My husband, Charlie, and I volunteered at an animal kill-shelter,” said Jo, “for five years. Back then, we were ahead of today’s trend by taking photographs of adoptable animals and posting them on Petfinder and Craigslist! It took hours, but we saved hundreds of lives. I also forwarded the pure bred
animals’ photos to their respective rescue groups, who would then foster the animals.
After I took the dogs’, cats’, and rabbits’ photos, I wrote funny things about them, even knowing that they were in dire straits, with no hope of rescue. Once I took a photo of three caged kittens, standing in a row, and titled it ‘Line dancing in the Cat House’.
The purr-pose was to make paw-tential pet parents smile, while reflecting on the animals’
plight. People often arrived at the shelter specifically because of an animal’s photo and description. These people had emotionally adopted the animal, in their own home, on line, before even arriving at the shelter.
When we realized what was happening to some wonderful pets, well, we ended up adopting five dogs and two cats.
We couldn’t idly stand by watching so many animals needlessly being ‘put to sleep’ - week after week. Their
euthanization felt like murder - especially when we ‘knew’ the animals and how special they were.
Their demise was a toxic combination of lack of neutering and spaying producing many unwanted but incredibly loving pets....and a lack of adoptable homes, especially in this economy.
Regarding the creepy-cretins who run puppy/kitten mills, they throw away animals if they have to shell out for veterinarian charges. This adds to our over
pet population burden. Charlie jokes, ‘You have to spay the people!’
It was startling witnessing all breeds of beautiful purebreds enter our pet shelter. We rescued Abby, a big black Bernese Mountain/Border Collie mix; Amber, a beautiful German Shorthair Pointer; Cooper, a Llewellyn English Setter and our comic cat, Cosmo.
At the time we had no idea that Cosmo was also a toss away purebred. When Googling ‘long-haired gray cat’ we
discovered his pedigree was a rare Nebelung, from Germany, similar to Russian Blue cats.
The first time I saw Cosmo in the cat room his personality stood out, but he was sickly. The last time I saw him he was coughing, looked awful, and was on the loading dock ready to go in the oven! I took him home to foster but he stole our hearts, so he has a purr-manent home here.
We named him after the actor who played Cher’s father in ‘Moonstruck’.
Charlie is obsessed with Egypt, and with Cosmo’s ‘blue’ bloodline, so he nicknamed him Pharaoh Cosmoses after Pharaoh Thutmoses.
Cosmo hams it up by running along our hallway’s baseboard and then twanging the doorstop. His other ‘sport’ is swatting the dogs when they pass by him when he's up on a chair.
A brief history on our loving rescues shows the fate of many nameless pet orphans. Our dog, Abby, was thrown off the back of a truck. A
witness took a photo of the license plate before taking Abby to a shelter.
Amber was found emaciated, starving in the woods. The shelter almost put her down. It took a month for her to regain her health.
Cooper was suffering from heart worms. Through private donations his treatment was paid, so we took him home as a foster. The minute our Golden Retriever spotted Cooper they were the best of buddies, they often fell asleep with their paws
touching. We knew we could never break their bond.
Willie, another long-haired gray cat, had an abscessed eye and was discovered crying, begging for help, walking down his rescuer’s driveway.
Today, our shelter has a plather of purebreds: two great Pyrenees, two Cocker Spaniels, two Boxers, two German Shepherds, a Yorkie, Pomeranian, Papillon, Shitzu etc., all looking to be loved and give love. Sadly some people don’t understand
that God created animals to teach us love!
Mary Ellen, I'm glad you have this forum to teach the plight of animals, you're definitely their friend. We readers can’t thank you enough for all your work helping animals and may I say people too!”
Appreciation for Tips 'n' Tales