Q: I came across the upcoming Puppy Bowl XVIII on social media and saw a reference to Bosley’s Place. Would you tell me about Bosley’s?
A: You are inquiring on the Smyrna nursey rescue that takes in underaged, homeless and abandoned neonatal puppies providing around-the-clock care, along with adoption, foster placement, training and social animal engagement/education.
It was a chance encounter that Jennifer Siegel met Bosley, a puppy dumped in a trash can at Grant Park.
Thinking she was doing something good, Siegel came across an abandoned old blind dog and instead of leaving it tied to a tree she took it to Fulton County and posted on Facebook.
“What I received back was just the opposite. ‘You put that dog on death row.’ At that time they were not run by LifeLine. I went back every day to make sure he got adopted.”
Her last visit to the shelter fell on a Friday and minutes to closing. A man holding a puppy comes in telling the staff not to clock out, asking to find a foster, a momma dog, anything, not wanting to euthanize the dog, she said.
“Did you just say this puppy would be killed?” Siegel asked. “He explained to me that newborn puppies couldn’t survive overnight in a shelter by themselves. They need care every two hours. They can’t go to the bathroom on their own, they can’t generate body heat. Obviously they can’t nurse because they have nothing to nurse on. They are so exceedingly fragile that the kindest thing to do if they couldn’t find a nursing mother or foster to bottle feed would be to euthanize.
“I watched them like dialing for dollars for a rescue,” she noted.
Without any luck in finding a place for the pup, Siegel became Bosley’s foster and later the inspiration for the rescue.
Credit: contribut
Credit: contribut
Since March 2015, over 1,400 puppies have been rescued, according to the founder.
Credit: contr
Credit: contr
Every rescue, including medical cases, receives specialized care. They are hand raised and bottle-fed. “They know nothing but love, trust and respect. We are very different from your average rescue because we have them from birth,” Siegel said. “With us you actually know what you are getting.”
Credit: contribut
Credit: contribut
“Puppies come from anywhere in the southeast. Because they are so fragile we have a finite time to get them to us. We have about an 88 percent survival rate because it is literally the only thing I do.”
Bosley’s Place is a two-building facility. One is shared with their training partners and vet offices with three puppy ICU units. The adoption center and party puppy pavilion are next door. They are open one day a week and by appointment only.
The puppy parties will pick back up in the spring. “The puppies benefit from the socialization, the children and others love to get their puppy kisses and the donations help support the rescue. We also do corporate events,” the founder added.
“We’ve discovered that all these puppies have no idea that their mommy is a dog. Mommy is a human so they make it exceedingly easy to train. Every time we have an adoption we hear ‘Wait, you said this dog wasn’t potty trained, but he’s never gone in the house’,” Siegel said. “They just listen. It’s amazing and incredible. They love their humans.”
The rescue currently has 30 total: 26 puppies and 3 adult dogs (previous Bosley’s Place babies). Five of the puppies are special needs.
“Bosley literally cares for these puppies as if he was their mother. He gets in the play area with them and he’ll correct them if needed, but mostly he just sits there and kisses them,” she said.
For more information, visit http://www.bosleysplace.com/
New to Atlanta or simply have a question about this place we call home? Email your request to atlactualfact@gmail.com
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