(IGNORE THE DATE ON THIS POST - this is for NOW - July 2nd, 2008!)

Please read this and forward this to anyone you know who might want
to adopt or foster a new friend or two, and be sure to attach the
photos!

We would have sent this out with more warning, but we just found out
we just have a week to save these dogs' lives. They are our
neighbor's puppies, and he is about to take them to the pound in
chatham county, where they will be immediately put to sleep, because
they are pit bull mixes, and we have gotten to know then and we
reallllly love them, but we are about to go on tour with our band,
Bowerbirds, for 5 months and can't foster them while we find them
homes. They are awesome. You know you want one or two!

The mother is only a year old, and the babies are 5 months old. The
dog we think is their father is a white pit bull, and he is super
sweet and gives lots of kisses. The mother is in the picture on the
chair, and she is full grown, but still small. The babies will be
pretty small too, probably about 45 pounds. Our dog Olive is bigger
than they will be, if you know Olive, who is a very small lab mix.

We have already named them, but you can change their names if you
want. The mother's name was already Shy before we met her. She is
in the chair with Britta. The dog in the picture with me and my blue
shirt is Cheyenne, and the other partially hidden puppy in that
picture is Sven. Sven is the blurry dog in the photo by himself.
Britta is the runt. She loves other dogs and loves to give kisses.
Shy is very sweet and got a lot of love as a puppy, so she is good
around all sorts of people. The dogs also aren't racist against
white or black people, which some dogs are. They have been running
free since they were born, and they are good around children, and
they are very good at coming home. They sort of have been living
under our airstream, and we started feeding them eventually.

They don't pee or poop inside, and they hardly ever chew on
anything. The are just naturally very well behaved dogs. They are
of course energetic, because they are puppies, but they also sleep
half the day. They love to be cuddled and snuggled, and they love to
go on walks together, off leash, and they come when called. They
would be really happy living in a situation where they had a backyard
or lived in the country, and also someone who would take them for
walks or to the dog park.

We think they would do best if they were adopted in pairs, so they
don't have a total shock of being alone, when they are very happy
together. Cheyenne has been sort of clearly wanting a home, and she
vies for attention with the other puppies, so we think she would do
best with her mom. And we think that Britta and Sven would be best
together. In these pairs, they would keep each other calm, and they
would be best friends, so you would know that your dogs were happy
when you weren't there, that they would be keeping each other
company. But we could try out different arrangements.

We do want to try to keep them in pairs of some sort, because we know
they love each other so much, and they sleep all piled together.

These are honestly, in a lot of ways, some of the easiest to deal
with puppies I have met. Their only issue has been that they fight
with each other when we have been driving them home and dropping them
off at their original home, which was really a very un-ideal
situation. They try really hard not to get out of our minivan when
we drop them off, and they are obviously really sad each time we
abandon them back at their home, and so they started fighting when we
would drop them off. I know that once they get forever homes, they
will feel safe and be sweet all the time, like they are at our
house. They really just love us desperately, as they will love
anyone who adopts them and gives them love, and they really just want
us to keep them.

We would foster them, but we won't even be at our airstream starting
next weekend, because we have to be at mark's house in raleigh for a
week before tour, and they can't come to his apartment.

Please, please someone, foster these dogs and try to find them homes,
or even better, adopt them! You can also agree to foster them for
the next three months, and then we can try to keep helping find them
homes when we are home for a couple weeks in October. If we weren't
in a touring band, we would adopt at least one of the puppies,
because they are really smart, sweet, fun and amazing. The first
time we tried to teach Sven to sit, he took one look at Olive sitting
on command, and he sat. It was ridiculous. He is also very calm and
Buddha-like.

Anyway, we would love to talk to you more about them, and to let you
meet them. Please feel free to email back or call us if you think
you can help. There are also organizations like Independent Animal
Rescue, which are full right now, in terms of foster homes for them.
But if you hook up with Independent Animal Rescue, you can foster the
dog, and they will pay all vet bills for the dogs, and they will buy
the leash and food, and all you do is take the puppies for walks, and
take them every so often to adoptathons, until they find new homes.
Like, if anyone just has a fenced in yard, that would be awesome,
because they aren't completely house trained, and it would be better
to leave them outside during the day until they are house trained.

Please, please, someone help us out with this! These dogs are so
awesome.

Our phone number is (919) 961-0298.
Our email is info@bowerbirds.org
If you are getting this email forwarded to you, our names are Beth
and Phil.

We are happy to take better photos of any of them, but you should
really meet them. Actually, if any of you can temporarily foster
them for the next couple weeks while we find them real foster homes,
that would also be awesome, because we can't bring them to mark's
house, since there is no fenced yard, and he has tons of music
equipment everywhere that could be a nice chew toy for a puppy.

We have attached pictures. I'm not sure if they have ever been to a
vet. They probably need all their shots and to be spayed and
neutered. But Independent Animal Rescue should be able to help you
with this if you can't afford it and want to foster them.

Love,
beth and phil