This homeless boy was timid at first, but curious, and he gently took treats that were offered…

Never has it been such a breeze for them to loop the lucky leash around a dog’s neck

Brutus hopped into the car with trust, and showered his rescuers in kisses…

And after a bath and a proper meal, Brutus was all smiles!

If you live in the LA are and would like to adopt Brutus or any of the other loveable lugs Hope for Paws has rescued, visit www.AddToYourFamilyAdopt.org.  To see more of their amazing rescues, click here

The post This Hope for Paws Rescue Is Unlike Any Other They’ve Ever Had… appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

https://www.facebook.com/BCACadoptables/videos/1140430179346922/

He weighed only 19 pounds, little more than a third of what would be considered healthy.  A good Samaritan saved him from the streets, where he would have quickly perished, and brought him to Bossier City Animal Control.

“This poor guy who we’ve named Jude was left on a chain to starve. When he got close to death they cut him loose so they didn’t have to deal with disposing of the carcass,” they said on their Facebook page.  “Despite humans failing him in every way possible, he still wags his tail and gives kisses.”

Jude was taken to Benton Animal Hospital for treatment and recovery.  BCAC’s office manager and rescue coordinator Brittany Hardy said she sees many pit bulls come in in a similar state.

“They’re a great breed, but often used for income and no care for where they end up, and a lot of the time they end up here,” she told the Shreveport Times.

It has taken months of care, but Jude is finally beginning to look like a healthy and happy boy.  He still has a few more pounds to pack on, but one of the staff members recently told me that now he is “doing great.”

If you would like to help Bossier City Animal Control continue to save dogs like Jude, please click here, or send a donation via PayPal to roadtorescue@bellsouth.net.

The post Mangy, Skeletal Dog Makes a Complete Transformation Because of Love appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

Heroes never have a day off, especially when so many are still needed. Animals are still fighting for survival in the aftermath of the storm. Thankfully, no one is giving up quickly.

As animal lovers, we can appreciate all they have been through and know they need as much help as we can give. Please think about donating to the disaster relief fund through Greater Good. Donations start as little as $5 and can do so much for deserving animals in need. Share this post and info about this program, please. They need us and we need to act… for the love of all things furry!

The post Pit Bull Clings To Broken Fence As Louisiana Flood Volunteers Try To Save Him appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

A black, bully-breed mix, Roxy had low odds of being adopted. But she got lucky. L.A. nonprofit Karma Rescue liberated her from shelter life, her halfway house between there and foster placement was a veterinary clinic where she was safe, but still a difficult case behaviorally. She spent five days there before she even went for a walk.

But then, a clue to unlocking the dog within that frightened shell came in the form of the clinic cat.

While in her kennel, Roxy spied the kitty as it slinked along the window ledge of the neighboring vet’s office. Staffers noticed. Roxy didn’t appear aggressive, but inquisitive, friendly. A meeting was set up to gauge her compatibility and she passed with flying colors. Karma Rescue put the “good with cats” label on her profile, three words that would change Roxy’s life.

Around the same time, Glen and Sharra Platt were perusing Karma’s website and for them, the words carried weight. They had three cats at the time, plus a spunky Pomeranian named Kasey, very much an alpha dog despite his 10-pound frame.

Sharra called in about Roxy, and rescuers warned her about the fear issues still so prevalent in this special dog. But Sharra, as she told reporters for The Dodo, was undeterred.

When Sharra contacted Karma Rescue about Roxy, the volunteers warned her about Roxy’s fear issues. Instead of being intimidated, Sharra felt more determined. “There are issues I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking on, but fear wasn’t one of them,” Sharra told The Dodo. “I just knew, in my heart, that we could help her.”

After an initial meeting with Kasey proved positive (they dogs got along, and Roxy allowed Kasey his alpha status) she went to their home for a playdate — and to meet the cats. It was another success, and the Platts decided to make it official and adopt Roxy into their furry family fold.

Roxy’s fear issues were still prevalent, even in a stable, loving forever home.

“She didn’t want to walk,” Sharra said. “She would walk 20 feet, then flatten and freeze. Or she would pull like crazy on the leash and go back and forth in front of us. It was like walking a drunken freight train. Everything out in the world terrified her — trash cans, cars, trucks and the wind.”

Even strange noises inside the house.

With the help of a professional trainer, the Platts helped Roxy get over her fear.

