A Day In The Life Of Animal Rescue

The photo with this blog is Mitchell.  He's approximately 2 or 3 years old, male, and about 3 1/2 weeks ago he crawled up into someone's engine compartment to get warm. Sometime later, that someone started their car, breaking Mitchell's jaw and ripping the skin from the back of one of his ears, leaving a patch of bare cartilage.

A few days later (we're not really sure on this), Mitchell wandered up onto my carport.  My husband John and I are co-founders of Dot's Place Animal Haven, a rescue for homeless, abused, neglected, sick, disabled, and senior cats and kittens.  We are self-supporting and always have been, meaning that we receive no money from any agency, public or private, and most of our expenses are covered out of our own pocket and a small amount of donations.  In 2008, we spent $7000 of our own money on vet bills alone.  That was before the housing market tanked and our incomes significantly decreased.

Mitchell is one of a number of neighborhood cats that may or may not be strays that we feed at a feral cat feeding station in our back yard in Seneca.  Along with them are assorted possum, raccoons, birds, and no doubt rodents as well.  Mitchell has been coming to the station for at least a year, but would never let us near him or even expressed any interest in us.  When he came up on our carport, even before we realized what it was, we knew something was wrong.

Dr. Ross at Foxnest Veterinary Hospital is our rescue vet, and understands our rescue philosophy - Where there is life, there is hope.  He was honest about Mitchell, he was hurt badly and would need a lot of attention and recovery time, but if the cards fell into place just right, he'd make it.  

I wish I could tell you that this was the first time something like this had happened to us, but sadly, it's not.  Nor is it rare in the life of any true rescuer - animals seem to know what we are and seek us out when they need help.  We share a special empathy for both animals AND people in need - it's no secret that many of us collect human strays as well as animal ones, and we all have a strong need to fix the world.

That being said, rescue can be and often is a thankless job.  You often feel as if you are under seige from every side - Animal Control, the public, even other rescuers.  Every rescuer I know has the absolute maximum number of animals they can possibly care for, and yet, we all know there are so many more sitting in shelters waiting for a forever home, where the reality is that they will most likely die in a very short time, often in a cruel, heartless, painful, terrifying and inhumane manner.  Many of the public shelters in this area use either gassing or heartstick to kill the animals in thier care, neither of which are pleasant ways to die.  And we know this.

Local low-cost spay-neuter programs help reduce the population some, but many people still won't get their animals fixed.  Then, when the puppies or kittens arrive, they're dumped off at the local animal shelter and the owner tells themselves "My puppies/kittens are cute.  They'll get adopted quick!"  The reality is that they most likely won't.

Sometimes rescuers are under attack from each other.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, it takes a special kind of crazy to work in rescue.  Sometimes that crazy comes in the multi-pack variety, and you get someone that doesn't play well with others deciding to make another rescuer their enemy.  This can go anywhere from badmouthing to much, much worse, and can even hurt the animals the rescuers are caring for.  

Another source of issues is adopters themselves.  Lots of people apply to adopt a pet, but each rescue has their own set of rules that they adhere to, and standards that adopters must meet.  For instance, our rescue does not believe in declawing a cat.  We believe it's inhumane and dangerous for the cat, and there are safe alternatives available.  Ask your vet.  One of the questions on our application is whether or not the adopter is planning on getting the adopted cat declawed.  A yes answer will result in a rejected application.  (In case you're wondering, we do follow-up checks on cats we adopt out, and our contract states that if you have the cat declawed we have the right to take it back.)

There have been potential adopters that have taken the news they have been turned down for a pet very badly, and have worked to get the rescue shut down, have told lies, have physically or verbally attacked rescuers, have broken into their homes, have stolen animals...one man even threatened a woman's children because he was not allowed to adopt a pit bull puppy.  

A veterinarian tried to get my rescue shut down because of a bill I refused to pay (for a cat she never saw), and called Animal Control to turn me in as a hoarder.  A veterinarian!  Did she not realize that, had she succeeded, most likely all of our rescue cats would have been killed?  She wanted to hurt me, and she would have, because I would have needed a great deal of counseling had that happened, but even more, she would have hurt those she has sworn an oath to help!

But even with all of this, the story I read last night broke my heart.  Maria Sanchez, a photographer in the LA area, spends several days a week at local shelters photographing animals and sharing them with other rescuers on her Facebook page.  A few days ago, she witnessed a man sitting next to a dog's cage, crying, at the San Bernadino Animal Shelter. Maria snapped a picture of the man and dog, and spoke with him for a moment.  The man had been arrested, and since the dog was with him, it had been taken to the shelter.  The man needed $400 to get the dog out, and all he had was $6.

Maria failed to get the man's name, but she couldn't get his story out of her head, so she set out to find him, and eventually did, after posting his picture all over internet.  His name is Dave Thomas, and the dog's name is Buzz.

