animal rescue

Injured Pup from ACC

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One June 14th I pulled a dog off of the euthanasia list at Manhattan Animal Care & Control who had a bum leg. She wasn’t going down for kennel cough (as most are), she was going to be killed for having a bum leg. She had $750 dollars in pledge money and a foster/possible forever home with a family in Connecticut.

Mary scared at the shelter.

She was A# (animal #) 899911. ‘The 911 was fitting,’ I thought. The dog, named Mary, generated by the shelter’s antiquated computer software, was transported to an emergency vet hospital in Connecticut. X-rays showed that her left front leg was broken and they referred her to a specialist.

When I heard the news, my heart sank. It immediately made me anxious because all I could see were all the dollars signs that my bare bones rescue group does not have, and at the same time it touched a soft spot in me reminding me of my own dog and what we had been through with her broken legs.

I was fortunate to be able to send the dog to Animal Medical Center in Yonkers where she underwent surgery to repair her humeral fracture. I was even more fortunate to piggyback off of a bigger, more powerful NYC rescue organization’s 50% discount. A surgery that normally costs $4,500 cost us half that.

Mary, now called Angel, is recovering well at her new home and has grown particularly close to the family’s three teenage children. She sleeps with the youngest under a pink blanket every night.

Angel safe and loved.

A ChipIn for Angel has been set up as we are still more than $500 away from being able to pay off her surgery bill. If you are able to ChipIn to help Mary, please click here.

I Rescued A Pigeon Today

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Yep. You heard me. As if the four dogs on the euthanasia list that I pulled out of the pound and sent to forever homes down south weren’t enough (I just made that sound innocuous and easy but it isn’t).

Back to the pigeon.

I was on my way to a meeting down in DUMBO (down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass, for those who don’t know), when I passed a small pigeon who was hopping and chirping along. I noticed he looked a little raggedy. I happened towards him but he didn’t fly away. His wings looked clipped and he was missing at least a third of his feathers.

My hands were tied. I couldn’t exactly pick him up and bring him to the meeting with me, so I snapped this photo and walked away.

This busted up little fella broke my heart.

Later, I told a friend about the bird and she said, “let’s go get him.” She gave me the green light I needed to do the right thing. (Thanks Mary).

We went back to the spot with an over-sized cardboard box and surgical gloves and the little guy was still there. Only this time he had company. His buddy (or mama pigeon) was hovering real close and trying to protect him from us.

I’ve always loved that birds travel in two’s and so I hated having to split them up. But I hated even more the thought of some jerk coming by and kicking him out of the way, or that an SUV might run him over. So I scooped him up, made my case for a free hotdog bun from the non-English speaking hotdog-cart-lady, finished up at another meeting and then schlepped the big cardboard box with said small pigeon on the subway during rush hour to a vet hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Thanks to PJ of Empty Cages Collective, he will be examined by Dr. Pilny tomorrow morning.

Over the past few days I’ve received very generous donations for the dogs I’ve pulled out of the shelter and so I did the same for PJ’s rescue group. In this case, what goes around comes around and hopefully flies around, again.

Annie the Mini-Pin

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I started fostering dogs in 2009, a year after I vowed in front of 140 of our closest friends and family during our wedding, to not bring home any more animals until we have a home with a yard. First came Max, then Orly, followed by Four, Benny, Lucy, and finally, Jonny. Six dogs in seven months shared three things in common. They were all pit bulls. They were all homeless. And they were all in dire need of getting out of a high-kill animal shelter where they wound up through no fault of their own.

Sure my husband Jason delights in reminding me that I have broken one of my wedding vows, but lucky for me, and the dogs, he has been amazingly supportive. And then I got pregnant. It was during the end of my second trimester last year, after a particularly unfortunate foster dog named Jonny, now called Sunny, got his forever home, that we took a break from animal rescue.

That was…

Until I recently saw a shaking and terrified Miniature Pinscher being dragged through the front doors of Brooklyn Animal Care & Control. Her people were about to pay the $35 fee to relinquish her because they no longer had time. I was eventually able to talk them out of leaving her at the kill-shelter, but not without giving them my phone number. One week later, here she is.

Annie dutifully waiting to be examined by a vet.

Annie is about 3 1/2 years old and is a very timid girl who never got walked (look at her nails in the photo), was most likely bred and only gets excited when she sees a crate. Sad, right? Well sad no more.

After some proper vet care and some much-needed TLC, this little girl will be ready for her forever home! Annie is great with dogs, cats and even babies. I tested her out on mine. Do you have space in your heart and home for this little orphan Annie? Please feel free to share her story with your friends…

The Mini-Pin meets a Great Dane.

From Euth List to Forever Home

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Update

I received the below email last night from Karin right before I went to bed. Norwood, is now called Marley.

