National Recognition by Best Friends Animal Society

How awesome, the Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal rescue organization, used our group as an example of good results from early spay and neuter from the Fix at Four Brochures. We have been handing the brochures out for the last year.

It is a good feeling to receive national recognition for the hard work that our volunteers do. To read the article, please go to: http://bestfriends.org/News-And-Features/News/Michigan-Animal-Adoption-Network-maximizes-lifesaving-/

A Haunting

A Friendly but Lonely Cat

Thank You for Dave Coleman and all his hard work!

Let’s give a big round of applause to our dear friend and fellow humanitarian Dave Coleman of Centerstage and QTMC (Quest to Make Change).

Dave has spent the last 20 years serving the Pontiac community. He works non-stop, tirelessly every single day to help the less fortunate, the lonely, the sick and the poor. Dave never turn’s his back on anyone in trouble.

He has been a fixture in this community for years and has NEVER turned his back on someone that needs help!

His list of accomplishments, awards is astounding even though none of that matters to him, what matters to him is helping others and having a giving heart and soul.

Dave has struggled over the years to continue his mission and has overcome many hurdles, ALWAYS with a smile on his face, never willing to give up no matter what!

These are words from Dave about his mission: “We merely noticed a need and have always strived to handle it in the most Christian way possible. It has always been a monumental financial challenge to cover overwhelming expenses, and our charity has always operated in a deficit. Nevertheless, I recognize that God has uniquely positioned us in this building,
at this time and equipped me with the spiritual skills, the work skills, the business skills, life’s skills and perseverance, and the heart of Christ to strive to be His most humble servant, in order to serve the groups of people that seem to have a “special place in God’s heart”. Kind treatment/works towards the poor, homeless, needy, maimed, lame, imprisoned, blind, afflicted, sick, aliens, fatherless and widows, is mentioned more than 200 times in the Bible if you google the word poor”

He is simply amazing and we should all take a page from this hero’s book and follow it. Wouldn’t the world then be a better place!!!

We love you Dave Coleman!!!

Transport for Spay/Neuter Clinics

Another big thank you to Dawn and Sue for being involved in the transport team for the monthly Michigan Animal Adoption Network/Animal Care Network, Michigan Animal Rescue League, All About Animals spay neuter clinics.

Getting up at 5:00 am in the morning is just not an issue for us gals, when it involves spay and neuter!

Many of the pet owners do not have transportation, so Animal Care Network offers transport to the All About Animals Auburn Road clinic.

This involves getting up very early and picking up multiple cats and dogs at multiple addresses and having them to the clinic by 7:30 am. Cages also need to be cleaned and sterilized before and after each clinic to ensure healthy and safety for each and every dog and cat.

The dogs and cats are then transported on the All About Animals transport vehicle to their Warren clinic where they have their surgery and spend the night to recover.

We then pick the animals up the next morning, get them checked out and loaded back up and then they are delivered back to each household with paperwork and instructions.

This is a extremely busy two days, but worth every minute of it and every tank of gas!!!

Spay and Neuter Clinics

Every single dog and cat that gets #spayed, #neutered is a step in the right direction towards No More Homeless Pets.

Every single puppy and kitten that gets fixed counts!!

Our spay and neuter program, in partnership with Michigan Animal Rescue League, Michigan Humane Society, All About Animals Rescue, Ross Hospital for Animals keeps us very busy.

All breeds, males, females, all ages, all sizes, young and old!!! We are trying to get all the dogs and cats in our target area spayed and neutered.

Here are many wonderful, thankful pet owners that got their dogs and cats fixed through this vital program! Let's not forget the free nail trim that All About Animals includes!!!

Pit bulls big and small, Beagles, Pugs, Dachshunds, Boston Terriers, Shihtzus, Chihuahuas, adults, puppies, cats and kittens. We had a mighty fine showing of all breeds, all ages and all sizes for this transport.

We cannot broadcast enough how important and productive these
programs and these clinics are!!!

Another successful spay neuter transport clinic on April 1, 2014

Another successful spay and neuter transport clinic thanks to partnership with the Michigan Animal Rescue League and All About Animals. These clinics are also funded by Animal Care Network and Michigan Animal Rescue League.

These monthly spay neuter clinics are absolutely amazing, well done and are so worth the work in getting all these animals booked in and transported to the All About Animals Auburn location and then to All About Animals Warren location.

