Kids Camp: Five Oaks Visit 2014

True Blue Animal Rescue had the pleasure of hosting the Five Oaks Achievement Center on August 13th and August the 15. From nine am until noon the kids that came out were treated to a number of fun T-bar events. The day started with the introductions to the horses they would be working with along with the many rules about how to behave around a horse. Melanie DeAeth, founder and president of True Blue Animal Rescue made sure the boys and girls that came out got hands on experience working with the animals.

Not only did the horses get one on one attention but so did the kids that came out. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers each student also had a teacher for the day. While one group went off for a nice hay ride around the T-bar ranch the next group was assigned a horse and a volunteer. First they were taught how to groom a horse and the proper brushes to use on what part of a horse’s body. Next was the even tougher lesson of putting on a saddle! That one was a little more involved!

Next the kids got to walk their horse to the round pen to learn very basic ground work skills. Melanie directed the group with first putting on a rope halter, then making sure the horses were okay with the lead line moving near the horse. Also known as desensitization. While doing these skills the teens came out of their shells and had fun asking questions about their horses and even about life.

Once round pen work was over the group then were asked to lead their horses to the True Blue Animal Rescue riding arena. There, with their special volunteer for the day, the kids were able to pick out a riding helmet and then be led around the arena for riding. A few of the kids were not certain they wanted to ride but with a little cheering on everyone gave it a try! By the end of the day all the teens that came out were cowboys or cowgirls. After the riding the volunteers demonstrated how to take a saddle off a horse the proper way and store it. Next the kids rubbed down the horses and all too soon they had to say good-bye.

True Blue Animal Rescue would like to thank the people that sponsor camp horses and the volunteers that came out on the days that Five Oaks was with us on their visit. Without your help and support, events like this would not be possible. Thank you so much and to the kids from Five Oaks, we hope to see you again.

Pet of the Week: Nebula

Nebula Pet of the Week TBAR True Blue Animal Rescue Texas

This week’s Pet of the Week is another one of our puppies. Right now Tbar is stacked full of puppies. If you would like a puppy please consider this beautiful little girl. Nebula is a beautiful black lab mix puppy. She is a happy, healthy little girl and ready for someone to love and call your own. Nebula is about 8 weeks old now.She is up to date with her shots and ready to go. If you’d like to meet Nebula or any other puppy we have give us a call or send an email. Tbar is a no-kill rescue. Save a life and adopt instead of buying a pet. Check out all our animals at www.t-bar.org, give us a call at 936-878-2349 and you can email us at [email protected] to make an appointment. Please remember to have all your pets spayed and neutered. It is the right thing to do.

Success Story: Roy!

Roy_Adopted_Success Story_ TBAR True Blue Animal Rescue

Today’s Success Story is Roy. He had been with us for years. He had separation anxiety and needed to be inside with people or he’d worry and pace. Being a large dog that made him hard to adopt. Then, a few months ago he met his special people and they knew it was a perfect match. Now Roy lives in a house and sleeps on a bed and has all the comforts he deserves. I ran into him and his owner at the vet for a checkup not too long ago and was amazed at how calm and content he is now. This adoption gives us faith that there is the perfect person for each of our rescue babies! Happy tails Roy! You deserve it!

Pet of the Week: Nova Prime

Nova_True Blue Animal Rescue Puppy

This week our Pet of the Week is another of our “Guardians of the Galaxy” puppies, who were a surprise litter that came from a rescued senior stray named Sage back in July! Nova Prime is a happy little lab mix who loves playing in a kiddie pool outside, and then coming in and sleeping on a big comfy pillow! She is ready and waiting for her forever family to find her, so help us to help her by passing around this post!

Nova is one of five puppies currently in TBAR. All of them are at that perfect playful age that love to learn new tricks, enjoy toys, and cuddle.

If you are interested in adopting, download our adoption application here: http://bit.ly/TBARadoption

Email it to [email protected] and we will get back to you right away!

Foster Feature: Sonador

Today’s foster feature is our newest rescue horse, Sonador.

The County Livestock Officer in Austin County responded to a call and found her tied, around the neck, to a tree- both back feet tied with a rope- starving, with no food or water anywhere she could reach. He IMMEDIATELY seized her and called for TBAR’s assistance.

She spent 5 days at the vet waiting for a clean coggins report. Since this case was going to court evidence had to be collected too. Even though it was more than obvious to the vet the horse only needed food, he had to run fecal tests, full body exams and assessments to determine that she is a healthy otherwise, underweight, 10 year old mare who’s current condition was due to the lack of food.

