Vivian Lowder, Julie Russnogle, Anna Russnogle, Cheryl Kent, Sylvia Cox, & Cindy Russell (no doubt more were there, but it was dark!).

Reports vary from 100 to 200 to 300 participants at the vigil. Many people brought memorials that were left at the door to the shelter. The crowd made a loud statement that conditions at the shelter MUST change.

Here is some of the local coverage about the vigil (stories, videos, pictures):

• WMC TV 5 video reporting the candlelight vigil held Thurs 11/5 @ 6pm http://bit.ly/2eLYqb
• WREG TV3 video about animal shelter vigil & link to related information about this story http://bit.ly/2mWJIm
• Nov 6 2009 story in The Commercial Appeal about candlelight vigil & Mayor Wharton’s upcoming press conf today @ 10am http://bit.ly/1vore1
• The Daily Buzz | Memphis Flyer http://bit.ly/2pb3BR

We have aggregated our stories and you can easily follow updates by using this URL: http://bit.ly/RGDR_mas – please share this with others.

Do you have updates we’ve not yet posted? If so, please comment to this story and let us know.

There will be a candlelight vigil Thursday, November 5th, 6 PM in front of the Memphis Animal Shelter.

In light of the news today we feel that some kind of statement needs to be made.

Search warrant photos show starvation at Memphis Animal Shelter (NOTE: be aware that the photo at the link is horrific) -

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/nov/03/3-animal-shelter-dogs-died-lack-care-and-feeding/

The meeting time was changed to 6PM in order to give more people time to get there after work.

Please join us and bring friends!

Link to map of Memphis Animal Shelter, located at 3456 Tchulahoma Road, Memphis, TN. It’s near the Memphis International Airport.

Our adoption event at Hollywood Feed on Germantown Parkway was a great success today. The adoption of four good dogs makes for a great day! Not only was it a beautiful day outdoors but also with our great volunteers and their foster dogs. So many people came by to see all the cute dogs in their Howl-o-ween outfits. We had several adoptions (Bixby, Spot, Donna June, and Jo) and many who wanted to see what was going on this Oct. 31st. Here are the faces and adoptions for the day. Click on any of the pics to be taken to the larger version.

Logan is an American Eskimo, Spitz dog who’s been with us for a little while as we searched for just the right adopter for him.

Well, the wait paid off, as Renee Greer from Arkansas saw our great guy and came to Memphis to finalize his adoption.

According to Logan’s foster mom, Vivian,

I don’t believe we have had an adopter as excited as Renee was to get Logan!

Thanks, Renee, for giving Good Dog Logan a forever home! We wish the 2 of you many years of happiness!

Here’s evidence of the happiness!