We were a little busy over Christmas and missed getting out our holiday message. We hope everyone had a safe and joyful holiday and that all animals stayed out of the chocolate and the tinsel!

Our 1st Annual Holiday Beagle Bash at The Pet Set was very successful despite the extremely chilly day. We will be back at The Pet Set for more regular "Beagle Days" so keep checking the calendar for dates.

As we go into the last week of 2009 we have so much to be thankful for. This year started out rough for us with several emergencies that put us in a pretty good hole. With careful stewardship and your generous donations, as well as a wonderful uptick in adoptions in the latter half of the year we are in pretty good financial shape, all things considered. We still need to build up our emergency reserve and Jake's Fund, but our dog-to-dog operating expenses are very manageable right now.

We met so many wonderful beagle lovers this year and have several passionate new volunteers. We are so excited about some plans we have for some fun events in the new year and know that with the support we have now we will be able do more and do bigger.

We will be looking for grants this coming year to fund a program we're putting together called "Foster For Life". This program is going to specifically support senior dog adoptions. As we move forward with this we will keep you updated through the website and our newsletter. Senior beagles are just awesome dogs and are certainly not "hospice" cases. We adopted Ladybug out 3 years ago and she is still going strong (got doggy daycare Camper of the Month for the second time recently!). Ruby, Ladybug, Manny, Elvis, Bowie - all super, super dogs and certainly just as deserving of a wonderful permanent home as any young whipppersnapper.

We are filling up our Zazzle store with all kinds of neat Atlanta Beagle Rescue stuff. All profits go directly back to Atlanta Beagle Rescue. We will be pushing to add a whole lot more designs in the next few weeks so please bookmark the site!

A special thanks goes out to the Johnson and Weitz families and Wendy Hughes. They are our super duper foster homes and without them we would have had to stay no to some wonderful dogs. Read about fostering and consider giving it a shot. We hear all the time "Oh I could never do that," but you'd be surprised at how satisfying it is, and how easy it is to pass your foster dog onto a wonderful permanent home. You LITERALLY save a life when you foster.

We are looking forward to the new year and the opportunities we have for growing ABR with more volunteers and more foster homes, and getting the word out about how many wonderful beagles are in need of rescue.

We can't do it without you, so thank you thank you thank you!!