Did you know you can direct your
United Way Donations to B.A.R.K.?

Just quote the name
Bytown Association for Rescued Kanines
and this number

REGISTERED CHARITY NO.
868956418RR0001

"Rescue a dog
Help save the day
Send Bark Your Money
Thru United Way!"

Thanks from all our wonderful Furry Friends

If you are donating $200 or more to B.A.R.K. through
United Way any fiscal year, you are entitled to a
Lifetime Membership with B.A.R.K..
So let us know and we will send you a new
Membership Card.

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Masters 'N Dogs
(Formerly Bark and Fitz
In Westboro)
are selling raffle tickets 3 for $5 for BARK Rescue's December Foster Dogs.
Three grand prizes for Masters and their dogs. Three winners will each get an
Arbonne skin care products gift basket & a Treat your Dog
gift pack from Masters 'n Dogs. Each Master & Dog prize for
3 winners has a $175 value.

Tickets can only be purchased at the store or from a Raffle for BARK
committee member (that being me Lynne Grandmaitre) or anyone
that is helping me sell tickets).

Ticket stubs with customer info & money from tickets sold should
be handed in at the store by 7pm Friday December 23rd.
Draw will be at 7:55 on the 23rd. Winners will be contacted
by phone & email to come collect their prizes. Winners
have the option of donating the Treat your Dog
prize pack to BARK for a foster dog :0)

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For anyone who had their doig's picture done at our Photos with Santa
here is the link to get your picture!

http://blackdogphoto.zenfolio.com/bark_santa_2011

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LINK FOR PHOTOS TAKEN AT BARK IN THE PARK

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All dogs are Vet checked, inoculated, dewormed and spayed or neutered before they go to the Fosterhome.

You provide the loving environment that gives these dogs a second chance
we provide everything else

It doesn’t cost anything to foster for Bark. We provide the food, toys, treats, new leash and collar, chew sticks, blanket, teddy etc. We also provide a crate

Please consider helping by providing the necessary temporary home for
dogs that often would be killed if we didn’t take them.

We can only do this with your help and support
This will be the most rewarding thing you have ever done

To inquire about helping with fostering please call
Nadine
at
819-776-5090

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Mogley Update

Mogley is home, healed, happy,
gaining strength on three legs every day
and very grateful to everyone who
helped make this possible.

New pictures to come

Mogley

Early Saturday morning one of our Bark Foster Dogs was mowed down by a hit and run driver.
His leash was caught under the back wheels of the car and
he was dragged some distance.

Mogley is a one year old Greyhound/Husky mix. He is currently in a 24 hour
emergency hospital. One lung has collapsed, his leg is broken and his
pelvis is broken pn both sides.

Right now they need to stabilize him and syringe the air from his chest before
we can do surgery to put him back together.

The estimated cost of his surgery is between $8,600 and $13,000.

We are asking for help to pay these bills. The estimate does not include any
follow up appts or xrays after his surgery.

If you can help us to get Mogley back on his feet
please call 613-738-0119
or email
smckeil@primus.ca

You can also donate on line by going to our
memberships and donations page and clicking on DONATE

www.bark-ottawa.com

We appreciate any help you can give us.

Sharon McKeil
President
B.A.R.K.

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Dear Mr Pet Owner

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Pet Owner:

Thank you for contacting us animal rescuers, and foster-homes about your inability to keep your pet. We receive an extremely high volume of inquiries and requests to accept surrendered animals (and none of us is getting paid, OK?). To help us expedite your problem as quickly as possible, please observe the following guidelines:

1. Do not say that you are "CONSIDERING finding a good home" for your pet, or that you, "feel you MIGHT be forced to," or that you "really THINK it would be better if" you unloaded the poor beast. Ninety-five percent of you have already got your minds stone-cold made up that the animal WILL be out of your life by the weekend at the latest. Say so. If you don't, I'm going to waste a lot of time giving you common-sense, easy solutions for very fixable problems, and you're going to waste a lot of time coming up with fanciful reasons why the solution couldn't possibly work for you.

For instance, you say the cat claws the furniture, and I tell you about nail-clipping and scratching posts and aversion training, and then you go into a long harangue about how your husband won't let you put a scratching post in the family room, and your daughter cries if you use a squirt bottle on the cat, and your congenital thumb abnormalities prevent you from using nail scissors and etc., etc. Just say you're getting rid of the cat.