We would like to thank Deputy Nathan Hale for removing her from this abusive home and the judge in Austin Co who awarded her to True Blue Animal Rescue on August 20, 2014. Now we can all breath a sigh if relief knowing that this sweet mare will never suffer again!

Sonador will need a few months of foster care with good food and lots of love to recover from her abuse/neglect. She settled nicely in with the other horses in her current foster home but she’ll be ready for an adopter very soon! She’s sweet, gentle, easy to handle and loads easily into a trailer. Please email [email protected] or call 936-878-2349 if you’d like to adopt. If you’d like to donate toward her vet care use True Blue Animal Rescue’s facebook donate button.

Event Recap: Horseman Market Days 2014

Equestrian Market Day was successful for another year. This event was held at the Brazos County Expo and sponsored by The Brazos Valley Driving and Riding Club. It’s a great opportunity for horse enthusiasts to buy things for their equine hobby at bargain prices. Even though it was hot, humid, dusty and a lot of work, at the end of the day, we want to do it again. For Tbar it’s a great opportunity to make money to help the animals. Thanks to the many wonderful people who donated horsey items for us to sell, we did just that. Lots of people stopped by to say hi and to browse through everything Tbar had displayed to sell and to learn more about rescue. This type of exposure is very important for the public as well as a learning experience for our volunteers. Thank you to all who braved the heat and worked hard to make this event a great success. The following pictures show a great turnout both from Tbar and the public. It is events like this that take lots of work and dedication from our volunteers, as well as officers and staff.

Success Story: Sable!

Success Story Sable True Blue Animal Rescue

 

Success Story Wednesday! Sable was bottle fed by foster home Simone Nicole Belotal until he was old enough to be adopted. Bottling babies is very difficult and many kittens don’t make it. Sable is one of the lucky ones thanks to Simone. Now Sable has been adopted! Here he is with his forever home and best yet, this is Simone’s Mom so she’ll get so see Sable lots of times and know he’s being loved and cared for! One of the best possible outcomes! — with Deborah Petrosky.

Pet of the Week:

pet_6168_3

Who doesn’t love puppies and a yellow lab puppy at that? This six week old puppy is looking for a family of her own! Her mother is a lab mix and little Carina looks like a beautiful yellow lab baby. She is healthy, up to date on shots and worming and ready to give love and puppy kisses. If you’d like to meet Carina or one of her black lab siblings give us a call or send an email.T-BAR is a no-kill rescue. Save a life and adopt instead of buying a pet. If you are looking for or would like more information on any animal you see on our website at www.t-bar.org and see all the animals that we have available and to learn about the adoption or foster program guidelines and download an application.  Fill it out and send it back (email or regular mail) and once you are on file as an approved adopter or foster home, you can meet any animal you want and take them home for a sleepover – try out. Or give us a call at 936-878-2349 and you can email us at [email protected]  to make an appointment.   Please remember to have all your pets spayed and neutered. It is the right thing to do. pet_6168_2 pet_6168_1

ABLE Kids Camp Read to Ride: Recap 2014

Our Read to Ride Program was lots of fun this summer! Children aged 6 – 10 who read books over the summer were able to come out and learn about and ride a horse. The kids had lots of fun and so did the volunteers! This program was offered during the month of July and time slots filled quickly.

The kids were excited but apprehensive when they arrived but after brushing, saddling and then riding a horse they had gained confidence and pride in their accomplishment. We plan to extend this program to include children up to 12 years old next summer so watch the web site for announcements in the spring. Those who want to attend more than once can do that for a $20 donation to Tbar.

As another incentive to read we will have a field trip come out from Brenham ISD for all the students at Alton Elementary who read and kept track of the books they read over the summer.

We also have plans for horsemanship classes in the spring so keep watch for updates and announcements on that too.

Foster Feature: Piper

This weeks foster feature is Piper. Here is his story written by his Foster Mom, Diane Holt, who didn’t give up on this little guy. Please like and share his story until he finds a home!
Melanie

 

Piper’s Story:

My husband and I were traveling down FM 1155, in Washington, Texas on Sunday afternoon July 20th, 2014. I see this little thing on the side of the road. I wasn’t sure what it was at first so I tell my husband, STOP. I jump out and see that it’s a tiny emaciated dog on the side of the road. He starts to run from me and he goes under the road into sewer pipes ones about 3-4’ big with 4 in a row. I follow trying to help him; he was in the worst shape of any animal I have ever seen alive. My husband and I try for over 2 hours to get him with no luck at all.

We leave very frustrated, upset, and sad. This little guy didn’t have a chance in the heat. It appeared he might be living on a sticky smelly dead deer by the road and hiding in the pipes for safety. It was getting dark so we had no options but to give up for now. I vowed that we were stopping just for now because we certainly were NOT giving up on this little life that desperately needed help. I kept wondering how he had come to be tossed out on the side of the road and left there like garbage.

