Rescue Stories

[W!nston]

I love stories with happy endings. This is a thread about rescue stories.

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Instead Of Wedding Bouquets This Couple Had A Bunch Of Rescue Puppies And The Pics Turned Out Adorable

Becky and John were in the middle of planning for their wedding when a resident posted on local animal rescue, The Little Guild’s Facebook page looking for a foster home for a litter of puppies they had found in their neighbor’s yard. Becky and John saw the post and said to each other “We’ve raised baby piglets and cows before, so this can’t be much different!”

They first started fostering just two puppies from the litter named Penny and Patch. The puppies were so new that they couldn’t stay home alone. Becky and John had to make a day trip to Cabelas to get some supplies for their honeymoon so the puppies joined along on their trip, snuggled up inside of a diaper bag in the shopping cart and having bottles in the car ride.

Soon after they started fostering 3 more puppies from the litter, Roley, Lucky, and Freckles.

When Becky and John were switching the pups from milk to dog food, they got so covered in the food they would have to give them all baths every time they ate, multiple times a day. “It was mayhem,” says Becky.

Becky and John were able to foster all of the puppies right up until they found their forever homes.

Including the rescue puppies in their big day was a no-brainer. Who needs bouquets when you can have rescue puppies?!

All of the puppies went to great homes shortly after Becky and John’s wedding day. Families who were interested in adopting the puppies submitted applications and references including a reference from their veterinarian.

Patch, who is now named Mo, found a home with John’s aunt, so they are still able to visit with him.

Becky believes all of the incessant puppy cuddlings they did while fostering them turned them all into great dogs.

 

[Stonecold]

Kitties Rescued by US Marines in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, in the midst of war, many animals are lost and separated from their family. Many are found later by troops from the US, UK and Canada. Soldiers rescue these animals and get help from rescue groups that help them send these animals out of the country and to a forever loving home that they deserve.

Three US marine soldiers, Brian Chambers, Chris Berry and Aaron Shaw, started a mission to help bring home the kittens they have befriended while serving in Afghanistan (Facebook group). With generous donations from cat lovers and help from Noward Dogs animal rescue, Kiki and Keykey, two lovely ginger kitties, have successfully made it home in the US. Unfortunately 2 other cats, Simba and Ra-Ko, lost the battle against their illnesses a few weeks ago.

Kiki and his sister Bones were found by Brian Chambers, a US marine.

"At only 3 weeks old, their mother had disappeared and they were left alone to live rough and fend for themselves like the other cats in this area. We looked after them both and they lived in a box in the office, after a week they were allowed to roam around during the day and sleep with us in the hooch at night."

Unfortunately Bones vanished a week after along with Kiki, but Kiki eventually returned.

Kiki was injured badly on Monday 8th of March. Brian found him in horrible condition. "He was too frightened to approach me, I ran to find some wipes to clean him and I then realised how bad this wounds really were..."

A vet came the next day and put Kiki on a course of antibiotics. Today Kiki has fully recovered.

"Kiki is a very playful adventurous cat, he loves to explore and is very curious, he enjoys sitting on my shoulder, chewing on my hand and running up my legs. He hasn't been put off by what has happened to him."

Keykey was found by another US marine named Chris Berry.

"I found Keykey tangled up in c-wire one day in the beginning of the deployment, I took him in and fixed his wounds. He was also extremely malnourished so I constantly kept an eye on him and fed him until he got back to good health and he has been by my side ever since."

Both Keykey and Kiki have arrived in the US. Kiki is currently living with Brian's parents in Houston, Texas until he leaves the Marines and moves home. Keykey is living with Chris' parents in Detroit, Michigan and enjoying his new family.

For soldiers who are on duty overseas, often time the only chance they get to cuddle is when they meet these stray animals. These soldiers are lonely and longing for love from their family and friends. The kitties are abandoned, lost and have nowhere to call home. When they find each other, they become best friends.

 

[topdog]

Every summer in New York there is a special one day event called Broadway Barks. It is held in Shubert Alley - the pedestrian street that connects three Broadway theaters. Various local rescue organizations come in to town with their available dogs and get set up at a table with the cast of a current Broadway show. Fans come in and they can meet the dogs and talk to the actors and hopefully go home with a new pal. (I mean one of the dogs, not the actors - though that also has happened on occasion.)

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They also have a stage set up and everyone gets up to show off the dogs they have available, and there are usually a few show tunes sung at various points. Andrew Ranalls gives you a tour of the happening in the Alley a couple of years ago.

