Last Sunday I had such a super time that I had to share it with my Rangers! Barb and her animal loving friends at PACC911 (Phoenix Animal Care Coalition) put on a huge event that people could come to and adopt pets. It was at a beautiful park in Fountain Hills and the most exciting thing is that 95 dogs and cats (and even a rat I think!) went home to their forever homes and families. There were 50 different Rescue groups there including Maricopa County Animal Care and Control…you know…the folks that fixed me up after I was abandoned!!! There was every kind and size of pup you can even imagine from teeny puppies to huge senior citizens. Every time an animal was adopted , they banged a huge gong and everyone cheered.

There was music and pony rides and a petting zoo so all the families had lots to do..It was like a party! They also had this cool adventure for dogs called a “Lure Course” that had something pups could chase through all these turns. I was one of the fastest dogs that ran it!!

Another thing we had was a pet hospital in an RV. Can you even imagine such a thing? All day long they spayed and neutered dogs and kitties for a very low price in a surgery center on wheels !. It was done by a group called Healing Hearts..one of our friends!. They feel like we do Rangers…too many puppies and not enough homes. If anyone needed  low cost vaccinations, AAWL (Arizona Animal Welfare League) was there giving shots as well as microchips in a van..lots of families brought their pets to get these shots for less.

I got to meet people and tell them about Rocket’s Rangers which I love to do. I hope we’ll be going to some classrooms there soon to spread the word!!

When I put my paws on the pillow that night (the one beside Barb), I had such wonderful memories of all the happy dogs spending their first night with their loving new families. I hope you will all come to one of these wonderful places soon so that you can have the same sweet dreams!

Thanks for Helping me Rangers!

I love you!

Rocket

Hi Rangers! It’s me, Rocket. I wish this website had smellavision and touch because I am one clean soft puppy today! You know one of the 10 things on my “Action Plans for Kids” is keeping us bathed and brushed and our nails clipped?? Well yesterday I got the whole works and I think I’m a handsome dude today. I can’t wait to get to school later so the kids can see for themselves.

It all started when Barb took me to Petsmart to get my nails clipped. She can do it, but they seem to do it faster and that makes me happy! It cost $9 but we thought it was worth it. Cutting a dog’s nails has to be done VERY carefully because there is a vein inside and, if you cant’t see it, you might cut it and make us bleed..A LOT! Before you try it, have someone really experienced show you how.

Then we came home for my bath. Barb set up a table with a no skid pad and attached me to it with a leash. She also had one of our friends holding me in case I felt like bolting! (I didn’t ) She brushed me with a Furminator which takes out the fur in my undercoat. It felt so good..like a 20 minute back scratch!

Then she ran the hose gently over me . Thank goodness it was a warm day and the hose had been in the sun and had warm water. She massaged the special dog shampoo all over me and then rinsed it out. I didn’t need conditioner like my sister Lucy who has very long tangly hair. After a towel dry, we went for a walk in the sun and I must have shaken myself 20 times. I was practically all dry. When Lucy had her bath, Barb had to use the blow dryer on a low setting on her for a half hour! She was very careful not to blow it in her eyes. Lucy sort of fell asleep standing up it felt so good. But I’m so easy! I think this whole thing was lots of fun and a great way for a family to enjoy a Sunday afternoon together with the pup they love!

See you later!

Your friend,

Rocket

Hi Rangers! I know you always brush your teeth a couple of times a day, but it’s kind of hard for pups to do that! Barb brushes my teeth sometimes but every 2 years I go in to Roc’s Doc and have a super duper cleaning job. It’s not just to be a handsome guy and have a sparkling smile, although I do like that! It’s also because we pups, and kittys too, can get problems in our gums and they can make problems for our whole bodies. Our gums should be a pale pink, but sometimes they can get puffy and red or you can see a red line along the top..time for action!!!

Bacteria can cause inflammation (puffiness) and that spreads all through us causing other health problems.

