Happy Tails

Sweetie, now Nilla, was adopted by a family in Totowa, NJ.  Nilla gets lots of love and affection from her new mom, dad, 2 kids, and grandparents.  This is what "dad" Paul said about his first day with Nilla

"..she bonded with me so well...it was like she knew me for my whole life... she sat on my lap without a reason...she looked for me as looking for acceptance to go with the kiddos....she's won my heart...... no accidents in the house......loving with everybody.... I went to my kids soccer game and she behaved.... she interacted with other doggies well except when a doggie was feisty ,..she was fantastic with kids of all ages and adults.... two families said if you don't want her I'll  take her... She really was an ambassador. Then in the afternoon we had people coming over....and we stayed up until midnight... she was great but I bet exhausted....she slept on my kids bed and switched to my bed at 3 am."

Beauty, now Remy, was adopted by a loving family in Demarest,  He "dad' Rob is an Englewood fire fighter.  Before coming to Peace4Paws, Beauty had been hit by a car and left in a kill shelter in Kentucky. Once Peace4Paws brought her NJ, Beauty underwent surgery and  physical therapy to ensure she is able  to walk, run and play again.  Her new family  helped her through the rehabilitation and is lavishing her with love and affection.

3 year old Chubbs, now Charlie, was abandoned at a kill shelter in KY.  Because he is a large, male, adult and pitbull mix, he had to watch all the kennels around him be emptied many times over before he was rescued. Peace4Paws was so worried about him in that cold, lonely shelter, and so we had to rescue him.  He was sweet from the start, he was such a well-behaved and loving dog in transport.   We found out later that Chubbs had heartworm and we made sure he received excellent treatment for that from Old Tappan Veterinary.  Onyx and Breezy Foundation even gave a grant to handsome Chubbs to cover some of his medical care. 

Chubbs (now Charlie) was adopted by Carol during September, 2017.  Charlie is enjoying life at his new home in Oakland, NJ. Carol said  " Charlie  has been a wonderful addition to the family. He's as sweet as sweet can be. I think he likes us too, his tail won't stop wagging." 

Peace4Paws rescued Sissy from the Estill County shelter, a kill shelter in Kentucky, during June 2017. With help from our partners, The Way Home Rescue Alliance, Sissy arrived at her foster family’s home in NJ. She is such an adorable, sweet puppy that she only spent one night with her foster family before she got adopted by a loving family.

Sissy, now Ruby, is enjoying her life in Suffern, NY with Alena, Jonathan and 4-year-old Karly. Ruby has a fenced yard to play in and enjoys going for walks with her forever family. Alena says Ruby is a sweet dog and they are so happy they adopted her.

Peace4Paws rescued Chloe from the Estill County shelter, a kill shelter in Kentucky, in November, 2016. Chloe and another dog, She arrived in NJ through our partnership with The Way Home Rescue Alliance.  Chloe, a sweet affectionate girl who loves to cuddle, was adored by everyone who met her.

Chloe, now Coco, was adopted by Dineen in Dec. 2016 and lives with her mom and dachshund brother Hotdog in Nanuet NY.  Dineen travels frequently for her job so Coco enjoys staying with a friend in NY state that has an acre of land, chickens, 3 kids, and a dog.  

Shye and Chloe arrived together from Kentucky.  They were together at the Estill Count Shelter until rescued by Peace4Paws.  Both were fostered together in Hillsdale, NJ.  There was something special about Shye, now Cheyanne, so foster mom Judy just could not give her up.  Cheyanne was adopted by Judy at the end of end December, 2016.  Cheyanne loves people and other dogs and welcomes a new foster dog in the home every few weeks.  Cheyanne loves long walks and playing in the back yard with her foster buddies.

We have a wonderful story to share about one of our rescue dogs. We brought Hallie, a female Rat Terrier into our Peace4Paws community in March, 2017. From the beginning she was beautiful, and very sweet and docile. She was temporarily fostered for a short time by one of our Adoption Volunteers and after observing Hallie’s quiet disposition, along with her enlarged nipples, Hallie visited our local Vet in Old Tappan and it was diagnosed that sweet Hallie, was pregnant!!!

Hallie had just visited a wonderful family who already had a beautiful Golden Retriever, and they were looking to adopt another companion, when we discovered Hallie was pregnant. Peace4Paws had already decided we were going to take the journey with Hallie, and keep her until the puppies were born in May, and when we told the Closter Family about Hallie’s condition, they instantly said, we still want Hallie, and want to be a part of this wonderful adventure.

