More Loot from South Tampa's Best Kept Secret

Below is my loot from Animal Based Charities' thrift store, where Jack, Chloe, and I dropped off some donations yesterday. I picked up Lucky Brand jeans, an Under Armour shirt, and Nike ACG pants to wear to agility class and JRT trials…grand total: $12 and some change.  Yeah, they're used but barely and it's nothing soap and hot water can't fix.  There is an entire wardrobe of J. Crew slacks in size 6 (that I may end up purchasing on our next visit) and many items still have tags on them.  And the dogs love to help me shop because they get fussed over and convince Rick to open the treat jar.  This place is truly the best kept secret in South Tampa.

Next Friday, 1/13, from 5 to 7:30 pm there will be a fundraiser at the store for the Cat Crusaders rescue group.  ABC's thrift store is located at 4340 S. Manhattan Ave. in South Tampa (between Euclid and Gandy), in the shopping center behind Adventure Outfitters.  They are open Wednesday through Friday, 10am to 5pm, and Saturday 10am to 4pm.  The store is staffed by volunteers.  The proceeds benefit local rescue groups and pet adoption events.  Please check them out!

View my previous post about ABC's thrift store here.

*Update: ABC has moved to a new, larger location at: 4465 W. Gandy Blvd., Suite 315, in Tampa, not far from the original spot.

Lessons from Man's Best Friend

A year ago, we lost our faithful companion Bingo to cancer.  He managed to survive two shelter stays, luckily being saved by a rescue the second time, but he couldn't beat his illness.  We only had about two years with Bingo, but I know that I will never forget him.  Bingo didn't have the same zest for life that Jack has, and we didn't get to know him as a puppy. So sometimes he didn't seem like as much "fun" as Jack because his two favorite pastimes were eating and napping.  But Bingo loved to be around us, even just next to us doing absolutely nothing, as many dogs do.  Bingo's legacy, for me, is a reminder to value simplicity and just being, without taking anything for granted.

Bingo also inspired me to action in support of animal rescue.  I am grateful that, unlike the millions of pets who don't make it out of the shelters alive, Bingo was spared and lived long enough to have a warm, safe home with us for a time.  He gave us so much more in return. 

We will always love you, Bingo.

The Legend of the Rainbow Bridge 

Help Save Lives: Foster a Homeless Dog! (Calling All JRT Enthusiasts)

If you have never fostered before, please take some time to consider being the lifeline of rescue by temporarily housing a rescue dog. There are an infinite number of rescue groups out there needing help, and even more dogs facing euthanasia in kill shelters every day. When I fell in love with my precious boy Jack, my first Jack Russell Terrier, I had no idea that nearly 4 million pets are killed in shelters in the U.S. every year.  You can check with the Humane Society of the United States if you think this statistic sounds unbelievable...and you will see it put another way: about one pet every eight seconds is put to death!


Almost Home Dog Rescue, a Tampa Bay, Florida, area non-profit organization, is overwhelmed with beautiful, pure bred Jack Russells awaiting forever homes, and there are still many more to be saved. Unfortunately, at a time when more and more dogs are being abandoned, foster homes seem to be hard to find but they are needed more than ever. I have fostered several dogs for Almost Home, and it has been an amazingly rewarding experience. The rescue pays for all of the expenses...we just need host families for dogs awaiting forever homes...so that we can save more dogs who are on the shelter "death row."  


Check out the video I put together last year, The Lucky Ones, to see why I got involved with rescue.  If you have any experience with dogs, it may be a lot easier than you think. Please message me for more information, or contact Almost Home Dog Rescue at 941-704-4765. You can see some of the many dogs awaiting homes at the Almost Home Dog Rescue website.

Enzo, a super sweet playful JRT who just wants a human to call his own!

BEWARE OF DOG (the breed you choose, that is)

Clifford and the Chlomanian Devil

Cigarettes, plastic bags, energy drinks...these days everything comes with a warning label.  Well, everything except kids and pets. If humans were required to do their research or think their decisions through responsibly before becoming pet parents, there would be far fewer dogs in shelters facing the likelihood of euthanasia.  I, for one, advocate warning labels for dogs.  Since they can't be born with labels attached, all breeders and anyone who "offers" dogs for either sale or adoption should provide a breed advisory (as I know Almost Home Rescue and most rescue organizations dealing with Jack Russell Terriers do). But JRTs are not the only high-energy breed out there.

To be considered for inclusion in this warning is the fact that you may end up hiring a sitter for your JRT(s).  Yes, our dogs now have a nanny, and no, not every JRT will require one.  But anyone who will possibly have the task of caring for a JRT, and especially someone considering ownership of this breed, should be shown a video of some kind, perhaps similar to this one I used in making sure our nanny was up for the challenge. 

Watch the video: M.I. 2.5 (Babysitting 2 1/2 Jack Russells)

Learn more about Jack Russells by reading the JRTCA's "Bad Dog Talk."

The Story of Bingo

"You do it without knowing how any of it will turn out, or how much it will cost you, or if the story will be happy or tragic in the end."


-from The Dogs Who Found Me, by Ken Foster, on rescuing dogs


The Story of Bingo

Bingo was our first rescue dog, and he sold us on rescue right away. We wondered how anyone could let such a sweet dog go. We soon found out a possible reason: he was an escape artist.

Bingo once ran when I opened the front door, taking Jack with him on a joyride through the neighborhood, causing me to abandon all dignity to get them to chase me back to the house. He once put the window down and jumped out of a slow moving pickup truck (if you ever ride in my backseat, don't be shy; remind me to turn off the child lock). A worker left our gate open once, resulting in a 30 minute frantic search that involved lots of trespassing (there are now padlocks on our gates so that only those passing my responsibility and IQ screening can open/close the gates). There was also the first day at doggie day care, when Bingo broke free on the way in to run toward our house, which, as the crow flies, was less than a mile away. And while Jack was known to the day care staff as “Spiderman” for scaling partitions to get into different play groups, Bingo scaled them every day to run back into his kennel and curl up in a ball all by himself.

Bingo was a companion to Jack and helped to lessen Jack's separation anxiety a great deal. But something was always different about Bingo. He never played fetch and wasn't interested in balls or any inedible toy. He seemed to find enjoyment in sleeping, eating, and sleeping some more. Oh, he could get going at the dog park, running a few laps even faster than Jack, and playing rough with Jack like brothers do, scaring the other pet parents with his "dragon" sounds. But Bingo’s laziness was the yin to Jack’s JRT yang, and we didn’t mind one of our dogs acting less like the Tasmanian Devil.

There was evidence that Bingo had been in shelters at least twice, and behavior that suggested he had lived a rough life before he came into our lives.  There is so much we don't know about what all he had been through. He probably spent the last few months in pain before we knew that he was ill. Now that he has crossed the “Rainbow Bridge,” all I can do is hope that he found happiness and felt loved for the time that he was with us, and honor his memory by doing everything I can to better the lives of dogs needing rescue. There is always a degree of uncertainty to adopting or owning any pet, but if we don’t risk our hearts being broken, we will never know true love.

I won’t ever forget you, Bingo.