Anonymous Santas heat up the barn raising

Santa must be a pit bull fan, because he's been sending some of his power elves to help us build a barn for the dogs. The 5K double matching gift challenge that we launched last month was MET within 30 days time by the extraordinary kindness of BR blog readers. That means donors brought in a whole $15K in one month's time. HUZZAH! I don't even know what to say anymore ... the generosity of people towards dogs they may never meet just stuns me.

November's anonymous donor made the double matching gift in honor of their pet Maggie (above). We're guessing the little sprite wants to stay anon, too. You know who you are, and we thank you from the bottom of our best puppy's toes.

We were doing well with Maggie's challenge, but found ourselves short by $1,070 as the deadline loomed. Anonymous elves have magic powers, though: That last chunk was soon covered by another anon-friend and we met our goal! I've never had so much fun doing photoshop as when I pump that donation bar up on the Petey graphic.

What next? ANOTHER matching grant promises to kick us into the field goal zone. The same anon-angel that helped us meet Maggie's challenge went ahead and pledged 5K more for a brand new matching challenge. Are you following me?... that's a brand new 5K challenge!

This recent pledge is given in honor of three special pit bulls: Tiki - left - who passed on last year, Juliet - right - who was rescued from Pet Rescue Center, and a very special dog-in-need named Azure.

Azure is a beautiful blue who is currently at the Pet Rescue Center waiting for her new home. She was stabbed seven times by her owner's boyfriend with a sword back in January. This Best Friends link describes Azure’s plight well. What a story. We sure hope she's able to find her home soon. If you have ideas, please contact Pet Rescue Center.

Matching this gift in the name of Tiki, Juliet and Azure will bring us up to $97K ... Just inches from our final goal. I can't believe it - we're almost there.

Build it, baby - BUILD IT!

As the fundraiser gathers steam for the last big 10K hump, our work crew is starting to put the walls up on the barn. This view shows the beginning of the porch/breezeway where dogs and volunteers will both seek out shade and ice tea breaks on hot summer days.

The windows will go in once the walls are complete. Then comes the doors, the floors, insulation, electric, and sheet rock. Whoever said building a kit barn was fast work?

We're all big-time recyclers around here, so have been shopping salvage yards to save some dough and to give the barn an old world homey look. These sweet frames came from Urban Ore in Berkeley.

The guys there have been rooting for us as we do our weekly hunts for materials and have given us some great deals.

This super size window on the left lived in Tim's woodshop while he refurbished it over the thanksgiving holiday. It will be set right across from the kennels, in a spot that will allow the dogs to see the sunrise over the Oakland hilltops.

It's important to us to give dogs that have been living in dark confinement as much natural light as possible so they can begin to get back into rhythm. The barn will also have four skylights for the same purpose.

BARN RAISERS

Our deepest thanks to these recent givers: Erich Horat & Nancy Groom, Roma Dakini-Alexander, Mark Paul, Margaret Zechlin, Naomi Tamayo, Virginia Yeisley, Kate McLoughlin, Dale & Peter Demy, Melinda Shaw, Bob Gardner, Cindi Massei, Amy Leduc, Lisa Holway, Brandon Abell, Amy Ponsetti, The Magnificent Miss F., Leslie Van Auken, Melissa Goan, Esther Shir, Maureen Marsh, Ethel Dunham, Carol Cohn, Sally Rees, Jennifer Goff-Roby, Andrea Ives, Gail Santos, Susan Foster, Joan Farabaugh, Lilith Jones, Wendy Mayerson, Jennifer Thomas, Susana Cruz, Diane Androvich, Deborah Malmberg Smith, Christina Roberts, Michelle Quiroz, Natalie Grimmett, Barbara Lauterbach, Lisa Neely, Melissa Puso, Lisa Dornell, Sara Lindorf, Ashley Sousa, Adrian Machado, Erica Grover, Mary Salyer, Deassa Binstock, Sheri Pederson, Eric Thomas, Suzanne and Peter Coaltz, Nancy Epstein, Deborah Hornstra, Patricia Luchak, Scott Leete, Blake Facente...and to Tim's mom Margaret Holden (you shouldn't have!)