I can never thank you enough for bringing me Marley. We are soooo happy together. Turns out he is a HUGE mushpot. I start to rub to his ears and he literally falls to the ground like a ton of bricks. I have to video tape it and send it to you. It makes me laugh every time. We went out in the rain early this morning to go to the bathroom and then came back inside and we both fell asleep on the couch together until my friend woke us up about 20 minutes later. Amazingly enough the thunder & rain did not bother him at all. He’s very playful and not much seems to bother him. He loves to chase bumblebee’s, smell flowers, and is so gentle with his toys. What a difference a few days make. I can’t wait for his kennel cough and neuter to be over with so I can take him to the doggie parks.

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Norwood is a two-year old pitbull who recently found himself on the euthanasia list at Manhattan Animal Care & Control for contracting kennel cough. Karin Jordan of Keyport, New Jersey looked into those eyes and saw so much more than a silly cold and asked me to save him for her. There is nothing I like more than pairing pitties with parents so it was a no-brainer on my part.

Norwood’s shelter mug shot.

I have met many pitbulls at ACC who are gloom and doom. After all, it’s a tough place to end up for an unwanted animal. But not Norwood. This gorgeous guy really blew me away when I went to get him out yesterday. The boy, despite his URI, had bounds of playful energy, even in the 8×8 discharge room. His tail was wagging throughout and he greeted Karin with a huge hug. He’s a spirited little fella who I have no doubt will mold beautifully to the rhythms of Karin’s life. I am so thrilled that they found one another!

Karin and her new pup.

NYC AC&C New Hope Liaison Fired for Doing Her Job Well

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I was away on vacation when friend and fellow animal rescuer, Emily Tanen, was fired from her job as the New Hope Liaison at New York City’s Animal Care & Control.

Emily Tanen was fired from her job at AC&C for caring too much.

Because of the photos Emily took of at-risk dogs she then promoted via social media sites like Facebook, hundreds of dogs found forever homes and escaped being killed at the overcrowded city shelter. However according to AC&C, who is contracted by the Department of Health, Emily violated her contract by having people pose with the dogs in the photos.

One of Emily’s many heartbreaking albeit lifesaving photos.

While I am so sad for what Emily’s absence will mean for NYC’s homeless dogs – especially pitbulls – I have no doubt that she will go on to do tremendous and beautiful things.

Fellow writer and friend Michael Mullins covers the story in depth here.

Jonny Be Good

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This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for almost a year. And today I am finally doing something about it.

It was late summer 2009. I was at Animal Care & Control in Brooklyn playing God for the day. I had just started rescuing and fostering for United Action for Animals, a friend’s New York City-based animal welfare group.

I walked past his cage, we locked eyes and I fell in love. His name was Jonny. He was the victim of an almost-overnight ban on pitbulls in New York City Public Housing Authority buildings (otherwise known as “the projects.”) Jonny was handsome, goofy and VERY strong. My dog Ella had just gotten out of being in casts though, and so it was imperative to pull a pit who would NOT want to rough house with her. Jonny didn’t make the cut.

Shortly after I walked away from being Jonny’s ticket out of a death sentence, I met a young man in my neighborhood who told me he wanted a dog like Ella. I took him to the shelter to meet the pitbull I was so drawn to and they hit it off. Because space and time is of the essence when saving an animal from a high-kill shelter, Jonny was adopted out to this man through my friend’s organization.

I always had a bad feeling about the adoption for many reasons that I can’t detail here. But at the same time, I take full responsibility for adopting Jonny out to the wrong home.

I was almost 5 months pregnant when we got the dreaded phone call from AC&C. Jonny had been picked up as a stray. He was emaciated and throwing up at the shelter. They rushed him to the hospital where he had surgery to remove objects that were obstructing his stomach and keeping him from digesting food.

Emaciated Jonny recovering in our Brooklyn apartment.

A couple of days later we picked Jonny up from the hospital, but we were not in a position at the time to do a long-term foster. Thanks to my amazing mother-in-law, she offered to take Jonny up to her home in Connecticut.

Days later while she was walking with him off leash through her secluded, neighborhood lakeside community, Jonny met the woman who would give him his third and final home.

The couple were from New Jersey and spent weekends at their house on the lake in Connecticut. Their dog had died the previous year and the wife was about to retire. When she saw Jonny and learned from my MIL that he needed a forever home, she called it fate.

I often think back to mine and Jonny’s first-chance meeting. How we locked eyes and something inside of me surged. I think about what his life might have been like with the young man, how he was loved but not properly cared for. I remember how hard I cried when we picked him up from the hospital. I think about how I stroked him and whispered “sorry” into his ears over and over and over again. I think about my petite and serene MIL with this massive pitbull, and how grateful I am that she extended her home to such a powerful dog.

He was the dog I wanted to save but couldn’t, and then ultimately did.

