Canine Canyon Ranch

Fire update 8/1/10:  I have been getting lots of calls this week from people wondering how the ranch fared in the West Fire (7/27/10). The woman who is purchasing the ranch from the bank had great news to report-the ranch survived the fire without ANY damage whatsoever. She described it as “an island of green surrounded by miles of black.” I knew the area was on fire and was hoping that the five long years of backbreaking work clearing brush and cutting down every dead tree-even along the road-would pay off, and it sounds like it did. Will get some photos posted ASAP. The Fire crews even camped out there once they noticed that it was still green and safe-not to mention the great view of the rest of the area from the top of the hill. It may not belong to me any longer, but part of my heart will always be there.

So, thank you for your good wishes. I miss Tehachapi, it was hard to lose the ranch, but rest assured, the spirit of dog rescuing SHALL be continued there, and very soon. Check back here next week for news on who is taking over the property! Mum’s the word until she closes escrow though.

Bear and I are doing fine, I love Colorado and hopefully I’ll be back on my feet and back to rescuing lost souls someday. Right now I’m trying to rebuild a little bit of life for myself and for my best buddy Bear. Thanks for checking in and please hug all of your pets for me!

Leslie

May 1, 2010:  Hello from beautiful Colorado!  Bear and I (and our two new kitty boys) are finally settled into our new tiny place here in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. Its been a busy month, getting moved up here in the winter snows was NOT easy, changing addresses, banks, went back to using my maiden name now that I am divorced, so that really complicated everything. But, after many trips to both Social Security and the DMV, I finally have my new Colorado Driver’s license…sigh. Still looking for a job and still trying to sell the property down in New Mexico. It is now listed with Joseph Lopez at Northern Mountain Realty at (505) 918-9999 if you are interested. I am starting to get out and meet people, especially as Bear and I go for two daily walks. This is a nice lovely little town, everything is within walking distance and its quieter than I thought. Its been 10+ years since I have lived “in town” so its an adjustment. As much as I enjoy the snow (and we still have deep drifts everywhere), I am looking forward to Spring.

Just wanted everyone to know that I am well, slowly gaining my happy self back again, and tell you all how much I appreciate your good wishes via email. Keep sending me photos of your happy dogs!! I miss rescue more than I can say, but I will eventually be back on my feet and will start planning my dreams again. Never thought I would be completely starting over-both financially, emotionally and psychologically at age 52 (well, almost). Those of you who know me, know that I don’t look or act my age, so wish me the best! As hard as it is to get over being “left” I am rediscovering the joy of doing things for yourself and feeling competant again.

Hopefully soon, when the ground isn’t more frozen than not, (April 23d we got another foot and a half of snow!) Bear will have a nice little fenced yard and maybe we’ll foster an older doggie friend now and again.  Bear is almost ten now and spent his life at my rescue with many hundreds of brothers and sisters-he is absolutely loving being an only dog and I hope his last few years are happy. He has earned a rest, as have I. The cats have taken over Bear’s dog bed in the office and they sleep all day and drive Bear crazy at night.I cheat and close my bedroom door! They all get along quite well and are recovering from their prior residence with a hoarder. 66 cats and 4 large dogs were all removed from a tiny house up near Cripple Creek. They are completely comfortable around Bear and have eachother to chase and cuddle with (that’s why I came home with two when I only intended to adopt one).

Once Spring arrives, I hope to get out more and explore our new area..but first, I have to find a job! the tourist season is almost here, so local businesses are gearing up. The economic impact on this little town was serious and I hope the spring, summer and fall will be prosperous, as well as breathtakingly beautiful. I will never get tired of the view of Pike’s Peak and the rest of the mountains here. Aaaahhhh. It feels like home.