Fast forward, another loving family volunteered to keep Hallie until the puppies were born and ready to be adopted, at 8 weeks, so we now had the Peace4paws group on board, a family wanting to adopt Hallie, and another family willing to foster Hallie through the pregnancy and birth of puppies. Everyone was unanimously excited and happy and we all wanted to make sure Hallie, now renamed Maggie, had the best medical care possible. Old Tappan Animal Hospital was amazing throughout the process, and we all provided Maggie much love, safety and attention she needed. This frightened dog was just rescued from a “kill” shelter and brought to us and now we had to make sure she was being given everything she needed to ensure she was healthy and she delivered healthy pups.

On May 23, 2017 Maggie gave birth to 6 healthy adorable babies, 2 girls and 4 boys. She was incredible in her maternal skills of cleaning them, nursing them 24/7 and being the perfect “mama” to her new pups.

1 month later, Maggie was adopted by her new forever home, and along with Maggie, came the 6 puppies as they were too young to be adopted. It was a month long journey of overseeing these 7 new dogs, but the family was beyond incredible and they provided Maggie, and all of her pups with so much love, support, and in an environment that was so safe, everyone thrived. The pups were named, Lulu, Franklin, Buddy, Bob, Smidge, and Larry and we were successful in finding each of the pups wonderful forever homes. We had to wait until they were old enough, 8 weeks, before they could leave Maggie and start a new life with their new families.

We are happy to share this wonderful story of how a lonely rescue dog entered our Peace4Paws family and the journey we all participated in to make sure she was safe, healthy and happy and we were successful in finding the best new families for these adorable pups.

We hope this story is an inspiration and it was a Happily Ever After ending for everyone, involved.

I adopted Moo Moo from Peace4Paws back in November of 2014. I was also volunteering with this amazing organization during this time. 

My dad and I were scheduled to transport Moo Moo and one of his sisters from their last stop on their long journey from KY to their homes in NJ. When they arrived in NJ, Moo Moo was the only one of his siblings that didn't have a place to call home yet. So my parents agreed to foster him. 

At the time Moo Moo and I crossed paths, I wasn't expecting to adopt a new furry, four-legged family member since I was living with my family who already had three dogs. But, through fostering Moo Moo, I fell head over heels in love with him. I decided to put in an application for adoption and next thing I knew, I received a call from peace4paws saying that I was approved to adopt Moo Moo. I was absolutely ecstatic and couldn't believe Moo Moo was now mine!

A few months later, in February 2015, I was moving to Atlanta to be with my boyfriend (at the time), Jason. Moo Moo automatically attached to him and we were now one happy family living in our Atlanta apartment. Now, in 2017, Jason and I are married and we've moved into a house in Marietta, GA where Moo Moo is enjoying his new fenced in yard. He gets to run around, roll in the grass and sunbathe as much as he wants. He's in doggie heaven! He also loves spending time at doggie day camp, or hanging out at home relaxing with us. Jason and I enjoy taking him on long walks and to the dog park too. Moo Moo is really enjoying life! 

He looks forward to visiting with my family's dogs and hopefully reuniting with his beagle sisters when we drive up to NJ this November!

Joel was retired from a laboratory out West back in March of 2015 when he was seven years old.  He was then transported and cared for by the Kindness Ranch (www.kindnessranch.org)  When Joel was ready, Peace4Paws flew him to NJ where he was fostered and forever homed with a wonderful extended family in Bergen County.  Joel has been living with Dad, Grandpa, two brothers, and his mom Vicky.  Upon Joel’s ninth year birthday Vicky shared the following “Joel is doing excellent!!  All my family and friends love him. I got scared because a few weeks ago he had a stomach issue. What happens is that he has learned to become a “real dog” and he started knocking down the kitchen's garbage can... lol so I think that was the problem. He continues to eat the same food Peace4Paws sent him with: HOLLISTIC food. It seems so funny because we bought a metal garbage can thinking he wasn't going to knock it down and guess what??? He always finds the way. So we put a dog gate between my kitchen and the bedroom's hall so when we are out Joel stays in the bedrooms. My sister is so in love with Joel that she has insisted in babysitting him with her shitzu. It is so hard for my kids to let go Joel even for one day... lol . She is looking forward to adopt a 2nd dog. So I might look for you if she does. I told her is better to rescue one. Thank you Peace4Paws for sending us this wonderful boy! ”

Peace4Paws rescued Coco (now Nacho) from the Estill County Shelter, a kill shelter in Kentucky, during March 2017. With the help of The Way Home Rescue Alliance, Coco came to NJ to her foster home in Hillsdale. Coco, a sweet and affectionate dog, made lots of friends at the Peace4Paws/Juluka yoga event in March; everybody wanted to take her home. Nacho quickly found her forever home with Gil in Denville, NJ. Gil was looking for a loving 4-legged companion and he certainly found that in Nacho.