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Broadway Barks was started by Bernadette Peters and the late Mary Tyler Moore about 20 years ago and has become an annual tradition. Lots of fun and many animals find new homes.

 

[W!nston]

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[W!nston]

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[W!nston]

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[W!nston]

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[waistingmytime]

HUNDREDS OF DOGS RESCUED FROM SOUTH KOREAN MEAT FARMS
Care2Causes - December 26, 2017

At the beginning of the year, 200 dogs were rescued by Humane Society International (HSI) from a dog meat farm that closed in Wonju, South Korea. Several dog meat farms have closed, largely thanks to HSI, which is working in partnership with people who want to leave the cruel dog-meat industry by helping them close their farms and pursue other livelihoods.

In March, 55 dogs were rescued by HSI from another meat farm that closed near Seoul. HSI described the farm as a “dark labyrinth layout of narrow corridors reaching pens and cages of dogs living without daylight or fresh air.”

Four months later, nearly 150 dogs were rescued by HSI from yet another closing meat farm in South Korea.

There’s even more good news: Many of those rescued dogs, like Camo below, have already found loving forever homes in the U.S., Canada and UK.

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[W!nston]

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[W!nston]

The Belay

In 1953, a team of eight American mountaineers was stuck on K2 in the middle of a blizzard, when one of its members, geologist Art Gilkey, collapsed with a pulmonary embolism.

While most Himalayan mountaineers would leave behind a climber too incapacitated to move, the rest of Gilkey’s team decided to try to get him off the mountain. They began descending the mountain, lowering Gilkey, wrapped in his sleeping bag, ahead of them. Suddenly, one climber lost his footing and began sliding down the side of the mountain. As he fell, he snagged on two other pairs of roped climbers, pulling them down with him.

The team would have fallen to their deaths if Pete Schoening, who had been belaying Gilkey, hadn’t caught them. In one of the most impressive shows of strength in mountaineering’s history, Schoening managed to hold onto the rope, stopping the climbers’ fall and belaying five of them to safety. The only casualty was Gilkey, whose rope snapped in the fall.

Later in life, Pete Schoening narrowly avoided another disaster when he dropped out of a Mountain Madness expedition to Mt. Everest due to poor health. His group would be one of those caught in the 1996 Everest Disaster, made famous by the book Into Thin Air.

 

[W!nston]

Rescued from an underwater cave

Underwater caves are one of the most hazardous environments for divers. They’re dark, disorienting, and far from the safety of the surface. Most experienced cave divers have participated in a body recovery at some point, but very few have ever brought back a live diver.

Of those few, Steve Gerrard probably has the best story. In 1991, Gerrard participated in the rescue of a diver named Gustavo Badillo, who had become lost deep in Riito de Acarite, a flooded cave system in the mountains of Venezuela. With no backup equipment or cave diving training, Badillo was stranded in an air pocket, and facing what must have seemed like a very brief, very unpleasant future.

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Gerrard was in Florida when a friend of Badillo’s contacted him to ask for his help in the rescue. While Gerrard didn’t expect that Badillo would survive, he agreed to come, and he and partner John Orlowski packed up their gear and hopped a chartered flight to Venezuela.

Incredibly, Badillo was still alive when the pair reached him the next morning, 36 hours after he had ventured into the cave.

 

[W!nston]

Abused Dog Stares at Wall for Days After Being Rescued

When Angel, a greyhound mix was rescued from an animal organization in Ireland, she would not turn around and face her new home. PAWs Animal Rescue believes she was traumatized and abused. When Angel arrived at their organization, they say that she just faced the wall in their office and refused to move for days. They would leave her food but Angel would only eat when no one was watching. After bringing in another dog from the same pound, they immediately saw a change in Angel's personality.

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[W!nston]

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[W!nston]

800 Dogs Are Living Without Food Or Shelter In This Landfill ...

800 Dogs Are Living Without Food Or Shelter In This Landfill — And People Are Trying To Save Them
THE DODO | BY ELIZABETH CLAIRE ALBERTS | 02/16/2018

“It’s gotten to the point now where rescuers have to shut their car doors because if not, they’ll pile in there ... These dogs desperately love people.”

Crystal Carson never thought she’d be rescuing dogs in Turkey. She was busy enough rescuing dogs in her hometown of Goldsmith, Texas, and her house was always filled with at least a dozen foster dogs.

But when her friend and fellow dog rescuer, Ayse Hellig, told Carson about a woman who helped stray dogs living in a landfill in Turkey, something shifted for her.

