Animal Rescue Stories

ON BEHALF OF OTHER DECLAWED KITTIES

My first family must not have liked me, or they liked their furniture more than me. They had me declawed and then liked me even less, probably because of behavioral issues. I didn't trust them for doing such a thing to me. I wondered why they adopted me in the first place.

Then they moved away and left me behind. Just left me to fend for myself, declawed. A nice lady in the neighborhood started feeding me. But my only defense against other cats was biting. I had learned not to trust people, so I only let her pet me briefly. She didn't know I was declawed.

Someone looking for a lost cat in my area came across me and thought I had been dumped. She contacted a lady who came and catnapped me. This lady didn't realize I was being cared for until she posted my photo on social media. A friend of my caretaker recognized me, and the catnapper was busted! I will refer to her as Mom now because she adopted me with with the caretaker's approval.

Mom took me to the vet and my coat was so bad, I had to be shaved. They did bloodwork and discovered I had kidney disease. My previous caretaker judged my age to be about 15.

Mom makes my food, which is a recipe for cats with kidney disease. I have my own room and run of the house. Sadly, there are other cats and I learned early on not to let my guard down, so we don't get along.

I follow Mom around and nip at her ankles when I'm hungry. She thinks it's funny and has never gotten mad. When it was warm, I could go through a pet door in the window and bask in the sun in an enclosed area. I have to say after ten months here, I like having a warm bed, warm meals when I ask Mom, and being accepted for who I am. I know when my time comes Mom will not let me suffer.

Millie Reddig
BOISE, ID

Sophie

Sophie is from Texas. Her owner was taken to jail and Sophie was left behind in the house. No one could catch her, and the sheriff was going to shoot her since she was aggressive. Another sheriff intervened and they took her to a shelter. She then went to a rehab facility for quite a while and then to another shelter where she stayed for years.

Because she’s part pit bull no one adopted her. When she was first captured, we believe she was a couple years old. When we saw her profile, she was 9 and had never spent any of those years in another home. Even though we live in Washington state, we decided to take a chance, without meeting her, so they sent her up on the transport van with other dogs.

We got her two weeks before the pandemic hit and she’s still with us today! Very set in her ways but a wonderful addition to our family. We spoil her every chance we get and love her to pieces ❤️

Patty
KENT, WA

Pedro, the Donkey No One Wanted

I was looking on a site for another donkey or two. I think they are the best. I had 3 but felt like I needed at least one more. I don’t know why I felt like I wanted more, but I did. We had all this land and we had a small rescue here in Texas, so I thought I would add more donkeys.

As I’m a looking on the site which I will not name, I see these two bonded donkeys, so I paid the bail and was working on getting transportation figured out. I get a message asking me to take one more. I didn’t want to take another one, but wanted to hear the story.

The story was, this donkey needed out of where he was. He didn’t have much time left and he was the sweetest thing. The fear was he would not be rescued and he deserved better. His price was dropped so I couldn’t say no. He was on his way with the other two.

When I first saw him, I was shocked. He was in good shape, as the other two were, but there was something special about him. The lady that asked me to take him was true to her word, he was the sweetest donkey. He needed to be somewhere to show how sweet he actually was. It breaks my heart when I think I almost missed out on this donkey.

He follows me around like a puppy. He is affectionate and loving. There is nothing wrong with this guy. He was just discarded and no one wanted him. No one took the time to see his personality, except for the lady that wanted to give him a second chance. I could feel the desperation in her words. I almost let him fall through the cracks, but something told me to just say yes. What’s one more, right? We named him Pedro.

He is a permanent fixture on the farm with all his donkey friends. He has many acres to graze and a nice barn to sleep in. He loves treats and loves to be petted. This guy truly did deserve a second chance just like all discarded animals. I cannot believe I almost said no.

I’m so grateful he is here and he shows me he is grateful to be here. I tell him often how glad I am he was rescued. It’s amazing how things work out. I try not to think of what would have happened to him if I had said no. His outcome likely would have been very different. He is safe and in his forever home.

