RAL’s 2023 Dog Mascot!
Meet Blu, Richmond Animal League’s (first ever) dog mascot!
Blu will represent rescue pups as RAL’s 2023 Dog Mascot.
Blu won this honor during our Sugar & Spice auction last year. Blu is a rescue herself and her mom is a staunch supporter of RAL, making her a wonderful Mascot for the organization in 2023! Blu will be featured on RAL’s social media throughout the year, at events, on marketing materials, and more. Be sure to keep an eye out for this beautiful girl!
Interested in making your dog the 2024 RAL Mascot? Get your ticket for Sugar & Spice on February 25th for a chance to bid on this wonderful opportunity.
Thank you Becky Huddleston for photographing Miss Blu for her RAL Mascot debut!
Read Blu’s Story
as written by her human mom
Blu’s known story began when she arrived in November 2012 as stray at the Palm Springs Animal Shelter (CA). The years from 2012 to 2016 were not easy for my girl. She nearly died on complication of her spay surgery, did not have a single meet and greet in all her time at the shelter and because she showed severe barrier reactivity in the kennel and on walks, she was only allowed to be handled by a limited number of volunteers.
The shelter at that time was collaborating with a shelter in Colorado, with a full staffed dog behavior department and was taking in cases from other shelter in the US. Blu was on the waiting list to be transferred to this shelter. This is when I met her.
She was not my first choice when I offered to take in a dog for a long foster weekend. But out of the foster weekend became weeks and then months and as soon as I knew I was able to stay in the US I adopted her. At that point she had been for over 4 years at the shelter, was a senior who had more years behind her than in front of her and so I made her a promise to make those remaining years her best.
I became a certified dog trainer to help her through her fear-based reactivity issues and she turned from a fearful dog, marked as “needs to be the only dog in the home” to a dog who has overcome her leash reactivity and who enjoys having a younger “brother” in her life and helped me with socializing foster puppies and dogs.
Blu loves treats, posing for treats, car rides, road trips, training (if treats are involved), napping, cuddling, long walks (she is slowly getting too old for hiking adventures) and did I mention treats?
My little desert flower hates rain. She will not set a paw in front of the door when there is rain, she expects you suffer with her, and she only goes when you go with her. And let’s not even bring up the topic of thunderstorms. As a desert dog she enjoys sunshine and dry heat and is not used to the VA weather.
Together we have explored SoCal and our road trips brought us to Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina and finally Virginia.
Last year in May we reached “break even” and she spend more days with me than in the shelter. And we are hoping for many more golden days together.
