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Saturday, January 15, 2011

My First Rescue Operation

I've been busy the last couple days helping OFOSA intake 45+ dogs from high-kill shelters in CA.  This is about a once monthly deal for the rescue, my first time helping them out and the first time that I felt I could define myself as a dog rescuer.  It was amazing.  Even though I've volunteered in shelters, at adoption events and fostered, these past few days were different.  These dogs were on the brink of euthanasia down in CA and now they are safe!

Seeing the condition that these dogs came in opened my eyes to how terrible conditions must be in those high-kill shelters.  Medical issues go untreated, dogs arrive with little or no paperwork and the rescue scrambles to unload, walk, feed, water, document, vaccinate and care for a great number of dogs in as short of a period of time as possible.  I was assigned to the picture-taking team and helped with all the other tasks, including naming Piper the Pitbull puppy and Wilson the poodle mix.

When all was said and done, over 80 dogs were transported from northern CA.  They spent almost 24 hours in a van the size of an airport shuttle.  OFOSA took in about 45 of them with the rest going to several area shelters, including Columbia County Humane Society and Southwest Washington Humane Society.  About 35 of the dogs we took in were puppies and after seeing that they only had foster families lined up for a small fraction of those dogs, I was worrying about whether I could stick with our decision to take a few weeks off from fostering...and our decision to try out a couple adult dogs next.  It doesn't take much to forget about sleepless puppy nights.  Especially when you have this guy needing a home.  Meet Choco, our newest foster. He's a 4-5 month old Pitbull and Sadie's new BFF. I love Love LOVE the freckles on his nose!

I didn't even have to finish the question when I asked TJ if we could take him in.  Didn't even need to fully explain why our home was needed.  One look at my face and he said yes without hesitation.  I have the best hubbie in the world!

Blog the Change

8 comments:

  1. ditto on the freckles, God Bless you, Sarah and TJ!

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  2. Great job on helping OFOSA. What a great organization; thanks for letting us know about it!

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  3. Wonderful post! Thanks for sharing (and congrats on the new addition)!

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  4. aw, that is great that you can help these dogs have a place to stay while they look for homes. You are right about the lack o care in high kill shelters. Trixie came from one and she was sick when we got her, with a horrible ear infection that was so painful and severe, the vet said she probably was temporarily deaf most of the time! A little medication cleared it up within a week, but meanwhile, she had been in such needless pain for so long! :*(

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  5. Rescue is such important work - wonderful you!!

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  6. Those freckles are the cutest. :)

    Wonderful post - that's awesome that you are helping!

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  7. omg, Choco is SOO cute- what ended up happening with him?? did he find a home?

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  8. @Jessica M
    Jessica,

    He did find a home - too quickly for me but I'm glad he's with his forever family. He was a hard one to give up!

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