COL. POTTER COMPASSION TO THE RESCUE ONCE AGAIN!!!

Written by CP's VP of Intakes

at the shelter

Any of you that suffer from allergies, seborrhea, or any type of skin allergy or condition know exactly how itchy, sore, uncomfortable and miserable this can be. Now imagine having no medical attention, nothing to help you, itching so bad that you literally scratch yourself bloody and your skin turns black and hard. Personally, I can't even image what it must be like to endure this kind of pain and suffering.

Col. Potter received a plea from a shelter that had picked up a young female Cairn, or at least what they thought was a Cairn as a stray. Her skin condition was so bad she would literally SCREAM when she was touched. The shelter vet immediately started her on three different medications and prescribed every other day medicated baths to help her. While this has brought her some relief, her treatment and recovery will be long. Being a local shelter, they just knew they would not be able to find an adoptive home for her and sought rescue help to save her life.

Please welcome Dulcinea to the Col. Potter Family. She is estimated at 3 years old and despite all her pain and suffering, is a sweet, friendly, little girl weighing in at only 10lbs. Dulcinea was picked up from the shelter on Friday by Kenneth B. and taken to our vet for examination and further treatment until she travels to her foster home next weekend.

Dulcinea will be in our Guardian Angel Program. Her treatment will last months of medications, supplements and medicated baths. When she is finally strong enough and her immune system has been built back up, she will then need to be spayed and have a dental.

We thank the local shelter for not only contacting Col. Potter to help Dulcinea, but for getting her started on treatment and providing her some relief. I would also like to thank Kenneth B. for dropping everything on Friday to make the trip to pick-up Dulcinea.

The photo album shows pictures of Dulcinea when she arrived at the shelter and when she arrived at our vet this past Friday. Please consider helping Dulcinea become the beautiful little Cairn girl we all know is there by supporting her on the Guardian Angel Program.

Dulcinea, welcome to the CP family where we will take care of you with gentle and loving hands ...

at the vet

Cute little Zeva crawls into CP!

Written by a CP Intakes volunteera



I received a call this morning from my local animal service asking if Col. Potter could take this little girl. She was picked up as a stray and no one came looking for her. She was past her hold time and the shelter was out of room. Sooooo….. with some quick emails/phone calls she got approval to become a CP girl!

She’s estimated to be 5-7 years old and weighs about 13 lbs. She has some hair loss on her back and is a little itchy. Zeva is a very sweet, happy little girl and does the cutest little belly crawl.



Please welcome Zeva!

Welcome Victoria!

Written by a CP Intakes Coordinator

Welcome Victoria, meaning victorious, winner, conqueror. All of which describe this 3 year old cairn. She was adopted from a local shelter by a gentlemen that had allergy testing done on her to find out exactly what she was allergic to so that she could be treated. He paid for a supply of her allergy shots, but, decided that he was not equipped to handle all the care that she would need and surrendered her to his vet office. He gave her very good care, he even paid to have a mammary tumor removed and her spay. She also had to have part of her tail amputated, related to the allergies. It’s hard sometimes to do the right thing and the right thing was that he realized that he was not equipped to care for Victoria. She deserves someone that can give her all the love and care she will need long term.

Well one of our volunteers uses the same vet, so it was this girls lucky day when the vet tech introduced her to the CP volunteer. She contacted Intakes and we went to work to get this girl into the CP family.

This girl is going to need allergy shots for now to help with her skin problems and allergies. We are hoping with the skin care protocol and by watching her diet it won’t be long before she can go without the shots. We are counting on her being a conqueror and overcoming the skin and allergy issues she is facing.

A special thank you to Kitty K. for all her help with Victoria, you are her rescue angel! She is headed to FL to her foster mom Tanya, who will work with her on the allergies and get her ready for a forever family.

Thanks again to all the volunteers that help cairns in need, it is so heartwarming to email or call and without hesitation you jump right in to help, we could not save the ones we do without all of you!!

Working together to help cairns in need! :)

The Foster Spotlight Is On LUISE!

UPDATE: We are very pleased to announce that Luise has found her forever family! Are you looking for a TERRIFIC TERRIER? Check out our available cairns! Look for Luise and other "Happily Ever After" stories on our Post Adoption blog.

Written by: Luise's Foster Mom

Luise came into Col. Potter’s care known to have food and grass allergies. Little did we know that was just the tip of the iceberg. I started to foster Luise during the winter and treated her with medicated baths and a diet free of corn and wheat. She started to look and feel better until spring sprung bringing all the malicious things that Luise’s body could not tolerate. Her hair started to fall out, she was constantly itching and she was not getting restful sleep at night. I looked in her eyes and she just looked completely worn out. I asked and received permission from Col. Potter to take her to an allergist and the true story finally was revealed; Luise had over 60 allergies with 42 being severe.

