appreciating volunteers - round two

So many volunteers to thank, so little time. Here are four more people who keep BR alive and moving forward. Once again - we salute everyone who volunteers their blood sweat and tears to help the underdogs among us. You are compassion defined.
(in case you missed round one.)

Many of our supporters have met the inimitable Susi Ming through email correspondence after making a gift to the group. Suz has been volunteering as BR's Secretary and sage advisor of all things holistic and corporate (somehow, they mesh) since our beginning. She's also the one who inspired us to stay on the look out for dogs that were geriatric and/or in health crisis. She and her hubby Charlie have been taking in special needs dogs since we met them, and have provided the best care and family comfort a dog could hope for. We're still not sure how she does it all. After her 9-5 day is done, Suz wears the hat of the president of Bull Terrier Rescue. And if you think you're spinning a lot of plates, go see how many needy bull terriers she has to keep track of. Knowing Suz, every single dog will get exactly what it needs, come hell or high water. Suz is shown here with a homeless senior named Georgie. Always a multi-tasker, she brought Georgie to a meeting and by the time she left, she'd helped us organize our budget while assessing his personality, and had brainstormed up a good home for him. We've come to believe that she has magical powers.

Tom Becker is so behind the scenes that I had to steal this photo of him from the Net (sorry, Tom). But we couldn't appreciate volunteers this week without flagging Becker. This proud-to-be-a-geek is the reason we can find our way to the Cyber World everyday. He's been our tech support extraordinaire for years and doesn't even roll his eyes (in front of us, anyway) when we explode our mail programs again or ask the dumbest of questions. I seriously don't know where BR would be without Tom's help. When he's not leading Luddites into the light, he's perfecting his skill as a photographer (that's his photo, below). He's owned by a gazelle-like pit mix named Chloe and a cat. He's single too, ladies. Oh -- and he's a Mac Man.



Many of BR's favorite dogs have Katie Moyer to thank for their lives. We met Katie when she adopted our Katrina survivor Sydney (right) to be a companion for her sweet senior pit bull, Toby shown here. Since the adoption, she got bit by the rescue bug and has become one of BR's steadiest foster homes. She's not afraid to try a new challenge and, with the help of Linda Chwistek, has smoothed dogs with health issues and caveman manners into awesome super stars, including Stella Polari, Binky and Huckleberry. It really is wonderful to see the dogs morph in her care. Part of the Katie 12 Step Program includes lots of obedience training, at home and in class. Adopters that select one of her projects get the fun of having a dog that has CGC style manners and is as well socialized as you could hope for in a dog. We heart you Katie!

Catherine Godlewski came to BR ready to learn and she sponged every lesson we could give her. She and her partner Brett Green both joined our Ambassadog team while we were at Oakland Animal Services and jumped in to help wherever help was needed, even taking home a lil' girl named Tulip for ongoing vet care -- which ended up in a full adoption. Catherine got the dog training bug during her mentorship and kept coming back for bigger challenges. We watched her evolve from a good dog handler to an excellent handler, and now she gives up her Saturdays to helping ill-mannered shelter dogs receive the learning they need to become more adoptable. She's shown here shining up the halo of a handsome boy from Berkeley Animal Services. She and Brett were one of the first to raise their hands when Oakland Animal Services brought in a group of dogs from a cruelty case and are now fostering Brutus - a peanut butter loving pup that lived his first few months of life in a shed. They told us "well, Oakland is our town, so we had to do what we can to help out." That kind of commitment is music to our ears.

Thank you for caring so damn much.