Gokce Erdogan holding one of the dogs she cares for at the landfill in Turkey

“She [Hellig] let me know about a young lady — her name is Gokce — who has been taking care and feeding over a thousand dogs in Corum, Turkey,” Carson told The Dodo. “So I got to looking at this young lady’s posts and her Instagram.”

On Gokce Erdogan’s Instagram page were photos that moved her and broke Carson's heart. At this one landfill, dogs were living in the worst possible conditions, eating scraps of thrown-away food and bedding down in garbage.

Some of the stray dogs living at the garbage dump in Corum, Turkey

“Most of the dogs are either street dogs or dogs that have been dumped there,” Carson said. “When winter hits there, it’s not like winter here. This is negative 30 degrees. There’s no shelter other than hiding amongst the garbage.”

Erdogan, who is only 23 years old, had spent the last four years feeding, caring for and rehoming as many of the dogs as possible. “I was astounded,” Carson said. “She was taking on over a thousand dogs, and making it her mission to feed them and get them vetting.”

Puppies who live at the landfill sharing a bowl of food

But Erdogan needed help — it took a lot of time and resources and determination to care for these dogs — and Carson, Hellig and their friend Rachael Stout offered to help. In January 2017, they founded Rescuers Without Borders (RWB), an organization that provides aid not only to the dogs living at the landfill in Turkey, but to dogs in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Carson, Hellig, Stout and a few others raise money for the dogs, and organize overseas adoptions for them by flying them to the U.S. In Turkey, Erdogan and a network of volunteers constantly visit the landfill to give food and water to the dogs, get them vet care and pull them out from the dump.

There are currently about 850 dogs at the garbage dump, according to Carson.

Rescuers Without Borders

“When we pull, we pull about three dogs at a time,” Carson said. “When there’s more — like a litter of puppies — we never leave the mom behind. And by the time that they’re pulled, they’re immediately taken to the nearest clinic, to be looked over just to be checked out.”

Choosing which dogs to rescue can often the hardest part for Erdogan and the team in Turkey, Carson explained.

A group of puppies snuggling together in the garbage dump

“It’s hard to pick and choose, but we often choose puppies because they don’t have the ability to survive in the landfill,” Carson said. “Last year, we lost almost every single litter, either being frozen to death or through starvation. We take older dogs as well, and the ones who wouldn’t make it if someone didn’t do something.”

However, it’s not always easy even catching the ones who need help, as they’ve learned to fear humans. A dog named Goat evaded rescue for two months, according to Carson.

A dog sleeping in a big pile of garbage at the landfill

“We saw that his ear was torn and bleeding the very first time that we noticed him,” Carson said. “And he had skin issues. So it was our mission to get that dog out of there, but he wasn’t easily caught. He’d come to you for food, but if you put a lead around him, he would freak out and run away. It was a long process.”

Finally, rescuers caught Goat earlier this month, and he’s now in a boarding facility in Turkey while he waits to be transported to the U.S. for adoption.

Goat gazing out the back window of a car as he was driven away from the garbage dump

Other dogs at the dump aren’t so evasive — they’d be happy for the rescuers to catch them.

“They chase after the vehicles,” Carson said. “It’s gotten to the point now where rescuers have to shut their car doors because if not, they’ll pile in there.”

“These dogs desperately love people,” she added. “It’s impossible to say ‘yes’ to everybody, but we try to save as many as we can.”

One of the dogs trying to get into a volunteer's car

For Carson and the others, the work can be quite emotionally draining, and they’ve witnessed some very difficult things. But it all feels worth it when they successfully rescue and rehome a dog. Leo was one such case.

“When we found Leo, he was barely alive,” Carson said. “He had mange so bad that his skin turned black. His patella was completely broken — it looked like his head was crushed. We took him, and he spent months in the clinic over there getting treatment, and now he’s happily in his home here in the United States.”

Leo when he was sick and living at the landfill

“Leo actually lives in Wisconsin now,” Carson added. “His home is amazing. He has a big brother named Tucker … and he has a huge ranch that he gets to roam with his brother. His mom takes him everywhere and he has tons of toys. It was probably one of the worst cases we’ve ever seen, but he turned out to be this amazing, beautiful dog."

Leo and his brother Tucker at their home in Wisconsin — Leo is on the righ

Carson was also very inspired by the transformation of two puppy siblings, Omen and Venus, who were the first dogs that the RWB helped rescue and transport to the U.S.

“They were very, very tiny when we pulled them from the dump,” Carson said. “Omen actually had parvo, but he survived it through treatment. And they were both adopted together into this amazing home in Dallas, Texas. That was the moment we all realized that, ‘OK, we can do this.'”

