---

Cruise, Anyone?

Here is your opportunity to cruise with other animal lovers after a long cold winter. Click here to learn more.

---

Needed: A Home For Big Boy

Big Boy – a handsome lab mix – was taken in by the staff of a vet clinic when he wandered onto their property. They held him for awhile expecting that his people would come looking for such a nice, well-behaved boy. Sadly, his people never came, and the days turned into weeks, which turned into months, which turned into years. Big Boy was pressed into regular service as the clinic’s blood donor dog, but somehow with all the other chaos, no one ever got around to finding him a new home.

Big Boy lived for 4 years in a lonely run at the vet clinic and while the staff was kind to him, he never got taken for a walk, never got to go for a car ride, and was never taken home on weekends to enjoy being part of a family.

Then, the veterinarian died suddenly and the clinic was thrown into disarray. Most of the staff was laid off, and the vet’s heirs decided to close the clinic. Big Boy, who had served so patiently for so long, was in imminent danger of being relinquished to the local high-kill shelter. After all his sacrifice, the vet’s heirs weren’t interested in finding Big Boy a forever home.

At that point, DODR received a hysterical phone call from one of the laid-off employees begging us to help Big Boy. While she was not in a position to adopt him herself, she was desperate to keep him out of the shelter where the adoption prospects for a large, middle-aged dog were not good.

When we learned his story we readily agreed to help Big Boy find the forever home he so richly deserved after his years of service. Big Boy is currently in a loving foster home and is reveling in all the good things that he had missed out of during the years at the vet clinic. He loves longs walks, snuggling on the couch, playing tag with his “brothers and sisters”, car rides and lots of fresh air and sunshine! Soon, we hope to find him his very own forever home!

Your contributions enabled us to help Big Boy – and many, many other wonderful, equally deserving dogs in need!! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Editor-in-Chief Checks In: DONOR RULES

Well, Hello there, I'm Benji and I'm the Editor-In-Chief for Dogs on Death Row. I'm here to tell you that you have choices within your employee charitable contributions program.

Many of you reading this are part of the Combined Federal Campaign. You can choose the charity of your choice. Mom explained to me (quite confusing even for a dog of my intelligence) that many corporations only allow you to give to some guy called United Way. But Mom said that people work really hard for their money and should be allowed to give to the charities of their choice, not the company's choice. Now some of you might want to give to cancer charities, or children's charities or (hint, hint!) Dogs on Death Row. (Mom said I shouldn't be so self-serving!) So maybe it's an environmental charity, religious, or community charity. Bottom line, it's your money and you should decide who gets it.

In fairness, I should point out that depending on the United Way where you live you can earmark your gift to support a particular charity of your choice. But there's a catch; many of them require your gift to be a "health or human service" charity. They will NOT honor your instructions to send your gift to a dog rescue charity. They will keep your money for charities they choose instead of yours, often, without notifying you.

Big part, get ready, here's my challenge to you. If your company says you can only give to United Way go to the top! Contact the president! Tell them that if they trust you to make decisions for the company they should trust you to make decisions about a charity. Well, Mom says maybe it would be better to start with the human resources people. (Is there a canine resource department?)

Make your donations go to the charity of your choice! Even if it's not mine...MAKE IT YOURS!

Benji, Editor & Chief, DODR.org