Wigglin' Home Boxer Rescue

Shame on me, I have done such a terrible job of keeping track of the year’s events. Perhaps that is what happens when the days are fast-moving and full of exciting milestones! Being the first full year for our organization I’d say we had a pretty good run of it!

We opened the year winning Spot Magazine’s Top Dog Rescue Rockstar Award followed by:

• Global Giving and Great Non-profits awarding us Top Rated ranking
• Glassbaby White Light Fund grant award
• MudBay FUTY Volunteer Award of Excellence was taken home by our very own Les Colvin
• Buoy Beer Pints for a Purpose supports non-profits by giving a percentage of drink proceeds. We were lucky enough to be chosen for their September event. This allowed us to get our name out as well as raise funds. With volunteers and dogs in attendance on the last day- it was a wigglin’ good time!
• Max and Neo Amazon Wishlist give away. Our supporters voted for us and YA we won! Max and Neo is an AMAZING business supporting rescues while making a living for themselves. A true show of good people doing good things with a quality product. We highly recommend their goods for your dogs.
• 1-year anniversary party. Held in Chinook Washington, at the Colvin home, we had 50 some volunteers and adopters in attendance as well as 26 Boxers!!! This was an exceptional day as we pride ourselves on being a close-knit family and each adopter is welcomed into that fold.
• Chinook Arts Fair and Spokane Salmon days- pups and Volunteers in attendance
• Various events held around OR, WA, ID, and MT by our volunteers to raise funds. Thank you to ALL!
• MODA  Wow, our volunteers work such long hours in the concession stands every weekend to raise funds so our ‘ask’ of donors isn’t constant thus risking donor burnout. Our thanks go out to every volunteer who gave of their summer weekends for the pups
• Carol Irwin legacy. We are forever grateful to Carol Irwin and her family for donating to our organization after her passing. Carol dearly loved her Boxers and the work WHBR did to save those less fortunate. 
• Annual board retreat. As our board is made up of members from Central and Southern Oregon, Southern and Northern Washington and Spokane Idaho we had a heck of a time finding a central location to meet. White Salmon WA was where the dart landed. Renting a VRBO on a hillside with a great morning view of the Columbia river we gathered to review the past year and plan for 2018. Some of us had not met in person, it was a great time had by all.
• Fort George Brewery What a way to close out the year winning $10k of matching donations. Tears of joy here as Earl’s Bank was running dangerously low.
• WHBR Designs We have started our own t-shirt, phone case, tote bag designs for fundraising. Should you know someone who loves boxers OR who is rescue oriented, we have something for them. At WHBR we support rescue of all animals thus our t-shirt store sells designs made for any rescue effort as well as that of Boxers (plus we've added some fun requests)
• As this report closes out the year let us not forget the pups. 2017 saw some tough cases come in. Paralyzed Charlie, severely emaciated and crippled Rey, each adopted by their foster Moms. We saw sad, sad, traumatized Mae come in only to win the hearts and be adopted by her foster parents. JoC who is in critical condition was an owner surrender, her care continues, she is such a love. Several pups ended up in training as they had a difficult time learning their manners. With all of the success stories comes the heartache of those that didn’t survive the hand of mankind. Our president and volunteers stood at the sides of several pups as they crossed over the rainbow bridge. All we can do is know they were safe and loved in their last days.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something as it was such an amazing, successful year but alas let me introduce you to Boxer #200….Miss Melody.

At this writing, she has been with us three days so her exact diagnosis remains to be seen but at this point we know she has some type of spinal issue. When first contacted we were dubious we could take her as we simply do not have the funding to do so. Then, THEN we saw a video of her! The spunk, intelligence and CAN-DO attitude we knew we couldn’t turn our backs on her. What a sweet little gal. She will no doubt need a garage of wheelchairs from little to big while she grows as well as visits to a specialist to determine the best way to treat/handle her situation. Keep your eye out for updates as she is going to put smiles on our faces for months to come.

I guess that’s about it in a nutshell.  It has been an amazing year. We have a fantastic crew, wonderful adoptive families, and YOU our amazing donors. The fact that we have been able to bring 200 Boxers through our doors is due to an amazing year of wins and giving. We can hope that 2018 is as successful but we can't count on it and at this time Earl's Bank is running very low, this means more Boxers we must walk past and leave behind rather than opening a shelter gate and taking them to safety. 

Should you consider setting up a recurring donation, from now till December 31^st Global Giving is matching the first donation.    i.e. set up a $10 a month donation and the first donation will be matched giving us $20.

Know that we are grateful to receive anything you might spare at any time. Our pups thank you, we thank you.

See 2017 off safely and we wish you a wonderful year to come.