Take a look at our sweet girl Millie! Thanks to your donations and the love and care from her foster family, in less than a month she has gone

from this…

to this.

Millie still has a lot of recovering to do, but she’s well on her way to a normal life!
It’s so easy to see the effects of poor breeding and irresponsible pet ownership on a dog like Millie because it’s right there in front of your eyes.

The harder cases are dogs like William, who, due to horrible breeding practices, was born with a grab bag of genetic mishaps: He is deaf, though he CAN see, and he has terribly malformed hips which are causing an incredible amount of pain. There is one thing working in William’s favor, though – his fantastic personality. He, just like Millie, is a complete doll. They’re both goofy and silly and happy and the both LOVE and ADORE the humans in their lives. To think that someone thought so little of these dogs that they just dumped them and drove off is completely heartbreaking to the volunteers at GDRNT. Fortunately, like Millie, William can be helped.

And just like Millie, William will need money (we expect the surgery to cost about $4000 after the deep discount the veterinary surgeon gives us) and lots of love and care while he heals in his foster home. We’ve got the love and care – and some of the money – covered (our volunteers do more than just care for these animals…they also open up their wallets time and time again), but we’ll still need help from people like you.

One day William won’t have to sit on the sidelines; with your support, he’ll be able to play and romp with his buddies without pain soon.

We have several ways you can help. There’s always the straight donation option using regular mail or paypal, or you can support one of these companies that support us:

PMK Digital Imaging, LLC
The good folks at PMK are giving GDRNT 25% of their profits – forever. Woo-hoo! They do fantastic print work and we’re certain you’ll be able to find lots of uses for their services with the upcoming holidays.

Lucy’s Dog House
Hans, the owner of Lucy’s Dog House has graciously offered a 30% donation to GDRNT when people use the coupon code “MILLIE”.

Note: If you’re considering buying a Great Dane puppy and you choose not to go the shelter or rescue route, please, please, please, only use a reputable breeder. Be careful, though, because it’s very hard to tell the difference between a responsible breeder and a backyard breeder. Just getting “papers” is not enough. You should be able to see pictures of the breeder in the show ring with their dogs (breeders who ‘show’ their dogs in competitions are more likely to produce dogs to better the breed…better temperament, better bone structure, etc), and you should expect to sign a contract with the breeder that says if you can’t keep the dog – for any reason – that dog will be returned directly to the breeder. A reputable breeder can’t imagine one of his/her dogs ending up like William or Millie – dumped in a shelter or left on the side of the road. If you can’t donate to Millie or Williams fund, you can still help by NOT supporting backyard breeding. Sure, if you buy a puppy from an irresponsible breeder, you ARE saving that one dog, but you’re also making it easier for that breeder to continue to produce deformed, seriously ill dogs.