“I think the most important thing (he) told us was to not give her affection when she was showing fear,” Sharra explained. “It’s the one thing you want to do the most, but he drilled it into our heads that rewarding fear by giving affection actually encourages the fear. Our job was to encourage her to move through the fear, and praise her like crazy when she did.”

Eventually, walking outside became easier. Roxy got farther and father from the Platts’ home until one day she made it all the way to Malibu Beach.

“Roxy didn’t quite know what to make of the water but she certainly had fun running around in the sand,” said Sharra. “She watched Kasey run into the water before she tried it herself. It was clear on that first day that Roxy was going to be a beach dog.”

These days, the beach is a fixture in Roxy’s fully transformed life (though she still has a bit of fear in new places), because of the efforts of a rescue group and the love and persistence of a family who wouldn’t give up on her.

The post Transformation: Shelter Dog Too Scared To Walk Finds Fab Forever Home appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

https://youtu.be/K0BvzqOpBj8

Boomer is like, SUPER EXCITED to go outside. Bath time? Yeah, not so much.

The post Boomer Hates Baths! (& Understands English) appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

I’m sure there are many of you out there who have a World’s Greatest Dog, right? Well if there were an award, our rescued three-legged pit bull Bella would definitely receive a nomination — if not take home the gold.

When we started fostering with our local shelter we already had a fairly good idea of how Bella would react to the new house guests. She had already befriended a rescued cow, watched over piglets saved from slaughter, and looked after battery-caged chickens from the largest farmed animal rescue in California’s history. But we never anticipated just how stellar her mothering skills would be.

Pit bulls are often victims of prejudice and discrimination, but contrary to popular conceptions this breed has some of the most gentle and stable temperaments. In 2011, the American Temperament Test Society showed the American pit bull terrier scored an overall temperament rating of 83.9 percent compared to the 77 percent score of the general dog population. I know this, and a quick Google search will easily tell you the same. But I want you to see and experience this.

So far, Bella has helped me care for three litters of kittens, and she has always been gentle and kind. She gladly shares her water bowl, her dog bed, and her human attention. She takes turns grooming them, and they greet her every morning by curling around her legs, and cry when she comes in from her walks.

Bella is doing her part to make sure these kittens are well adjusted and adopted into their forever homes. When they head back to the adoption floor in a few weeks, their enclosures will proudly read, “dog-friendly”.

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This is Greg’s story:

My wife and I owned two dogs that we had owned before we met and brought into the marriage. Her dog was a pit bull/Labrador cross named Zack, and he hated me. When our daughter was born, I said to the wife, ‘If he so much as nips at the baby, he’s gone.’

We brought our daughter home in a car seat, and both dogs sniffed and licked her, tails wagging. I had to pull Zack away from her because he wouldn’t stop licking her. Zack immediately became my daughter’s protector, and when she was lying on a blanket on the floor, he always had to have one foot on the blanket.

Zack loved my daughter immensely, and when she became a little older always walked her to bed, and then slept on the bed with her. He somehow knew whenever it was time to go upstairs, and he would wait at the foot of the stairs for her, and then follow her up to bed.

Zack was poisoned by some dirtbag neighbor kids, and we had one of the worst days of our lives. Watching my daughter say goodbye to him as he laid still on the kitchen floor, my wife and I were both sobbing.

At 8:00 that night, my daughter walked to the stairs to go to bed. At that moment, all three of us realized what was about to happen. After five years, she didn’t have Zack to accompany her upstairs. She looked at her mother and me with a look of horror and panic.

It was at that moment that my dog, who loved my daughter dearly, but was not in Zack’s league, stood up, walked over to her, and nudged her with his head. He put his foot on the stairs, and looked up at her. They walked up to bed, with my daughter holding tightly to his neck.

For the next six years, until he died, Sam waited for her by the stairs each night.

The post Man Worried About Wife’s Pit Bull When Baby Is Born Is Completely Blown Away by What He Does appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

This morning, deputies responded to an Animal call in South District. A large Pit Bull was running around and neighbors were worried. Upon arrival, the deputy discovered that this wonderful dog was just out looking for friends to play with. After sufficient play time and fun, deputies were able reunite the dog with his owners. A gate was accidentally left open and this beautiful dog was able to be taken back to his loving home.

This was one of the hundreds of comments on the photo post:

Ray Mcphatter Similar story, got a call in reference to a pit bull running loose. Got it came running to my patrol unit and put her paws inside my window. I rubbed her on the head and got a lot of slobber. Popped my trunk and got out to get my rope I keep for calls like this. Got my rope looked around and she was gone. Went to get back in the car and yep she was sitting in the driver’s seat. I put the rope on her and she walked me to her house.