I checked into see my friends at the hospital early one morning .They checked me over and then gave me some medicine to make me sleep for a while. While I was dreaming of running and playing, they scraped away the plaque and stain from my teeth and checked for any bigger problems. Luckily, all was good and the next thing I knew I was awake in my cage with all those nice vet techs checking on me and hugging me!! Barb took me home after the medicine wasn’t making me sleepy any more and I showed off my pearly whites for days!

Check with your Vet when you take your pup in for their checkup to see if their teeth are in tip top condition and don’t be afraid of having them have a deep cleaning!

I love you all Rangers!

You can send me questions at rocketsrangers@yahoo.com and Barb will read them to me!

More Later,

Your friend,

Rocket

Hi Rangers!

Does your pup like to drive around with you as much as I like to drive in the car with Barb?? When it’s not hot out, I love to travel around in the car and see all the sights. The other day we were driving down the street and I saw another dog driving with someone but he was in the open bed of a pickup truck and it made me really sad and scared..know why?

It is so so dangerous for pups to drive that way!! If you drive around a corner too fast, pups can get thrown out..boom! Haven’t you been in a car when all of a sudden the driver had to put on the brakes really fast..well that’s another way a dog can get thrown from the car. We were driving on the Freeway yesterday and and a huge ball rolled out in front of us. If I had been in the back when we swerved to miss it, I would have been out on the road in a flash. Even really good and careful drivers can’t keep all that stuff from happening so it’s not worth it to take a risk. Some people think that their pups love   to ride in the back in the open air with their ears flapping and, that might be true, BUT we need you guys to make safe decisions for us.( OK we don’t always know what’s best for ourselves )  What if we were enjoying the breeze and a big branch flew up and hit us?? There are so many other ways to make us happy like scratching us behind those ears!!

Even if someone wasn’t worried about their dog getting hurt, ( not you ) do you know that if there’s an accident, we might fly through the air and end up going through someone else’s windshield and really, really hurting them? Now that is VERY SCARY!!

Also Rangers, never try to pet a dog you don’t know when you see it parked in a car or truck because even the nicest pup might snap at you to protect it’s territory!

I’m sorry to say that so far they haven’t invented a safe harness to keep us attached in the back of a pickup, in fact, sometimes when people try that we can get strangled by it if the truck has a sudden movement.YIKES!

Oh kids, you can see that this is just a BAD IDEA for ALL of us so PLEASE keep us inside the car or truck with you! There are even seat belts just for dogs..pretty cool, eh? We also like riding in our crates but the MOST IMPORTANT THING is to keep us inside no matter what!!

As always, I know you Rangers want to take good care of me and my buddies!

Love,

Rocket

Hi Kids!

I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas time ! My family celebrates Christmas, but maybe your family celebrates Hanukkah or another Holiday around this time of year. It is sooo much fun but sometimes things can be dangerous for pups if their family isn’t careful!

There will be lots of parties in the next few weeks and that means big plates of food and snacks. You know we pups can smell like super heroes, and we love to use that skill to find all those yummy goodies. Please be careful to keep them where we can’t get to them because we like to eat all we can, even if it makes us sick!! We can end up in the hospital very sick if we really overdue it. You have learned that chocolate , grapes and raisins are poisonous to dogs so be especially careful with anything that has those things in them! One of the prettiest things we see at Christmas is the Pointsettia plant. It has leaves shaped in a star flower shape that are usually red, but they can be pink or white. Did you know this plant is poisonous to dogs?? Make sure they are out of reach for puppy munching and don’t let the dead leaves land on the floor or you know who might taste them! Some dogs, especially little puppies, might get into wrapping paper, ribbon, glass ornaments and decorations which could harm them so be watchful and keep them at a safe height if you can!

Please don’t forget to take care of your dog and walk him while you are so busy this season . Any big changes in our routine can make us kind of stressed out. Remember, we will be there to be your buddies ALL YEAR LONG !

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!

Love from your pal,

Rocket

Hi Rangers!

Sometimes people think I wear this kind of collar because I am a biter ..wow is that ever wrong ! I wear a “Gentle Leader” halter which is NOT a muzzle. I wouldn’t bite anyone or any other dog or kitty no matter what !!