Forty dogs and cats were spayed and neutered from the Pontiac area and many received much needed lifesaving vaccines.

ACN and MARL have been participating in these All About Animal monthly transports since October 2013 and they are just wonderful, productive and a huge step in the right direction to No More Homeless Pets and decreasing the pet overpopulation.

Check out everyone hard at work!!!! And a bonus, ALL the dogs and cats made it except for two, which we rescheduled!!!

Thank you Kathy, Deb, Amy, Megan, Bill, Mark, Dawn, Sue and everyone at All About Animals and MARL that are involved in this worthwhile community effort.

Also thank you to all the pet owners for believing in spay and neuter and not adding to an already overwhelming problem.

Every single dog and cat that gets fixed makes a difference!!

Another job well done!!!

Heather's Poem

The Animal Care Network is in great need of dog and cat food.

PLEASE SHARE, PLEASE DONATE

Please donate to our food assistance program, we are very low on dog and cat food at this time.

The Animal Care Network assists pet owners with food every single day in our target areas. Some months we make 1,000 stops so imagine how much dog and cat food we go through.

An added bonus to our program is that the dogs and cats MUST be spayed and neutered in order to qualify for the program. These guidelines have made it possible to have thousands more dogs and cats fixed in our target area! Pet owners really need our help.

The ACN started the street program and food assistance program 20 years ago, we are the FIRST group that started hitting the streets and helping people in areas that really needed the help.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR FOOD ASSISTANCE AND SPAY NEUTER PROGRAM!

PLEASE DONATE TODAY!

Consider holding a fundraiser or food drive to collect dog and cat food for our vital, lifesaving program!!!

Please contact Chris at 248-545-5055 if you have donations or please donate online to make a financial contribution!!!

Thank You to Full Bowls Full Bellies

Thank you ONCE AGAIN to Mary Bourdage at Full Bowls Full Bellies for this wonderful donation of food. (And note the designer brands…the dogs don’t quite know what to do with not only food but high end food)

And an extra shout out to Ms. Stephanie Baretta for keeping the food under a tarp on her driveway for 2 days until a volunteer could get to her house to pick it up. Not everyone is willing to go so out of their way for us like these people consistently do!

THANKS AGAIN!!

Unadoptables - Tiger's Story

This poor dog was overlooked and left behind by a few other rescue groups. He did not look adoptable and had severe mange. He was in a very bad situation, chained in a backyard, was being starved, was dehydrated and extremely sick from this skin condition which was left untreated for years. His body was filled with infection and his system was shutting down due to lack of food and water.

The owner admitted he did not have any money for vet care or food and wanted someone to take the dog, but this did not
happen until Mindy found out about him. She did not care if he was adoptable or not. She was getting him out of this situation.

Mindy went immediately and picked up Tiger. The owner stated that two other rescue people had come to get Tiger, but left without him. Maybe he didn't look desirable enough or maybe they had nowhere to take him, we don't know.

What we do know is that we were not leaving a dog in this condition behind. Each day that passed Tiger's health declined, each day that passed he suffered more in the backyard, on the chain, with no food and water.

Not only do we care about the adoptable animals, we care about the unadoptable ones.

Sadly Tiger had to be humanely euthanized, but that was by LOVING AND CARING hands and hearts that shed tears for him.

He did not suffer, wither away and die in the backyard alone, because he did not look good or did not act good. Even if we had to keep him in our vehicles all day and night, we were not leaving without this poor suffering dog.

The ACN considers this an "at risk" dog, which means at risk of starving to death, at risk of being "let go", at risk of dying from infection and dehydration, at risk of being dumped.

Sadly in our target area and in many situations, we are unable to save every single dog and cat due to the abuse and neglect they have suffered at the hands of their owners.


Rest peacefully in Heaven Tiger, we are sorry that we did not get to you sooner!! We will not just walk away!

Frustration and Reality

The following was written by Pam, our Pontiac Animal Care Network Manager. Please read.

I have just got home from 11 hours in Pontiac and I am physically sick to my stomach, nauseous, my head hurts and I cannot stop crying. The crying has been sporadic all day long.

