Yorkshire Terrier National Rescue, Inc.
when most of us put together the words
rescue in dogs we think about dogs that
are trained to rescue humans this is the
story of a group of humans who
specialized in rescuing dogs when you
look at an animal as adorable as a
Yorkshire Terrier it’s hard to believe
that it might need to be rescued someday
Yorkshire is like these are the second
most popular breed of dog in the United
States unfortunately not everyone who
acquires one of these little beauties is
capable of taking care of it
Mary Elizabeth Doug Moore president of
Yorkshire Terrier national rescue
explains for so many reasons they
they can’t take a dog they get divorced
they can’t how scrape them your keys get
lost
your keys get medical expenses that
can’t their owners can’t need and they
turn them over to us to try to help them
in fact all these people are gathered
here at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in
Nashville Tennessee specifically to help
rescue Yorkshire Terriers besides see
your keys they rescued there are usually
one or two or more that are members of
their immediate family and they bring
them with them to this event it’s called
the Yorkie ball
and it ends each year with a dance and
people dance with their your keys Mary
Elizabeth tells how this canine friendly
organization got started and why the
Yorkie ball is important for the dogs
and people actually the Yorkshire
Terrier Club of America called me up one
day I’ve been a member of that Club
since 1976 and they asked me if I would
start a rescue for them and I was
surprised that your keys even needed to
be rescued but I said yes I was very
honored that they would ask me to do
something like that so I started it and
I built Yorkie rescue calm on the on the
Internet and immediately people started
volunteering and within a short period
of time over 300 people were
volunteering to help and at that time
the Yorkshire Terrier Club said this is
really bigger than we thought it was
going to be would you take it private so
we took a private and started our 501 C
3
and develop the board and it’s just when
we care about a Yorkie somebody will
notify me online that they have a Yorkie
that they would like us to take and I
see what state they’re in
and I usually direct it to the state
director or closest person next to that
dog and they coordinate picking the dog
up we bring the dog in to our rescue
we microchip the dog to white TYT nrr
yorkshire terrier national rescue for
life and then that they volunteer takes
the dog to the vet we have it checked
for parasites
heartworm we get their shots we see if
there’s any other medical problems with
the dog and then we take its picture we
put it on the Internet and we look for a
home for it we evaluate its personality
and see what home is going to be best
suited to the dog just because somebody
wants to adopt a dog doesn’t mean that
that dog is going to be the perfect fit
for that family and we always try to put
the best interest of the dog first so
that we know that this time it’s gonna
be a forever home and it’s not going to
be bounced around again the Yorkie ball
started the first one we had was in 2000
and
we’ve had the annually since we thought
we didn’t have it to say thank you to
all the volunteers that do all the work
across the country every year in the
command people come from all over the
United States mostly we want to bring
people here to get together so that we
can meet them they know us we can have
meetings and tell them what our
guidelines are we have the smokey awards
that we give every year from July 1st
until the end of June any dog that is
adopted
through our rescue can be nominated for
a smokey award which you know is a word
that we developed in honor of smokey the
first rescue bill wins dog and he was
gracious enough to let us use the smokey
name this is Bill Winn teaching his new
dog called smokey – spelled t double O a
new trick
the original smokey who was rescued by
Bill in New Guinea
back during World War two was an
excellent example of how a dog can
become a man’s best friend smokey was
found in a New Guinea foxhole my tent
buddy was Ed Downey from Norristown
Pennsylvania Donny’s driving a Jeep
along through the jungle and all of a
sudden the Jeep stops he’s in the middle
of no place he turns around and he opens
the hood of the Jeep and he starts
wiggling the wires then he heard a
yapping off the side of the road and
when he looked it was a little gold head
trying to jump out of a Bandhan foxhole
County takes it back to the motor pool
and gives it to a sergeant dere who was
the motor pool sergeant so he comes back
to the tent and tells me how this little
cute little dog that he found I said why
don’t you bring it over to me I you know
I want a dog he said I want a dog in my
tent
she wouldn’t rescue wouldn’t have been
