We love updates, here are a few from the families of BFR dogs that found fantastic homes....
AUDREY
Audrey came to us on 2nd Dec 23. We had been looking for another family member for some months. It had been a while since our last pup died...he was 15yrs. I know many people look for "pretty- fluffy" dogs... whilst Audrey is not "pretty- fluffy" she has the most beautiful soul. She has very pretty- expressive eyes, looking like eye-liner around them. I know many people overlook the not "pretty" dogs- but they have SOOO much love to give.
She has fitted into our life so easily. Loves her daily walks. She loved the grandkids when they visited for Christmas, followed them everywhere. My kids, the grown ups- absolutely loved her as well.
My eldest son and his family have a rescue greyhound- JJ and Audrey hit it off right from the start. The greyhound was a racer- but unfortunately since Covid, he won't walk outside their front gate. He is super excited to go for a walk- but once they get to the gate he freezes. So sad... But, he took to Audrey, and as she loves her walks we managed to get the greyhound to go on short walks as long as he was walking right next to Audrey. He looks to her all the time- if she is happy he keeps walking. My son was amazed... so Audrey is now the "therapy dog" for a greyhound ( when he visits from Brisbane). They even share a bed at times.
She also became the "lifeguard" in the pool over Christmas.. she would walk up and down the pool edge following the kids when they were swimming.. she so wants to be where we are/ do what we are doing.
She was a little quiet when she first came to us- I thought, well she is almost 6... but !!! her true personality has now come out.. She gets so excited when we get home from work- almost turning herself in circles to get a pat. 🙂 The grandkids have christened her "wiggly bum". She has the run of the house inside and out when we are at work. She loves the postman---whines when he knocks at the front door- waiting for a pat. She loves everyone... and likes most dogs.
Audrey has been and met the vet, and is losing a little weight. The vet loved her!!! and she loved the Vet. ( this vet was very involved in Titan and Maddie's lives- my last 2 dogs- towards the end).
Audrey is very good when taken to cafe's- we take her at least once sometimes twice a month to the beach ( she loves the car) and then stop off for lunch at a cafe. The staff are very happy because she sits very quietly and they all stop to pat her.
I notice she loves to "hold my arm/hand" when we are sitting watching TV .
She even had her 1st doggie wash ... she wasn't sure what was happening, but she did very well.
She is still learning a few boundaries- but she does listen when you speak to her- but overall she is the BEST MOST wonderful girl.
Thank you so much for allowing us to be her new family
Bella
Hi there...... remember me......... It's Bella. I'm BFR's $10,000 girl!!
Well it's been 6 months since my major surgeries and I am doing fabulously. I wiggled my tail right into my foster mums heart so she couldn't possibly let me go. I love it here.
I have four different beds in every room of the house but my favorite is mum's bed on her pillow (of course) or the leather lounge. I wake dad up every morning at 5.10am (5.30am if I am feeling generous) and make him feed me. It's hungry work swapping beds all night. Once my tummy is full I'm back off to bed for a few extra winks. 6.30am comes around in a blink of my eye and I feel it's time for mum to get up. If mum tries to ignore me...….. I drop my ball on her head until she is up. Outside we go for my favorite past time of all..... ball tosses. I need to get this in before my little human wakes up.
When my little human gets up we watch TV together before it is time for him to get dressed and ready for school. I love my little human and he loves me. He gives great cuddles and the best ear scratches. I wait for him to come home each afternoon, and when he does...… boy we have some fun. He gives me more ball tosses, we play handball together and not to mention the tennis ball on the string game. I love it.
When mum gets home from work, off we all go for our evening walk. I love all of the new smells. Mum says I walk lovely on my lead and that I am a very good girl.
I have everyone here wrapped around my tail. They love me and I love them.
Thank you so much for everyone who donated to make me happy and well again. I am living the best life. Bella
Bonnie
Bonnie & Rose
Hi Linda,
Sorry that this has taken a while; I was trying to get Rose to write it herself. Here is a quick story:
"Hi, my name is Rose and Bonnie is my companion dog, who helps me with my depression and sensory issues. I can cuddle her when I'm sad and she licks me to make me feel better. She feels soft, and patting her makes me feel calm. Hugging her feels so nice. She is a good sensory dog who makes me happy." Proving, yet again, that fur and 4 legs is the best therapy!
Thanks so much Linda for all that you do.
I hope Basil found / finds a forever home.