I didn’t sleep all night thinking about him being out there. The next morning I asked my husband to call me on his way past there to let me know if he saw him. He didn’t see him. So I headed back down there around 1pm with food-hot dogs, ice water and towels to try to find him again and if nothing else leave the food and water for him to find. When I got there I see that there was another good hearted couple that also saw him and had stopped because he and his wife had been seeing him for weeks. He wouldn’t let them help him either. The man said he ran behind him this time and he didn’t see where he went. We spent about an hour looking for him but couldn’t find him. His wife called Tbar rescue from the road. I put out the food and water for him so at least maybe he can get something to eat and drink and I’ll check back.

I came back later that day and see him. He ran when I got really close to him and he started screaming because he’s so frightened. He ends up escaping into a 14” culvert pipe at the bottom of someone’s driveway on FM1155. I try everything I can think of to get him to come out. I offered him hot dogs and water and use soft talking but nothing I did would coax him to come out.

This culvert is maybe 14” wide and about 30’ long so it’s a lot better to deal with than the underground sewer pipes. I work with him for hours in 98 degree temps; it had to be well over a 100 inside that pipe. Folks passed by and out of the driveway. No one stopped to help or even ask anything. I tossed him hot dog pieces. He loved getting them and came for water but would never allow me to get close enough to help him.

I decided the ONLY way this little guy was going to get saved is if we can trap him. I was about 4 miles from home, so I try to block both ends of the pipe off with towels and stones to hold him in there. Leaving the food and water for him I head back to a neighbors to get a live trap and a long PVC pipe to reach down the pipe to guide him into the live trap. I return to find he had escaped.

Now I am unbelievably frustrated because I knew this little guy did not have much time to survive these temps. He is very thin, weak and had almost no hair left due to mange. He was in need of rescue badly and now it was late in the day and I couldn’t find him.

Next morning I have my husband look for him on his way to the office and he didn’t see him. I head back down there around 11:30 with troops from Tbar to meet up because I was going to get this little guy today and get him the help he so badly needed. I get there and don’t see him but I’m going to set the trap up by the culvert pipe with food and water and just check it throughout the day.

I get down on my knees to set the trap up and look in the pipe and I see him looking back at me!!! I was so happy to see him. I wasn’t taking any chances this time so I set the trap up and locked it in place and put hot dogs up at the other end with water. Now I’m on one side with a PVC pipe and the trap is at the other end. Just in time Lauren from Tbar Rescue pulls up, I motion to her to get to the other end of the pipe. We toss him hot dogs but he wasn’t coming to us so we had to trap him.

With Lauren on one end and me on the other end Lauren starts to put the PVC pipe in the culvert pipe to chase him the other direction into the trap where I waited for him. Within 10 minutes we had him!!! Lauren and I hugged and thanked GOD for helping us get him as Melanie, another Tbar member, pulls up. Tears of relief after 3 days of trying to get him, it was a joyful event. Lauren says to me, ‘since you’re going to Foster him you get to name him!’ I said, what about PIPE….she replied how about Piper!!! How perfect. So now little Piper is my foster dog. Melanie loaded him up and off to the vets for help.

I will mention that I found out that he had been seen on this road in this condition by many folks over the last month or more. Some stopped and tried some just ignored him as it was someone else’s problem as if he was garbage. Yes, it took time to get him but his life was worth the effort.

Even the day I think I spent at total of six hours at the bottom of that driveway, folks actually drove in and out of that drive way and never even ask me if I needed help or what was wrong as they saw me at the bottom of their driveway in 98 degree weather crawling on the ground they just kept driving by vehicle after vehicle.

So I wonder about where the compassion has gone? If people do this to people no wonder they do it to animals. But if you just try, and keep trying or at least try to figure it out and not give up you might save a life. You won’t stop the problem, you won’t solve the grand issue but if you stop and try to help or at least report it to someone that can you’ll save at least that one life. Doing something is better than nothing, show some compassion and try, DO SOMETHING!

As it turns out Piper is a sweet, gentle and friendly 7 month old puppy who loves to sit in your lap. He also enjoys going for rides in the car, loves kids and gets along with other animals. Most surprisingly he’s completely housebroken too. He must have lived in someone’s house before they tossed him aside like garbage. Now he is mange free, vaccinated, neutered and ready for his forever home. He’s gone from being only 8 pounds to a healthy 14 pounds and he won’t get much bigger than that. He’s perfect for any family! Email [email protected] or call 936-878-2349 if you’d like to adopt Piper!