Jonny, now called Sunny, at home in Conneticut.

Good-bye Kitty Good-bye

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We said good-bye to Kitty on Friday. Though both our cats are seniors, Kitty was the oldest of the two. She was the cuddliest of the two, the bossiest of the two and in the end, the most difficult of the two.

Kitty & Bug

My head has been a big pile of empty mush. I’m happy one minute, sad and confused the next. Below is an attempt at jotting down some of the thoughts that are moving like a freight train through my head.

I think about how I discovered Kitty and Bug, by chance. I think about the many homes they had until they landed me. I think about how my parents thought I was crazy for taking in two cats who were seniors. I think about my life with them being as old as my relationship with my husband, Jason. I think about how Jason, in the beginning, thought I was making a rash decision. I think about how Jason, in the end, had a harder time with the decision to put Kitty down.

I think about how the cats, once the center of attention and affection, got pushed down the totem pole when we rescued our dog, Ella, and then again, when our son Mylo joined us this past summer. I think about how Kitty liked to sleep in my underwear drawer. I think about how Jason called her my sapphic lover because of this. I think about how she used to groom herself in the morning sun on the balcony in our old apartment. I think about how she stopped grooming herself months ago. I think about our traumatic trips to the vet. I think about the time she knocked over a can of Pounce, pried it open with her paws and devoured the entire thing. I think about how, declawed and all, she stood up to every rescue pitbull who passed through our home.

Kitty with prey-driven Lucy at left and her sister Ella on the right.

I think about how difficult life had become since she became hyperthyroid. I think about the senility and the incessant howling in the middle of the night. I think about the baby gate we bought to lock her in the living room overnight. I think about how frustrated I had become with her these last few months. I think about how she went to sleep behind my head on top of my pillows her last night, seemingly unaware that a vet would be coming to our home to take her life the next morning. I think about how I didn’t sleep at all that night.

Cuddling together in 6C-North.

I think about how much I’ve missed her. The old her.

Happier and healthier days in 5G-South.

I think about how our family is one less, now, and how life will be easier without her. And of course I think about how that makes me feel riddled with guilt.

 

14 Pitbulls Rescued in Bronx Fire

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Update

Dog Habitat Rescue in Brooklyn, is fostering the mama pit and her four newborns. All are said to be doing well despite their ordeal. Mama is extremely malnourished, but still able to feed, nursing her foursome regularly.

A big thanks goes out to Dog Habitat for stepping in!

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The story proclaims that the 14 pitbulls who were rescued from a fire in the Bronx yesterday were taken to the ASPCA, however the video shows New York City’s Animal Care & Control taking the pups away.

Even the news reporter refers to the dogs going to a local shelter? Why is it that ACC can never get any love? They are a city-funded and grossly underfunded shelter. Their budget pales in comparison with the ASPCA’s.

As for the pitbulls, that fire might have been the best thing that ever happened to them. Whether they get adopted or put down, it beats a life of breeding and fighting, which is most likely why they were holed up in the apartment in the first place.

A NYC fireman carries one of 14 pitbulls in a burning building, to safety.

 

Lucy’s Journey

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Little Lucy’s journey has sure been an eventful one! She was pulled from the city pound in late November, fostered by my friend Sandy until she got over her URI, then fostered by me, then fostered by a great guy in my building named Sam, and then back to me when Sam went out of town.

Lucy looking deceptively calm.

There was a ton of anxiety that came with welcoming the young and rambunctious Lucy back into our home. For starters, I’m pregnant. Second, our own dog Ella has a deadly infection we are in the midst of aggressively treating. And most complicated of all, she doesn’t get along with our two senior cats. But after a few days of “crate and rotate,” our declawed cat Kitty let Lucy know her place in the house! She still gets her butt kicked by the Bug, though, and has the scars on her nose to prove it. The good news is that we are confident that she will not eat them, only chase and annoy them. Phew!

The best thing that came out of taking Lucy back is that I really got to know her and love her and thanks to Facebook, found her an amazing home with a childhood friend of mine who lives in Georgia.

Lucy was supposed to fly down to Georgia last Sunday with the non-profit, Pilots-n-Paws, but the plane on the first leg of her trip had engine problems and never took off from the tarmac in New Jersey. Pilots-n-Paws meant well, but especially in the dead of winter, it was a risk, and the longer Lucy stays with us, the more she is feeling like she is home, and she is not.

Shortly after last week’s failed flight I booked Lucy a ticket on the new airline, Pet Airways. Lucy will leave New York en route to Atlanta, Georgia, this Saturday — and for those of you that don’t know, Lucy won’t be flying in cargo, but in the cabin, with a stewardess and all!

Here are a couple of pictures from Lucy’s non-eventful trip with Pilots-n-Paws…

Watching her plane land.

Boarding the plane that never took off.