If you followed any of the write-ups I submitted on her you will recall this was the little girl that liked to show her teeth; what we call the big smile. I knew this was a rather strong calming signal she was giving and now I knew why; her skin was painful. During the worst of her allergy flare-up when I had to take her off the antihistimes prior to the allergy tests this little girl clung to me looking for comfort. Luise loves to be in the company of people and looks to them for comfort. Her true colors came out, she is a big love bug at heart and the big smiles were just her telling me to be gentle.


After several trips to the allergist to evaluate her treatment, Luise looks and feels great. You would never know she has an allergy to grass; I shake my head every time she is in the yard rolling around in the grass. Her treatment involves injections twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday, medicated baths and a daily antihistamine. This little girl is absolutely a jewel when it comes to her treatment. She now gets so excited when I go to the drawer to pull out the needle to prepare for her injections. She goes into puppy mode and scratches at my leg telling me to hurry up. Okay, maybe it is not the injection but the treat that follows that gets her excited!

She occasionally still gives me a smile if I ask her to let me clean her ears or if I need to get a burr from between her pads. It is almost a game for us because she will give me the smile and I talk to her and put my hand to her mouth and she gives me kisses then I get to clean or remove burrs. She’s a Cairn! She is absolutely wonderful around new people and older kids. She will greet the kids with kisses. She is a fantastic companion who likes to snuggle up to people on the couch.

Certainly Luise is an older dog, but that brings along many fine traits. She does not have a strong prey drive, she is a watcher. She loves watching people and other animals; she does not chase after cats. She is near perfect on a leash; her only down side is she speeds up a bit when she sees people or dogs approaching. She has no desire to escape from the yard. Did I happen to mention she is incredibly cute and she will use that cuteness to persuade you to change your mind?

If you would like to welcome this sweet little girl into your home and heart, click here to fill out an adoption application!

Maybe Luise has touched your heart and you would like to become one of her Guardian Angels? Click here for more information on our Guardian Angel program.

Ivan Update From His Foster Mom

Ivan came to Col. Potter with serious allergy and yeast problems along with dry eye. After just a few days with his Foster Mom he is showing improvement. Below is her update:

The first thing I have to tell you about Ivan is that he wants to eat ALL THE TIME. He eats like there is no tomorrow. The poor little guy is pretty itchy right now and we are working on that.

He is very sweet and likes to talk to you. He follows me around and wants to be close by at all times. He is wearing a little shirt I had used for my Tanner when he was having skin problems. Little big for him but I had to wash his little shirts. He knows sit, give me five, sits up, goes potty outside, (except for the first evening here.) I have a belly band on him that was also Tanners and it is way too large. I put a small diaper under it until I get some pads. He is marking a little, but did better today. He has charmed us already and we are anxious to see some improvements for him.

Welcome Ivan!

The Intakes Team deals with all kinds of situations and people from all walks of life. Each new case is an adventure with an unwritten ending. You never know where that adventure will take you and what the end will be. Such is the story of Ivan, our newest Col. Potter boy.

Ivan is an owner surrender who just celebrated his 8th birthday. He has some serious allergy and yeast problems as well as dry eye. Ivan's owner could no longer deal with the health issues and Col. Potter came to the rescue. It's been a long road getting everything together so we would be prepared for Ivan and the special care and attention he would need. Friday Ivan's adventure began! Susan B. picked him up and he enjoyed his first bath at “Susan’s Spa”. Saturday he started his journey to his foster home where he will be cared for by Joy W. Bonnie B. has put together a plan for his medical care. CP is springing into action for this very special boy. Ivan has no idea how his life will change.

A little more about Ivan - he knows the commands sit, stay, potty, shake, give five & DANCE!! I can't wait for the day when Ivan will want to dance again!! Check back here for updates on Ivan’s progress!

To see the transformation of other dogs under Col. Potter's care watch our newest video "To Better Days".

Welcome A New Cairn Princess!

Eppie is a lovely reddish wheaten 4 year old who was brought to a veterinarian by her owners to be put down. The only thing this girl did wrong was to have allergies. This veterinarian turned out to be Eppie's guardian angel and asked the owners to sign her over, which they did. Once this vet had Eppie's skin problems under control, she contacted Col. Potter about placing Eppie with us. Eppie won the hearts of the entire clinic, so they were very protective of Eppie and asked a lot of questions about CPCRN, before entrusting us to find a great new forever home for this darling girl. Who could resist those big beautiful eyes!

Thank you to Marlene who picked Eppie up from the clinic and provided these great pictures. And a special thank you to first time foster mom, Wendy, who will be fostering Eppie.