Happy Chanuhah! Now is the time to adopt a new friend. Our adoption event is:
Sunday, December 16th from 1-4
Chantilly Petco, Greenbriar Town Center
13053 Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy Unit B, Fairfax, VA 22033
There is no adoption the following week due to Christmas, so come one, come all. After that we will be at a new location so stay tuned for updates! Click here to see our adoption process.
The following dogs are scheduled to appear: Dax and Freya, Clyde, Boots, Beagle Paco and Beagle Holly, Faith, Daisy, Happy Mick, Natasha, Derek,
Leo, Prince & Mamma B. This list is updated throughout the week. Please check back often.)
Don’t see a dog you are interested in listed? Just e-mail info@aforeverhome.org and we will forward your message to the foster parent who can tell you how you can meet them.
Our event at Dogma Bakery https://dogmabakery.com, with photos by Jeanne Taylor http://jtpetpics.com, was a great hit! We received a donation of $450 thanks to all the wonderful people and doggies that came out to sit on Santa’s lap:
- New babies (1st Christmas) – 2
- Kids – 10
- Dogs – 110
- Grown-ups – 31
We are grateful to Jeanne Taylor for her awesome photography, Dogma for their dedication to the dogs, Santa for being such a trooper, and AFH volunteers Vanessa, Jordan, and Kenna for helping out.
Deck your walls in 2019 with this adorable calendar of A Forever Home rescue dogs. The calendar also makes a great gift – perfect for a gift exchange – and all proceeds benefit A Forever Home Rescue Foundation and help further our mission to rescue dogs in the Northern Virginia area.
All of the dogs featured in our calendar have been adopted through our organization. Our monthly stars are photos voted on by our supporters and our cover features photos of our adopted dogs sent in by our volunteers and adopters. We also would like to thank the incredible sponsors listed below who helped make this calendar happen.
- Pure Gold Pet Trackers – https://www.facebook.com/puregoldpettrackers/
- Rhythm & Arts Center of Virginia LLC – https://www.rhythmandartscenter.com/
- TechClarity – www.TechClarity.com
- Hart’s Quality Plumbing – jhwolfhart@yahoo.com
- LulaRoe by Sarah Clark – https://www.facebook.com/lularoesarahclark
- Mains Signature Homes Inc. – (571) 437-7731
There are two purchase options available:
- Local pickup. You may pick up your calendar at any of our adoption events or in Reston.
- Delivered. If you’re not local to Northern Virginia, or if coming to one of our adoption events isn’t convenient, we’ll deliver a calendar to you!
In either case, thank you for supporting the rescue! Without your help, we couldn’t rescue the more than 1,000 dogs we do every year!
Audrey celebrated her 11th birthday with Hope’s pups. As you can see, the pups had as good of a time as the kids. Hope’s pups had a great time romping and playing with the pull toys the party goers made for them. They ran under tables, chased each other, played with the girls, and gave lots of kisses. In addition, Audrey and her friends donated $210 for our pups and we are very grateful. Happy Birthday Audrey and thank you for inviting us to come out and celebrate with you!
Trixie’s Story
Super sweet, super wiggly Trixie is one lucky little girl. Her previous family moved away and left her chained to a tree, ready to have her puppies any minute. When the neighbors noticed that she’d been out there for a few days with nobody coming to feed or water her and that the weather was starting to turn cold, they cut her chain and took her to the local shelter. The shelter she was taken to has an extremely high kill rate, and poor Trixie was next in line for euthanasia if someone didn’t speak for her immediately. Luckily, AFH caught wind of little Trixie’s plight, and immediately took her into foster.
Only a few days after being placed with her foster family, on Veteran’s Day, Trixie went into labor. She delivered six beautiful, healthy puppies, with the help and support of her foster parents. Now, Trixie gets to spend her days in a warm, safe foster home with plenty of people who love and dote on her while she takes excellent care of her little family. Her human foster sisters even read her a story every night before bedtime!
Trixie’s puppies will start looking for their forever homes in about six weeks, and Trixie will start looking for hers a few weeks after that when she’s able to be spayed. In the meantime, they’ll all enjoy plenty of cuddles and cookies, and get to stay out of the cold.
Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!
Julie and her Puppies
Julie is a pretty little Beagle girl who had the bad luck of being very pregnant and being taken to a very rural, very full shelter, as part of a hoarding case. Because the shelter was already beyond capacity, Julie, along with her former housemates, were facing immediate euthanasia, but her luck was about to change.
AFH stepped in and took Julie into foster care just in the nick of time. She was only with her foster family for a few days before she delivered a beautiful, all-girl litter of five healthy puppies, right on her foster mom’s lap! Now, mommy and babies are all safe and loved, and getting bigger and stronger by the minute. In about six weeks, Julie and her babies can start looking for their forever homes.
AFH saves hundreds of momma dogs and their babies, just like Julie and her little girls, from being killed in shelters, and gives them the chance to find loving, forever homes with fabulous adopters. Every donation goes directly toward our efforts to continue this important work, and to saving little lives every day.
Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!
Riley’s Story: Talk about lemons!
Poor Riley has been through more in her two short years than most dogs experience in a lifetime. She came from an extremely rural area in Virginia, and her people had neither the time nor the money to properly care for her. Her original family didn’t pay her much attention and kept her on a concrete slab porch, which is where she delivered her fifteen puppies. A local rescue group managed to convince her people to surrender her so she could come to A Forever Home, but disaster struck the day before she was scheduled to be moved.
