Meet the Emerald Rescue Crew!

LILY LOU – I adopted Lily, a 5lb Chihuahua/Chinese Crested mix, back in 2011 when she was approximately ten months old. I had intended to bring home a kitten that day, but this tiny, scruffy, emaciated puppy with big, sad eyes stared at me longingly through the bars of her cage at the adoption event I was attending. She caught my heart and it was instant love. That was ten years ago, and that moment changed both of our lives. We have been inseparable. She was my only baby from 2011-2015 (except some foster kittens here and there), but when new furry family members began joining us, she accepted each one gracefully and always makes an effort to be welcoming.  She’s literally the most perfect pup in the world and I can’t imagine life without her.

SCOUT FINCH – Scout is the second pup to join the crew. In February 2016, a little Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound puppy was given up because her back legs were bowed and the owner of her mom was concerned that she was going to have ongoing medical complications. She was 1.8lbs at eight weeks old, and she literally fit into the palm of my hand. I didn’t even bother to agree to foster her because I immediately knew that if I took her home, she was going to stay with me forever. Lily was such a great big sister and she immediately took Scout under her wing. Scout is sassy and scrappy, a true small dog who believes that she is a Doberman. I call her my “rough-and-tumble.”

DELILAH BLUE – Delilah is the third dog to join the Crew. I first took her in during December, 2016 because her original Mom was going through some personal challenges and was temporarily unable to care for her. She stayed with me for a few months and then went back to her mom, but as it turned out, caring for a dog was too stressful for her mom. At that point, Delilah was nearly two years old but still not potty trained. As it turns out, she has an undersized bladder and slightly under-functioning kidneys (and she’s already a 5lb dog) so expecting her to hold it long enough to get outside from a sixth-floor apartment wasn’t very likely. I worked on training her to use pee-pads in-between trips outdoors, and even though it took her a while to understand, she eventually got it. She is a typical terrier, or “terror” as I like to jokingly call her. She loves tug toys, she “grumps” when she wants your attention and you’re not giving it to her, and her favorite thing in the world is belly rubs.

PEACHES N’ CREAM – Peaches was rescued along with over 20 other Chihuahuas from a poor breeding situation. She had lived the first eight years of her life in a cage in a basement in Wisconsin being forced to birth and raise litters of tiny puppies, all related to one another due to inbreeding. When I brought her home to foster, she sat in her crate quietly with the door open for six months before venturing out and slowly learning from the other three how to be a dog. There are still some things that she doesn’t do (and maybe never will) such as play with toys or walk properly on a leash, but she gets all the snuggles and attention that she wants, and I believe that she’s happy now. I hadn’t intended on keeping her, but I couldn’t bear the idea of rehoming her after it took her so long to acclimate. Everyone loves her, she’s always the favorite everywhere that we go! Unfortunately she was recently diagnosed with an enlarged heart, which is what her mother passed away from two years ago. We’re not sure how long we will have with Peaches at this point, but she is on meds and kept happy and comfortable. As long as she still has a quality life and isn’t in pain, we will do everything we can for her.

ELLE WOODS (aka “Skeptical Potato”) – Elle is another foster fail… what can I say, tiny Chihuahuas just tend to grab my heart in an iron grip!
Elle was a local surrender. She has a seizure condition and ended up in the ER after having a grand maul seizure, and that type of emergency care can be very costly. I took her in as a foster so that we could work on getting her stabilized on the right combination of medications which takes at least a few months, and once we had that taken care of, it was determined that she needed luxating patella surgeries on both of her back legs (bi-lateral.) After that surgery and recovery time, she had absolutely become a member of the crew and it didn’t feel right to send her off her off to another new home. She requires medication three times daily, and she has had a few more ER visits over the last year due to breakthrough seizures so her condition is challenging to manage. She is one of the SMOLEST members of the crew at 3.5lbs, and she is definitely the spiciest! She has no problem telling off the other dogs when she is protecting her food, or letting people know that she does NOT appreciate when strangers try to touch her. But she LOVES her mama and always wants to be held. Just like Peaches, she is very happy to be carried around in her sack, or enjoying a ride in the doggy stroller. This maintenance Princess definitely lives up to her namesake!