2. Do not waste time trying to convince me how nice and humane you are. Your coworker recommended that you contact me because I am nice to animals, not because I am nice to people, and I don't like people who "get rid of" their animals. "Get rid of" is my least favorite phrase in any language. I hope someone "gets rid of" YOU someday. I am an animal advocate, not a people therapist.
After all, for your daughter, you can get counselors, special teachers, doctors, social workers, etc. Your pet has only me, and people like me, to turn to in his or her need, and we are unpaid, overworked, stressed-out, and demoralized. So don't tell me this big long story about how, "We love this dog so much, and we even bought him a special bed that cost $50, and it is just KILLING us to part with him, but honestly, our maid is just awash in dog hair every time she cleans, and his breath sometimes just reeks of liver, so you can see how hard we've tried, and how dear he is to us, but we really just can't . ."

You are not nice, and it is not killing you. It is, in all probability, literally killing your dog, but you're going to be just fine once the beast is out of your sight. Don't waste my time trying to make me like you or feel sorry for you in your plight.

3. Do not try to convince me that your pet is exceptional and deserves special treatment. I don't care if you taught him to sit. I have a waiting list of battered and/or whacked-out animals who need help, and I have no room to foster-house your pet. Do not send me long messages detailing how Fido just l-o-v-e-s blankies and carries his favorite blankie everywhere, and oh, when he gets all excited and happy, he spins around in circles, isn't that cute? He really is darling, so it wouldn't be any trouble at all for us to find him a good home.

Listen, we can go down to the shelter and count the darling, spinning, blankie-loving beasts on death row by the dozens, any day of the week. And, honey, Fido is a six-year-old Shepherd-Lab mix. I am not lying when I tell you that big, older, mixed-breed, garden-variety dogs are almost completely unadoptable, and I don't care if they can whistle Dixie or send smoke signals with their blankies.

What you don't realize is that, though you're trying to lie to me, you're actually telling the truth: Your pet is a special, wonderful, amazing creature. But this mean old world does not care. More importantly, YOU do not care, and I can't fix that problem. All I can do is grieve for all the exceptional animals who live short, brutal, loveless lives and die without anyone ever recognizing that they were indeed very, very special.

4. Finally, just, for God' s sake, for the animal's sake, tell the truth, and the whole truth. Do you think that if you just mumble that your dog is "high-strung," I will say, "Okey-doke! No prob!" and take it into foster care?

No, I will start asking questions and uncover the truth, which is that your dog has not peed outside in the last six months. Do not tell me that you "can't" crate your dog. I will ask what happens when you try to crate him, and you will either be forced to tell me the symptoms of full-blown, severe separation anxiety, or else you will resort to lying some more, wasting more of our time.

If you succeed in placing your pet in a shelter, do not tell yourself the biggest lie of all: "Those nice people will take him and find him a good home, and everything will be fine."

Those nice people will indeed give the animal every possible chance, but if they discover serious health or behavior problems, if they find that your misguided attempts to train or discipline him have driven him over the edge they will do what you are too immoral and cowardly to do: They will hold the animal in their arms, telling him truthfully that he is a good dog ,telling him truthfully that they are sorry and they love him, while the vet ends his life.

Why not just tell it like it is:

"We went to Wal-Mart and picked up a free pet in the parking lot a couple of years ago. Now we don't want it anymore. We're lazier than we thought. We've got no patience either. We're starting to suspect the animal is really smarter than we are, which is giving us self-esteem issues. Clearly, we can't possibly keep it. Plus, it might be getting sick; it's acting kind of funny. "

We would like you to take it in eagerly, enthusiastically, and immediately. We hope you'll realize what a deal you're getting and not ask us for a donation to help defray your costs. After all, this is an (almost) purebred animal, and we'll send the leftover food along with it. We get it at Wal-Mart too, and boy, it's a really good deal, price-wise. "

We are very irritated that you haven't shown pity on us in our great need and picked the animal up already. We thought you people were supposed to be humane! Come and get it today. No, we couldn't possibly bring it to you; the final episode of "Survivor II" is on tonight."

Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Pet Owner, for your cooperation.

And kindly remember our sympathy is with the dog not you.

Author Unknown

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If you have a complaint or concern or feel your requests
were not adequately addressed click below to find out why

Niki

WOO HOO

Congratulations to Nadine Marcotte and her beautiful Husky
Niki. Niki has received notification that she is the
Top Dog In Breed, Honored as the Fastest Siberian Husky
in the Sport of Flyball for 2008. She is further recognized as the
Breed Ambassador and shining example of the powerful bond
between Handler and Canine Friend.

The entire Bark family is very proud of these two and Niki
is a wonderful example of what a Bark dog can achieve
with a loving and dedicated owner like Nadine.

You Go Girls

Niki once again has her Mom and Bark
bursting with pride as she wins the
"Top Rescue Dog"
in the Sport of Flyball for the year 2009.

