Good People!

This couple is absolutely wonderful! They have three friendly rescued Pit Bulls that are spayed and neutered and live INSIDE the house.

The dogs are just as nice as the owners!

Annie, Miss Sherry, and Family

As the sun comes up we once again find ourselves en route to another spay neuter appointment. But this story is more a tribute to Miss.Sherry of Inkster and her caring family, as opposed to another tale of the in-n-outs of spay/ neuter transporting.

Sherry found Annie Oakley as a stray and did more than most people to help the dog. She even took her to a vet for microchip scanning …and no doubt the pooch was thrilled that Joanie from Buster Foundation was there always ready to lend a helping hand and flea bombed the dog!!

Even with a cat and another dog, both rescued from the streets, to share her new found people with, Annie Oakley eased right in to her surroundings, never jumping the fence or cornering Daisy May the Mastiff mix. (great names, I know)

But people do go out of their way every now and then – we hear of someone taking a stray to a vet to check for a microchip or calling different rescues to see if someone will please come get the dog. What makes this family different? The outcome wasn’t letting the dog go again when Plan A didn’t work out. Not did they just give the dog to anybody at all or leave alone constantly in a crate or backyard because Plan B or C didn’t work out. No…they let Annie Oakley be part of their FAMILY.

She is inside. She gets fed normal dog food on a regular basis. She sleeps on the bed. In fact from what I understand, she often takes up most of the bed and mom winds up on the couch! And that Dog Co-dependent thing right there, that is the language we understand and THAT is why we are giving tribute to Miss. Sherry, her son Jacob and the kind, kind husband who eventually relented and said sure the dog can stay:)

Annie Oakley recovered from her post surgery drugged up state!!

Weekend Teams Helping the Animals

The weekend teams visits as many addresses as possible every single week, sometimes assisting over 100 dogs and cats.

We run into all types of situations, dogs with no shelter, tangled dogs, skinny animals, stray dogs and cats, abandoned animals, owner surrenders,hungry and thirsty dogs, filthy living conditions, bloody ears, you name it the team sees it.

It is not always pleasant, but we do the best that we can to try to get animals out of bad situations.

If that is not possible we attempt to educate or report the situation to animal control. The teams educate every single address on proper animal care and also offer spay and neuter assistance at every single address!!

Animal Care Network Senior Dogs

Meet Karl, Diamond, Chunga (with the poodle cut) and Red!!

These are the oldest dogs in our target area right now, all over ten years of age and we have known them since they were youngsters.

The Animal Care Network had all these seniors spayed and neutered many years ago and assists the families with food whenever they need help.

Diamond (15 years) nearly died from a pyometra uterus infection when we had her spayed, which
contributed to adding many more years to her life.

You would not believe some of the stories we could tell about these dogs in their younger days!

We love them like they were our own!

Here is to many more years our four-legged friends!!

One Safe Responsible Place for Cats

The majority of our target area is not safe for cats and kittens to be trapped, spayed, neutered and released.

The are, however, a few cat lovers in the community that really try to make a difference for the stray, abandoned and street cats. The Animal Care Network tries to assist them as best as we can.

One such fellow cat lover, May, who lives in a more secluded area of the city is one of these people.

She started out by taking litter, after litter to the local shelters or calling ACN to pick them up, but realized that was not solving the problem or reproduction issue. The mother and father cats were wild and would continue the cycle. She was also tired of seeing these poor pregnant cats trudging through the snow in the winter and finding dead kittens in the spring.

So with the help of the Oakcat program and All About Animals we stepped in to help.

We were able to trap all of the adult cats and have them spayed and neutered and return to May’s property where she has shelter and a feeding station set up for them.

Again, this is one of the very few, safer situations in our target area.

Kathy's Rescue Puppies

Our longtime volunteer Kathy King had a friend tell her about two puppies that were abandoned in a parking lot that were huddled underneath some bushes.

After the friend took the two puppies to the vet to be checked out, Kathy went and got them.

Thankfully, we were able to get these gorgeous Labrador Pointer mix girls into the Michigan Animal Rescue League adoption program. It was a pleasure to foster these two girls until MARL had room!

Of course after they were spayed it did not take long for both of them to get wonderful homes!

Thank you Kathy and MARL!!!

Heartbreaking Kitten Rescue

As we have said many times, our target areas are filled with cats and kittens, struggling to survive.

Many of these poor kittens are so flea infested they are severely anemic which can kill them. The ACN phone receives dozens of calls every week requesting help for these poor souls.

This photograph is heart wrenching to see, but we must always tell their stories, good or bad, happy or sad.

These two kittens were found in an alley, they were clearly not littermates because one was twice as big as the other, but it was obvious they were friends.

A kind hearted Samaritan found them and brought them to safety and called ACN. Unfortunately it was too late, the grey and white one was dying and the orange one was not far behind. Both had severe upper respiratory infections, were malnourished and dehydrated and to compound that they were infested with fleas, so anemic that their gums were white.

The grey and white one was actually hugging the little orange guy who stayed right with him. It was as if they were comforting one another, this brought tears to our eyes and broke our hearts.

We had these little souls humanely euthanized by loving hand and loving hearts. They found comfort in each other while they were struggling to survive and left this earth together as well. God Bless them and all the others out there waiting to be rescued!

What is the answer to this tragedy?

Spay and neuter so that others are not born to suffer this way.


If you can no longer keep an animal, please take it to a local shelter or rescue group, rather than abandoning or leaving them to fend for themselves.

Scared Stray Dog

On a routine ACN run, the team spotted this thin, very scared stray dog. Valiant efforts were made to catch him, but he was so frightened, were unsuccessful.

Thank you to Oakland County Animal Control for making the effort and eventually live trapping this poor guy.

At least he is safe and sound at the shelter now instead of being on the streets in search of food and being terrorized by people throwing bottles and scaring him even more. No wonder he does not trust humans!
Come to find out weeks earlier, he bolted from the owners house who did not care and made no effort to get him back or call anyone!