ARYA STARK – Sweet Arya was found as a stray in California with a large mammary tumor hanging off of her. Unfortunately, upon removal and biopsy, it turned out to be cancerous.  Worse news was that it had metastasized into one of her lymph-nodes. She was given a prognosis of about six months so we took her in as a “fospice.” I wanted to give chemo a try, but I had resolved that if she reacted badly and got very ill, we would quit. I just wanted to make her remaining time as good as it could be. We were so relieved when she didn’t have a bad reaction to the chemo, and we went through five treatments with her still as lively as happy as could be.
At the end of the treatments, I held my breath as they did radiographs and blood tests, and her cancer was in REMISSION! We are doing radiographs every three months, but two years later, she’s still in remission and doing great. She is with us for the rest of her life, and we hope that will still be a very long time!

DAISY DOG – This old came to us a foster (surprise, surprise, we are notorious for foster failing!) She was brought down from California after having spent her life in an outdoor pen without shelter from the elements. She had a lot of skin issues, chronic ear infections, and environmental allergies. It was a process of trial and error to find out what she is allergic to and what medications and are most helpful, as well as providing her a proper diet that won’t cause flare-ups. She thrives on Apoquel and weekly medicated baths, as well as regular ear cleaning. Daisy is super sweet, and has some cute and funny quirks such as demanding FRESH water (if its not cold and crisp, its not good enough) with a loud bark and nudging the bowl with her nose. She loves sitting on laps and getting pet, and she is friendly with everyone that she meets. Just stay off of her lawn, and don’t step on her prized begonias! 😉 She was too cute not to keep..

This crazy lady has MORE animals?! Yep…

ELLIOT STABLER – Meet Detective Elliot Stabler, aka Eli. He came into our lives before Scout, when the only other animal was Lily. He was a neonatal kitten who lost his mom. He was a tiny fuzzy gray cutie, and I knew right away that I was going to keep him. We’re pretty sure he’s a Maine Coon or a Maine Coon mix. He’s VERY chill, lazy, and goes with the flow with far less resistance than a typical cat. He rolls his eyes when I bring a new dog home, but he has his favorite lounging places where the dogs can’t reach him, and generally prefers to hang out on his cat trees and watch the chaos down below as if it’s cable TV. He loves scritchies and he purrs a lot.

RUE – Rue also came before Scout, only two months after Elliot. She was the runt of a feral litter abandoned by their mother. All of the kittens were very sick at only a few weeks old, and although they all needed TLC, I was advised that Rue likely wouldn’t make it and that I should focus on the others. Did I listen? Of course not! I obsessed over Rue who was half the size of her littermates (about the size of a hamster, literally) and very emaciated. Against the vet’s advise, I went rouge and put her on a raw diet. (Raw goatsmilk when she was very neonatal, then radcat when she was big enough.) I kept her with me literally 24/7, and miraculously, she survived. Her siblings went on to adoption, but her road to health was slow (but steady!) and she wasn’t healthy enough for adoption until she was four months old. By that time she was very bonded to me and it was clear that she wasn’t going anywhere. She still curls up in my arms like she did was she was a baby kitten and rubs on me with a purr so loud it makes her whole body vibrate. I’m definitely her mama!

Sabrina is our most recent addition. I foster neonatal kittens at least a few times per year. Usually they go on for adoption, and I did a good job of not foster failing for five years after it was determined that Rue was staying with us permanently, but Sabrina was transported at five days old from California to Seattle specifically to be fostered by me, and then she had an incident where she was temporarily famous in

• All of the kitties were raised amid the “dog chaos” and fortunately do not get upset or stressed out when new foster dogs come home. They have plenty of places that they can lounge where the dogs cannot access them, so they can choose when they want to interact with the dogs and when they want to be left alone.

STILL MORE ANIMALS?!?! From 5lb Chihuahuas to 1100lb equines…

RUBY TUESDAY – Ruby was rescued in the summer of 2019. Her rescue wasn’t planned, but she was two hours away from being loaded onto the slaughter truck after having been starved, and then abandoned at a kill pen. She is the sweetest mare in the world. She loves everyone that she meets.
It took many months just to “refeed” her and restore her health, and it was so lucky that she didn’t have any permanent damage.
We are currently working with a dressage trainer and learning a lot together. She is truly my heart horse and we are a perfect match. I can’t believe someone had starved her and threw her away, but I am SO grateful that I happened to see her posting before she met a horrible fate. I’m even more grateful that I made the crazy impulsive choice to buy her. She’s more than earned her place as a permanent member of the crew.