Shanna Kelley
IRA, TX

Our sweet rescue

It was early one summer morning. It was late August, and the temperature was forecast to be in the upper 90s to low 100s this particular day. We had new neighbors across the street and they had tied a pitbull to the tree next to their house. The dog started relentlessly barking about 7 that morning.

At 10 I went out to water my plants. The poor dog was barking and lunging on her chain. At this time, it was already 97 degrees outside. I realized she had no water or even a dish to hold water, so I I filled a bucket and took it over to her. I then noticed she had no food dish. The neighbor next to the house seen me go across the street with water and came over. She went home and filled a dish with food for her.

When the owner of the dog came home she brought my dish home and asked me not to water her dog or feed her. She began to keep her inside after that. People never stay long in this house across from me so I knew it wouldnt be long before they would move.

Anyway as time went on, I worried about the poor little dog. One morning in January, it was cold and rainy. I saw the little dog going down the street from trash can to trash can looking for food. I called her over and brought her in. I fed her and watered her. She curled on the floor in front of our wood heater and went to sleep. She was so undernourished you could count her ribs and vertebrae. She was also pregnant.

I contacted the police and explained what the situation was. They said they would send animal control to my home. By the time animal control arrived, I had made the decision to do whatever I had to so she would not have to go back to such horrendous living conditions. Animal control made her surrender the dog.

Long story short, I adopted her. Two months after I adopted her, she gave birth to 12 beautiful healthy babies. That was 3 years ago and she is the sweetest little girl. She has never been on a chain or on a tie out since I have had her and never will. She is spoiled rotten and my husband and I love her dearly.

barbara
PARIS, TX

From total scaredy cat to brave girl

I lost my previous girl from liver cancer earlier this year and needed someone to fill the gap left. One day I was just casually looking at rescue sites when this GSD x girl jumped out at me. Next thing I knew I was making an appointment for a meet and greet which my best friend came along with me to.

It went swimmingly; she was such a sweet girl even though she had been treated badly from birth and dumped with all her siblings. The rescue found them at 10 weeks old on deaths door and nursed her back to health. She was 18 weeks old when she was ready for adoption and when I adopted her.

I changed her shelter name to Kaylah. Because of her first weeks on this planet, she was frightened of everything. I knew she was coming home with me and had been sent to me by my previous girl Kayzen.

I took it slowly with her and she slowly adapted to life in a home. She fell in love with my cat Louie from the moment they met. After 2 and a half days she came out from her hiding spot and explored the house but was still reactive and frightened by everything. We started puppy school and she got along swimmingly with all the other pups.

After a month and a half of having her, I had work being done on the roof of the house and it scared her to death the odd noises. After 2 days of this one night while I was sleeping on a Friday night, she followed Louie through a hole in the fence and got lost. I posted her everywhere and searched for her every day and night with my best friends help. Even my housemate who she was scared of went looking ,but for 4 days there was no news. My heart was breaking, it was like losing Kayzen all over again.

Then someone a couple of doors down from me commented on one of my lost posts that she had seen her on the Monday night late and told me which direction she headed. I changed my search area to there without luck. After 11 days I was really wondering what kind of condition she'd be in after so long on the streets.

Then I got a phone call to say she was in their neighbour's yard the next street over from mine. I went there but she was gone. The next night a few blokes in the neighbourhood put together a search party and we went out where she had been seen for 2 nights. No luck so we went home. Then an hour later, my best friend who Kaylah loves said I'll come over and we'll look again.

We went out to the house where she liked going in and did an upturn in the street just down the road and there she was. Well she saw us and was so scared she ran for her life back to the house she'd been seen at twice. Boy, I thought ,she's fast. I went in there and she managed to run away again and back to the park where she'd been seen on the Monday.

I didn't want to scare her any further so I said to my friend let's go home. When we got home my housemate came out and said she's in the neighbour's yard. We couldn't believe it. After about half an hour she saw Louie and followed him back through the hole in the fence. I put out some food and water for her and she gobbled it up.