Omen and Venus, the first two puppies the RWB team rescued from the landfill and brought to the U.S.

When the team does rescue a dog from the landfill, it’s always bittersweet — for both the rescuers and the dogs themselves. “They all look out for each other in the landfill,” Carson said. “I can say for a fact that they miss each other when they’re gone.”

Carson saw this firsthand when the team rescued a dog named Jovie and transported her to the U.S. last June. Jovie has been living with Carson as a foster dog ever since.

Rescuers Without Borders

“Jovie’s teeth were completely rotted,” Carson said. “She did not have the ability to eat properly to defend herself in the landfill. She was a favorite of Gokce and we decided to pull her.”

But what no one realized about Jovie was that she’d formed a friendship with a dog named Dali, who was still living at the dump. When Dali was rescued from the dump in October and went to Carson’s home, too, Carson was amazed by Jovie’s reaction to Dali’s arrival.

Jovie and Dali spending time together in Carson's yard

“Before Dali got here, Jovie never touched a toy and she didn’t act like a normal dog would,” Carson said. “But when Dali got here, and I took Jovie out to meet her, it was like the happiest reunion I have ever seen. It was like these two were long-lost sisters or something. And Jovie’s attitude completely changed. Now she loves toys, loves playing around and loves going on walks — and it’s all because she has her friend back.”

One of the landfill dogs after being adopted by a family in the U.S.

Last year, the RWB team helped rescue 47 dogs from the Turkish landfill, and provided food and vet care for many more. The team also sets up feeding stations for homeless dogs in remote Turkish villages, and provides general assistance to stray dogs throughout the country.

“I would like people to understand that rescue goes beyond our own city or state or even country,” Carson said. “There are other countries, like Turkey, that don’t … have the access to shelters like we do in the United States.”

Volunteers bringing food to the dogs at the landfill

This, of course, doesn’t mean that they’ve forgotten about local dogs in the U.S. “I never stop working on Texas dogs, I promise you that,” Carson said. “I currently have 15 dogs that I take care of.”

But to Carson, it’s important to do as much as she can, for as many dogs as she can. And that’s what she’ll keep doing. “There’s no limitation about where you can help,” she said.

To help rescue more dogs living at the landfill, you can make a donation to Rescuers Without Borders.

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The truth is this story really touched my heart. I love dogs so much. I want the world to be a better place for these magnificent beings. They are "Man's best friends" on this earth. We should be ashamed as a species about how we treat them and how we treat all other life on earth.

I'm going to try to send a little money to this non-profit when I get my pension payment next month. I can't spare much but I will send them something.

 

[waistingmytime]

Dog Found Tied To A Tree With A Goodbye Note Finds Forever Home
Mother Nature Network - February 21, 2018


Zeus was tied to a tree with a note asking for help.


Realizing you can't afford to keep up with the needs of a pet is a tough epiphany to have, but there are good ways to deal with it.

Tying the critter to a tree with a sort of 'Dear Dog' note isn't really one of them, but in the case of Zeus, it actually worked out.

The dog was spotted tied to a tree in Prince George County, Virginia, near a bag of dog food and with a note:


"Hi my name is Zues [sic]. I am a very good dog. My owner just cannot afford me anymore," the note reads. "She tried to find me a home but nobody would take me."


In a postscript, switching from Zeus' voice to her own, the dog's original owner continues, "I hate to do this but I just cannot afford him anymore."

Luckily for Zeus, he was brought to the Prince George County Animal Shelter by animal services officers, according to WTVR.

Zeus weighed about 50 pounds when he was taken to the shelter, but he was underweight. The shelter believed he hadn't been tied to the tree for too long before he was found, perhaps less than a day, since his food bag was dry and it had rained the day before.

In a since-updated Facebook post, the shelter told its community, "Zeus was completely failed by his last owner. Can you be Zeus' forever family?"

Someone answered that call, and the 2-year-old dog was adopted in the middle of the month.


Zeus has found his fairy tale home at last. Zeus' new family are wonderful pet owners who will give Zeus the kind of home that loves him for life this time. Thank you so much to Zeus' new family for giving him a wonderful home!


It was a very good ending for Zeus, and a thankfully short journey to finding a forever home.



UPDATE: Zeus has been adopted!


Thank you to everyone who has shared Zeus’ post and led to an adoption for him!

