We adopted a dog a month ago through Austin Dog Rescue. He's a big, sweet, slightly clumsy guy who is calm, slow, and reserved--Willa's polar opposite--until you get him loosened up a little, and then he's this great, silly mutt who rolls around on his back and tries to lick the flesh of your face off and uses his rather alarming strength to to propel himself across the yard in pursuit of his red squeaky ball.
We named him Üter,* after this guy. We are in love already.
Nobody really knows where he came from, but we were told he was next in line, if you know what I mean, at the Bastrop shelter last summer. Austin Dog Rescue got hold of him, got him into a foster home, and paid for him to be treated for heartworms as well as a few situations he got into while in foster care, like the surgical removal of a sock from his stomach and stitches for a gash on his foot sustained while playing too vigorously around some metal landscape edging. (He has gotten into his share of scrapes** here as well--he's like the Anne of Green Gables of dogs.)
I am not so hot at fundraising myself, but Tyler, the lovely woman who fostered Üter before we adopted him, is raising money for Austin Dog Rescue to defray Üter's medical expenses through Amplify Austin, the 24-hour fundraiser for local nonprofits. Gifts made during March 5-6 are matched by corporate sponsors, and you can schedule your donation ahead of time so you don't forget.
You can read Tyler's story and donate on her sponsor page here.***
Please consider kicking something down to Austin Dog Rescue through her page; they do good work, and they got us this fantastic dog.
And of course there are tons of other worthy causes that could use support if you want to bop around the Amplify site and find something else you want to help out.
Now here is a picture of Willa, as awesome as ever.
Really, we're all doing pretty good over here.
*I am sort of regretting naming a dog something that requires an umlaut, especially since "Uter" looks kind of terrible. But I have the keyboard shortcut--Alt 154--memorized, so everything is going to be all right on the diacritical front.
**Just today he managed to get the top off a huge bottle of fish oil capsules; we figure he ate at least 150. On the plus side, his fur is gonna be so damn silky.
***Do not be alarmed! Üter was Rodger before he came to us and didn't have his new name by the deadline for the web page. And Rodger is a fine name. Dude is just such an...Üter, is all.