Toby My husband Paul and I had not planned to go into rescue work. We knew we loved dogs but had no idea how we could work with them full-time.I thought it would be too complicated and difficult to begin something of our own. As it turned out though, rescue work found us. I had been volunteering at the Muskoka Brach of the OSPCA when I fostered a dog named Toby. Both my husband and I were most impressed by his warm, calm and loving temperament. Toby was so willing and eager to belong and more than ready to be devoted to us. We would have kept Toby but he had already been spoken for. I asked the manager of the shelter where Toby had come from since he was such a different kind of dog than we usually saw. I was told that some girl brought dogs down from Moosonee and that Toby had been part of the last batch. I immediately arranged to go up and meet with her - simply out of curiosity. Paul and I drove seven hours to Cochrane and then boarded the Polar Bear Express for the five hour train ride to Moosonee. At first I thought I might write an article on the dogs in northern communities even though I knew in my heart I wanted to take as many puppies as possible home with me. I didn't just presume that Heidi, the girl we had gone up to meet, would allow me to though.We spent three days in Moosonee and visited Moose Factory. We got to know the other young teachers who rescued the dogs with Heidi and we witnessed the dismal situation first hand. The rescued dogs stayed in Heidi's house under her care until she could take them down to Muskoka where her parents lived. She had been placing the pups wherever she could find safety for them - sometimes in homes but often in shelters. It was agreed that having me place the pups would be more effective and I was welcomed into the rescue team so to speak. At the end of our visit we brought two rather wild puppies with us, named Foster and Mica, and we have been rescuing ever since.  I must admit that we thought rescuing puppies mostly meant playing with them until we could place them in wonderful homes. We hadn't counted on Paro Virus, Parasites, Kennel Cough, Distemper and more. Nor had we considered lost limbs, heart murmurs and amputations. We learned quickly because we had to and we now know how to nurse puppies through serious illnesses and how to prevent further contamination. We have heard brutally sad stories and now know more about human ignorance than we ever wanted to.  We have placed over five hundred dogs and feel priviledged to have known them all

Foster Moosonee Puppy Rescue began in May 2003 and our purpose is to save dogs from being trapped and shot in the isolated northern communities of Moosonee, Moose Factory, Attawapiskat and Fort Albany. There are no veterinarian services in these communities so the only method of population contol is killing. The reason there is such an over-population of dogs is because the locals tend not to allow their dogs inside so they are either left vulnerable by being chained outside or left free to roam. Over-breeding occurs and puppies are born under houses, in the bush or under debris. One female and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in just six years. The dogs that do live face abuse, abandonment, neglect and carelessness. Puppies are found frozen in snow banks, crying and starving, injured and sick. They are simply dismissed as being valueless and without worth. Teachers and nurses in these communities are the front line rescuers for the most part. Once they know about the puppies they take them into their homes and care for them until they can be sent out. The dogs from Moosonee and Moose Factory are crated and put on the train. They arrive in Cochrane where they are often picked up by a rescue worker and taken in until they can make the rest of the journey down to Muskoka. The pups in Attawapiskat are flown out by Creebec Air and they land either in Moosonee or Timmins. If they land in Timmins they are picked up by a driver from Lloyd Richards Moving and Cartage Company and driven down to Muskoka on one of their runs. We meet the truck at the side of the highway and receive the dogs. Often we drive north to pick up the dogs from a rescue worker at some halfway point.

Mica The puppies live in our house with us so that we can socialize them and teach them to trust. They tend to gain confidence quite quickly when you consider their start in life. Even the older dogs, after a year or two of abuse, are still hopeful. Each dog is a miracle unto itself. The older dogs become part of our pack and Ruth, Trillium Maggie and Huck, our dogs, welcome them gleefully. Ruth acts as a nanny to the baby puppies and is often the closest thing to a mother that they have known. Often the pups we receive are three to four weeks of age. They may have been motherless for sometime as she was most likely shot soon after giving birth. It is a wonderful thing if we manage to get a litter but upsetting when we get just one or two because we know some have been left behind. Every once in a while we get the mother dog and her puppies and they all stay with us until the puppies are weaned. It is a remarkable thing to watch a mother dog separate from her pups. She inherently knows when it is time to leave and the puppies accept her decision. All continue into their own lives quite happily. We find wonderful homes for our dogs by posting them on petfinder.com. We require that someone be home during the day in order to adopt one of the baby puppies and we do a home visit prior to placing a dog.