Barb used to use a metal collar attached to my leash . They call that a choke chain. If I pulled away from her it got shorter around my neck and kind of hurt. Well, you know Barb never wants  to hurt me, so she learned about the kind of halter that softly fits over my nose and behind my ears and decided to give it a try. Now it’s fun and easy to follow her wherever she goes and it feels much better. It clips right behind my ears instead of around my throat. That is such a good way to get my attention. Sometimes, when I was a puppy, my Mom picked me up in her gentle mouth at that exact place to move me around ! If I am really smelling or looking at something and Barb wants to move away from it, the collar turns my head to her and then I know just where we’re headed. There are so many things for me to watch and sniff that sometimes I need a little help paying attention. Does that ever happen to you ? It feels better when someone reminds you nicely instead of hurting you when you are distracted, right? If you’ve ever seen someone lead a horse around with a halter it is a lot like my halter.

So next time you see a dog with the same kind of halter I have, don’t be afraid! They are happy dogs just like me.

Bye for now!

Your friend,

Rocket

Hi Kids,

Now that you’re back in school, I wanted to tell you about a really fun adventure I had this summer. I’d sure like to hear about some of the things you did too!!!

My mom Barb and my sister Lucy and I drove about 8 hours in the car to a place high in the mountains called Telluride,Colorado. It’s way more than a mile higher up than Phoenix and the road slowly wound uphill until we arrived. Mom made sure we had lots of potty stops along the way and gave us long drinks and snacks too. I think I slept most of the way because it’s one of my favorite things to do. We had soft pads to sleep on so it was pretty cozy.

When we got to town we could see the mountains going up even higher all the way to 13,000 ft. and, guess what, there was still snow on the top even though it was summer. That sure felt good after 110 degrees at home. There is a ride called a “gondola” that takes you up to the top. It is little cars that are pulled along cables. Some of the cars in the little station said “pet friendly” and the operator told us that those were specially for people with dogs like us! Even though it was moving a little bit, I jumped in and got up on the seat. Off we went!  UP,UP,UP!!!

I looked out the window and saw the town get smaller and smaller as I got higher and higher. I wasn’t even afraid. It went faster and swooped along the hillside. At the top we got out and walked around the ski village. People really like dogs there which made it so much fun.Going down in the gondola felt different than going up. It was as if I was a bird coming in for a landing! We walked around Telluride for quite a while and saw oodles of other pups.They had hitching posts outside stores if you wanted to hook up your dog while you ran in. Outside one store there was a cute dog that I wanted to meet and there was a nice bowl of water beside him.When I gave him my best sniff,  he didn’t move and he didn’t smell like a dog at all. Fooled me for a minute but he was really a TOY DOG!!! It was pretty funny.

I had more adventures in the mountains that I want to tell you about next time. Remember to be safe when you take your pups in the car! No hanging out windows or being loose in the back of a pick up truck. Some of us even have doggy seat belts so we don’t go flying if there is an accident. Be sure to bring along all the things we need to eat and drink including bags to pick up after us when we make potty stops.

Love to all my Rangers!!!

Rocket

Hi Kids!

I have met some of you Rangers at school but not all of you. I sure am glad you came to my website because I love to share stuff about my happy life since Barb adopted me after I was rescued! I can barely remember how hungry and sad I was when my family left me and moved away because I know I am safe and loved and have my forever home. I want to write to you every week and tell you what I’m doing and also share some cool stuff about dogs and how you can take good care of your own pups. You can write to me too and we’ll be great friends. You can read what my Vet “Roc’s Doc” has to say about us dogs staying healthy and get training tips from “Rocket’s Wrangler”. There will be other amazing rescue stories too.

I hope you’ll keep coming back and tell your friends too because we need as many Rocket’s Rangers as we can get to help us take care of all those homeless animals!! Be sure to find out how to become a Super Ranger too! If you do you’ll be helping AND getting a chance to win a cool bike.

I love you kids and thank you for helping the animals!

Your Buddy,

Rocket