Ivey - A Great Rescue Story!

Just last week I had the pleasure of saying hello to Ivey, rescued seven years ago, and her owners Kim and Robin, absolutely amazing people!!

This story is just too amazing not to tell!

In 2007, around the Michael Vick dogfighting outrage, I was able to assist a local shelter rescue three pit bulls that were chained in a patch of trees in the middle of a cemetary of all places. ...
The surrounding homes had heard horrible noises in the middle of the night and then a groundskeeper heard crying and discovered several bloodied, injured dogs chained to trees with very heavy tow chains, well hidden. I am proud to say that I immediately played a major role in getting these dogs out of there. They were leaving with us. Entering their zone, befriending them, cutting the huge gigantic chains and padlocks and keeping them apart was what we did.

The vision of these dogs remains in our memory to this day as we rescued them from this secret, horrible place.

This incident was reported to the authorities.

Sadly due to extreme aggression and being exposed to dogfighting, two of the dogs had to be euthanized. The third dog Ivey was up for adoption for years.
Ivey was featured on the front page of the Detroit Free Press in 2007, so badly wounded and torn up, but check her out now!

Thank you Kim and Robin for adopting Ivey, training her and being totally committed to a dog with a past. Her transformation is awesome......

This story is just too amazing not to tell!

Animal Care Network spay neuter stops!

Many of the addresses that the street teams stop at are new addresses that we have never been to before.

Any time that we see a doghouse, dog, cat or any indication that an address has dogs or cats, that address will go on the list.

More times than not, thanks to the great communication and educational efforts of our volunteers, we have serious interest in our low/no cost spay neuter program.

These were two new addresses on Team Marie’s list, which resulted in Panda, a female pit bull, and Zeus and Thor, a cat and dog duo, getting fixed and vaccinated through our program!!   This makes these visits invaluable!

Not only were we at ACN excited about this, but the owners were so grateful to take advantage of our program!!

Every single dog and cat that gets fixed not only reduces the pet overpopulation but makes the health and temperament of the animal better!!!

So bravo to all the volunteers out there that promote spay and neuter so successfully to the community that we serve!

Also bravo to the pet owners for believing in spay neuter!! You are part of the solution, not part of the problem!!!!

www.michigananimaladoptionnetwork.org

Doghouse Repair and Wellness Checks

Anytime the Animal Care Network teams spots a doghouse, we will either stop or jot the address down to be checked.

It was quite clear that this dog was living outside a lot (muddy pacing tracks in the grass) and the doghouse was not on a pallet, kept tipping over.  This had to be corrected as soon as possible.

Unfortunately the dog was so aggressive, the teams could not get anywhere near the dog or doghouse.  So after multiple tries to connect with the owner, it finally happened.

The doghouse was drilled on to a wooden pallet, lifting it up off the ground and weighting the doghouse down.  The team also discovered  the chimney cap was missing, so that was also corrected and the doghouse was filled with straw.

These doghouses have got to be drilled on wooden pallets, including the barn style and the dogloo.  They will just fill with mud, rain, moisture and snow which will then turn into a sheet of ice on the bottom of the house.... not to mention the dogs knocking the houses out of their reach.

Good job teams!

www.michigananimaladoptionnetwork.org

Spay Neuter Transportation - Taxi Cab

The Animal Care Network had been working on a household with FIVE pit bulls for months and months. Not all the dogs got along with
each other, none were fixed and this address was going to get messy, the two older females had already had l...itters.

We continued to persist and finally the owner agreed. The owner offered to take the two older females in and ACN agreed to transport the three younger ones.

Low and behold the two older females arrived in a Taxi cab! That was a first for us, but at least they made it for the appointment!!

Whew, that was a close one, between the breeding and fighting, this
address was about to become a nightmare!

All of the dogs in this household are now all spayed and neutered.

www.michigananimaladoptionnetwork.org

 

Thoughts from Heather After a Weekend Animal Care Network Run

Please read Heather’s words after being out in Pontiac all day taking care of outdoor animals.

The animals. Their suffering is my grief.

After a day of volunteering it’s always the same process. Street teams work the trenches and it gets dirty. You take the longest shower to try to rid yourself of the misery you’re now covered in, to get the chill out of your bones. You try to not lose hope in all of humanity.

I’m emotionally numb, in shock at what people consider humane, or love, or care. I’m exhausted, physically, mentally, my soul is on fire and it burns. I have reasoned, bartered, negotiated for lives, their wagging tails as we walk away with them. I’ve made promises that I cannot keep to dogs that want so badly to trust someone. I drove home in a blizzard and tried not to think of the dogs too skinny to survive real cold.

I try to explain to my husband what I’ve seen, what I’ve done but it comes out as nonsensical babbling. A mosh of nouns, verbs, disbelief, shock.

In the morning my brain is on fire as my emotions finally catch up to me. I vomit my words onto the page like poison and hope that it all makes sense. I cry tears for the ones I couldn’t walk away with. The ones who I couldn’t do enough for. I try to focus on the good. The old, sick chow who was being kept in a shed at an abandoned house is free, the emaciated puppy who I negotiated for $30, the two tangled pit bulls who are at least free from their chains, the new attitude that Animal Control seemed to give us when we had to call on them for help.

I’ll spend the rest of my weekend trying to avoid people while my brain processes the wreckage. Bless my husband who doesn’t understand why I would break my heart on purpose but fully supports me just the same. He is my rock and I am the chink in his armor.

Yesterday I was numb, today I am wrecked, by tomorrow I will burn up completely and emerge whole again. Because I have to. We all do.

HEATHER