For anyone who may find themselves in need of rehoming a pet, please reach out to your local animal services. Many areas have resources to assist if they can not assist personally. We are not sure this owner lived in our county. If they did, please know you may call us. We are always here to assist whether it be with resources that can help financially, with feeding your pet, or even with surrendering him or her to us.

Sadly, Zeus isn't the first report of a dog abandoned by an owner and tied to a tree this year. A dog named Duke was discovered by a Maryland school teacher on a frigid morning in mid-January. Like Zeus, Duke's story had a happy ending when he was adopted not long after he was taken in by the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.

And cases like these aren't the way it has to be. As Prince George Counter Animal Shelter explained in the aforementioned updated Facebook post, "For anyone who may find themselves in need of rehoming a pet, please reach out to your local animal services. Many areas have resources to assist if they can not assist personally.

"We are not sure this owner lived in our county. If they did, please know you may call us. We are always here to assist whether it be with resources that can help financially, with feeding your pet, or even with surrendering him or her to us."

So if you find yourself in a similar situation as Zeus' previous owner, reach out to your local shelters and find out what options are available to you. Just because you're unable to care for a pet any longer doesn't mean you should stop caring about them.​

 

[haiducii]

Olympian hero!

Olympics Skier Gus Kenworthy, Who Adopted 2 Sochi Dogs, Rescues Puppy from Korean Dog Meat Farm

Team USA’s Gus Kenworthy is leaving the Winter Olympics with a new rescue pet again.

In 2014, the freestyle skier went through the long process of bringing two puppies he found near Olympic Village in Sochi, Russia, back home to America. Those dogs (which now live with Kenworthy’s ex-boyfriend in Canada) are now healthy, full-grown social media superstars: Sochi pups Jake and Mishka.

And it looks like Kenworthy will be welcoming another pup to his life. In a lengthy Instagram post Kenworthy announced he and his boyfriend, actor Matthew Wilkas, visited one of South Korea’s 17,000 dog meat farms during the Winter Olympics and rescued a puppy named Beemo.

READ MORE

 

[waistingmytime]

This Dog Was Locked In A Box For Months—Now Watch Him Run!
The Animal Rescue Site - March 1, 2018

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For nearly six months, Flint was locked inside a filthy wooden box. His brother was locked in a box next to him, and after he starved to death, his body was left there to rot. Flint was desperate to escape. And as this new video shows, he got his chance when PETA worked with local law-enforcement authorities to rescue him and several other dogs on the same property—and ensure that his owner was prosecuted. Although Flint was emaciated and suffering from muscle atrophy so severe that he could barely stand or walk, months of affection, care, and rehabilitation in his new home have given him a chance at a happy life.

Now, Flint runs, cuddles, and plays tug-of-war with his new canine friend, Ellie—another former "backyard dog" rescued by PETA. "Even though he had been confined and never knew companionship before he came to us, Flint trusts us and enjoys his new life," says Kate Swigart, his adoptive guardian and one of PETA's fieldworkers. "It's been a joy to watch him play, run, snuggle, and soak up the love that he always deserved."

 

[Shelter]

Why some people can be so cruel? I think this is a crime which has to be punished like the same crime against a human being.

 

[W!nston]

Loyal dog refuses to leave hospital where owner died four months ago

Pet reportedly chased after ambulance when 59-year-old owner was stabbed in October

A pet dog whose owner was fatally stabbed has made a home for himself in front of the hospital where the man died.

The animal, who has no name, has been waiting in front of the Santa Casa de Novo Horizonte hospital in Brazil for four months, according to local media reports.

The dog first arrived at the unit after chasing after the ambulance that was transporting his owner, a 59-year-old homeless man, to hospital in October.

The man, who had been involved in a street fight, died from his injuries but two months on, the dog continued to wait for him in front of the hospital, Brazil's O Globo newspaper reported.

Staff at the hospital gave the dog food and water, and they eventually found a local kennels, 3km from the hospital, willing to take him in.

But with a new owner lined up to take him, hospital workers were shocked to find the dog turn up back to the hospital not long after, having escaped the kennels.

It is not the first story of a dog showing unwavering loyalty to its owner.

In 2016, a dog waited for a week outside a Spanish hospital while her owner recovered from surgery.

And pictures of a family’s two pet dogs were widely shared after they refused to leave the side of a terminally-ill baby girl.

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This is an odd 'rescue' story but a rescue story none the less.

They adopted him after his owner, who was homeless, died. He's not living on the street. He has a home at the last place he knew his master was.

 

[W!nston]

Mother dog saved all of her puppies from a house fire and put them in one of the firetrucks for safety.