Animal Rescue Stories

Prudence from shelter cat to a star!

I adopted my cat Prudence on April 5,2006 from the Hilton Head Humane Association. On February 15,2006 she was dropped off outside their gate in a box with her 3 couple week old kittens. She was only 8 months old then. She is 4 years old now. They cared for her and her kittens until the young family was healthy.

Her 3 kittens were adopted right away. Prudence stayed at the shelter for 2 months. The shelter took her to PetSmart for the week. When I saw her that April afternoon I knew she was the cat for me.So I adopted her.

When I got Prudence she was unsure of herself. Now she is the confident queen of the house.A labrador came in her front yard one day.She had it running out the yard with its tail between its feet. It never came back there either.

She is very playful and loves to sleep. Prudence likes to knead stuff animals.

Prudence is very intelligent. She tries to open the front door to get outside,she shows me when her litterbox is dirty, and she shows me when she is hungry to put food in her bowl. If you are reading a book and she wants your attention, she will sit on your book and start rolling around!

Prudence has won 4th best cat in her first household pet CFA cat show. She has been to Spain, the Canary Islands, and Switerzand. Wherever I go she comes to.

Prudence is the best cat in the world. I will always love her, and she will always love me.

Alina Kashkoush
Vero Beach, FL

Quaker Monk Parrot flew into our lives!

This past Monday, I woke up to a squaking noise in my bathroom. I moved my curtain and found a Quaker Monk Parrot sitting on my third-floor bathroom window ledge. It was tagged, and was obviously a pet as it ate Cheerios from my hand. I picked it up, put it in an empty Snapple box, and brought it to my town's Animal Control officer. They posted Found ads, called around to the local shelters and vets, waited a week, and still no one claimed the bird. Well, happily for my family, we got to keep the bird. "Baby" is now a part of my family since Friday evening, and having had birds in the past, I am so excited that Baby has adopted us. Baby is very friendly, loves to be stroked, and is very chatty. We do not know if it is a boy or girl, or even how old it is. Hopefully, we can teach it to talk and look forward to many years with our new little family member.

Stacia Russell
Waltham, MA

Blind Dog helps me to see

Murdock spent several years in a shelter before my husband arrived to rescue him. They met and were instantly best friends. Murdy is blind but has an amazing gift of opening the eyes and hearts of others. When I met my two boys I was afraid of dogs, but Murdy gently leaned on my legs and melted my heart and I found myself sitting on the floor with him. Murdock is now the matriarch or a household of 5 rescue pets with special needs. They all owe something to this fantastic soul who changed me forever. My husband gave Murdy a tag that says 'I rescued a human'. He rescued two humans, and we will love him always.

Sarah Brancato
Cincinnati, OH

Bree - Our Adopted Border Collie

Two years ago, my husband and I had a wonderful BC that died suddenly at 12 years old. I went on the BC rescue site in our area and saw Bree. We instantly fell in love with her "half" face and adopted her 2 years ago. She didn't even know how to fetch a ball. Now she's 3 years old and a healthy, happy, frisbee freak! She HAS to have her play time every day when it's not raining. We love her so much and she makes us laugh every day.

Michelle Pryor
Olive Branch, MS

Maxi

Maximillen found me when I went to donate food to the Last Hope Animal Shelter. They told me he was dropped on their doorstep a few weeks eariler and he was so upset he would not eat. Nobody wanted to adopt him because he was too BIG & people were afraid of him. I knew right then he belonged with me. Now 6 years later, he loves laying in the sun & hanging out with my 2 Great Danes & other adopted cat Missy. We are one happy family!

Darci
Dix Hills, NY

Teddie & Luke

We had a standard poodle who was a year old from a wonderful breeder who did everything right for her puppies. Luke was a year old and I thought we should have one more. The more I thought about it and how fortunate Luke was and we were I thought I should investigate a rescue. The nightmares began. I put my name out there and the stories and offers to take adult dogs will haunt me forever. There was one I felt needed us the most. He was an 11 month old AKC standard apricot poodle. Born to a less than reputable breeder with the economy and remote location he was unsold. He spent the winter in frigid cold - outside - when he was first spotted he was eating a deer carcus, matted to the point of abscesses,
horrible ear infections infested with whip worms and more. A Breeder who is also a nurse paid $35 for him brought him to her house and "cleaned him up" for 2 weeks. We took over from there. His name is Teddie Bear and he is the most loving and gentle dog you will ever meet. He loves people and animals - why I couldn't tell you. He was a little shy but big brother Luke is giving him back his confidence. He is in a happy and loved home now.

Bonnie C.
Wappingers, NY

Homer 's Dairy Delight

Homer adopted us 3 years ago. We found him buried in a blanket in a local Petco during a thunder storm. His sad eyes and deep facial expressions touched our hearts. We opted to foster Homer for a week to see if we were a match. An hour into fostering, we knew he was a member of the family. One of the first things that Homer did in the house was to sit down and watch a hockey game with my husband, something he still likes to do to this day. He loves hiking, almost any form of real dairy, doggie ice cream sandwiches, and other dogs more than people though he does have a strong affinity for attractive, female joggers. So much so, that he will turn half around and keep walking, following them as they go by, often running into something because he is no longer looking where he is going. We even love that, much like a kid, he knows which days are Saturday and Sunday and gets us up at 5am to play. Our lives have never been the same since that fateful day at Petco. We love our velcro, somewhat separation axietied partner in life.

Kara and Jason
House Springs, MO

210 Miles to Bo Rascal Perfect

When we lost our little rescued Sussex Spaniel to a blood disease I was devastated. I had just lost my daughter a month before. Sassi was my comfort in her loss, then she suddenly became ill. I immediately went on line to pet finder.com and looked for the ugliest dog I could find, knowing nobody else would want them. I found a little Shih Tzu named Rascal. We drove 110 miles one direction to get him and found him being fostered in a little trailer in the country with no air conditioning and two other very large dogs. It was the middle of July and very hot. He was left abandoned and abused before he was fostered. I immediately fell in love with him (he was not ugly at all) and we drove back home not knowing if he would even like us. He is perfect. So smart and fit right in. My husband calls he Bo so he became Bo Rascal. Bo Precious is more like it! I can't imagine life without him!

Phyllis Brosius-Brouse
Indianapolis, IN

Gator Katrinason

50 dogs were brought from New Orleans after Katrina, but nobody wanted to foster Gator. He had also been abused and was snappish, but he didn't look so tough to me. It took a while to get him to understand he is safe now, but he's been to school and has a degree.

Carolyn Moon
Corpus Christi, TX

Filling a huge void with love

We lost one of our two schnauzers to Cushings in 2008. It was so painful that we decided not to get another dog. After many months our remaining schnauzer was proving to be very lonely so we looked on the rescue websites for our area. This little Bichon mix 1 year old had been abandoned in a house. Her picture stuck in our minds for a few days when we proceeded to check her out. She is absolutely the most wonderful, loving dog and a huge addition to our family. She just makes us smile and laugh all day! Rescue dogs are the best!!!

Bonnie
Auburn, CA