Wanted: Home for terrorist puppies

Cortlandt: Describing abandoned puppies as "terrorists" in a classified ad would not seem like a good way to get them adopted.

Unless you're in the animal-rescue world of Paula Young.

Young, director of Mount Vernon's animal shelter, learned last month that four rat terrier pups were about to be euthanised in New York City. So she swooped in, picked them up and brought them to her five-acre (two-hectare) spread in Westchester County. Then she called The Journal News and ordered a two-week, three-line ad that says, "Twin Rat Terrorists; 11 months, adorable, full of fun."

You don't often see "terrorist" and "adorable" in the same description, but Young said she was just being honest.

"They can be little terrors," she said of the eight- to 12-pound (three and a half to five and a half kilogram), white-butterscotch-and-black short-haired terriers named Jack, Jackie, Milo and Dino, who were playing happily on a second-story deck on a recent morning and were perfectly friendly toward a visitor.

Don't be fooled by those sweet-looking faces and silky ears: Their fierce hunting instincts are likely to terrify any prey.

"If you're wearing a pair of slippers that look like bunnies, they'll think it's the greatest thing in the world and they'll attack them," warned Young.

"And they're very energetic. Jack jumped off that deck to greet me the other day,” Young added.

Young said she advertised the little terrors by twos because people would be more likely to adopt two than four. And as of Monday she had found a home for just one - Jack, who was adopted by a woman and her 11-year-old daughter in Piermont.

When Young placed the ad, the woman taking down the copy balked at "terrorist".

"She said, 'You mean terrier?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'You really want to say that?' I said, 'Yes'."

Young said she's from a military family, didn't think the word "terrorist" would offend anyone and saw nothing wrong with using it to attract attention.

Attract it did.

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Young said that since September 21, when the ad first appeared in the paper and online, she had received about 75 calls.

Some were just interested in adopting the dogs; some mentioned al-Qaeda or the Irish Republican Army; and a man named Todd called from Colorado to say, "I loved your ad about the twin rat terrorists. We just put it up on the refrigerator."

The ad was especially notable among fluffier adoption notices for a "Wheaton terrier soft coated" and "Yorkie puppies, toy and teacup sizes."

Young, who is in her 40s and the mother of a grown son, has a soft spot for the hard cases of the animal world. A state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator who has been an actress, a journalist and a restaurant owner, she has a series of sheds and cages behind her house for rabbits, raccoons and even deer recovering from injury or other trauma, like the loss of a mother.

This week, three raccoons were lounging in the rafters of their shed, ignoring an open door to freedom. There's also a pen for a big Nubian goat named Billy, who was rescued when he was two days old from what would have been a Santeria sacrifice on a beach in New Rochelle, she said.

"Billy thinks he's a dog," Young said as she let him out into the yard. "If the dogs are getting rambunctious, he does too, and you don't want to be around him then."

Then there are her own pets, including three tiny Pomeranians in diapers and "I don't know how many" cats. Most of them were once shelter animals, too, and worked their way into her heart.

On a shelf in the living room of her somehow spotless home are half a dozen wood or metal boxes holding the ashes of some all-time favorites. One is labeled "Toto" and inscribed "Loyal, loving, loved."