[Purple]

DOG RUN: Vetenarian Pilar Gosselin, of Canmore, Alberta, and two of her pitbulls rescued from hurricane Katrina, Ripple (L), and Louie. Gosselin is part of a group that has purchased a British Columbia island to be used as a dog refuge.

Pit Bull Island
Calgary-area veterinarians buy B.C. paradise
Joel KomCalgary Herald

Friday, March 07, 2008


What started as an advertisement on the back of a sailing magazine has turned into an island paradise for three Calgary-area veterinarians.

The trio has closed a $2.19-million deal for Rabbit Island, a 14.5-hectare craggy and treed piece of British Columbia in the Strait of Georgia that will soon be home to pit bulls rescued from one of the most devastating hurricanes in memory.

Pilar Gosselin, who bought the island with her partner, Dave Brace, and their friend, Dave Szentimrey, said the three wanted something as far away from their stressful jobs as they could get -- though Brace initially had other ideas.

"His dream was living on a boat," she said from her Canmore home. "I told him I wouldn't do that. So this was a bit of a compromise. It's a boat that doesn't sink."

For the 40-year-old Gosselin, the island will be a haven for some of the dogs she rescued from the havoc wreaked by hurricane Katrina.
She has seven dogs -- four of them pit bulls -- that survived the storm.
"It's like a pit bull moat almost," she said of the island. "There's no neighbours there, so (the dogs) can't cause any trouble."

Brace is looking forward to boating around the island, she said, while Szentimrey, a veterinarian in Calgary, is close to retiring and relishing the chance to go windsurfing and kayaking.

They're bent on maintaining the integrity of the ecologically delicate property, she said.

She and Brace own several properties in Canmore that have shot up in value -- something that helped them afford the island.

None of the buyers have children, she added.

The island comes with some add-ons. It has a 900-square-foot main lodge, four cabins that sleep six each, a bathhouse, solar and wind power and its own desalination plant that turns seawater into drinking water.
"It's kind of like camp," Gosselin said.

You can get to the island by water-taxi or float plane from nearby Nanaimo.

Realtor Kurt Nielsen of Courtenay, B.C., who brokered the deal for the trio and the college, said the island is the second most-expensive property he's sold.

The other was a $5-million slice of waterfront -- also bought by an Alberta couple.

About half of the high-priced properties he sells nowadays are bought by Albertans, he said, something that's in part attributable to WestJet Airline's recent launch of direct flights to Comox on Vancouver Island.
"We're getting a lot of Albertans who are retiring or about to retire," he said.

Gosselin, who plans on driving out instead of flying so that her dogs can come along, isn't planning on hanging up her white jacket anytime soon, she said.

But when she does, the island -- about 80 kilometres north of Vancouver -- will be a perfect place to go.
"It's so pristine, just the isolation of it appeals to us," she said. "It's absolutely beautiful out there."

The three bought the island from California's Orange Coast College, which received the land as a donation in 2002.

The California yachtsman had been using it for nearly a decade as a family retreat. The college had hoped to turn the island -- said to be home to a unique species of grasshopper that gets up to five centimetres long -- into a field research station.

But the maintenance costs started climbing, leading the college foundation to put it up for sale, said Doug Bennett, the group's executive director.
After an initial deal with a Vancouver man fell through, the island went back on the market in December.

That's when Gosselin's group started to show interest.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...97310e&k=26066

[Purple]

Rabbit Island is going to the dogs

Pit bulls rescued from Hurricane Katrina will have new home.

By MARLA JO FISHER
The Orange County Register
Comments 0| Recommend 0

COSTA MESA Maybe they should rename it Pit Bull Survivor Island.
A pair of veterinarians who bought Orange Coast College's remote Rabbit Island plan to use it to run their seven dogs, including four pit bulls they rescued from Hurricane Katrina.
"We're leaving next week to drive there with the dogs," said Pilar Gosselin, an animal doctor in the resort town of Canmore, near Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. "It's about a 12-hour drive."
The scenic wilderness island, near Vancouver Island in British Columbia, was donated to the college in 2001 by a local yachtsman. College officials offered summer classes there in biology and photography, among others, but the site proved too wild and remote to be a feasible field station. Maintenance on the lodge, docks and other facilities on the 36-acre island also proved costly.
College trustees voted to sell it a year ago, over the protests of some students and faculty.
Gosselin bought the island last week with her partner and fellow veterinarian, Dave Brace, and their friend, Dave Szentimrey. The trio paid $2.19 million for the property. The college plans to use the money to upgrade facilities at its sailing center in Newport Beach.
The new buyers visited the wilderness island in British Columbia for only an hour in January, in the midst of a storm, but that was enough to convince them to buy it.
"I only had to walk around for a few minutes before I knew I wanted to own it," Gosselin said.
It's been challenging, she said, to keep seven dogs in her small yard in the resort town of Canmore.
The couple spent three weeks in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, helping with animal rescue, and brought 30 dogs back to Canada to find new homes.
All the dogs found homes, Gosselin said, except five who were too problematic, so she kept them, along with two dogs she already owned.
"Four are pit bulls, and they've been very difficult to place," Gosselin said. "You really have to know how to handle the breed."
One of the dogs was her first patient after the hurricane. Naturally, Gosselin named her Katrina.
Ripple, Louie, Faye are the other pit bulls. Swami was also a rescue dog, he's a shepherd mix. Then there are Gosselin's original pooches, Rottweiler Jack and Sprout, a mutt.
For the time being, the dogs will travel back and forth with them to Rabbit Island, Gosselin said. Eventually, they would like the dogs to have a permanent home there, maybe with a trusted caretaker.
Gosselin said her partner, Brace, had longed to live on a boat, but she refused. She liked the idea of buying a ranch in Alberta, but he wasn't interested.
Then, Brace saw a real estate ad for Rabbit Island on the back of a sailing magazine. It proved to be the perfect compromise.
"It's on the water, but you get to sleep on land," she said.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister...le_1994707.php#

[Zoe]

OMG. I'm moving in with them! lol They took my dream! lol

[Bullies in Oregon]

Oh they're kinda close...Maybe we'll have to visit.

[jeoestreich]

My dream too. I alway told my boyfriend that we were going to buy our own island. The only catch was it had to be some place warm. LOL

[Faeriebratty]

wow

i wanna go too!

thats the greatest thing ive ever heard!