Cheers
Sally, Rosie and Bonnie
Liana
Hello BFR,
We thought it was overdue to give you all an update of Liana and how she is going. We adopted Liana on 3 March 2014 and she has changed our lives.
Over the last two and a bit years we have seen Liana grow and become more and more comfortable. Fortunately, not long after adopting her we enrolled in a great training school which focuses on teaching humans to understand dog communication and body language. This allowed us to have a closer relationship with her and ultimately lead to us being able to recognise and seek treatment for both physical pain related issues and anxiety related issues before they became chronic. While these two issues are still apparent, they are being managed with the help of a veterinary behaviourist and we are continually seeing Liana become a more and more confident dog than what she was when she was first adopted.
An average day for Liana consists of:
- sitting in the morning sun next to the cat Sam
- burying her bear in a different location in the yard
- sitting on her mat when we eat breakfast in the hope that this good behaviour will get her some food
- interrupting our work days (when we work from home) to get pats, cuddles or play
- figuring out why we keep hiding treats throughout the house and then ask her to ‘go find it’ (She probably thinks we have a memory issue).
- going for sunset walks in a park or forest
- snoring on the couch
- going to bed early (more snoring)
- looking sad if we ask her to get off our bed so we can fit
Going to the dog training school with Liana led my partner Tara to pursue a career in dog training and she now manages puppy classes for Assistance Dogs Australia. Because Liana has grown so much, she is also now more comfortable around other dogs which means that she is starting to play more and more with other dogs. Only in the last two months we have noticed that she has started to play by herself with some of her favourite toys. This is something that we didn’t realise was absent from her behaviour until it started occurring.
When Liana came to us, she was anxious, dog reactive, pulled on her lead, was scared to have a bath, was scared to be in the car, was scared to be handled and have her nails clipped. Now, with a lot of work, love, patience and food: she likes car journeys as she knows that they result in park walks; she is able to walk on a loose lead; she is able to have her nails clipped without being scared and we can distract her long enough to bath her when needed. Liana has also grown in confidence by doing some problem solving training such as learning to push a door bell, learning to close cupboards, learning to get food out of all the different types of food dispensing toys, finding treats with her sense of smell.
For us, Liana has become an integral part of our lives and it is difficult to imagine life before her. We want to thank everyone who was involved in her rescue and care up until the point that we adopted her. She is a very special lady (who is currently snoring on the couch).
We have attached plenty of photos showing her life over the past couple of years.
Again, thank you for all you do and for giving our special lady a second chance and us a new member of the family.
Thor, Tara, Liana and Sam the cat
Sheldon & Kira
Some photos of our babies!!! Both dogs have had lots of training and have participated in agility lessons as well! Kira gets into bed with us every morning at 6am and Sheldon is as bouncy as ever- he loves sleeping on our outside table!
Nathaniel
We were foster failures from best friends rescue and ended up adopting Nathaniel, our gorgeous German spitz, and two cats (in the days bfr adopted cats). Nearly 10 years later they are still all going well and we couldn't imagine life without them. Here is a photo of Nathy taken a couple of days ago. For a senior dog of 13 he still acts like a puppy at times and loves a play. He never leaves my side and is my little shadow. He has brought so much joy and happiness to our lives.
Blinky
This is Blinky. We rescued him 1st June 2012. We love him to bits and couldn't imagine life without him. Don't let that innocent face fool you??.
Arlee
Hi this Arlee we adopted him through your organisation 4 years ago. He is doing very well he enjoys playing with his rope toy and big sister Maddie as well as cuddles and walks, I have about a million photos of him he loves the camera he is full of personality and is very happy we are so lucky we found him. Thank you from Dani and Cameron
Bentley
I recently had to move quite unexpectedly and unfortunately my dog couldn’t relocate with me so with no family or friends being able to take him I had to try my luck with the animal shelters.
They are all obviously swamped atm so after spending 1/2 a day ringing/ texting/ emailing and filling out quite a few submission forms one of the few replies I actually received was from BFR saying that would be able to help me .
My dog is a great dog but he is 10 yo and has a few old knee issues so he was never going to be easy to find someone to take him but when I dropped him off to a Foster carer organized by BFR I was really comfortable I was leaving my dog in good hands and after a few weeks the guys at BFR had found a couple that loved him and they took him home
I have to say I was very happy with all my dealings with BFR and when things got a bit desperate with finding my dog a foster carer as my moving date loomed large they really stepped up to the plate.
I couldn’t recommend them highly enough .
Michael