Riley, ten days after delivering her puppies, was hit by a car and dragged down the street. The top of her head was scraped, one of one of her femoral heads was shorn off, and the inside of her other back leg had such extensive trauma that she was completely unable to walk. The rescue group that had convinced Riley’s people to give her up called A Forever Home to cover the cost of emergency veterinary treatment and whisked her and her puppies off to the vet. As soon as the vet wrapped her leg to keep everything together, Riley was brought to AFH’s vet, Dr. Martin Tohill, at Chantilly Animal Hospital. Once he removed Riley’s bandages, he realized the damage caused by being dragged on the road was much more extensive than originally thought, and that a specialist surgeon would need to be brought in if there was any hope of saving her leg. Dr. Tohill closed up the gaping wound on her leg and scheduled the surgeon to come. Because both of Riley’s legs were injured, her mobility was very limited. The surgeon decided to install an external fixator to stabilize the leg that was more damaged and to give her more ability to walk.
While Riley was having her surgeries, AFH fosters Debbie and Jeff bottle fed her babies and kept them warm, while everyone hoped and prayed that Riley would come out of surgery with all four of her legs.
Thankfully, that first surgery repaired enough of the damage for Riley to keep her leg, though it wasn’t repaired enough to give her back her full mobility. Debbie and Jeff would have to use slings to lift and move Riley for everything from changing her bedding, to taking her outside to use the bathroom. Even with the pain her injuries caused, and having to be physically moved by people she didn’t know, Riley was incredibly sweet and an exceptional mother to her babies through everything.
Riley eventually underwent a third surgery to remove the fixator and allow her to move her now-healed leg on her own. Now that one of Riley’s two damaged legs is healed, she’s getting ready to undergo her fourth and final surgery to remove the femoral head that was shorn off in the accident, and to spay her.
What’s even better than Riley getting ready to be done with surgeries and pain, is that she’s got a fantastic adopter waiting to take her home as soon as she’s all better! Riley truly is a miracle dog, and her vets and fosters are nothing short of miracle workers.
AFH and our dedicated volunteers give dogs like Riley, who would’ve died in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere, leaving fifteen tiny puppies behind to starve on a concrete slab, a shot at life. Your donation ensures that we can continue to do this work and to save lives for another day – and turn more lemons into lemonade!
Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!
Mia’s Story: One pink cast, $800. A Forever Home, priceless!
Mia came to A Forever Home Rescue with her four siblings. These poor puppies’ owner was a preacher, who lacked the funds to care for them. He agreed to give the puppies to A Forever Home so that they could find good homes. AFH also spayed the mother dog, in order to prevent more unwanted litters. Once Mia was with the rescue, it was discovered that she had broken her little toes and that her pad was infected. The vet felt that she had most likely been stepped on.
Mia was outfitted with a beautiful pink cast and in a few short weeks, with the careful and loving care of her foster mom Jessica, she was healed. Mia is now growing up, big and strong, and surrounded by the love of her forever family. Her rough beginning in life is now just a distant memory.
Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!
Debbie’s Story: Going full-circle with Bagle
Bagel came into my life unexpectedly, I was already fostering two dogs for AFH, Buddy
I already knew that Bagel had been tied to a barrel in someone’s front yard along with his kitty friend. Once he came into my home I knew he was smart, and loved playing with the other dogs. I could tell he had not had too much of an opportunity to play because he came out of this shell and I learned what a goof he really was. But I also learned how much be hates rain and also how very afraid of thunderstorms he is. I don’t know how he survived tied to a barrel outside for seven long years. He was extremely thin and sickly, but through help from AFH, Bagel thrived in my care.
After being with me for about six months, a family came forward and fell in love with Bagel. I was extremely happy for them both, but when Bagel left, I realized there was a hole in my heart. The family reached out to me when they needed a sitter, and I was more than happy to do so and relished the time we had together. Then in October 2016, tragedy hit Bagel’s family and I was taking care of him with food, vet bills, and lots of love to help the family out. October became February and the family returned Bagel to the Rescue because they had a lot on their plate. When AFH asked me if I wanted to adopt Bagel I did not hesitate.
Today Bagel is a happy, quirky, and well-loved dog who has developed an enlarged heart. I like to believe because he has so much love to give and to receive. Somehow he has amassed four dog beds in my small apartment and has too many toys to count. He loves my home-made treats that I bake for him, and his favorite is Peanut Butter/Bacon Honey Bites (my name for them after my late dog Honey), and his doggy peanut butter ice-cream. He went on his first vacation this summer, and we went to the Beach in Delaware. He loved the beach and had a lot of human friends by the end of the week. His favorite toy is his teddy bear that has lavender sewn into its heart to help Bagel keep calm with his heart condition. Bagel loves giving me kisses and taking walks with me. I am most thankful that AFH allowed me to foster this sweet boy, and to let him know that humans can be better than he knew for seven years.
Debbie Ewald/Bagel’s MOM
Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!
Meadow’s Story
Meet Meadow. She is such a beautiful, happy girl, who is enjoying her warm, caring AFH foster home thoroughly. To see her now, you would never guess how her story began.
Originally Meadow was found wandering and was picked up by a Good Samaritan. She was so emaciated that every bone in her body was showing. She was in terrible shape. Her skin was in an even worse condition, with much of her fur missing, and she was covered with multiple open sores. At first, it was believed that she was a tri-colored hound, but soon it became apparent that someone had painted her sides black. Why would anyone do such a thing?
Despite her painful condition, Meadow was very friendly with everyone. Apparently, nothing could dampen her spirit. She was bathed, fed, and had medical care for her skin. Every day her condition improved, and as you can see, she has completely recovered. Her fur is thick and shiny and she has a joyous spirit. Her resiliency and love can warm any heart. Meadow is the true proof of what love and a dedicated foster can do!!!
Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!