 Leslie Crum (with Bear dog, and Nikko and Simba the cats)

The Sante Fe New Mexican’s Sunday Pet Page recently featured Canine Canyon Ranch founder, Leslie Moniot and her remaining foster dogs. Ben Swan, the founder of the Scoop page and network for Sante Fe’s millions of pet owners (Ok, maybe not a million, but a LOT!), wrote a wonderful article explaining why Leslie needs to move-again. Unfortunately her husband (and income) is now gone and this area has not been a great area for a woman with two college degrees who doesn’t speak Spanish to find work.  So, Leslie is moving on and willl hopefully be able to find a buyer for the ranch here..she is eyeing Colorado which seems to be “calling” her.  Read the article here (and see some happy adoptable dogs too):

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Scoop/Saving-one-dog-at-a-time

We lost our Vizsla, Sugar, in January 2009. Its been two months and I still miss her every day. So do her brothers, Bear and her couch buddy there, Buzz (all former foster dogs and/or “unadoptables”). She was my constant companion and seemed to understand why she sometimes missed out on Mom’s attention since during her six years with me, I have always been surrounded by foster dogs.  I hope they do understand because the fosters seem to get the most attention.Sugar was originally a foster dog, and came from right here in Tehachapi on Curry Street. You may have seen her running loose at night. The family that had her then at age 8 used to shut her out of the house all night and she ran around in the orchards (where the fire station and housing tract is now). Then she got shut inside all day while they were gone. What a life, huh? One night, someone shot her with bird shot and she ran through some barbed wire trying to escape (I’m sure she didn’t realize she was trespassing). The next day I got a frantic call from my friend Matt, who said they were going to put her down because she was bloody (ears bleed like crazy) and they had no money for the vet. I rushed over there and took her home. She lost the sight in her right eye from one BB and I never was able to pick all of them out, she had them under her skin all over her body.During the next few months, this foster dog began to accompany me everywhere and when I first brought her out to the property that later became Canine Canyon Ranch, her face lit up with a huge happy dog smile as she bounded around. It was then that I knew that I would keep her, she was already “my” dog. I’ve had many hundreds of dogs go through my rescue in the past several years and I’ve only wanted to keep a handful. Sugar was special and I miss her so much.Sugar lasted another five years after I moved out to the ranch and she was with me every step of the way as I spent a whole year developing the property: she sat in the shade while I cut down a hundred dead trees, followed me around behind the quad over hill and dale, and all three of the dogs, and several fosters, suffered through four months of living in the barn, freezing through March until the house was delivered in sweltering July. She got to swim in the dog pool, roll in deer poop, chase rabbits and have a normal dog life. She was the first dog to be bitten by a rattlesnake here too, and I almost lost her then, but she survived and remained healthy until about late November 2008. She absolutely loved this ranch and I loved seeing her so happy.Vizslas are quite athletic, and Sugar was typical of her breed.  She could dead jump a six foot fence (but usually didn’t-at least not when Mom could see her!) and she loved jumping through the window of the truck so she could go with Mom to deliver firewood. Well, in late November, I broke my arm, so no firewood this year, but that didn’t stop Sugar wanting to be in the truck. She started looking older, losing bladder control, getting tremors, and then she began to run into the furniture. I told my wonderful husband that my intuition told me her time was close and that I didn’t want her to live completely blind, or not able to run around, she just wouldn’t be happy, I knew that. Turns out, I didn’t have to make that decision.  One day she jumped up and didn’t realize that the truck window was closed! It appeared that she had hurt her shoulder and she began limping, then things seemed better and she was bounding around like usual, but I still had a nagging feeling.The busy holidays with out of town family visits passed and she started going downhill, and fast.  We went to Tehachapi Vet Hospital on January 6, 2009. Dr. Steve took one look at her sitting stiffly, trying to get up, and he told me what I already suspected: Sugar had cancer in her shoulder. She probably had it already, but the injury caused the cells to start rapidly accelerating the process.  We left, and I waited for my husband to come home to say goodbye. We put her down that evening and buried her on top of a beautiful sunny knoll facing north here, on the ranch where she was happiest. I had already dug her grave and written her a goodbye letter, thanking her for all of the wonderful time that I was blessed to spend with her and telling her how sorry  was that I hadn’t realized sooner that she was sufering. I guess I still feel a little bit guilty about that and I wish I had listened to the little voice in my head sooner. I’ll know next time, and I hope that all of you reading this will realize what a gift it is to know when your companion animal needs YOU to let go. Being able to LET them go is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to THEM and it honors the life that you shared together.  They will hang on, suffering, until you let them know that its OK for them to let go. They know already, but they don’t want you to suffer. So give the greatest gift ,and say goodbye when its time.Sugar’s grave was a cold place for the past two months, but now it is covered with lovely green grass and I will sit there with her spirit, enjoy the sunrises and sunsets, and think of my best friend, Sugarbear.  I will continue to miss her but I know she is up there running free and out of pain now.  Someday, I will see her again at the Rainbow Bridge, and she can cross over with me, right in front of the pack of hundreds of rescues that I was privileged to have pass through my life. And if they aren’t welcome where I am headed, then I won’t go either!Goodbye, sweet Sugarbear. I miss you so much, and I will never, ever forget “my girl.”Hug your dog for me, please? And thanks for listening. Writing this made me feel better. 

