ICARE and what they did for us...

The very top picture is a picture of my husband host. Joan and Art Garkow. Joan's nickname is SnowPea and Art's nickname is Gent and so I named my baby girl after Joan my most favorite person..... Everyone should act like this wonderful lady. She's kind, sweet, honest and real!! And I love her!! So here is SnowPea and SnowPea....









http://www.icareforpets.org/

As many of you know we are RV full-time travelers but our home base is in Madison, SD. And when we left Miami, FL we had our wonderful JuneBug (cat) and Cricket Bee (5mth puppy). The travel with the pets was hard at first - I had never heard a cat screech the way JuneBug did for the first 5 days OMG you would of thought we where killing him. Cricket Bee is like most dogs and loves to ride. We had to find a new home for her because she was a mean dog that almost killed JuneBug and the deal was JuneBug was in our family first. So we interviewed people and found the perfect home with a wonderful lady name Linda in Mount Shasta, CA. Cricket Bee would have Linda (who was an elderly lady) full time and an entire yard all for herself. I cried naturally and Linda was wonderful keeping us informed on Cricket Bee doings. She liked the name and I was happy to know Cricket Bee would forever always be Cricket Bee. Well this was well over a year and half ago.

About 6 months ago we both had the itch to get a new dog (not so much me but Jorge for sure)- as a full time traveler security is an issue and a dog can be a great protector. So we went to:

The Inyo County Animal Shelter which is on County Road in Big Pine, California.
Hours:
Tuesday thru Friday, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm;
Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm (closed Mondays)
Call Julie or Katie at the Animal Shelter: 760-938-2715

My husbands heart was all into it more so then mine.... He so fell in love with Milita but at the time they thought her name was Mindy.... She was taken from the owner for some abuse that was place on Milita. I was at first scared of Milita not sure why but I was.... We agreed to take her. But as some of you RV full-timers know that adopting a dog is the most difficult for us due to not having a back yard fenced-in and what not.
See I think that's wrong because we are with them more then half the pet owners are and it's because they leave for the day (work) where we do not (except for when we can't take our pets to store and such places). Full-timers hike and do more activities then a standard household... But I understand they need to be protecting the animals they place for adoption. So we interview with Katie and had to go through Lisa for the final answer and our prayers where answered. We where to get our Milita. It took me one day to get over my fear of Milita. In fact almost instant she became my personal guard dog which kind of shocked Jorge and I. She growled at a man who was approaching me to ask a question. So oh my yes Milita is so in....
Now we had to deal with the cat thing... We where told to keep all dogs and cats away from her because yes she was mean to other animals... I warned Jorge it was JuneBug home and he needs to come first. Well the first night JuneBug being a little too lovable gave Milita the benefit of the doubt and went to lay with her - well Milita charged after him and all fur flying everywhere.... We put JuneBug in his bin for the night and the next day we got to working with Milita. And today they are best pals... We have other RV friends name Randy and Leila and they have a HUGE dog name Clara (and I'm spelling her name wrong) and we asked them if we could use their dog to train ours. They where so willing to help us and we put Milita on her side and had Clara come over and we kept Milita down - and it worked! She got up and played with her. So we had to do this with every dog we encountered until it got drilled in her head that she is not the ALPHA Female beast she was acting like. And now she loves dogs... Once in awhile she'll pull her act on but we put her down when she does this and then she's best friends with them.
Six months later we have the perfect dog and now I (Evielynne) get the itch and burning to adopt another dog. So here we go right back to ICARE and start shopping. We went through all the rooms and looked at all the dogs and seen Madonna and walked up to her made some funny comments about her breed (Chihuahua) and walked away. Something inside me kept saying she didn't bark at us and that's not normal for her breed. So off to the cat room and gosh figure they have a room full of gray kittens (at least 18 of them) and I am a gray animal lover big time. But NO on the cats (JuneBug is a snob and would never share his cat box) and I asked to go back to the big room. I walked up to Madonna (don't worry I changed her name) and stared at her for awhile and my husband at this point is sweating bullets because he knows me so well.... I leaned down and said will you bit me if I take you home? And she licked me... I looked up at Jorge and said I HAVE TO HAVE HER. He said OK lets fill out the papers. I truly have the best husband in all the world because he hates the breed as much as I do and never said anything to say NO you can't take her. This time we got to deal with Lisa and because we did well with Milita the answer was easy and quick. She had to be fixed and have shots and so we couldn't get her until the next day (OK so we all know you never get appointment this fast but Lisa made it happen).
This brings us to the next day.... We are driving to Bishop Vet to get our new little girl and we have to come up with a name because Madonna is just not going to cut it. I thought Joan (who is Jorge's host and I love so much - she's a great lady - very polite, loving and everything I wish in a Mum - my favorite host. I've seen her cry, laugh, get angry and everything - the most honest person you can imagine and want to be) but then I got to thinking - I give everyone nicknames and hers is SnowPea. How perfect is that. She's small like a pea and is white... There you go SnowPea it is.
So we get to the vet and there are tons of people waiting for their pets. So we check in and wait. We get called up and fill out paper work. So then she asked any question? and I say no, except when can I get my little girl? - the young lady had the biggest smile on her face and said she'll go get her. As she came out with SnowPea everyone on the staff was petting her and saying they where going to miss her. I though how strange is that. Then the young lady explained to us how the entire staff stated they did/do not like the breed and that this is the fist time a Chihuahua has entered their office that they liked and fell in love with. All the people waiting on their pets where all staring at us - we had the star and was taking her away.... Imagine getting that kind of attention. The entire staff wished us well and said they would miss her and she's a true doll... My husband mouth, well, it almost hit the floor from dropping. So we are heading to dinner with Jorge's Boss - their thank you meal for me for the volunteer help and being the company cheerleader because I don't work for Inyo Recreation - CLM. I thought that was such a sweet thing for them to do.... I felt bad because I didn't care about the meal as I would of on a normal situation but I just wanted to get home and be with all my pets....

It's been about 3 days now and Jorge is a huge fan of her... They are so cute together - and even he gets upset when some stupid people call her a rat. So what you don't like the breed JERKS - don't you realize you are hurting the owners feelings saying crap like that.... AS IF! People can be so rude... It's happened more then once now but now I just glare at them and think you have no idea what love is and move on....

Lisa from ICARE sent an email about 24 hours after we picked her up and I was like wow they really do care (they did the same when we adopted Milita) about their animals - we honestly have not ever received a follow up call/mail/email/visit or anything from any agency. So my heart is full of respect towards ICARE. They change lives not only for their pets but for their future Mums and Dads like us.... I have the perfect lap dog. She's on my lap sleeping as I am typing this... Oh yeah I made her collar and we are making clothes for her too and she'll have her backpack here shortly so we can take her on our hikes (we are huge hikers) along with Milita (JuneBug well cats don't like this kind of life style he'd rather stay in the RV looking out the window)...
You should never purchase a dog from a breeder when there are thousands of dogs that are killed because no one will adopt them. Do you know there are less medical issues on mutts then a full breed pet.... Love from a mutt is a treasure and a life time of good quality living.... Support your local pound and get the numbers down of killing them - we can make a difference!! Thank you Lisa and Katie we love you both so much!!