RESCUE

                                               


                                                                 Gracie’s Story   


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Miss Gracie (fka Casey) is an 8-9 year young Tree Walker Coonhound, who found herself lost and wound up in the Licking County Shelter in Heath, OH.  Like many rural Ohio county shelters, they are overrun with dogs, most unaltered, and although they work with many rescues, the end result {due to sheer numbers) is euthanasia.  Stop the Suffering (STS), a non-profit rescue organization in Columbus OH, rescued Gracie right before her scheduled euthanasia.  She was updated with all of her veterinary care and due to lack of available foster homes, was staying in a local kennel.  Gracie was bunking in the kennel since January 2015 with ZERO inquiries about adopting her.  Not one.  You see, there are so many hounds and hound blends in the Midwest region of the U.S., dogs like Gracie are overlooked in shelters and rescues. 

Gracie is the catapult for starting our project Relocate to Rehome.  Lynne, Founder/Director of STS, was sending out yet another late night email plea networking Gracie to scores of rescues in the Midwest region.  Because we are still a part of the Ohio rescue network, we read Gracie’s story and wrote to Lynne and said – “What do you think about sending Gracie to WA to rehome her?”  Lynne replied to say she was willing to try and we said “Let’s do this!”  And so, Gracie’s journey to her new life began.

Gracie was readied for transport through the PAWESOME organization we were approved to work with – Kindred Hearts Transport Connection.  She had a riding partner (Ripley, who we adopted out in WA and is nka as Lady) and they set off for their cross country journey to their new lives.  39 legs and 4 days later…they arrived in WA! 

Fast Forward to the perfect home for Gracie:  Peeps who enjoy training classes, will use a gentle leader to help Gracie keep her nose going in the right direction, has at least a 6’ fence, no cats or small dogs and promises to take her to the ocean to visit.  We are pretty sure Miss Gracie was used for hunting and either was lost on a hunting trip (in rural OH many hunting dogs are left behind in the woods if they wander off) or escaped an outdoor pen.  Gracie has a strong prey drive, common to her breed, and will not do well with small doglets nor cats.  Gracie is terrific with large breed dogs as she is in our Camp Bark DayCamp all day every day.  Gracie is crate trained and happily walks in to her crate, curls up and sleeps there all night.  Gracie loves her grain free Salmon Bleu food!

Gracie went to foster care but her hound nose proved to be too curious to stay within the parameters of their short fence.  Gracie has a few words of her own to add:

“What an exciting ride I had from OH to WA!  Wow!  My big hound nose was on overdrive with all the great smells out all of those windows along the way!  My favorite thing to do is to cuddle up on the couch, or in bed with a person!  My second favorite thing to do is smell everything my nose can find!  I know my nose can get me in to trouble but I just cannot help myself…it’s not all bad…after all …it got me here to WA!   Oh, and I can’t live with cats – remind me to tell you the story of when I went to the vet in OH (it’s a pretty funny story!)  Now that I am settling here in WA, I am ready to find my new family.  I would love to go on hikes on the gazillions of trails in WA and I hear the ocean is made for a gal like me (lots of new smells!)  If you are interested in a fun loving gal like me, please fill out the questionnaire so I can read a little more about you!”

                                                                             www.lrrocadoption.com