Fall 2026 Newsletter

Well, here we are still working on rescuing herding dogs in the south after 20 years. Happy Anniversary!

Call to action!

Help us celebrate by purchasing a calendar! We were blessed by having a talented young lady put it together for us this year. It's a 16 month calendar. We have been sending those out since early September, but calendar sales are lagging way behind. If you can purchase a calendar, I feel sure that it will be a blessing to you as well as fund a needy dog this fall and winter.

And I can say right now, it's been the busiest month this entire year.

First of all, let's congratulate Lil Girl for getting her forever home. She came

to us in 2023 along with 4 other siblings. They were part of a litter that

ended up with a family near Mamou, Louisiana. They all got great homes

that same year. Lil Girl, not so quickly. You can see the glorious smile on

her face that she is finally going home.

Thank you Larry and Shelley,

Lil Girl is very grateful and so are her new family!

I have just been informed that Stella also has her own home! She was with Larry and Shelley since 2024. We have a long wait for some and we don't understand why, but when they do get adopted, we realize there is a reason for everything.

As for the busiest month of the year, the following dogs were transported, transferred, rescued or adopted: Callie, Tessa, Patsy, Lulu, Reba (now Rizzo), and Tucker! We are also doing courtesy posts on Otis and Kyla. Here are their stories:

Callie was found in Oberlin, Lousiana. Apparently she was left behind when people moved and was fending for herself when some kind neighbors began feeding her and notified local rescuers. She is now in a foster home and is adopted. We have vetted and spayed her and she is heartworm negative. The best news is that she is now heading to her home in Vancouver, BC. We have a transport coorinator, but if you feel called to help with future transports, please email me, sharon@blackjackrescue.org

Tessa was rescued from Acadia Parish in Louisiana 6 years ago. She had to have heartworm treatment and also had a litter of puppies. She had her treatment and all of her puppies found homes. Her foster in WI adopted her and enjoyed her companionship for 6 years. However, her physical condition required her to give up Tessa, and we moved her to a new foster home in Columbus Ohio. Thank you Beckett for stepping up to the plate to care for Tessa. She is one of our most well loved dogs on the Facebook page. Now she will learn a new household and be prepared to be adopted again. She is blessed to have a place to go. We also thank the family who covered her health certificate and transport. Thank you Michelle for driving all of those hours to help get Tessa to her foster home. Trying to plan and coordinate trips that take hundreds of miles and people to accomplish is very painstaking and takes time. I spent around 20 hours this last week with all the details. If you have a desire and want to be a transport coordinator assistant, we can train you in all the details. At my age, it may be a necessity to get someone going forward! LOL

As for Patsy, that is a miracle in the making. You see, Patsy and what are presumed to

be her 2 daughters were caught running loose in Eunice, Louisiana and taken to the local

city shelter. There, the local rescuers took photographs and sent to us to help find them

homes.We have worked in Louisiana so long, we get multiple requests a month to help

catahoulas. Again, foster homes there make it happen, but adoptions are low there. So,

finding a foster home in locations like Indiana, New Jersey, New York, the midwest and

northeast, make it possible to find them a great home. You can place your application

online at the web site. We need you desperately. Rescue is not rescue without you!

Thanks to Lauren, she stepped up to rescue Patsy. She is going to do her heartworm

treatment. Since 2017, the numbers we have treated for heartworms, (with mostly fast

kill treatment) is over 220. Yes, that is a lot of money and thanks to generous donors, it

has been possible for dogs to find homes who normally would have ended up

euthanized in shelters. Below you will find links to donate to the rescue to continue to

help dogs who are heartworm positive.

Lauren is going to cover the costs and treat Patsy, because she is a vet and loves her dearly.

This is another miracle. A volunteer at a boarding kennel in Eunice notified us that Patsy was

still there. We had posted for Patsy but got NO one to volunteer. So she lingered in boarding. Because we posted online on Facebook, and Lauren saw her and fell in love with her, Patsy is now rescued and living the pampered life of a beloved pet. You see how this works, merely by posting and crossposting these pets, they are seen by someone and a miracle from above happens. We save a lot of dogs just by this method alone. If you want to be a part of posting photos online, developing posts that highlight the dogs, their plight and the wonderful ways we can help them, please sign up now! My creativity is for writing, but the technical things are far beyond my abilities. I am asking now for someone to step up to help run the Facebook pages. Must be a dog lover, a catahoula lover and technically minded! Sticking by the stuff makes a lot of things happen! Telling our story brings in a lot of interest for helping more dogs!

Lulu was found as a stray by our friend and past adoptor Ines Voellinger. Lulu was wandering a stray in her neighborhood and she and another person rescued Lulu. She fostered Lulu and sent us information about her. She sent the most intense and interesting biography of any dog we have ever seen. It really touched my heart. We posted Lulu on Petfinder while Ines took care of the fostering and vetting. Lulu is now in her forever home. You see, one person can change the life of a stray dog who has no where to go, no food, no life expectancy in a busy crowded shelter. One person, one dog and a great outcome. You can be that person also. We do rehome dogs, so if that is the case with you, and you are willing to work hard to find a place as Ines was, we welcome you under our rescue umbrella. Please email me, sharon@blackjackrescue.org if you can help.

Reba was a beautiful catahoula leopard dog mix that was tied on a chain for a couple of years along with 2 others. The single mom that had them surrendered them to the shelter when she could no longer care for them. The other two were adopted after some time, but poor Reba was there over 240 days in that shelter. Thank goodness, they cared for her, saw that she was spayed and vaccinated, heartworm treated, fed and able to play in the play yard. But that is not like having your own home. So we posted Reba. A very kind, independent rescuer helped us transport her and she was adopted by a lady who had been trying to find a dog through our rescue for some time. Reba, now Rizzo is currently now on tour with her new family in their RV. The photos look wonderful and they tell me she is doing great. From a chain, to a shelter, to a tour of the southeast, Rizzo has found her dream home! Happy travels Rizzo!

Tucker was another sweet pup, found wandering near Deridder, Louisiana. There was also a sibling with him, but on second look, the sibling was not found. A wonderful foster home, Nikki, took great care of Tucker, and we found

him a home. He is now adopted. If you would like to foster a dog or puppy like Tucker, please apply on the web site or email me about ones that are available.

Otis is a catahoula leopard dog mix from Eunice, Louisiana. He was found

a stray with a gunshot wound to his leg. Because of infection, the local

rescuers raised money and their vet had to amputate his leg. However,

Otis gets around as a 3 legger as well as any 4 legger. We have made a

flyer for him, your job, if you choose to accept it is to share his flyer around

to as many places as you can until his miracle happens!

Last but not least is Kyla, she is 5 years old and last year lost her owner who died. She is in a foster home, but would love a home of her own. She is people and dog friendly, fully vetted, heartworm negative and ready to find her own home. You can find her information on our Petfinder site, also navigated through our web site, www.blackjackrescue.org

Last but not least, let's share another long timer, Luna. She needs her own home as well! Catahoula through and through!

We would love to also thank our wonderful web site developer, Jordan Kaiser and our previous web site developer Brian Berenato. Thanks to them, we have the beautiful, well designed web site that we share with so many. You can also share the web site, in hopes of finding the remaining dogs a home. Thank you in advance for caring.

Last but not least, we do need donations. If you have a particular dog you want to donate to, please go on the web site and donate via the donate button. We also take Zelle and snail mail donations, if you want more information, please email sharon@blackjackrescue.org or Shelley at murdock_shelley@yahoo.com.