Foxy, now named Lemon, was rescued by Peace4Paws (with the assistance of The Way Home Rescue Alliance) from a kill shelter in Kentucky in July 2017. She was fostered by Tara and Tom in Westwood, NJ, and shortly thereafter adopted by her foster parents.  Tara said that Lemon loves watching dogs and other animals.  They took Lemon to visit family in Cape May and she really enjoyed sitting on the front porch watching people and dogs go by. She was unsure about the ocean at first but quickly overcame that and jumped into a wave. Lemon has been taken to meet some friend's dogs and she loves to play. Lemon is thoroughly enjoying her new life and loving family in NJ.

“What is worth wanting is worth waiting for”.  We waited almost a year for the perfect match for Oreo.  The sweet boy came to us back in Fall of 2014 and was fostered by Jennifer, Charles and their four dogs.  They took lots of videos of him, etc and many, many people applied.  We thought we picked the perfect match and were especially charmed by the eldest daughter who just couldn’t stop hugging him.  That family prepared so carefully for him, but as it turned out some of his herding dog traits didn’t seem to fit with the youngest daughter. So Oreo went back into foster, this time for almost seven months with Susan, until we received the perfect application: Louise. Louise and family own an 11 acre farm in New York State.  There are three older kids in that family, but we sent trainer Jerome up there during the trial period and beyond for insurance that Oreo would be able to stay.  As it turned out, Oreo impressed everyone with his conversational ways (sometimes he looks at you and just starts ‘talking”), his affection and his incredible prey drive, dedicatedly scaring rodents away and his intelligence.  So he now has 11 acres, a huge house, and big family to call his own.  He still gets in trouble sometimes, like when he decided he didn’t like the dog at the neighboring tent when they went camping.  But, his family is devoted to him.  And they will all live happily ever after!

“We knew Iris was always meant to be our dog,” said dog mom Ida Plotzker.  

But, the long and winding road and the process by which this family and Iris acclimated to each other was quite remarkable.  And in some ways, not uncommon in rescue.  In reality the dog you think you are going to get but didn’t wasn’t meant to be yours another was!!  Read on! 

Ida told us upfront that she knew nothing about dogs and was more than a little scared to be a temporary foster to a dog.  Regardless she wanted to do it for her kids, especially her daughter Tamar. Tamar was friends with one of our Distinguished Student Volunteers of 2015 Shulamit. She also wanted to get a dog to help her son who has special needs, who she thought would greatly benefit from a companion.  Ida told us that Tamar had the most experience with dogs and she would be the backbone of this experiment with temporary foster.  They were earmarked for Bing (note – not Iris) an adult dog who was potty-trained, docile, and calm.  For weeks we were preparing the family for Bing (the other dog) who was in Florida.  It was a nerve-racking time, but we finally had all the transport in place. Bing was ready to travel and a whole network of transporters were lined up to bring her from Florida. At the last minute Bing’s foster Dad decided he couldn’t live without Bing. Now Ida’s family had no set date for Bing or any other foster dog.  The dog saavy daughter Tamar went away to camp when suddenly another NJ charity, that pulls dogs from Mississippi, had an urgent need for us to take one of their puppies, Iris. Iris had been in a shelter for months of her young puppy life!! She was traveling to NJ but they were short a foster.  So Peace4Paws said yes to Iris.  Transition again, Iris went into foster where the foster just couldn’t hack a puppy or a dog in her apartment because she was so afraid Iris might urinate or bark.  On the foster app this was not indicated, anyway we needed another foster and fast. As a result Ida and her family were called.  And a calling it was because taking on a puppy as new dog owners is a huge life change.  This was a big transition for multiple reasons like the length of time it took to potty-train Iris. But after the initial three or four months that Iris was in “foster” it became obvious that this dog was here to stay no matter what the stress or challenge ( there were some medical things that came up).  This dog was the love of their life! The family’s Dad, who in the beginning was merely being a good sport about getting a dog, and expected the least bonding now calls Iris “his best friend” and just can’t wait to play with her everyday. The whole family dotes over her. Iris goes on all the vacations with the family and snuggles on all the couches. Iris regularly goes on walks and hikes with her five siblings and/or two parents.  She is a shy dog with people she doesn't know. After a short while she usually warms up to them and becomes friends. She has made three local dog friends: Nicky, Wilmore, and Ringo. They love chasing each other and jumping on each other. They are great buddies and Iris loves them. Iris’s presence has made other dogs and her family extremely happy. Like Iris’s mother Ida says – “Iris was meant to be our dog!!!”