The food and water were far enough enough from the hole in the fence for my housemate to block the hole. It took another hour and a half for her to calm down enough to recognise us all and come inside. She was then as excited to see us as we were her.

I had her vet checked and she was in excellent condition even had put on 1kg in weight during her 12 days of going missing. I then noticed after a few days of her being home how much braver she had become from her adventure. The work on my roof was still going on and she didn't bat an eyelid. Even at puppy school that we went back to finish, we noticed what a different dog she was. She still gets a little frightened at some things but nothing like she used to.

She is turning into a great dog. She turns one in a couple of weeks time and I truly believe she rescued me as much as I did her. She has settled into life at home and no longer looks to get out. It does help that I've had the fence replaced.

Natalia Pointon
Darwin, Australia

He Adopted Us

He wasn't even 3 months old the first time he showed up, exhausted, hungry and thirsty resting under brush next to our house. When we finally coaxed him out, we also learned he was completely flea and tick ridden and without any ID. We live a bit in the countryside and it's not unusual that hunters leave their dogs to roam, which is what we thought had happened to him, only this one maybe lost his way.

After playing with him for a bit, my husband and I bathed him, gave him food and water and applied a tick treatment, trying to help the little fella. As we were tending to him outside deciding what to do, our closest neighbor drove past and told us he belonged to their house, about a 1/4 mile further down the road. It turns out he was left at the house by a sister.

Saddened by the news, there really was no choice but to lead him "home" and hope the best for him. Once we got far enough down the road towards his house, he seemed to recognize his home and ran towards it. I was actually teary watching him run towards the house because even in that short time since I'd met him, he worked his way into my heart.

It was several weeks before we saw him again but we often wondered how he was and hoped he was getting better. As it turned out, one day one of our own dogs escaped, which she is known to do. About an hour later she was back and had company with her. The little fella had followed her home and literally, from that day forward, he never left.

There is a gate on the road in front of our house leading to our own courtyard. It's a street mostly only used by us and the neighbor and ends at his house. We were careful not to let the puppy come into our yard as we didn't want it to appear we were taking him but from that day forward, Snoopy, as we'd quickly taken to calling him, camped outside our gate for weeks and never left. He was there in the morning when we woke up, he was there throughout the day and was always there at night when we went to lock up and called it a night. He made it very obvious this was where he wanted to call home and each day we became more OK with that.

Of course we left food, water, blanket and even toys out for him because even though he wasn't ours, we were going to be sure he knew someone cared for him. He got lots of visits and cuddles from us throughout the day and eventually other neighbors came by to play with him, too. He was becoming very popular and everyone was hoping we would adopt him.

From the beginning the neighbor made it clear he wasn't interested in keeping Snoopy but because it was his sister's dog, he had no say in letting us adopt him, something we decided we would try to do if we could convince his owner. For all intents and purposes, by this time we were already family but we really wanted to make it official. Snoopy even took to playing with our two dogs through the fence and they seemed to love him just as much, too. All he wanted was to come in and play with them but we had to be careful about bringing him inside, especially since he still had so many ticks.

One day I eventually did scoop him up and took him to the vet for tick treatment. It broke my heart to see the sores he was causing on his own paws and legs trying to get the fleas and ticks off. Thankfully we rid him of the problem and he really started to flourish. He was happier, more playful and so bright-eyed with a healthy coat of fur.

After 3 more weeks we just couldn't take it anymore and so my husband asked to speak with the sister. She agreed and we learned someone had given the puppy to her young daughter as a gift but she had no room for him, especially as he was likely going to be a larger dog and she lived in an apartment. My husband convinced her it was best if we took him in, we promised to take good care of him and she was welcome to come visit him anytime and bring her daughter. She was completely agreeable and glad we wanted to take him.

That was the day we finally were able to make it official but truly, he had already adopted us weeks earlier. We just didn't know it at the time. We do truly feel blessed and honored that he chose us.

