Please save my dog Ellie

I have a real problem, I have attempted to find a home for my dog using petfinder, craigslist and sites like that, but I have had no responses from people who could really help. We can't continue the way we are going and I hate the idea of sending her to a shelter, so I am trying to find help from anyone who MIGHT be able to. Below is the information I posted about Ellie. Can you point me to some help? We have a 7 year old female Walker Coon Hound named Ellie. She is extremely affectionate, smart and energetic, spayed, UTD on all shots, house broken and VERY well mannered around kids and other dogs. She has had a couple of benign fatty tumors removed from her outer thigh and tummy, but they are well healed and she is as active as ever. She knows basic commands and will learn something new for a treat. She loves to have someplace soft to sit and hates the rain, so she is not much of a hunter! She doesn't like to be alone, but will keep a confined space clean if you have to go out and don't want her to try out your bed. We have just had a new addition to our family, a baby boy, who is allergic to her. We have struggled with our options, but we believe the best for all would be to find a new home for Ellie. Can you help us? She deserves a good home, and I wish it could be ours. Like all hounds she loves interesting smells, so you have to watch her access to trash cans. She has a loud bark, that some hounds might use in the hunt, but Ellie uses to say hello to the mailman.

We are located in Flemington, NJ and I can provide pictures to serious

Have you tried contacting local all-breed and any hound rescues? Sometimes rescues are willing to act as a placement service if they are in need of a dog meeting specific requirements and they are able to keep the adoption fee.

There are families out there who want to go through rescue to acquire a dog but also expect to get one that has a known history. Your dog would be ideal in such an instance but you have to approach the rescues honestly, politely and ask what you can further do to help find Ellie a new, responsible home.

www.petfinder.com Maybe you can find a rescue or list her for adoption.

< Benadryl for the kid.>

You know, I used to always had an 'attitude' towards owner turn-ins and people looking to rehome or even just dump their dogs. Over the years in rescue, I have come to realize two thnigs:

1. There are legitimate life circumstances that give some people no choice 2. If I am snotty or sarcastic towards an owner turn in, the dog will be the one that suffers

What changed my attitude was a woman ACO who ran a county shelter. I had been called to pick up a breed rescue whose owners, after 10 years, had simply dumped the dog. I was seething and self-righteously indignant that anyone would do this. I asked the ACO how in the world she dealt with these people. What she told me has stuck with me ever since: If I make it difficult and humiliating for someone to bring their dog in to the shelter, where are they going to end up? Being abandoned? Being tossed out of a car? Thrown into a gator pond? Used a fodder in dog fight training? Where? So, she smiles and sympathizes, is able to get alot more real information on the dog, and after they get in their car and pull out she loses it and uses language my mother would slap me for using.

Ruth, Greta, Woody & Thelma

Here are a couple of Coonhound rescue contacts I was able to dig up. I don't know how current they are, but it might be a start:

Coonhounds (Black and Tan, Bluetick, English, Plott Hound, Redbone Coonhound, Treeing Walker Coonhound) Ruth Clark 303-648-9675 (CO - referral)

|Carol Pallmeyer |516-261-7936 (Long Island, NY)

Does your friend ever think that maybe because she made it so easy for the person to dump their animal on her that they will be right back into the same position. Like 'Gee, that lady was sweet - if I ever get another animal I can't keep I will just do the same thing.' Never learning that some people don't know how to care for an animal. Or really even want to .. it is just something that you own like a couch.

If she really LOVES her dog Ellie - she should take her to the vet and have her humanely put down. Let her loving face be the last thing the dog sees. Not a cold metal cage surrounded by strangers before it is put to sleep wondering what she did wrong to be abandoned by her so-called loving family.

Not even close to 1/2 of the animals in shelters/pounds around here get adopted - even the perfect ones. Is is sad and scary YES. Put people need to LEARN and UNDERSTAND what it is like and not be babied because you can't stand to hurt their feelings.

I certainly agree that when you adopt a pet, it is for the LIFE of the pet. Add some good food and vet care to that also. But I would like to know where the place is that has 100% adoption rate...never-never land??? I agree that people should be confronted with the truth about the results of their actions. I can't help but wonder...what percentage of the people care at all, even when they *know* what they are doing and what will happen. Amen!!! That's why God invented DNA lists. I wish that there were a manditory vaccination that makes people have empathy with pets.

But I would like to know where the place is that has 100% adoption rate...never-never land???

LOL, almost never-never land. It's the AC in Key Largo, Florida. Definitely serves a much smaller population base then HR, Virginia and other larger urban areas. But they do a great job for their locality and its specific set of circumstances.

My mind is not changed though about lambasting people who dump dogs. I want to get that dog out of that situation as soon as possible. I'm more of a one dog at a time person than a solve the problems of the world person. Everyone has their own way of doing things; this just happens to be my way.

I do like the idea of some sort of national DNA list, but that would be an insurmountable task. In Weims alone, we rescue over 1000 dogs annually nationwide. And I am sure the more popular breeds have 2-3 times that many.

On the bright side, I just came back from delivering my most recent foster to his new forever home. His new mom was so happy, she had tears streaming down her face when we arrived and just hugged this guy for all she was worth. New Dad was beaming and already talking about going fishin' with his new buddy. Days like this make rescue bearable...

Ruth, Greta, Woody & Thelma

To me, such a good adoption is like a gold nugget shining in a pile of gravel. It keeps you looking for the next nugget for quite a while!!! ISTM that there is a perfect home for *almost* every dog...it just takes time and persistance to find that home. Unfortunately, sometimes enough time is *not* available...