Buddy was whelped by his forever mom – Diane!  He now lives in the house he was born.  He was special right from the start.  He never fought for the nipple.  He was diplomatic.  Buddy was the one that cuddled immediately when he was born.  And to this day, he is always so friendly so everyone.  That is just his nature.  He takes after his mother and hides all his treats and toys that he wants to save for later.  He has a doggy play date every day with Mocha the dog next door and afterward they get treats.  At 15 weeks he is doing A plus in his training class. He can do sit, come and stay.  His family is so proud!!

Peace4Paws rescued energetic young Bella, now Purl, from a kill shelter in Kentucky.  She came to NJ where she spend less than a day with her foster mom before being adopted by Emily, Brian and their 2 young boys.  Emily enjoys knitting, hence the name Purl.  Purl enjoys playing with other dogs, going for walks, and running with her "dad".

Rusty, Schauzer-mix, was adorable but in need of grooming when Peace4Paws rescued him from a kill shelter in Kentucky.  He cleaned up nice, as you can see by his before and after photos.  Rusty was adopted by Corrine, Rich and their 2 year old daughter in Hillsdale, NJ.  Rusty now enjoys playing in his backyard and looking through the living room window to watch the world go by.  Rusty's new family just adores him.

Peace4Paws, like most rescues infrequently get hypoallergenic dogs. If you apply for a hypoallergenic please realize that we typically get fifity applications for each hypoallergenic dog while another dog, just as sweet, with the same loving heart is ignored.  However, we do from time to time get a hypo-allengic dog, and if we have your application in a pre-approved status you would be at the top the list!  Just this week, someone abandoned two adults schauzers. They were rescued immediately, but, if do have your application we could request such dogs when they come up!

Gabee and River were found chained  up along with several other dogs in a yard in rural Kentucky.  It was during the winter; they were cold, they could not freely move around.  Thanks to Ellie Grant at Mandy's Mission in Kentucky, the dogs were rescued.  Gabee and River came to Peace4Paws and went to live with fosters until they could find their forever homes.  

Gabee, now Rusty,  was adopted by Caitlin and Billy during March 2017.  Rusty moved into his new home in Oradell, NJ.  and is a happy, well loved boy.

River, now PJ,  was adopted  in early April by Sandy and Tom in Pearl River, NY. They met River while his foster mom, also from Pearl River,  was talking River for a walk   Sandy and Tom fell in love with River as soon as they saw him.  PJ joins a four-legged brother,  Joey, a pomeranian / papillon mix.

When Jennifer met Baxter at an adoption event at Thomaston Feed during November 2016, it was love at first sight for both Baxter and  Jennifer.  Jennifer and Anthony were so excited they could hardly wait to take Baxter home with them. And they had come to the adoption event to meet another dog!   Once  Baxter had settled in at his new home in River Edge, NJ, Jennifer and Anthony thought that Baxter could use a doggie companion.  They adopted Phoenix (now Maggie) during March 2017.  Both dogs had been rescued by Peace4Paws from a kill shelter in Kentucky.  Phoenix was with her foster mom for less than a day when Jennifer and  Anthony adopted her.  The dogs enjoy playing together in their fenced backyard.

Champ came to me as a foster. He had been in the shelter too long and his time was up. Jennifer, founder of Peace4Paws, saved him and needed a temporary home until he could be adopted. He was first with Jerome Watson, a professional trainer on retainer with Peace4Paws who specializes in bully dogs. Champ is a mix of pit bull, boxer and pug. I brought Summer, my dog, to meet Champ. I would not foster a dog that would not get along with my 9 year old female. 

The meeting was successful and after 6 days with Jerome, Champ came home with me. Of course he made himself at home right away. That is dog speak for “he began to mark his territory”. But with patience and training, he became a very good house dog. Jerome helped me with leash training and socializing. 

Peace4Paws posted photos of Champ on our internet rescue sights but we received little interest in him. Many people are fearful of a pit bull. They do not realize that if the dog is not trained to be aggressive, if he is taught with love to love, a pit bull is very sweet loving dog. 

After 5 months of no interest in Champ. I decided to adopt him. he fits in quite well with Summer and me. He has his quirks such as sitting for an hour in the trunk of my car in the garage but we love each other. He found a happy home to live in and I got a happier home to live in. 

Chip, now known as Monty, went from living outside in a small pen in Mississippi to being adopted  by his two mom's, Chelsea and Amanda, in New Jersey. Monty is being loved and adored by his new moms. 

Here are Ernie (Snickers) and Winston (Caramello) who were 2 month old puppies when they were adopted back in February. Both are happy and well loved in their forever homes. 

Olias (aka Vinnie) was adopted in January and now enjoying life in Brewster, NY with his brother Delta. They love their backyard where they can either relax or check for critters. 

Beagle Baby Kate's goes home right now! KY Mama's Daisy's first baby [ born in NJ] to leave the nest and with great love!

With her new mom Barbara