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In the video, you will see a disabled Pit Bull named Auggie playing happily with a rescued street dog named Brindy. Auggie was rescued from euthanization, and Brindy was once a street dog in Thailand. And now these two have a loving forever home!

Check out the video below and see them play!

[iframe id=”https://rumble.com/embed/u762o.vc30k/”]

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The two organization work together to save Pit bulls from shelters and train them to become police dogs. Animal Farm Foundations covers the cost of the training while Universal K9 prepares the dogs to be outstanding citizens and K9 officers.

The program has successfully placed nine Pit bulls across different police departments and these four-legged officers have proved they can do the jobs as well as German shepherds or malinois can.

Kiah is one of the nine K9 detective Pit bulls in the nation and she works along side her partner, Officer Justin Bruzgul from the Boughkeepsie Police Department. She is patrol certified and also trained to track missing adults and children.

“It is nice to have her as my partner,” Bruzgul told LittleThings.com. “I know she will be there, she will have my back if I need her and she will do whatever I need her to do.”

Training shelter dogs to do police work is a cost-effective measure because police departments no longer spend excessive amounts of money buying their four-legged officers from breeders. Money is not the only thing this program saves, lives are saved too.

Once again, here’s another example of why it pays to give Pit bulls a second chance.

https://www.facebook.com/littlethingscom/videos/498020890407288/

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Barnabas the kitten was very sick and had to be bottle-fed. Gypsy was immediately drawn to him, “cleaning him like a mother cat would do,” their owner Cheri Desmarais told LittleThings.

“I was not nervous at all about introducing Gypsy and the kitten. Gypsy had already been great with other animals, even the baby chickens on my mom’s farm,” she said. “We were all touched as well when the adoption took place.”

After a little TLC, Barnabas was nursed back to health, and the pair inseparable ever since. The family’s YouTube video shows just how lovable pit bulls can really be, regardless of the vicious reputation they’ve been given. The tiny kitten tries to snuggle up to the pit bull. Even when the cat tries grabbing the dog’s ears and play, the pit bull doesn’t even flinch. As you’ll see in the pictures below, Gypsy might be one of the most patient and loving pets.

Gypsy the pit bull was immediately drawn to the sick kitten, cleaning him like a mother cat would do.

The pair have been inseparable ever since, and today, the kitten is healthy and growing bigger each day!

Vicious? Not so fast! This pit bull loves cuddling on the couch with her pal, Barnabas.

These pets are two peas in a pod!

The post Gypsy The Pit Bull Adopts 3-Week-Old Kitten appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

When the passenger door was opened, the impish little runaway hopped in and made herself right at home by curling up on the seat.  Maybe she’s always wanted to be a K-9, or at the very least, go on a ride-along.

While they waited for her owner to come collect her, she got to hang out with Officer Taylor as he wrote up a report.  It looks like they both had a marvelous time.

The photo, which was posted on the Facebook page of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, has received thousands of likes, shares, and comments.  These two comments really encapsulate the moment:

Larry Ackerman: Welcome to the brotherhood Officer Taylor. Enjoy every day, help who you can and never lose that smile. Be cautious and compassionate with everyone you contact. Go home every day and love your family. Congratulations!

Barbara West: The real test of a person of integrity.. When an animal trusts you and wants to spend time with you. Also the smile on this officers face.. Tells of his kindness and sense of humor.. Long life and happiness to you sir.

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Federal law dictates that service animals are allowed in public schools and all public areas to provide help and assistance for people that have disabilities. Most people think of service animals as being strictly for the blind but service dogs have been trained to help people with a large range of disabilities including cerebral palsy.

One of the lifesaving benefits that a service animal can provide for a person with cerebral palsy is announcing that the person is having a seizure that could be life threatening. Some researchers have considered that the changes in body odor that precede a seizure tell the dog that a seizure is imminent before any human could detect the signs of a seizure.

This short video explains the hoops that the family of a boy with cerebral palsy had to jump through in order to allow a Pit Bull named Stevie to accompany his owner Anthony to school because the 7-year-old has cerebral palsy. The stink was based on the fear that a ferocious Pit Bull might attack other children despite the fact that the dog was constantly attached to the child’s wheelchair and was professionally certified to be a safe and friendly service dog.

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