Today, almost 18 months later, he's the handsome, loving, loyal protector of our family. He's playful, goofy and funny, a great companion and everybody loves him. He's our Snoopy and thankfully he's here to stay!

Lisa Villanueva
Faro, Portugal

Sunshine

This is our little girl, Sunny, who we rescued earlier this year, after our two other rescues died from the same ailment: spinal cord injuries. The first, Tito, was diagnosed by our vet and we took him to a neurologist upstate. After about $8000, they couldn't guarantee he'd ever walk again. So, with heavy hearts, we put him down. The second, Penny, was diagnosed with the same injury after jumping off the bed. She dragged her back legs behind her and could not empty her bladder. Our vet told us she would never walk and we'd need to express her bladder twice a day. With heavy hearts again, we euthanized Penny.

We finally went back to the SPCA and there she was, in the arms of a tech, because she had just been returned to the shelter by her latest rescuer, who claimed she was "lethargic". She had heartworms. We took her home. She was treated twice and today she is as energetic as a 5 year old terrier should be, and heartworm free! She's an angel and we love her so much. She has the most expressive eyes I've ever seen. We call her "Boris" sometimes because she has a headful of unruly blonde hair like the Prime Minister of England, Boris Johnson!

Vicky Rymshaw
MILLSBORO, DE

A Siamese in Black Pajamas

When I moved to my town 25 years ago, I saw a lot of stray cats in the area. My search for a shelter came up empty. We didn't have one that serviced our town. My search did, however, put me in touch with a local rescuer who offered to loan me traps and teach me how to use them. Thus began my rescue career.

My efforts caught the attention of the small weekly paper, and they did a story about the cats. In the interview I mentioned that I had some feral cats who were spayed and neutered, but the property owner where I found them didn't want them back. That was included in the story, and I got a phone call from a woman named Lori who owned a farm. We became friends as she was an animal lover, too. Lori took four of the feral cats to live on her farm. She also met the rescuer who taught me how to trap and began fostering kittens for her.

One Saturday, I answered a knock on my door to find the editor of the newspaper holding a tiny black kitten. She and some others had been volunteering to fix up a house for an elderly woman. They had found the kitten while they were clearing brush. It still had its umbilical cord attached. She wanted me to take it, which I did.

I named it Itsy because I did not know the gender. For two days I bottle fed the kitten, taking it with me everywhere I went. On Monday I got a call. They believed they had found the mother cat, and there were more kittens. They weren't sure where they were. I told Lori, and she offered to meet me to help look for them.

When Lori, my husband and I got to the house, the elderly woman was on the porch holding a coffee can with a little black kitten inside. A beautiful seemingly pure-bred Siamese cat sat beside her. I took the kitten out of the can and held it down in front of the Siamese. She sniffed it and then took it from my hand. She trotted away with the kitten in her mouth to a garage at the house next door and disappeared inside. Where did she go?

I walked around checking every nook and cranny and spotted a rusty old wood stove sitting in a corner. We looked inside and found the little family. We lured mama cat into a carrier with some canned food and then pulled out three black kittens. After we reunited the family with Itsy at home, we named two of them Bitsy and Spider. The fourth one became Coffee because of the coffee can.

After the kittens were weaned, the mother was placed with a Siamese rescue organization. Three of the kittens were adopted. The fourth one was a little more reserved but very sweet. I was getting deeply attached to him, but wanted to save my home for unadoptable ones. It took a while, but I finally found a family to adopt him. It was so hard to leave him there.

The next day the mother called me saying that she had seen a worm on him, and they didn't want him anymore. He was fully treated for worms, and I didn't believe that for a minute, but I was so relieved that I didn't argue with her. I told her I'd be there within the half hour with her still uncashed check. I flew to that house and found him under a couch. His little face brightened so much when he spotted me. I scooped him up and gratefully took him to my car. On the way home, I told him that he was my cat and that I would never, ever let him go again.

