What animal have you rescued today?

[Occamstazer]

Your bit about picking up a starving pit sounds veeeeery familiar. I hate that I can't foster right now. 2 persons+4 dogs+one-room cabin=you understand
I often felt like I was the last chance left for some dogs, because everyone else had said no. It was like everyone else walked by and said "Gosh that's sad, someone should help", but no one else was willing to get pooped on, so to speak.
Quite a few of my strays were from gas stations and such, it got to the point where I was afraid to travel because I always came home with something emaciated and smelly in the back seat.
However, most of my poochers came from when I was working as a vet tech. It was a crappy clinic in a crappy part of town, and the clientele...well most of them completely sucked.

I would often end up taking home dogs when the owner would choose euthanasia for a stupid reason. One example: Scruffy, the perfectly healthy 4-year old Basset was hit by a car and the vet recc'd orthopedic surgery because it was a horrendous break, the elbow was destroyed. The O's signed the euth papers and left. It took me literally less than 30 minutes on the phone/internet to find Basset Rescue in Birmingham and arrange for his transfer.
BHR's vet ended up just fusing the joint, which causes him to stump around kinda funny, but otherwise he is fine and long since adopted.
And the whole affair was SO EASY to accomplish.
I understood sometimes when people just didn't have the money and had to euth a very sick pet, but more often I wanted to shake them and scream "Come on, at least TRY to find a solution!"
And that is my rant about disposability for the day

ETA: before he was transferred to BHR, Scruff spent the night at my house. Gotta tell ya, getting a 65lb Basset who can't walk outside and down the stairs so he can have a pee is no small task

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

all these cats came from somewhere... even the cat we got on purpose was a rescue from the vet.

we've spayed and released probably a dozen barn cats

as for rescued pot bellied pigs... oh geez.. we call that 'small cuts of bacon' around here!

OFG, once the piggies start rollin in here...I will let you know. I really hope we dont "foster" them too long....I mean..jeesh! I really DO have my hands full already. But how do you say no to a PB pig?

hee hee hee you just say "get in my belly!"

hee hee hee hee
;-)

 

[big brown horse]

 

[dreamweaver]

It's wonderful to know that I am among kindred spirits here! From the time I was in elementary school I was the kid trying to save a bird with a broken wing or trying to raise baby mice......I was just born that way. I truly believe that some of us are and that animals can detect it.

My late husband always tried to intercept the people who'd come to me with the stray animal stories, although one of those cats wrapped him around her little paw (and before her he never said the word 'cat' without dam in front of it). Once I was traveling down a rural highway and met a cocker spaniel running as fast as he could straight down the lane with a 18 wheeler barreling after him. I didn't think, I just stopped and opened the door and he jumped in my Jeep and on we went. He was wet, muddy, dirty, with mats in his fur and sticks and leaves and happy to see me, so by the time we got home, I was rather bedraggled. Upon getting home, I told him to stay put for a minute, took a deep breath and walked up to where my husband was working in the backyard. While I was preparing what to say, he looked me up and down and sighed and said, "All I want to know is WHAT is it and WHERE it is?" (I miss him so much). We spent hours putting up flyers and money putting ads in the paper and finally took him to the vet when it appeared no one would claim him. The next day his owners (who had been on vacation they said - now why he was out loose with no collar when they were gone I don't know) called us and we returned him, all groomed up, vaccinated and with a new collar.

I volunteer as a transporter at a wildlife center in a nearby city (they call me when someone from near me has called them) and I go pick the animal up and transport it up to them. I've taken hawks, owls, baby raccoons, baby squirrels, baby birds. Once I was lucky enough to be able to release a barred owl that I had rescued and taken up there. That was an indescribable feeling.

We joked that I had "sucker" in neon on my forehead that was visible only to animals in need. It proved true internationally as well. I went on a mission trip to Honduras and was severely warned that I could not be touching the animals there (yeah, these people knew me well.) So the first night we ate at a little outdoor cafe (that's stretching it) and guess who soon had a semicircle of cats (apparently feral) sitting around them? Yeah, I was "dropping" little pieces of my fish after I saw the first one and the word really spread quickly.....

I have several funny stories if yall ever want to hear them, the three boob one probably being the funniest.

 

[dreamweaver]

occamstazer - do we know each other? I'm in Tuscaloosa, too.

 

[sylvie]

 

[Occamstazer]

REALLY?!
Cool!

My real name is Janie Sue Thornshack. I worked at Metro Animal Shelter my 1st year of college, then I worked at Bryant Drive Animal Hosp. for 3 years. I also know Amy Giblin, she's a rockstar in the rescue world, and has pulled my bacon off the fire more than once! Hmm...who else do I know around here...how about the ever-awesome Kim Romain?

(mods, if this is too much personal info, I apologize. But if you don't care, I certainly don't mind having it here)

ETA: you convinced me that I'm being too incautious with my personal info, so I replaced my real name with the most hilarious alias I could think of.

