Lhasa Happy Homes, Randee Goldman and Kramer, LHH mascot
Posted: July 26, 2007 Filed under: Apso Aficionados 3 CommentsThank you Gail for sending this to be shared on the blog!
I wanted to do a piece about Randee Goldman and her rescue organization, Lhasa Happy Homes…I was lucky enough to meet her several years ago after I voraciously read her website…She definitely has a way with words and photographs…I loved what she wrote about the dogs and her mission…and the dog pictures always seemed to capture their true essences.,.touching my heart.
Randee said, “I was looking to find a cute little companion for my Lhasa, Kramer, who is the mascot of our website. I subscribed to an online rescue list for the breed. Next thing I knew, I was being asked to go to the shelter to rescue a Lhasa with sarcoptic mange…..who turned out to be a Shih Tzu with fleas.! Well, the rest is history!”
I called her up and asked if I could help out.This was my first rescue experience. She wanted me to help an older Maltese and then an older, sight challenged Shih-Tzu who was turned in by his owner because he was very crabby and not easy to love….and foster some dogs along the way, one of which was newly blind from Progressive Retinal Atrophy, a. black and white Lhasa that my soon -to -be friend, Chris Geiser would eventually adopt. This was my first experience with Progressive Retinal Atrophy.I .had to take her to Helen Woodward Specialty Hospital in Rancho Santa Fe to a famous opthamologist who would confirm her condition…..What did I know about blind dogs? (nothing then…now I have three) .except that Randee asked me to, so I did….I don’t know how she does it, tirelessly, day after day, but she rescues from the shelters of Southern California and takes dogs that owners turn in or are in difficult situations and unable to take care of them anymore…and gets them vetted and groomed and placed in her foster homes in loving situations..The dogs are transformed over a short period of time and there are never any left behind…even the more difficult senior and handicapped dogs…They all get adopted, no matter how long it seems to take. Weekly adoptions take place at the Farmer’s Market in Brentwood, Ca. (Southern Ca.) You are right Randee, the universe doesn’t make mistakes.!!!.I salute you and your amazing rescue and volunteers at www.lhasahappyhomes.org for Lhasa, Shih-Tzu, Maltese and Small Breed Rescue. – Gail
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 
Thanks, Gail, for all your kind words. The real heros are people like you who foster these kids or those who adopt them. Without our fosters,and wonderful adoptive families, we are dead in the water…and the more fosters we have, the more lives we can save!!!
But truly, we are really only the conduit to finding their forever homes. We are their voices and we try to listen as closely as possible to what they want and need.
Thank you for recognizing our work. If anyone has a heart for helping these kids, who might live in the Los Angeles area and could use a little unconditional love…please visit our website and volunteer with Lhasa Happy Homes! We can use all the help we can get!!
Maybe Gail will comment on how we first connected, but I think she was drawn to my work with the Gompas. From nearly the beginning, she volunteered to care for the older ones and now Panchen is living out his final years with her. I am so thankful for that!
I try my best to be a responsible breeder, placing dogs and puppies in homes where they will never end up needing the help of people like Randee and Vickie. My friend, Mary, was one of ‘original’ rescue people, starting in the 70s. Networking, as we know it today, didn’t exist. She was simply one woman taking in dogs and rehoming. She chose to do this with Poodles and Apsos, but you should have seen some of her ‘Poodles’ and ‘Apsos’! I remember one with short slick hair, about 20 inches tall. 🙂 Eventually Mary became ALAC’s first rescue chairman. Seems I remember, in a tribute to Mary, mention of her placing around 350 dogs.
During the holidays last December, Gail sent me Randee’s newsletter/greeting. It was amazing to read about the dogs that had been placed. So many of the dogs with disabilities were placed with people having the same disability! How perfect is that?!
Chris, a Lhasa owner, who I met thru Randee, told me to look up Dr. Cathy Marley to ask about finding a Tibetan Lhasa. I wrote her and she said to contact Darby McSorley who lives in Los Gatos, Ca. Chris and I both went to see Darby and her dogs. Darby said casually, that maybe I could contact Debby Rothman in Colorado..So I looked Debby’s site up and wrote to her asking if I might be able to have an older dog who needed a home. She told me we should communicate for awhile so she could get to know me and that sometime in the future when a dog became available, she would get in touch…I started reading about the Gompa dogs, their lineages and was fascinated by the little unkempt dogs brought to the U.S. who seemed to be cared for by ladies with impeccable taste. I finally welcomed a Gompa dog into my home several months ago..whose history I am in awe of. He is nothing like I expected…much gentler, smarter, perceptive and affectionate than Lhasas I have known before.It just occurred to me in your statement about people adopting dogs with the same disabilities that would apply to me also…and goes back to Suzanne Clothier’s quote about how our thumb fits in the hollow of the dog’s paw because “we are all holder and held, teacher and taught, guide and guided.” They are my “guide” dogs.