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Sunday, March 02, 2008

Dogs By Reusch

''Mister Reusch is a freelance illustrator and teacher at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston who's done hundreds of editorial illustrations, concert posters, snowboard and helmet designs, and more. But his favorite subject is painting dogs,especially Boston Terriers. He wasn't allowed to have dogs in his old apartment, and he found himself constantly working the bug-eyed, bat-eared Bostons into his freelance assignments. Eventually, he began painting large full-color Boston Terriers for gallery shows, and donating prints and originals to worthy causes.

In 2006 Mister Reusch started a fundraising program with http://www.bostonbuddies.org, creating a series of four 14' x 11' paintings showing dogs running through the seasons; the background of each painting lines up with the others to create the illusion of one big panorama, though the background foliage changes in each according to season. Four times a year Reusch sent a signed-and-numbered print from the series to each of the first 10generous donors who pledged $100 or more to Boston Buddies.







These days Mister Reusch and his partner Carrie live with two Boston Terriers,4-year-old Frankenstein and 8-year old Mr. Giles,(pictured above) a Hurricane Katrina refugee they adopted. The boys are a constant inspiration, and have appeared in many of Mister Reusch's recent artwork. He accepts dog portrait commissions regularly, so please visit www.DogsByReusch.com for more information."

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Boston Terrier selected as finalist for Circuit City "Fire Dog"



Spanky, has been selected as one of 19 finalists out of 6,000 entries for the Circuit City Firedog photo contest.
If he wins, the Greenhill Humane Society in Eugene will receive $50,000, plus $1 per vote.
It is particularly noteworthy since this little guy just survived
vascular heart surgery.

The voting takes place online from January 6-26. If you can find the
time, it would be wonderful to have you vote
for Spanky. He is photo number 12 of the little black and white Boston
Terrier on the beach.
Just click here >>>> http://207.56.151.5/view/?id=12 to vote.

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More about Spanky:

Spanky was born 7/31/05. I have always been a yellow lab fan. My children's mother wanted to get our kids a dog. She wanted a breed that was smaller and began researching breeds. She decided that Boston Terrier might be a good choice.

She found a breeder in Sweet Home, Oregon. We had Spanky for about 3 weeks and found out from the vet that he had a heart murmur. We did not have the money to have it repaired. Each time when we took him to the vet, they commented on the murmur. I asked the kids' mother if we shared the cost, if she would agree to
let me take him to Oregon State University's Vet School to be diagnosed,
to see what we could do to help Spanky. She agreed.

I brought Spanky up there and spent an entire day. They said that he had a ductis and that surgically correcting it was the only option. They suggested going in through his leg through the femoral artery and putting a plug in to close it off. He also had an arterial valve issue that they said was not severe enough to treat. However, it caused an arterial bulge. When they went in, they inserted an
ultrasound scope down his throat to get a better look at the ductis. After three hours, they were not able to get a good enough image to deploy the blocking
devise.

They recommended that they make an incision and go in through his ribs and tie off the ductis. We OK'd them doing this. The surgeon said that it was one of the toughest ductis surgeries that she has ever done. Spanky came through the procedure with good results. He goes in in one more week to make sure that the ductis was
successfully closed off.

Spanky has become a member of our family in every sense of the world. He steals the hearts of everyone that he comes in contact with. The staff at OSU kept him in their laps when they worked, except when he was on an IV. They all just love Spanky.

Winning this contest would be such a validation of what an incredible little dog he is! He may be small in size, but he has the heart of a lion.

It is interesting to note, the cardiologist said that dogs rarely make it to two, with this condition. The fact that Spanky was 28 months old at the time, and had such good heart function, was really a miracle!

Please vote for Spanky to be the Circut City's Fire Dog!

http://207.56.151.5/view/?id=12