The lack of compassion, care and respect for some of the dogs and cats that we see on Animal Care Network runs is sometimes just more than I can bear. As I seem to be saying on a regular basis, I do not know whether to cry or vomit after a day like today, sometimes I do both.

Our volunteers spend hours, days, weeks, months, years trying to educate the community, offer amazing free spay and neuter, vaccines, food assistance, straw delivery, transportation to the veterinarian, the list goes on. We talk and we talk and we talk and we pass out literature
and more literature. We get articles in the newspaper over and over again, we get important issues on the TV thanks to our media contacts who are also concerned.

Yes, we get through to so many, and there are so many caring, loving, humane pet owners that just really need a helping hand and are so grateful for our program and our help. But then there are the OTHERS.

I guess when the bomb drops, it drops real hard, like exploding fireworks at the fourth of July. One tragedy, one heartbreak, one unexcusable situation after another.

Situation number one:

I can count over thirty articles that we have had in the paper and on the news about the parvovirus over the years. Every single address that we visit gets a packet which includes low cost vaccine clinic information and information about the virus. Please read this we ask, please get your animals vaccinated, please listen to us, please understand that it costs less to get your dog or cat shots than it does to take them to the vet when they are sick. Please don't believe anyone that gives you a dog or cat that says "oh yes, they have already had ALL their shots". I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that a 10 week old puppy has had ALL it's shot. That is just not possible. So we continue to preach, educate, implore, persuade, beg, offer and talk and talk.

We have repeat problem addresses that are as frustrating as they get, people that have new dogs every week, dogs coming and going, none of them are vaccinated, none are fixed, they refuse to do this, the environment is infested with fleas, it is just BAD.

On Friday evening a neighbor (not the so-called owner) called me to please pick up a very sick dog. She had been vomiting and bleeding from the rear end. I went immediately even though I did not even want to look at or speak to these people. The dog could barely walk and they were trying to push her to walk. I screamed "could you just carry her". So one of the neighbors did that and put her in my van. She immediately started having liquid blood diarrhea pouring out of her and non-stop vomiting and drooling, her hair was all missing and skin was infected due to severe fleas. Thankfully I found a local vet to humanely euthanize this poor, poor dog, and I thanked God that she was not suffering any more. I stayed with her until the end. This dog did not have a chance, she was forced to breed, used up and then passed around the city, exposed to parvo and then dead. 

The next day these same people showed up at a vaccination clinic with another dog and two beautiful puppies. Are you kidding me? I almost fell over. Once again I confronted them and went through the entire speech again, they just stared at me. These three new dogs were getting vaccines, yes that was good, but guess what? They were already exposed to parvo. 

Two days later, I received another call from the neighbor, guess what? The black dog is very sick, she has been throwing up all night, what could be wrong with her? Is this for real? I picked her up and she was crashing just like her friend two days earlier. I begged them for the puppies, but they absolutely refused and said, we are giving them to a friend. Great, now they can suffer at a different address and contaminate and spread the parvovirus more. I expect to get a call in the next day, or should I say I hope and pray I receive a call to pick up the puppies, wherever they are, before it is too late for them.


Situation number two:

We pass out literature at every single address about spay and neuter, the importance of spay and neuter, the health and temperament benefits of spay and neuter, we offer low cost spay neuter, we offer free spay neuter including vaccines, we offer free transportation for spay and neuter. Not only will it stop your dog or cat from reproducing, but it will stop female problems, infected uterus, mammary issues, bad heat cycles, false pregnancies, etc. This past week I have picked up four adult female pit bulls that all had to be put to sleep. One was toxic because she could not pass her puppies, one got so sick after having a litter she was nearly dead when we picked her up, one had mammary masses that nearly exploded because of not being spayed and one came down with parvo two weeks after they SOLD all her puppies.

Oh and guess what else, I received two frantic messages from guys that wanted their female pit bulls fixed. Both dogs that we had previously offered free spay several times in the past. But they knew more than we did then and they DID NOT want them fixed. So guess what? They both ended up with a prolapse uterus, the uterus was literally coming out of the poor dogs rear end. Now they wanted them fixed immediately. This condition cannot wait and of course we obliged and got both dogs in as soon as possible and they both did great. These two guys at least seemed to have learned a lesson and said they were going to convince all their friends to get their pit bulls fixed! I guess this ending is the bright spot of the week and the fact of better late than never should override my frustration that this was all preventable. So it will and I will regroup and tackle another day.


