Where has the time gone, it seems only yesterday I was sending off the January report but now I am late for the February one. Shepherd's needing homes has been markedly reduced this early part of the year but the applications for adoption have been flooding in. Despite the reduction in the dogs coming in we have still exceeded 400 dogs, our current adoption number being at 408. It is 4 years this month that I lost my wonderful Yani and the reason I began rescue. It took 17 months to rehome the first 100 dogs and 7 months to rehome the last 100 dogs, with Buddy, adopted by Jean being adoption number 304 and granted permanent placement on the 12th of June 05. So you can see things are getting busier for this person whose spare time is getting less and less. Life can be a juggle with my paid employment, family and my own dogs, two of them young and in training. I have recently commenced my deaf girl in agility training and my 10 month old is in obedience training. Both of whom I want to do competition work with so to have, through my plea for safe houses in distant areas, had several offers which gives me extra contacts to help in that much needed area and free's up a litle of my time. It was wonderful to see such a response and what fabulous people you all are.

My helpers in Auckland continue to be amazing in their efforts, as people adopt they are invited to join in the rescue family chat group which is for people who have adopted or foster for us. This keeps us uptodate on how the dog is progressing and gives a sounding board for advice if any problems occur, a shoulder to cry on with illness or injury and a place to brag of the accomplishments. All newly adoptive Shepherd owners are issued this invitation. This does not take the place of our website message board which is open to all with an interest in German Shepherds, as many of our chat family contribute to that.

Many of our newsletter readers may have put an application in and wondering why the wait... simply no dogs fitting the stated criteria currently available. Young dogs are few and far between and that is what the most applications are for. The older age group of dogs is always lacking in home availability and that is what seems to be coming in at present. There was a blank page on the homes needed page of our website for a little while as we were able to place dogs immediately thanks to those incoming applications without the need to put them up on the adoption page.

Do not be concerned if you applied in January and we have not contacted you regarding a dog being available. Your applications are held on file and when there is one fitting your criteria I will certainly notify you. If in the meantime, you have acquired a dog from elsewhere please let me know so that I can adjust my records accordingly.

We had two very ill young dogs in February that required intensive medical care which made me again very thankful that the raffle we ran last year has provided the funds to enable us to care for these little pups. One of them has been in his home for several weeks and the other one is heading off to her home this weekend.

We still have a few calendars left for 2006. Several had been put aside for orders which have not been collected so I am putting them back in the available stock, so if you think you might have missed out on one, now is your chance to have GSD's greeting you on a daily basis.

In closing I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to Diane Spence and her family from Timaru, who are mourning the passing of their adopted girl Tessa. Tessa was adopted by them in November 2004 in an horrendous state. You can meet Tessa on our Lucky Dog's page. First staying with Nancy and Karl until she became well and then with some fundraising at the 2004 Christmas party we raised enough funds to have Diane fly up to Auckland, meet Tessa and take her home with her. This actually worked out cheaper than sending Tessa down by herself and it gave me the chance to meet Diane and be assured that this was the perfect match.

Diane and the Spence family poured a lifetime of love into a short 16 months to make up for the many years that Tessa missed out on.
Run with the angels Tessa and give my love Yani. It was indeed a pleasure to have been part of your life.

Have a safe and happy month