On Wednesday 18 May 2017 Blue’s mom died unexpectedly of natural causes in a hotel in Cookeville, TN on her way from South Carolina to Memphis, TN . Mom and Dad had sold their house in South Carolina and were to close on a new one on Friday Blue was her mom’s companion animal as dad was on the road most of the year.  Blue was on the road and there was no one to take him. HARTT knew the daughter of the mother who died and she called us and we took Blue in. Blue is a registered AKC Blue Healer, friendly, potty trained, and used to having a doggie door. We do not have a doggie door at this house. So Blue decided to scratch on the door often, enough to tear up the lining to the outside of the door and leave permanent scratch marks. They told us to put her up for adoption, we waited a week which led to two  in case someone in the family would want to take her after finding out about the deaths. When HARTT put her up for adoption on a Saturday afternoon, on Sunday afternoon Blue was adopted and headed to Jackson, TN to be with some more Blue Healer dogs. When Blue met his new mother he came up to here and placed her legs on mom’s shoulder licked her on her face and said you’re my new mom, let’s go have some fun. (Blue had not jumped up on anybody like that for the two weeks she had been with us, though she had been energetic and friendly) At that moment dad said let me get my checkbook and start writing the adoption fee as she is going home with us.

Jennifer received a call on a Friday afternoon from an eighty year old lady about hour and a half away from here. The lady told Jennifer that a dog was moaning and it needed to be put down. Jennifer was not going to be able to get there till after the weekend because of life's many other activities. She told the lady if she could get it to a vet near her to see what the Vet could do to make the dog more comfortable HARTT would assist with the bills. Well the lady said she could not get the dog. She had three guys working construction near her and maybe they could do it. Well none of them would pick up the dog and put the dog in their cars. The dog had great hair loss and was moaning too much. So the weekend goes by and on Sunday evening the lady calls again and says the dog needs to be put down it is in pain and moaning too much. Well Jennifer and Carol get over there on Monday afternoon to see the dog. Yes, the dog was moaning and it had hair loss (mange). The moaning was really howling it is a Basset Hound about six years old. They took the dog to one of our local vets and he told them that they would not get this dog adopted. Jennifer shared the adventure on Facebook and within minutes there were already three people wanting to take the dog. The person who adopted the dog actually had had a dog like this before and was looking for another one. We at HARTT took care of the mange first and then red went to the loving family. When they came up Fred got out of his kennel and jumped up into the passenger door and went right into the car and went over to the Drivers Side got behind the wheel and said "OK i am driving us home, let's go" They have been enjoying him ever since.

11 July Jenn went to the vet in Iuka, MS to pick up one of the dogs that was having heartworm treatment and too get health certificates for dogs heading to New York. Unbeknownst to everyone a surprise was waiting at the vets. Some one had dropped off seven one week old puppies. (how do we know the vet assistants found a note with the puppies) Jenn brought them home with her. So begins the journey of bottle feeding puppies. During that first week the puppies took a trip on transport as a young intern reporter fed them on the way down as she was doing an article on HARTT for the local paper. (ended up being a good article too.) We were not looking forward to two or three hours a day feeding puppies. We did it through the weekend. Then out of nowhere comes a foster that wants to feed puppies again. So when they turn six weeks old then we will send them off to a rescue that wants them.

Today July 28 Billy received a call from Carolyn that Glenn was bringing them a dog from across the river. Mike decided he wanted the dog, yet it had not been to the vet or anything else so could he stay at our place til tomorrow so that Jenn could look at it before the brought it into their pack. Billy went out and set up a kennel for this new dog. Carolyn brought Billy over the dog it was a beautiful boxer but tick infested, Gene had pulled most of them from his ears and the biggest ones off before he was dropped off to Billy. Billy pulled off some more ticks. Billy placed the dog into the crate on a cool rainy day, with water, food, and a doghouse. He left the dog in placed and clip in the hole that places the latch down so that Boodreau would not get out. An hour later I (Billy) heard the dogs barking, the new dog must have gotten out of the kennel, yes he had pushed out the front door. OK we will put it back place a leash around it and put two blocks in front of it. Two hours later the dogs are barking Boodreau is out again. OK I did not put the in the correct place. I then placed the leash in the right place (so I thought) two blocks in front of the entrance. Right around 6pm when we were going to put the other twelve puppies ready for bed that evening Booddreau was out. He had chewed through the leash. OK enough is enough, I moved him from the chainlink kennel into the professional kennel. We will see if he gets out tonight. Some of you are thinking the name of this is Regal. Well Mike and Carolyn had come by to give us some cooked green beans from the garden and I told them I was calling him Boodreau, they were going to call him Regal. Why you ask well while Gene was pulling the ticks off of the dog he was sitting up strong and Regal. Gene stated the dog looked Regal. Therefore Boodreau is know called Regal.

Late in the spring Jennifer was up late, not a usual thing for her to do. At 10pm our neighbor came by with three dogs who were laying in her driveway. Fortunately these dogs had not chased her chickens. She brought them to us to see if HARTT could do something with them. One of them had a wire around the leg. What intended animal abuse what were we going to do. Jennifer put them out in one of our kennels for the night.
In the morning Billy got to meet One large dog and three little dogs all about a year old or older and he had to pull off a wire that was wrapped around the big dogs leg. Not an easy task, but finally done. We put antibiotics on the wound. Jenn took it to the Vets and he saw the wire and instantly knew that it was a snare. For us we were glad it was not animal abuse, and we know that many around us eat off the land catching small game, so the dog just got into someone trying to eat. In our area of the country that is how some people keep from starving, by living off the land.
We showed this on the HARTT facebook page and one person wrote back remember the band "Three Dog Nite", revealing her age. Billy then went on to name the dogs, Snare, Acoustic and Electric. The dogs were sent to rescue up north and on to new homes.