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One week old…take two!

We were a little more successful with puppy pictures this evening.

Rock Island Rapids (aka Rocky)

 

Rocky

The Rock Island Rapids section of the Mississippi River began in LeClaire.  It was a very treacherous portion of the river and it required specialized river boat pilots to navigate it.  The captains would wait under the “Big Green Tree, and wait for boats to tie up and hire them for the day.  Now the lock and dam system have eliminated the need for these pilots but the mystic of these revered captains lives on in our hometown.

Faithful Pilot (aka Faith)

 

Faith

Bonfire on the Canal (aka Bonnie)

 

Bonnie

Kathy and I own a little (now destroyed by the last Mississippi River flood) cottage on the old canal system.  There is nothing we enjoy more than hanging with friends around our fire pit.  (We hope to rebuild the cottage this year, and move permanently to the river!)

Lincoln Here for the Defense

 

Lincoln

The railroad built the first bridge across the Mississippi between Davenport, IA and Rock Island, IL.  The steamboats were not able to get under it, so the steamboat companies sued the rail road.  Abraham Lincoln defended the railroad and won!  We now have “swinging” bridges that allow for all forms of transportation to move down and across the Mississippi.

 

Mississippi Rising (aka Missy)

 

Mississippi Rising (Missy)

 

Princeton Narrows (aka Prince)

 

Princeton Narrows (aka Prince)

 

The Princeton Narrows are just north of our home on the river.  It is just wide enough for two barges to pass.  I hate meeting barges in this section of the river, but it is home to a great sand bar.  Much fun and frivolity has occurred on that sand bar!

Olathea

 

Olathea

 

Olathea=beautiful place.

 

 

 

The Cardigans at Riverbend!

March 08 ( I think?)  The whole gang (Shaker, Russ, Music and baby Ella) sans Rainbow hanging out on the Mississippi River bluff.  Looks like it will soon be time to have another photo shoot! 

Shaker, Russ, Music and baby Ella

(All photo rights are reserved by the artist–Dawn Gabig)

Ella

I thought it would be great fun to share some pictures of Ella during her puppyhood!

The Sire

CH Pluperfect Merrymoon Davenitch Praise Thee Well

Can that dog move or what?

 
 

Plans

As many of you know, we are planning our first litter of puppies, and to say the least we are quite excited.  But one of the big hiccups for me and the puppy stuff is the whole issue of bringing more dogs into this world and what that means overall.  So Kathy and I decided if we were going to occasionally have a litter of pups, that we had to figure out how to give back to the canine world.

The first thing we did was rescue, rehabilitate and rehome a black lab mix named Bailey.  I am happy to report that I have had many conversations with Bailey’s new forever mom and she is adjusted and happy in her new home.  But that didn’t seem like quite enough.

Now as much as I would like to keep every puppy I produce in our planned litter, some are already spoken for, so I had to figure something out that would allow me to go forward in good conscience.  I am all to aware that a free puppy, way to often, equates to no long-term committment to the dog. (We only need to look to the aforementioned lab mix for proof in the pudding.) So we decided that we would have all of our puppy homes donate to a good canine charity rather than giving any money to Riverbend.   This decision left me feeling clear-headed about our decision to bring more albeit beautiful puppies into the world! (It is perfectly acceptable to read and see bias in the last sentence.)

So then the decision was which one?  I spent the last days trying to figure out if we had a local canine charity I could get behind, and unfortunately all I found were loosely run organizations without real organizational capacity, or ones that their administrative overhead far exceeds acceptable standards.  (I could spend hours ranting about organizational capacity, but will spare you my tirade.) So I turned my sights to national canine charities.  Well I won’t spend too much time recounting the travails of that mess. 

But the long and short of it is, we have chosen Corgi Aid as our charity.  I spent several hours reviewing their IRS 990’s this morning, and I see nothing but good!  Further it appears from these public forms that their administrative overhead is nearly 0%.  Which means just about every dollar donated is used for the health and well-being of a rescued corgi.  How much better can it get than that?

I can follow my father’s oft words of wisdom…”at the end of the day, you only sleep with yourself.  Let’s that guide every decision.”  I do, and will continue to!