The humans behind the dogs you love to love

“Where do your dogs come from?”

Having a way to help any dog who tugs at the heartstrings can be a huge gift and a terrible burden. How do you possibly decide who to rescue when there are so many?

The goals of our Keep’Em Home mission guide us when we start to feel overwhelmed by the need. And since the KEH mission is about embracing and uplifting the dog owners in our community, it’s no surprise that our dogs typically bring a compelling human story with them. For example:

1. Lulo. After suffering a personal trauma, Lulo’s person lost her home and her ability to care for the dog she raised since puppyhood. Taking Lulo in meant she did not have to endure the agony of taking him to an animal shelter. And our best hope is it that buys her time to arrange her life so they can be reunited. (We expect he’ll go up for adoption in June 2018 if she can’t take him back by then.)

2. Ting. The Craigslist ad said that she had a bad leg and needed a home asap. We didn’t know at the time, but the ad was written by a 12 year old girl who’d been trying to find a permanent solution after the pup had been passed through several students’ hands at her school. Taking Ting into our program was a no-brainer.

3. Roland. He followed a biker home and stuck around while he filed a Found Dog report and searched for his owner, who never surfaced. His Good Samaritans were such warm, wonderful people that we were happy when a spot opened in the Rescue Barn and we could take Rolly in.

4. Laney & Scooby were two of six dogs who came to us from the group ‘Plenty of Pit Bulls’ after hurricanes rocked their home state of Florida. Taking them allowed this busy rescue to have a little bit of breathing room so they could focus foster home resources on disaster victim dogs.

5. Hamlet was a stray whose overly sensitive personality caused him to shut down in the animal shelter that took him in. It was easy to say ‘Yes’ to this handsome boy. He perked right up and found a new family and is doing just great now.

6. We first met Otis at one of our Owner Support events. His human (Mr. Bryant) was struggling with life at the time, but his dogs were very important to him and he spent hours with our team – in the pouring rain no less. We did a double take when one of his dogs showed up stray two years later. When Mr. Bryant couldn’t be found, we felt compelled to help his dog. It was a good call. Otis is one of the nicest dogs we’ve known and will make somebody a really good buddy. We hope and pray that Mr. Bryant is okay and would love for him to know that his dog is with us and doing just fine.

7. Farley. A local shelter adopted this large breed dog to a young man with disabilities, but as Farley grew, it became really difficult for him to provide enough care and exercise. His family helped him make the painful decision to let go. We accepted him in exchange for a donation that would allow us to provide a free spay/neuter for two shepherd type dogs in our community – a way to expand our ability to help more than just one dog.

8. Della! She was so close to death from starvation when she was found that vet staff considered putting her down, but a motivated vet tech (Kate Twitchell) raised her hand to take her home and TLC her back to life. When Della recovered, Kate wanted to open her foster spot in the event that another emergency medical case needed her help. It was an easy call to support her efforts and bring the wonderful Della into our adoption program. Della then helped the young puppy ‘Ting’ by becoming her surrogate mother and dog mentor while she was with us.