Coffee grew into a big cat of 16 pounds, not fat just big. We said, "Momma was a Siamese, but daddy was a panther." He was the most easy-going, laid-back cat. Nothing upset him. He also had a big friendly personality. He was a talker with a Siamese voice. I called him my Siamese in black pajamas.

Over the next 19 years, he befriended rescues and fosters that came in. They loved him! I would frequently find him in the middle of a pile of cats, all of them trying to lay next to Coffee. From the time he was a kitten, he always loved to snuggle next to my side tucked under my arm. That spot seems so empty now that he is gone. He was the ideal cat in so many ways. People really miss out when dismiss black cats just because of their color.

As for Lori, almost 20 years ago, she said she wanted to start her own rescue. I told her I would support and help her any way I could. Thousands of cats and dogs have now been helped by her rescue. It has grown tremendously over the years and now has lots of volunteers, a shelter space that we rent, and spay/neuter clinics with local mobile units. Yes, my husband and I are still helping. We clean and feed and help with fundraising. We organize students from the college where my husband teaches to help clean the shelter every week. We have seen so many cats come and go over the years. We have also fostered quite a few. We have loved a lot of them, but none could ever replace Coffee.

Sharon Thompson
GROVE CITY, PA

Loving Blackjack

When we first moved into our house we adopted a bonded pair of littermate kittens, whom we named Boboko and Laptop. (don't look at me, my husband named Laptop...) Boboko was my soulmate, followed me around everywhere like a tiny shadow. These kittens were only 9 weeks when they came to us, and weighed about a pound apiece. He was the sweetest fluffiest cat in creation, a miniature Maine Coon with floof EVERYWHERE, but he was never quite completely "with us". When the final marble was lost and Boboko became an uncontrollable creature who peed EVERYWHERE (except the litter box) we put up with it and tried to help it and cure it with everything we could, but in the end he deteriorated fast and at only 9 years old we had to admit defeat. Boboko was gone, and he took half my heart with him.

His sister was inconsolable when left alone, but it took me a year to even think about the possibility of another cat. When I finally did we were advised to look for a young male cat who would be "best accepted" by our aging and imperious tuxie queen. So we went to the local shelter with those criteria. They brought out a sweet three-month-old kitten but there was zero chemistry there and the lady who worked there saw it. She scooped him up to take him away but said, "wait there I think there's a cat you have to meet."

She returned with Blackjack. Imperfect, one-eyed, with a clipped ear that spoke of a rough ex-feral mean streets kittenhood, he was unloved and unwanted. But this cat was put down on the floor, took one look at me and my husband, and flopped on his back inviting us to rub his belly.

Home he came with us.

They told us he was "about two" but he behaves like a kitten even now, when he is pushing 10 (by that original estimate). He has a box of toys he "chooses" from and there are little stuffed mice and fluffy cat toy worms and kitty bouncing balls and string and what have you ALL OVER THE HOUSE all the time. If you throw a toy mouse down the stairs the cat will fling himself down after it with abandon. He's a joy, and he is a cuddler, and he is the biggest lovebug with a purr three times too large for the size of him. He has fat little feet that I purely love, and he sleeps under the covers with me at night. Clearly we were always meant to be together.

He cannot replace Boboko - nothing could. But I am glad we were gifted the absolute privilege of loving Blackjack.

Alma Alexander
BELLINGHAM, WA

Bear Intervention

Although my husband and I have rescued many, I will talk about our most recent, Bear. For a few years there was a black dog next to where I worked. On a chain and tied to a spike, myself and co-workers would play with him and give him treats. It was obvious he loved people and wanted to play. We brought him food, better shelter and bedding several times.

Then I could stand it NO longer. I talked with Bear’s owner and asked if I could have him and would be willing to pay for him. Bear’s owner looked so happy and relieved that I would take him. Unfortunately Bear’s owner passed away a month or so later. So I considered it divine intervention that I was there to take him into my home. Bear is my shadow and definitely my protector.

Phyllis Jamerson
NEW CANTON, VA