All in all, it has been absolutely brutal and my heart breaks for these poor, poor animals. But we ALWAYS go back for more don't we? 

Many of you will ask, couldn't we save the ones we lost? And the answer is no, we could not, the damage had already been done.

Volunteers need for 9th Annual Bowl-4-Animal Rescue Fundraising Event!

Love animals, but not sure you could handle volunteering in a shelter or on a street team rescue? How about volunteering for Bowl-4-Animal Rescue?! We need more volunteers to make this a success and reach our 2014 goal of $50,000!

It is such a fun endeavor and 100% of the funds raised go to the Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter and the Michigan Animal Adoption Network

Visit http://yourbowlingcoach.com/community/ to learn all about our event and contact michelle@yourbowlingcoach.com if you would like to help out anytime between now and August!

THANK YOU!

Animal Care Network and Community Rescue

The Animal Care Network has developed quite a great relationship with our target communities and has spent years trying to educate the community about proper pet care.

We also stress to people to please call SOMEONE when you see a dog or cat in trouble. It is always better to be safe than sorry! This has more often than not, proved to be lifesaving for hundreds of dogs and cats.

This group of kids in the photo never forget those words and always call the ACN phone when they see a dog or cat in trouble.  They are always so, so proud of themselves and it is really heartwarming to see that they will grow up to have compassion and concern for animals. They have rescued dozens of dogs and cats from the streets and have alerted the ACN to bad situations.

Here is a picture of them with a dog that was wandering the streets looking for food, she followed them home and they called ACN to pick her up.

They also noticed a dog that was dumped near an abandoned building who was terrified of people, no one could get near him. Gosh, I wonder why, come to find out people were chasing him and throwing bottles at him. One person had seen someone pull up and let the dog out of the car a few days earlier, but it was the kids that called us, not the adults.

He had taken refuge in the nasty basement of an abandoned building.  Perhaps he thought his owners would come back for him, not so lucky.

Thanks to the kids and another local animal lover Mike, we spent a few hours crawling around the basement and Mike finally was able to get him on a leash and safely coax him out. The kids stood guard around the building to make sure nobody interfered with the rescue!

Sadly we also found animal bones in the basement of this building. Seemed as if this building was being used as a dumping ground.

Both of these dogs were taken to local animal shelters where they were safe and out of danger!

Mary's Story

Kathy and Heather were on a full day Animal Care Network run when the weather was bitter cold, below freezing.

They made their last stop of the day to check on a dog chained up outside. That dog was not in such bad shape as compared to others that we see, but as you read on you
will see that this “last stop” was lifesaving.

While checking on that dog a child at the house mentioned something about the baby in the garage. There were no adults home to speak with and there was a language barrier.

Upon entering the garage, they were horrified to find an emaciated, hypothermic white puppy barely standing there.  She was in trouble, she was ice cold. Heather immediately scooped her up and took her to the vehicle to get her warmed up. They were able to reach an adult and waited until the adult got there to surrender her and sign her over.  Oakland County Animal Control was called and was on standby in case the volunteers needed assistance. Heather and Kathy left with “Mary”. They also found out that neither dog was allowed in the house because someone was allergic to them. Why they
chose to feed one dog and not the puppy is beyond us and NO they would not give up the second dog who was Mary’s father.  They bred him with the pit bull across the street, they were very proud of that fact. Infuriating. ACN offered “free” neutering to Mary’s father and have made many attempts to reach the owners of her mother, with no luck. We will continue to pursue this. The rest of Mary’s litter were either sold or given out on the “family and friends” plan.

I took Mary to be seen by a veterinarian who stated she was suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and malnutrition. She had sores on her little frail body and her ears were filled with puss and blood.  Her little front legs were very feeble from malnutrition and she actually hobbled for the first couple weeks. Mary was literally days away from death when Heather and Kathy found her.

She remained with me for five weeks while she recovered and became healthy. Isn’t it amazing what warmth, food and watercan do? She is quite the little smart, amazing angel. She started out as a skinny, dirty, solemn, sad little puppy and blossomed into a smart, social, outgoing, amazing little lady, who was a pleasure to foster! When she was rescued her spirit was low and her little head hung low. When she left our care, she held her head high and was confident and so attentive and eager to learn and to please.