In the meantime, Maria started fundraising to get enough money to get Buzz out of the shelter and back to his owner, and eventually raised over $1000.  Using her own credit card, she got Buzz out of the shelter, got him to the vet to be neutered and get his shots, then reunited him with Dave. The pictures show a happy ending to a wonderful tale, with a shopping spree at Petsmart for a bed, toys, and food for Buzz.  Dave had confided in Maria that he has had substance abuse issues, so Maria told him that she was not going to hand the rest of the money over to Dave, but instead Dave was to get in touch with her whenever he needed anything for Buzz, and she would make sure he got it as long as there was still money in the account.  Dave understood and was just overwhelmed at his and Buzz's good fortune.

Which is why what happened next was so bizarre - a few days later, Maria receives a phone call from a reporter at KTLA wanting her reaction to the claim by Dave that Maria had stolen all of the donated money for herself!  True, Maria had reimbursed herself for the almost $900 she had put on her personal credit card while waiting on funds to transfer out of Paypal (it can take 3 to 5 business days), but the rest of the money was still there.  The truth became evident quickly though - Dave and his wife wanted the cash, and were willing to drag Maria through the mud in order to get it.

There are times, late at night, when you're really tired, and you're up for your third every-two-hour feeding of the night of infant kittens dropped on your doorstep by some inconsiderate....so-and-so...and you question why you're doing this, why you work so hard at a job that not only doesn't pay you, but you pay for the privelege of doing it.  Why you work your fingers to the bone, and why you suffer time and time again when one doesn't make it?

You do it for cats like Mitchell.  As I said earlier, it's been three weeks since Mitchell made it to our carport and got our attention.  He's doing fabulous, and thanks to wonderful people all over the US, Mitchell's veterinary bills were covered.  Right now he's on a semi-liquid diet - we call it cat-food soup around here - and in another three weeks we will begin transitioning him to more solid food.  There's a great new soft kibble in your local grocery store in the pet section - it's refrigerated, is primarily chicken and liver (11 oz out of the pound bag), and we hope when the time comes that Mitchell will love it as much as he loves his soup now.  In a few months, when Dr. Ross gives the ok, we'll start him on hard kibble again and see how he does.  He's not really feral - he belonged to someone at some point, and he's so sweet and loving and affectionate that I know that when he's healed we'll be able to find a good home for him!

But Mitchell is just one of many cats that we care for each day, along with our dog Torch, who was rescued literally minutes from euthenasia at the Greenville Shelter back in 2006.  We go through 120 pounds of dry cat food EACH WEEK.  We go through 2 bales of sawdust each week (we use it as cat litter). Our water bill alone each month is as much as some people's gas or electric bill.  We have a long list of cats right now who are in need of spaying and neutering, and John is the only one working a semi-full-time schedule.  

Unfortunately, we have 2 more pressing needs at the moment. First, we've lost our lease at our present location - our landlords are wonderful and we appreciate them so much, but they have decided to put the house up for sale and need time for renovations, so they've asked us to find another place.  I don't think it comes as any surprise that landlords that will allow you to bring a large number of animals with you are few and far between.  We're looking for a home with at least 3 bedrooms (but more would be nice), either a barn, shed, large finished basement, or other outbuilding that can be converted into a rescue cattery, some land so that we're not close to neighbors, in Oconee or Anderson counties.  We can afford to pay up to $700 a month, and we have an excellent payment history and landlord reference.  A prospective landlord might be able to gain a good tax deduction by renting to us if he or she allows us to rent at a lower rate.  We're even willing to look at non-traditional properties like old schools, churches, warehouse or commercial space in unzoned areas that can be renovated to suit our needs.  I'm really handy with power tools.

The second need is just as immediate - an organization in Washington, DC has offered us a donation of over a ton of cat and dog food, if we can come and get it.  Back-of-the-envelope figuring comes to about $300 for gas to make the round-trip to get the food in our pickup truck and trailer, and we simply do not have it.  If we don't come get the food soon, they will donate it to another organization.  120 pounds of food costs us almost $100 to purchase, so if we can raise the $300 for gas for the trip, that will save our rescue $2400 in food over the next few weeks!

Dear Gentle Reader, if you have made it this far, then I ask for just a little more patience.  This is where you come in.  If you know of a property that would meet our needs, I beg of you to contact me at dotsplaceanimalhaven@gmail.com, or you can leave a message on our wall on Facebook (Dot's Place Animal Haven).  If you are willing to donate towards our gas fund to to pick up this generous donation, you can go to www.humane.pro and click on the "Donate" button, and specify that the donation is for the DPAH Food Fund.  You will receive a letter for your taxes next year for your donation, and our parent organization is a South Carolina registered charity.

And you have my word as a rescuer - EVERY SINGLE DIME donated will be used to help our cats.  If we raise more than $300, then the rest will go into our vet fund to get some of these guys spayed and neutered so that we can get them adopted out. When we get back with the food, it won't just benefit us - we help a couple of other rescues and rescuers as well when we can.  

Please spay or neuter your pet. Please microchip them. Please adopt from rescues and shelters, and don't buy from pet stores (other than rescue adoption centers), backyard breeders, or puppy or kitten mills.  Bang on your hood before starting your car! Remember that by doing these little things, you're saving lives. And please remember us in your prayers. Mitchell and all of us appreciate it a lot. 

PS: Dot's Place Animal Haven also has a wish list on Amazon.com!