 

[dreamweaver]

Oh, man - at Metro?! You're a good woman! I've picked up a couple of hawks from there and transported them. Sadly, the hawks usually have to be put down, but I've never considered it a wasted trip - it is much better than them starving slowly on the side of the road.

I've always used Dr. Cole - he used to be in Alberta but now he is Highway 69 Vet Clinic. The Oak Mountain Wildlife Center is who I sometimes transport for, and the picture of me and the tiger was at Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary, just over in Mississippi. Mindy Norton is a good friend of mine, she does the radio spot "Speaking of Pets" on Saturday and she's really involved with T-Town PAWS and such groups. I really went off the deep end when my husband died, and so I am not "officially affiliated" with any of those groups right now.

I've been here since 1987, and I could have been happy here forever if my husband was still here. After he died, my son moved to northern CA and once they got me out there for a visit, I was hooked, can't wait to get to move at some point.

I'm not that comfortable with revealing too much on this public forum. I'll pm you or email or whatever you have here.

 

[Occamstazer]

Oh, man - at Metro?! You're a good woman! I've picked up a couple of hawks from there and transported them. Sadly, the hawks usually have to be put down, but I've never considered it a wasted trip - it is much better than them starving slowly on the side of the road.

I've always used Dr. Cole - he used to be in Alberta but now he is Highway 69 Vet Clinic. The Oak Mountain Wildlife Center is who I sometimes transport for, and the picture of me and the tiger was at Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary, just over in Mississippi. Mindy Norton is a good friend of mine, she does the radio spot "Speaking of Pets" on Saturday and she's really involved with T-Town PAWS and such groups. I really went off the deep end when my husband died, and so I am not "officially affiliated" with any of those groups right now.

I've been here since 1987, and I could have been happy here forever if my husband was still here. After he died, my son moved to northern CA and once they got me out there for a visit, I was hooked, can't wait to get to move at some point.

I'm not that comfortable with revealing too much on this public forum. I'll pm you or email or whatever you have here.

Don't give me too much credit for Metro, I lasted just under a year there before I hit my limit and quit. Euthanasia is a reality for those of us who help unwanted animals, but stupid euth policies are, well, stupid. They have to hold any "stray" for 8 days before deciding to either euth/adopt. When an animal would come in that was wildlife or clearly feral, and/or had horrible injuries (we're talking maggots and worse), they wouldn't even blink. It would sit in a kennel for days until it died or was finally euth'd on day 8.
My feelings about it are either help immediately, or end their pain immediately. To do otherwise is just...wrong. There were approximately 8,000 other things we disagreed on as well.
They also thought I was a total nutjob for raising the orphaned wildlife that would get turned in. I got tired of being the snarked-at outsider next to their little clique.
Now, having thoroughly dragged them through the mud, I will say that *anyone* who works at Metro is a tough cookie. Even if I don't like them personally, they are fighting the good fight in their own way.

My beefs were always with various staff. Mrs. Hill, the owner, is the sweetest person ever, and I have no idea how she's kept her compassion after all the years she's run that place.

 

[Beekissed]

I've never actually bought an animal per se and when they come to me they stay for their lifetime. All three of the dogs I've owned....er...the dogs that owned me....were sort of rescues...not the skinny and starved animals I saw in these pics~that would make me cry buckets! But, they were all unwanted and ill-cared for.

Jim Dandy was the best dog in all the world and I am a firm believer that he sits in Heaven right now by the Pearly Gates waiting for me to get there. No words can describe how wonderful a dog he was....I rescued him from a horrible home and paid the price of a carton of cigarettes to liberate him from his hell. I don't know how many times he had been to the pound but those folks were the last trip he made there. He was a yellow lab and he lives still in my heart and soul. That's all I'm gonna say about that.....

Lucy Lou is a Lab/GP mix and had been abandoned on a farm, sentenced to a five foot chain and what food the neighbors could bring to her. The previous owners had obtained her from the pound, brought her home to live in their house, decided she shedded too much and chained her to a dog house. There she lived for a year or more until I found her. A sweeter dog you will never meet. She has been a therapy dog at the local nursing home and has had her photo in Star magazine...kid you not!

Chocolate Jake, lab/BC cross was a pure out rescue from a farm that lets their dog breed every time she is in heat....he has clones all over this county! She has huge litters! When I picked him up you could see every rib and it took me a year or more to put meat on his bones. I also took two of his litter mates to good homes that day.

The cats I have now are also rescues from places where the cats breed and breed and the litters are all sickly and inbred, die horrible deaths and no one really cares.

Down through the years I have rescued many animals and found them good homes or gave them the hand of mercy. That's all anyone can do, really.

I have an animal limit when it comes to pets.....I won't get more than I can afford to keep, which means I can't rescue anymore right now. Livestock one can eat or sell, a pet is something that pays off in heart songs that only I can hear.