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Nacodoges Shelter Needs Words of Encouragement
When they had the big collie seizure a couple of years ago, Nancy and the AC staff were wonderful!!!
Would you consider sending a card or a note to the shelter staff? Something kind or goofy or sweet - whatever is your style. They sure could use the boost.
Nacogdoches Animal Shelter
3211 SW Stallings / PO Box 635030
Nacogdoches, TX 75963
And pass the word? This is about to rip out each of our hearts but we are trying to do what we can, have no regrets, and move on. The operative word here is "trying". I can deal. I can decide if/when I go to the shelter and can always take a break as needed. They can't, and I can't imagine what its like for them.
Something from the outside world acknowledging their efforts would be great. I can't tell you the gallons of tears I've watched them pour out the past few days.
Thanks
CONTEMPLATION FROM NACOGDOCHES: We've reported on the state of things in Nacogdoches where volunteers and shelter workers are still coping with the overload from the backwoods puppy mill raid week before last. You folks who have helped with puppy mill raids can relate to the emotions so eloquently expressed in the letter from Volunteer Nancy Hinds. Today, her letter is our daily contemplation.
The shelter is at 3211 SW Stallings in Nacogdoches. Call 936-560-5011 Nancy sent us a letter about this experience that is so touching and inspiring that it should be shared. She writes that to date there have been 50+ adoptions from the Expo center of the dogs seized on 8/12. Mostly small dogs, of course, even some oldsters who just want a nice corner to lay in. I hope the people who adopted these guys will be kind and gentle with them. They certainly deserve it. I hope everyone who came looking for a companion and didn't find one at the Expo center travels a few more miles down the road to the shelter.
There
are plenty to choose from there and they are just as important as these
guys. All the little dogs are gone, even the cranky old one who we
thought had some sort of dementia going on. Maybe that happens after a
while when your toenails are grown into your foot pads - it goofs up
your thinking. Now we have a sea of Pit Bulls, all sweet, all wonderful
and deserving. There is Humphrey, the brown Pit who has the biggest
smile. All he needs is a cigar to look like Humphrey Bogart. My little
girl is still there, the one with the empty eyes who radiates
resignation. She has curable demodectic mange so bad even her toes
splay because of the scabs in between them. I keep praying someone will
see her beauty and take her home to love. She makes my heart hurt.
Many dogs are staying right here in Nacogdoches, with local families. I have a heartfelt hope the shelter does not see a rush of these guys coming into the shelter in a couple of weeks as the new families are faced with some of the peculiarities of puppy mill dogs. The cats are going South this weekend to their new digs. Their foster homes are excited to see the moms and the kids. The bunnies left today [Wednesday] in a small eco-car along with a couple of doxies, a mama poodle and her five newborn babies, a Chihuahua or two, and a big dog who shall herein go unnamed but we called him Spud. Oh and Dad came along for the ride. I hear it was quite a sight to see them all fit into the little eco car and drive the 2 hours home. The person who took them made a great impression on the staff manning - or should I say "womaning" - the Expo adoptions. The humans all wanted to go home with her. Someone I know from down the road just a bit piled four Pits in her Mustang yesterday and drove off into the sunshine with them. I hear they are smiling and have full bellies tonight. Another wonderful rescue person came from due north yesterday and took some pups we had in the isolation ward because they were exposed to parvo. Although asymptomatic, the pups did test positive for this awful disease but because of the rescuer's diligence, they were treated with preventative immediately upon getting to their new hometown. Two more lives safe tonight because of the goodness and dedication of a rescue person. Nancy says she saved the best for last. The dog identified as Number 7 will be going home on Saturday. She will be under the care of a rescue/shelter person in the DFW area. This person was calm in the storm today; her email was so kind and compassionate. I feel #7 will be in the best of gentle hands.
And there is the pit challenge. Nancy writes, Our local Pit rescue person has been trying desperately from day one of the seizure to find someone, anyone, who can take some of these Pits and help get them into good homes. She has tried calling every Pit rescue organization she can think of - but hears either no, we are full or gets no response. She has a number of messages in to Best Friends network -- but I don't think they are going to make it here in the Miracle Bus by tomorrow [Thursday] at 6p.m. I can't begin to imagine how she is going to feel if/when these dogs are euthanized after she has carried them out of hell, worked with them, walked them, loved them for two weeks, every single day. The pain is almost palatable to think about -- Humphrey, Mama Dog, the clown dog who cocks her head at you to get your attention. The dogs we have grown to know and love, who have thrived under the limited care a handful of volunteers can give them each day. I can only imagine how they would feel to have a steady diet of love. They would think they were in heaven.Soon it will be over. We will go back to our lives and wait for the next call out. This is our first time to work together as a group and it has been an incredible experience. Bonds and friendships formed over piles of poop, lessons learned, spirits soared and crashed with each day. Right now I tend to mourn the losses - I think they deserve to be mourned, the ones who we will lose tomorrow [Thursday] night. They deserve a pat, a hug, a proper farewell after all they have been thru. I hope the donated rawhides they munched today helped just a tiny bit to make them feel valued. They certainly were surprised at their gifts and were like the proverbial kids in a candy store with them. I hope they know how hard we tried and how every minute we spent for them was a labor of love for each and every one of them.
Later I will be able to celebrate the successes - Eco car animals, down the road animals, the neurotic, the tiny, the fat, the toothless. But right now I can just watch for the Miracle Bus and hope it comes on time for a few more souls. These animals gave Nacogdoches a gift - one that will be very expensive for some of them. The gift of watching a community of people work together side by side, hot, stinky, sweaty, but with all our hearts tied together for Smiley, Clown Face, The Sorority Sisters, and all the rest.
It makes me proud to see us go from separate groups of individuals to a mass of humanity doing what we can for these guys. I just wish it was enough for all of them.