rescued she probably would have lasted
maybe a day the next day I was working
in a photo trailer and Derek Ames came
over to the trailer and banged on and
says hey when you want to buy that dog
I’ll sell it to you for two pounds I
want to get back in a poker again
I went on a mission by myself I didn’t
take her on the first flight when the
fellows in my tent heard about what
happened one of them said hey when if
you get knocked off I can have smoky can
I and I looked and I couldn’t believe
another guy says I I want her no I want
her and I said the heck with you guys
I’ll take the dog with me and I did I
took her on twelve flights after that
and we went up to Borneo in the
Philippines and if I went down I said
she’s gonna go with me but one of the
few things very few things that happened
in World War two that was nice is the
story of smokey the little dog that went
to hospitals and she became what they
called a first therapy dog on record by
Animal Planet’s research she became the
dog that everybody loved because she was
going through the war with him she had
so much in common that when we went
towards in the in the general a general
hospital or also the Navy hospital down
in Brisbane Australia the guys in
wheelchairs we all wanted to carry her
to the next ward and it was really
something to see because there was
something special what was special of
course was the relationship that people
have with dogs all dogs smokey came back
to the United States with Bill and was a
local TV star in Cleveland Ohio more
than 60 years later bill is still
helping rescue your keys I try to help
out in my own area it’s very difficult
we have a hard time finding people who
will take logs as Foster’s we don’t have
a chairman I have take anymore than I
have and we have a respected on a number
of people like that we’ll take in dogs
until they can be adopted and so but I
have a great respect that was one of the
founders of this group and I just love
being around them and they they seem to
like to be around me and we have a lot
of fun together
a lot of fun indeed in addition to some
excellent information from animal
experts on dog health well your keys
ticular have a lot of health issues
whether they’re from either a purebred
breeder or a puppy mill situation you
know being a small breed dog they’re
predisposed to liver shunts they get a
lot of neurological problems they get
collapsed tracheas hydrocephalus which
is a thing in their brain that can cause
them to seizure and that again can
happen even with a purebred dog it’s
something that’s just part of being the
breed but if you’re gonna look for a
Yorkie probably the best thing to
obviously do is go to a breeder a
reputable breeder and try not to get a
dog that’s gonna be a pound or two
either because the smaller the smaller
the dog the more congenital problems
they’re gonna have throughout their
lives
dog nutrition the most obvious immediate
problems that pet owners may see when
you feed improper diets table food table
scraps and a lot of times pet owners are
not feeding scraps they’re feeding they
have a place at the table now and so
they’re getting the same things that you
or I or eating problem though is that
just like with people too much of
anything can have a detrimental effect
and the most obvious first things you
may see would be related to GI tract
they may have volunteen they may have
low stool diarrhea
but many times the problems with
improper nutrition are seen over a long
period of time and so if they eat
something that’s not really good for
them once or twice and that’s it it’s
probably not gonna be a problem
it’s when you have improper nutrition
over a prolonged period of time that
those problems slowly begin to
accumulate and cause issues for instance
if you have a pet that is taking in too
many calories the fact that it ate too
much today doesn’t mean it’s suddenly
going to be grossly overweight just like
in people usually that weight gain is
going to occur over an extended period
of time and so oftentimes the negative
health consequences are not seen
immediately by the pet owner so out of
sight out of mind
in fact over time if they look back
where their pet was and they realize hey
my pets gain you know three or four
pounds well the equivalent might be URI
gaining twenty or thirty pounds and so
you can have a very negative health
effect
dog grooming
and the first thing you want to do is
you want to bathe your dog dry it and
brush it out make sure that the dog is
mat free you want to start with a mat
free dog and once all that’s done first
thing you want to do
it’s clip the toenails bring the back
foot up and start just taking a little
bit off at a time there are your key
costume contests
and of course the Yorkie ball a dinner
with live music all to rescue members of
what might just be the cutest breeded
dogs on earth the noble Yorkshire
Terrier