The Michigan Animal Rescue League agreed to take Mary into their adoption program, so I took her in on a Saturday. Fifteen minutes after they opened a wonderful couple came in an fell in love with her. Mary got spayed the following week and her new family came
in to pick her up the following Saturday.

They have since sent photos and love her very, very much!

Great job Heather and Kathy! Thank you Michigan Animal Rescue League for giving Mary the opportunity to find this wonderful home along with so many others that we rescue on Animal Care Network runs.

I'm a Terrified Puppy

I’m A Terrified Puppy.

A nice lady from ACN picked up my emaciated mommy a few weeks ago. She could barely stand up. I had to stay in a crate in the basement with my 8 or 9 or 10 siblings and watch as they walked away. Some of my sisters were sold. One came back even crazier than when she left and rejoined us back in the crate. So then we all became a little crazier.

Eventually we got bigger and had no interest in being returned down to the basement after potty time…so then we were forced down to the basement after potty time. Eventually we wanted to explore more and had no interest in dropping shoes or learning how to sit in 3 seconds…so then we were forced to drop the shoe and were beaten into a sit.

I’m scared right before I go outside because I’m scared of coming in. So I guess I’m just scared of the back door itself. I’m scared to go down the stairs because I never know when I might get pushed. I’m scared to go up the stairs too because the backdoor scares me…and maybe I’m supposed to be going back down, or up, or something, I don’t know what…whatever it is that won’t get me in trouble.

I’m scared of the sound of footsteps because they might belong to someone mean. I’m also scared of not hearing the footsteps because who knows if anyone is ever coming back to feed us. I’m scared of not getting to the food bowl fast enough and having to
endure close quarter combat with my sidings. In fact I’m scared of most of my siblings. And the food bowl. Any bowl. They are all potential weapons. In fact, I’m scared of most any object.

Every object I can see might suddenly become a weapon…every person I can see might suddenly become violent…every dog, vicious…and at less than 3 months of age just look at me. You can’t. I don’t want you looking at me. Go away or I’ll make you.

I am a terrified puppy.

Spaying/neutering in Inkster

Thanks to Inkster volunteer Ron for making the trip to All About Animals (roughly 45 minutes one way) possible! Without his help we would not have been able to get these 2 precious faces fixed.

Little CJ that you see, well, that girl has finally pumped out her last litter…7 in all. A very good mother, she even started producing milk and fiercely protecting a newborn litter of kittens once. Luckily for her, she lives in a home that not only keeps her inside, but lets her have the run of the house and sleep on the bed! It’s so nice for us to be able to return a dog to a home where we know it will be loved and cared for.

Mr. Bongo, on the other hand, not so fortunate. Given we met his owner by way of having to knock on the door with a neglect complaint, we at least felt lucky he was civil and agreed to get him fixed. Trying further to look at the glass as half full, (very hard to do) we felt lucky that Mr. Bongo has a nice doghouse and isn’t chained, for despite the pleaded attempts to follow post-surgery care, as we walked away we saw him being walked back to the yard.

It broke our hearts. Even after years of having to see this, it still breaks our hearts.
Mr. Bongo even loved being at the vet and had to be picked up to get his massive body out of there!

I’m sure he will never forget all of the love he received from everyone that day…even if he was drugged for most of it!

Again, we can NOT thank Inkster volunteer Ron enough for helping transport these dogs. It literally takes an entire day.

Donations of Gasoline Gift Cards Appreciated

Our volunteers use their own vehicles to help the animals.   They are called upon to do many different things; transport animals for spaying and neutering, deliver doghouses, food, and other supplies, rescue animals, transport for adoption events, pick up donated food, and various other errands.   The cost of the gasoline can be a big expense for the volunteers, that is why we are asking you to consider donating a gasoline gift card.

Your gasoline gift card donation is tax deductible (see your tax adviser for advise) and will be appreciated by the volunteers.

Thank you for your support!

Thank You Volunteers!!!!!

Volunteers are the backbone of the Michigan Animal Adoption Network. Without them, nothing would be accomplished.

This video is our little way of saying thank you to all the volunteers that help make a difference in the world.

We are always in need of volunteers; fostering, fundraising, food drives, animal care network teams, etc. If interested, please call 248-545-5055 for more information.