DogPak Rescue - Our Pick of the Month Rescue Story

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Our Rescue Story Pick of the Month

Submitted by Chris from abbott4cats@netzero.net

In all my husband and I have taken in or placed 5 cats in 2 years.
First there was Josie who was really rescued by our vet. We were at the vet's the day she tried to steal the vet's burrito at a nearby Mexican place. They offered her to us knowing we had a frisky 4 month old kitten in need of a friend. Josie was thin, full of fleas, with a broken "canine" tooth- over all she looked pretty pitiful-but she was also strong-willed and in charge, she won us over. We took her home a couple days later, nursed her through parasites and tapeworms, and she now runs our 4 cat household-even though she's one of the smallest in the house. She's turned out be a beautiful cat, too, a far cry from the dirty little thing she was the first time we saw her.

A few months later a black cat was hanging around behind the strip mall that I worked at for a few days, the people I worked with told me she'd been out there a few days, and it was cold and rainy out.
I took her in the building, and put her in the office with every intention of bringing her to the Humane Society in the morning. I brought her home and the next morning we went to the vet.
She had a microchip, her name was Samantha, we called her Daddy and he didn't sound so excited to hear she'd been found. He said he couldn't come and pick her up that day. I offered to take her home and gave him my phone number so he could call me the next day to pick her up. He never called.
We tried calling him back to no avail, then decided to stop trying to give a cat back to a man that didn't want her. She was so sweet, but painfully shy so I was worried she wouldn't get adopted at a shelter. She and my husband had also taken to each other, so Sammy was cat #3.

Then came Sera. Another very talkative, black cat that I found yelling at me outside our apartment.
She was a little thin, but I figured she belonged to someone so I left her alone. (I did give her some food though). Of course the next night she came back for more food. Being able to get closer to her I could she had some cat fight scratches on her ears. I then proceeded to pick her up and found her to be declawed, completely.
Well, I wasn't leaving a defenseless cat out to get beat up. In she came. We found she had no microchip. So I posted signs for a couple weeks. After no word from anyone I pleaded with my husband to keep her, he conceded (which didn't take long).

Several months later my husband had noticed a few kittens running around outside at work. One night he was working when he heard a kitten screaming, he rain down the stairs to find a little black and white male kitten trapped under some equipment that my husband had been using. The kitten wasn't hurt, but he was alone, so home he came.
He was about 2 months old and incredibly cute. But we knew we couldn't keep another one. We spoke with my husband's parents in Chicago (we're in Arizona) and found out that my husband's grandfather's cat had just died. We had an idea. Send the little guy to his grandfather! Early Christmas present!
Harley (we had named him) had a full check up and was book on a Continental flight to Chicago. I was worried about the flight, but he took it like a champ. Harley and grandpa have been getting along famously now for over a year.

Our most recent find was a small orange and white boy cat that I met while I was trying to enter a store, he tried to follow me. He was very dirty, ear mites and all. He was also less that a block away from a busy street and an expressway.
I couldn't leave him behind. He had no microchip. I posted signs all over the neighborhood I had found him. I finally put a lost & found ad in the newspaper. A woman called and came to see him. He didn't turn out to be her cat-but she said she'd love to take him in. After another week of hearing nothing about the ad, she adopted him.

Thanks, Chris!

Hi. Three cheers for the work you and all others who take abandoned, lonely, injured animals into their homes.

I have a number of rescue stories, but my current favorite is about "My Boy Lenny". Lenny is a catahoula-greyhound cross (maybe), who found me last summer. When I discovered him collapsed in my yard he was so exhausted and dehydrated that he could barely move.

I kept him, cared for him, and put an ad in the paper to try to find his owners. While I was waiting for his desperate owners (I was sure) to respond to my ad (they never did), Lenny revived and escaped from the yard. Thinking him a nuisance (probably for being overly friendly) some neighbors called the "dog police" (animal control), who took him off to jail (the pound). When I found out what had happened I immediately went to check on him. He was thrilled to see me and begged with all his actions for me to take him back to "our" home. I couldnt't since he wasn't really mine. I still hoped his real owners would come for him, they didn't, and so Lenny sat out his three day waiting period in vain (well, not totally in vain since I continued to visit him).

When his waiting period was up and he went up for adoption I was right there ready to take him back to the home that he had decided he belonged to several days before--mine. Today (a year later) Lenny is a certified therapy dog. Each week we visit a nursing facility where Lenny brightens up the lives of many residents with his gentle manner, unusual looks (can you imagine a greyhound-catahoula cross?) and incredibly soft fur.

I really consider Lenny to be a gift. He brings me and others so much joy. I tell his story as often as I can so people can appreciate that wonderful dogs come from shelters and a variety of rescue situations.

Lenny wasn't the only dog to come home from the shelter with me that day. Next to him was a little black lab, pregnant, who likely would have been scheduled for euthanasia. She came home with me too and after some TLC transformed into a stunningly beautiful lab--the kind that people would often stop and OOoo and AAAhhh over. She now lives with friends in Louisiana who love her completely.

Rescuing these and other dogs is one of the most gratifying things I have done because of the joys my rescue dogs bring to others, and the joy they exude themselves.
Submitted by Sarah R.