Tehachapi location numbers for 2008/09 prior to our relocation to new Mexico in July 2009:

2008 was a banner year at the ranch, with (drumroll please) ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN dogs (including 20 puppies from two very pregnant strays) adopted last year.  A few even found several homes, but returns are all part of making the adopters and the adoptees happy! Our dogs are always welcome back here at the ranch at any time.

And the 2008 numbers don’t count the lucky ones (probably another fifty or so) that went through here on the way to other rescues!! I have met and worked with so many dedicated people this past year and have widened my circle of friends, associates and even political contacts. Most of all, I have learned to ask for help when I need it!  Especially when I broke my arm right before Thanksgiving 2008.  I’m fully recovered and happy to have two good hands back to pet the dogs with.

It’s May now, and I THINK we are finlly done with our last snows. The dogs sure love playing in the snow-even the ones who have never seen that white stuff. Much fun to watch. By the end of May, approximately 45 dogs (including Cammy, the first VERY pregnant stray and her entire litter of eight pups) will have come and gone, including two long-term residents who finally found their forever homes! As of August, Cammy’s pups are approaching 40+ pounds and half are already spayed and neutered!

Anyway, I just wanted to share the news about all of the lucky homeless-no-more dogs that have already gotten new homes this past year-let’s see what the rest of 2009 brings! As always, we have too many boys and not enough girls here, oh well. Someday everyone will spay and neuter their animals and there won’t be so many strays.

Thanks for your support, referrals and donations this year. Check out the latest news-we were on Bakersfield’s ABC station on April 1st, 2009.  http://www.turnto23.com/news/19078775/detail.html?taf=bak. Click on the link under the photo of my big behind to start the video!

In September 2009, the ranch was supposed to change hands, but, unfortunately, the purchase contract expired without being funded. The plan was for the new rescue to accept CCR dogs as returns, keep the same phone number, etc. I am sorry that didn’t happen. But, we have finally found a place to call home here in New Mexico and even though we really aren’t quite ready yet, the first NM foster dog arrived from a local shelter on October 7th! There was no October 8th for this big mutt so how could I say no to him?

We’ll be up and running again someday!  Keep checking back for the latest news.

Leslie and the mutts

Over 50 dogs were placed in loving forever homes in 2007. And 2008 was an even better year with 115 dogs adopted. Before we moved to New Mexico in July 2009 more than 50 mutts (including TWO litters of puppies and their pregnant stray mommies) headed off to new loving homes.  The New Mexico operation was back up and running by late September 2009 and we were able to pull 20 dogs off of the “already approved euthanasia list” and get them into new homes before that location closed in February 2010.

Canine Canyon Ranch was founded in 2002 and many hundreds of large dogs (and many puppies who got big really, really fast!) have passed through our lives since then. I may not remember all of their names now, but I do remember ALL of their faces.