And 2010

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Disclaimer
The article below has been found on several websites and brought to our attention
Please be advised that B.A.R.K. (Bytown Association for Rescued Kanines) is in no way connected to the B.A.R.K. (Boudreaux's Animal Rescue Krewe) in these articles. That group is based in Louisiana. We have had several calls already from people in the United States who think they got their dog from us. B.A.R.K. (Bytown Association for Rescued Kanines) is based in Ottawa, ON and we only adopt out locally, we have no branches outside of this area.

Article found on several websites.

Local Animal Shelter Welcome Visitors From The South

Local animal shelters are bracing themselves for a holiday gift package - approximately 50 dogs arriving from Louisiana this weekend! The Niagara Falls Humane Society, Lincoln County Humane Society in St.Catherines, Welland and District Humane Society and the Fort Erie SPCA have all offered their support to house and adopt approximately 30 dogs, who will be arriving Friday or Saturday. The Hamilton SPCA, Cambridge & District Humane Society and the Guelph Humane Society will also be taking dogs for adoption.

The dogs will be arriving in Niagara from Bogalusa, Louisiana this weekend and will be available for adoption soon after. They are arriving from "Boudreaux's Animal Rescue Krewe (B.A.R.K.)", a volunteer based rescue organization that is experiencing an extreme situation with the number of dogs needing homes in their area. Julian Long, President of B.A.R.K., originally partnered with the Cambridge & District Humane Society, who contacted B.A.R.K. to offer assistance after Hurricane Katrina. Since then, the partnership has continued to grow, providing a second chance for hundreds of dogs. This will be their fourth trip transporting dogs from Louisiana to Ontario.

"We are fortunate to have a more proactive approach in dealing with overpopulation issues than in the Southern US", says Valerie Brown, General Manager of the Niagara Falls Humane Society. "Because of spay/neuter programs, dog licenses and responsible pet ownership in our area, we luckily do not have such high numbers of homeless dogs." Brown adds "although more can always be done to assist animals in need, in Southern Ontario we are not faced with an extreme case of dog overpopulation - as a result we can then share our resources with those animals who also need help, even if they are outside our communities."

Niagara Falls Humane Society
6025 Chippawa Parkway - Niagara Falls ON
www.niagarafallshumanesociety.com
905-356-4404

Lincoln County Humane Society
160 Fourth Avenue - St Catherines ON
905-682-0767 www.lchs.ca

Fort Erie SPCA
410 Jarvis Street - Fort Erie ON
905-871-2461

Welland & District Humane Society
60 Provincial Street - Welland ON
905-735-1552
www.wellandhumanesociety.org

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What a Dog Knows

just last night you hit me
with a cruel and open hand
you begged me to forgive you
but you don't understand

that now I flinch at every touch
you know, dogs don't forget
but we are such forgiving souls
and yet, I'd have to bet

that tomorrow you will hit me
for flinching at your hand,
the tides are turning
story told
and written in the sand

I'll bite the hand that fed me
and beat me, broke me down
you'll grab me by the collar
and take me to the pound

You'll claim I was a vicious cur
and as I have no voice
your hand is bloody, torn and scarred
the pound will have no choice

I know the story's' sad and long
and has no happy end
but all I ever tried to be was
a loyal and kindred friend.

For all the Dogs that never made it to a no kill rescue

Sue Breen Dec 5 2006

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The Katrina Dogs

click here for more info

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To all non-pet owners who visit and complain about my pets:

1. They live here, you don't.

2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.
(That's why they call it "fur"niture.)

3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.

4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter
who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.

Remember: Dogs are better than kids because they eat less,
don't ask for money all the time, are easier to train, usually come when
called, never drive your car, don't hang out with drug-using friends,
don't smoke or drink, don't worry about having to buy the latest
fashions, don't wear your clothes, don't need a gazillion dollars for college.

And if they get pregnant, you can sell their children.

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The family dog was bought to guard
chained to a post in a chilly backyard;

Housed in a shed that was airless and dark,
and every few weeks had a run in the park.

When boredom set in with no fun and no work,
one day it broke loose and then went berserk,

Pa couldn't fathom just why it went wild,
as it flattened his wife and then bit his child.

The police were called in to sort out the mess,
and the whole sorry tale was told in the press.

The Rescue Society was really annoyed, so the dog
was re-homed and the owners destroyed.

(Author Unknown)

IF LIFE WERE LIKE THAT WE WOULDN"T NEED B.A.R.K.

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• If you know of a dog that's in need of help, then have a look at What We Do...
•  
• If you are looking to adopt a new member into your family, see the dogs that are looking for a new lease on life in How Much Is That Doggie In The Window...
•  
  If you are interested in supporting our group, there are many things that you can do: