Animal Rescue Stories

Left Alone In An Abandoned House

Seven years ago a mom and her two babies were left alone in an abandoned house after their owners moved away. The babies were only weeks old. A neighbor heard the momma barking and called animal control. The momma was weak and could hardly feed her babies when the Garrard County Animal Control arrived. They took them to the shelter and got them cleaned up, fed and in a warm quiet place. A few days later I received a call to come take a look at the pups because the shelter knew that I was looking to adopt. I pick up this little tiny, what looked like a Yorkie at the time, and she immediately nestled into my neck and there was no turning back. She went home with me that night and Maggie is the best dog I have ever had. She is a Parvo survivor and as you can see in picture she is not a Yorkie, but she is my heart and I am blessed to be her mom. #rescuesarethebest

Kathy H Patchel
LANCASTER, KY

The Immigrant Puppy

My grandson was on a High School trip to visit the exchange student from the year before, and while in Mexico City they came across a boy selling puppies out of a cardboard box. They were really too small to be away from their mother, and the smallest one looked almost dead. My grandson paid a few pesos for the smallest pup, and, because they were staying with a family, and not in a motel, the adults helped him take the pup to a vet. The vet said the puppy was only about a month old, weighed less than a half pound, and was too little to be away from it's mother, but they got the pup stabilized and got milk replacer to feed her. She perked up with food and care, and in a couple days when it was time to come home, my grandson put her in a doggie-purse and got on the plane. He had papers from the vet, but since she was so tiny, no one even noticed she was on the plane. At home here, she turned in to your basic happy, silly puppy, so she earned the name Dizzie, for the way she would run in circles. She has no papers of any kind, of course, but she looks and acts like a Jack Russell Terrier, so that's what we say she is. We call her our Immigrant Dog. Grandson has a full time job, and Dizzie lives with me now, but she is the best "souvenir" anyone ever brought me from a vacation!

Audrey Hildebrand
LEAF RIVER, IL

Unexpected Puppy

We wanted to adopt a second dog to keep Midnight, our 15 year old dog, company. We looked at several rescues, looking for calm adult dogs, ideally over 2 years old. Puppies are adorable, but they are a lot of work, and full of energy. We wanted a calmer dog who could play with us, but provide companionship for Midnight. Online, we fell in love with one dog at a local rescue. She was almost 4, and came from a hoarder in Louisiana. She was very calm, and while she wasn't attached to us right away, we figured that was her hoarding background, and with love and training we could quickly win her over. We named her Voodoo in honor of her Louisiana origins.
When we got her home, we quickly realized she wasn't housebroken. It's not uncommon for hoarding dogs, and coming out the stressful shelter environment, totally understandable. She peed right by her food bowl, and had a lot of fear urination when noises scared her, someone new came to the house, etc. However, it was soon clear that she had a serious tummy issue. We took her to our vet, who diagnosed her with giardia. Not only that, but she told us Voodoo was less than 9 months old! We really didn't want to take on all the work associated with a puppy, we were clear about wanting adult dogs.
9 days after adopting Voodoo, my senior dog tore her ACL. Because of her age, surgery wasn't an option, so we worked with a veterinary rehab facility 40 minutes away. She went weekly for water therapy and laser treatments for her arthritis to help her walk again. This was an extremely stressful time, trying to balance the health of my senior dog and taking care of a puppy! There were lots of tears, and many times I felt like giving up.
However, I believe that adoption is for life. We house trained Voodoo over several weeks, bought a carpet cleaner for her many accidents, cured the giardia, and got her used to walking on a leash. We also had to puppy-proof the house, after losing shoes, a comforter, sheets, chair covers, ottoman legs, you name it. Oh, puppies...
Voodoo learned to be gentle with our senior, and a year later, we had to let Midnight cross the Rainbow Bridge at 16 years old. She was with us for over 15 years, and we miss her terribly. Voodoo has turned into a very sweet dog. With training she has learned to be less scared of strangers and daycare twice a week has helped her socialize with both people and dogs. She is slowly learning to snuggle with us on the couch, and loves chasing the squirrels in our new home. We are thinking about getting another dog who can run and play ball with her (there is no way I can keep up with her!) but we are taking our time, and making sure we get a good fit. And the number one rule is - no puppies!

Sylvia Zenteno-Booker
SMYRNA, GA

IttyBitty

Four years ago I was driving and I saw this little tiny animal sitting in the middle of the road not moving. At first I thought it was a squirrel, but when I got out of my car, to my surprise there was this tiny tiny little dog, just sitting there not moving. I picked him up and went around to houses close by to see if he belonged to someone, but no one claimed him. So, I took him to the vet; they said he was around 6 weeks old and weighed 3 lbs. I'll never know how this tiny little something got in the street, but it's okay, he's My Littlebitty now, all 6 lbs of him.

Crysmyra Hopkins
NORCROSS, GA

Another senior cat found us

In February 2020, we lost our 16-year-old Tuxedo, MacIntosh, whom my daughter rescued from a roadside in Orlando as a tiny kitten shortly after Hurricane Charlie tore the roof off her apartment, leaving her homeless and searching for an apartment. Mac's loss, coming weeks after my mother's passing, left us heartbroken and our 14-year-old rescue, PorchCat, missing his friend. It took us only a month to realize there was another cat out there that needed us as much we needed to fill the empty spots in our hearts.
A week of shelter visits brought us to a small, skittish, 12-year-old gray Abyssinian who had little chance of being adopted in a room full of younger, more sociable cats. Three days later, Hohkeehe (the Cheyenne word for "mouse") came home with us just before the COVID-19 crisis shut down our shelters. We discovered that her reclusive behavior was the result of ear infections and several badly decayed teeth. It took nearly a month of vet visits to resolve her problems, but in the end, a whole new cat emerged as she was no longer in pain. She became engaging and even playful, and continues to reveal her true personality to us each day. We are grateful for the circumstances that brought us together with this little lady who needed us as much as we needed her.

Michael Manard
CHESAPEAKE, VA

Our rescued Rosie

Only 15 short months ago you came into our lives, abused, neglected, and sadly underweight. That very first day you knew that you were finally in your forever home. I held you close to my heart and you fell asleep after a big sigh, finally able to relax. It took us a while to find a food that you could eat, we didn’t know that chicken gave you seizures. But we finally found a food that you could tolerate and you almost doubled your weight, finally up to over 5 pounds like you should have been. We knew that you might not be with us long, you were already 14 and had a lot of problems, both physically and emotionally, but that only made us love you more because you seemed to fit right in with us. When the inevitable time came, your appetite waned and so did your energy. I tried to tell myself that it was your bad teeth and if those were taken care of, everything would be okay. You only had 5 or 6 left and we made sure your food was soft enough that there was no need to chew it, so everything will be good then, right? No, my love, everything was not good. You seemed to be recovering well from your teeth, but then that old problem resurfaced. You couldn’t keep anything down, you had diarrhea that was black and you were getting weaker by the minute. I knew then that the blockage that was most likely malignant, that seemed to come and go was back for the last time. I made the appointment and held you close all the way there. As always, you were such a good little girl, you never fussed and I held you right to the very end. I held you close all the way home, and while I was readying your little grave, I laid you in your bed in the warm sunshine for one last time. Now you’re resting in the little back yard that you loved so much, your own little domain, right next to your little “sister”, our little Penny Pom. You never got to meet her, but now you have forever to romp and play together. God bless you little Rosie, you are forever in our hearts.

Robert Tracey
MALONE, NY

TimTam

One day in late 2004 I strolled into a nice-looking garden that turned out to have an office in it. By early 2005, the boss had decided that the office could have a cat and the person I’ll call ‘Primary Human’ volunteered to take me to the vet for shots and whatever else I needed. That was on Friday and she thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to take me back to the office over the weekend after I’d had shots and blood tests and I can’t remember what else, so she took me home with her. By Monday, she was mine. She negotiated with the owner of our house to take the ‘no pets’ clause out of the lease and I had a home. Then I needed a name. As a good-looking chocolate-colored guy, I needed a chocolate name. There’s a brand of Australian chocolate cookies called TimTams that are named after the horse that won the 1958 Kentucky Derby. So this Thai cat was named TimTam, after an American race horse, by way of Australian cookies. My house soon came to be known as ‘Villa TimTam’. And the good life began. Back in the day, I was a champion jumper – I had to be, so that I could sit on the highest place in every room to be sure that things were being done the way I wanted them. And when they weren’t, I would let Primary Human and Ms. Diamond know, in complete sentences and paragraphs, in purrfect English and Thai – totally bilingual. It didn’t take me long to train Ms. Diamond, who kept my house clean and would stay with me when Primary Human had to travel. The first time Primary Human came back from a trip, Ms. Diamond told her “Now I know who the boss is around here. And it isn’t you.” Miracles were my specialty, too. People who didn’t like cats liked me. Of course. A few years ago, I had a bad reaction to a new medication and had a real crisis – in a coma and on a respirator. Pulled off my biggest miracle and came out of it in a couple of days. Primary Human knew that every day from the day I came home from the hospital was a gift. It was great. She and Ms. Diamond both jumped to do whatever I wanted whenever I made a move or a sound. The good life rolled on again. Last year, something started going wrong. Primary Human took me to lots of doctors – I got seriously tired of that – tried everything and nothing worked. By the beginning of 2020, it was getting hard for me to jump up on the bed, so Primary Human started sleeping on the couch. When I couldn’t jump up on the couch any more, she made a bed for us on the floor. When it was my time, Primary Human and I were nose to nose – the way we used to sleep when I would put my head on the pillow beside hers – and she was scratching my neck (my favorite thing) and telling me she loved me. I know I was fiercely loved.

P Moore
Bangkok, Thailand

Bucks transformation

A dog was dumped in my neighborhood. It took me 3 days of feeding this dog getting him to trust me to take him home; then i could post him on a Facebook rescue/lost page to try to help this poor guy. A girl answered my ad by personal message. Last month her dog died, and the house hasn't been the same, so she and her dad wanted to travel 1 1/2 hours away come see the dog. They did. This dog loved them as they loved him. I wanted to share this story because of the before and after pictures. The happiness in this dog's face, body; everything. These people were the best people I could give this dog to.

Kelley Dysart
FONTANA, CA

Gray Potato Has A Twin

This is in reference to the recent post by the couple from College Place , WA. A few weeks ago we adopted a rescued adult female kitty who looks identical to their Gracie. Her name is ...wait for it...Gracie Jane! Their personalities seem very similar, we know all about the love bites. Gracie Jane has transformed from the calm mellow adult we met in foster care to an extremely active kitten who is just beginning to explore her world. We are very happy to be providing the kittenhood she never had. We were blown away by the Gray Potato post and hope her parents see our reaction!

Karen and Michael
BEACHWOOD, OH

My fluffball

This story begins long long ago, in December of 1999. I was at the local Humane Society of Broward County looking for a kitten. I looked in every window, trying to find the one that I would connect with to bring home. Then, I saw her. A little black and white fluffball in the corner. I wrote her name down on a card (I have forgotten what name they gave her there) and handed it to the woman so that they could bring her to me in a private room to see if we meshed. This little fluffball and I bonded immediately. I did the necessary paperwork and brought her home. I named her Momo. I didn't really know what to expect since she was my first real pet as an adult, a being I would be responsible for. She was a mischievous kitten, like all of them are, always getting into something. Knocking things off of shelves, unrolling toilet paper, getting a severe case of the zoomies at 2am. She was a snuggler and loved to sit next to me. She was wary of new people for about 5 minutes, but then would weave around their legs, purring and asking to be pet. She also really liked people-foods, but her favorites were black beans, chips and coffee! If you didn't watch your coffee cup, she would sneak in and dip her paw in it and lick the coffee. She was with me through heartbreaks, triumphs, moves, career changes; all of life's highs and lows. If I was sad, she would come and sit on my leg or chest until I stopped crying. If I was happy and excited, she would zip around like she was excited, too. She was the best friend I never knew I needed and was blessed to have. She stayed with me for TWENTY AND A HALF YEARS. My beautiful Momo crossed the rainbow bridge on April 30,2020 and while it is still very raw and painful, I have two decades worth of memories to hold in my heart. I can only hope everyone finds "their Momo" in a pet.

Christian D
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL