Susan,
Well here goes....
 

Little Bit O' Heaven formally came to be in August of 1998, (although we
have been doing rescue for about 9 years). Little Bit O' Heaven is a rescue
and adoption facility located in Mississippi. We have 4 acres of country
land, two of which is fenced and cross fenced. We have three separate dog
yards, four if you count the puppy pen. The dogs which come to Little Bit
O' Heaven come to us in various ways. The most common method in which the
dogs come to us is drop offs, don't we all know this feeling. Some mornings
we wake to puppies tied to the porch or a letter on a box with kittens in
it, a note telling us that there is a rabbit in the van...ect. Another way
that the dogs get to LBOH is people calling the veternarians offices or the
local paper, and then call us to see if we have room for their animal. The
third way that animals get to LBOH is through other rescue groups on the
internet with whom we network.

 When an animal comes in, it is evaluated for 48 hours and then a decision is
made as to what area of LBOH this animal will go in. If we have the history
on the dog, know that it is UPD on its shots, it goes with the other animals
for adoption, if it is not know, the animal is quarantined, given its shots,
and then after 14 days can go in with the other animals if no problems
occur.

 When people contact us about adoptions, they usually are surprised to find
out that there is a 3 page adoption form, that we adopt to inside homes
only, and a fence is a must. People tell us that it is easier to adopt a
child than a dog from us....but we know that pets tend to be a throw away
animal and all of these have been thrown away at least once, and they
deserve better than that. Once the perspective owner fills out the adoption
form, references, personal and veternarian, are checked, then the person
makes an appointment to come see what is available for adoption. Rarley, I
can count the times on one hand, do we let the perspective owner take an
animal with them the first time, as we feel that a person needs not to make
a hasty decision about a long term commitment. So the perspective home
usually comes back in 24-48 hours to pick up their animal.
The animals that leave LBOH have either been spayed/neutered or a contract
is signed to spay/neuter within 10 days. We do a call back in 24 hours, 72
hours, 2 weeks, one month, three months, and six months to make sure that
all is ok and that the animal is still doing well, if on any of these calls
we get a strange feeling then we will do a home check to personally check on
the animal.

 Just to tell you one of the stories from LBOH, our local humane society
called and asked us if we could take a litter of pups that were two days old
to bottle feed, of course we said yes.... well Danielle, a 12 year old,
decided that this would be her little project so she began to feed these
pups every 3 hours mind you....at about 4 days old two of the pups quit
drinking, we rushed the little ones to the vet and she said that the little
pups had failure to thrive syndrome...that the two that were so sick would
not make it, but the others looked pretty good...so Danielle continued to
feed the four pups....and give them lots and lots of love....well the pups
continued to grow and thrive...and then.....at nine weeks....the others
began to get sick and not want to eat...we rushed them to the vet
again...and were told that they were suffering and they just were not going
to make it...the humane thing was to put the litter down...and then they
would not suffer...so we cried alot,....left them there....to go on to the
bridge.........

 Well, three weeks later the vets office called and asked for Danielle, she
answered the phone and then started screaming....REALLY REALLY O MY
GOSH.....REALLY and then the tears came....well it seems that the vet was so
touched and upset by Danielles love for these little guys that he took the
healthiest, if any were, and helped it to make it through.....so to this day
Rosmary lives at our house and is very very spoiled as we feel taht we were
given a gift by Dr. Probst of the little one...and that she was given the
will power to live..and to be loved...

 Another phase of our facility is the Rainbow Connection, this part of our
lives is very special and important to us and we feel to the dogs that we
help through this phas. The Rainbow Connection is a home for disabled,
handicapped or elderly animals. This includes diabetics of which there are
four, epileptics of which there are two, three legged, blind, and deaf
animals. We have from 12 years of age to 18 years of age. These animals
come to us from people on the internet, ie....Poogie and Albert....from the
Muffin list, through breeders...when they are finished with an
animal....they send them on, from various shelters around the country that
hear about us and the work that we do, and from local veternarians
offices...These dogs are brought in, immediatly taken to a vet, to see what
problems we are dealing with and to start medications. They are maintained
on their medications and frequently visit the vet. To mention some of the
medical conditions in addition to the above, we have a few dogs that are in
Congestive Heart Failure, we just found out that we have a hypoglycemic dog
amongst the crew, when we were talking to Susan the other night...we have
several with incontinence. Each dog at The Rainbow Connection has his/her
own bed...mind you they switch alot, and some of them choose to sleep
together..but they do each have their own bed....each of them have the
option to go out into the Rainbow yard each day, or not....we kind of spoil
really bad, the older dogs, as they have gone through soooo much in life
that we feel that they deserve a really special second chance.

 The Muffin Raffle will help us, as we work by ourselves, are not funded by
any government or county. The Muffin raffle will help us to be able to
purchase the medications which are needed by the dogs at the Rainbow
Connection, and to buy feed, as we only purchase Lamb and Rice dog food
which gets expensive when you are feeding 48. We had a newspaper article
written about a month ago now, and the sad thing for us, is that it did more
damage than good....we have had 22 animals dropped off since the article and
only $40.00 in donations. We always try to make sure that the dogs have the
best that we can do for them, and sometimes we have to work really hard. We
are not taking any more dogs in at this time, or so we say...LOL...but when
the people around here send their 3 year old child to the door with a box of
kittens crying saying please help them...what do you do??? So we just pray
alot, and hope that the adoptions will continue and that we will find homes
for all these throw away pets.

 I know that I probably do not need to say this, especially on this
list....but PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER your pets............
Thanks to the Muffin list for all that they do....and thanks to you all for
going to the Muffin Web Site and getting your raffle tickets for the digital
camera, which I wish I could bid on...this camera has been graciously
donated, is new and is a really nice camera....come on.....call all your
friends, email everyone on your list, and send in your order for 10 or more
raffle tickets today, as time is running short....
Part of the Proceeeds will come to us and the other part will go to the
Muffin Fund to help when someone is in crisis and needs help.. ....
Thanks for allowing me to ramble......
 

Susan pics will follow...
Marci
Little Bit O' Heaven Rescue
Ovett, MS
Where the unloveable and unwanted
come to be loved and needed,
Where the disabled, maimed, and unadoptable
come to live at the Rainbow Connection...
awaiting the glorious day, that they will make
the journey, on to the Rainbow Bridge...
Visit us at: http://www.megagate.com/~lboh