Painful Truth . org News They die waiting for someone to save them…

Forrest City, Arkansas

Update: The pup I planned to rescue was adopted. Which is the best result. On the other hand it appears a rescue in Ohio is more funded to take the entire litter and we will bow out and let them do so.

With any rescue from long distance, you plan as much as you can to save a dog or dogs. At times things fall through and the dogs go to another rescue. Nothing is set in stone until you have the dog or dogs in your custody. At this time we are working on a litter of puppies down in Forrest City, Arkansas. There are at this time 8 total. Nothing is set in stone. This is something we are working on. You can see all their pictures here.

This effort is in the process from three different rescue groups and two are on board 100% right now, waiting on the third. What we are aiming for is the removal of all eight.

With that said, rescue from another state and from a shelter that does not vet brings about a large challenge. Most states require a health certificate for a dog to be transported across their state lines, vaccines up to date and most of all the Rabies vaccine is required in all 50 states as far as I know.

In order to get a health certificate most dogs must be boarded around 10 days to make sure they are healthy and vaccinated before a vet will issue the health certificate. Boarding runs about $10 per day per dog. The shots are about $20 per dog and the health certificate about $10 per dog according to rescue in that area. Those are the prices we are looking at.

The total to rescue just eight dogs is about $1000 and that is not including transportation. The total cost is about $1500 just to get them safe. The cost of finishing shots, altering and future vet care is much much more. The main focus is to get the dogs safe, that is priority #1. That means at least $1000

May seem like a lot, but with many people chipping in a few dollars this can be done in no time flat.

Transportation is being worked on. A volunteer down there may be able to get the dogs half way. The trip is about 13hrs one way from me, the other rescue that may take in the puppies is a hour closer or so. If nothing else I (Courtnee) will go get them myself. No biggie.

Please help support their rescue. If anything falls through donations will be returned.

Robeson County Road Trip

Sebastian and Halo

Chloe

Bear

Miakoda

Mia

Now that I have had time to rest I can finally put up a post on this entire situation. The entire thing started to with Bear.  His picture just haunted me. No one was stepping up and it got down to his final night alive. He was scheduled to die the next morning. A donor came forward and said they would pay his pull fee and that would get him safe. Several people offered to help support Bear once pulled. We have no funds for rescue. It is paid out of pockets from those of us that try to save these dogs. Pulling a dog so far away was a big risk, financially for us. We had to try.

He needed a foster and my cousin Theresa who has been asking to help out with dog rescue said she would foster him. She faxed in the hold and left a voicemail. We arranged for Jackie a volunteer that pulls dogs from the shelter to pull Bear out. If we had not done what we did, Bear would of died. No one else had a hold on him.  Bear was pulled and safe. Now to work on getting him to Minnesota to Theresa and to figure out how to support his vetting bills.

A plea went out begging for a puppy to be saved. He was a beautiful pup. I told supporters that if someone paid for his pull, his vetting and completely had him sponsored that he would come back with Bear into our rescue. That he could come to me for fostering since he was a puppy. Everything was worked out and the lady who donated to his vetting and paid it in full was allowed to name him. She named him Miakoda. I now had two dogs sitting in Fairmont, North Carolina at the vets office.

Debra a lady who works hard to save the animals at Robeson County, North Carolina told me about Melissa. Melissa lives in Minnesota and had two dogs (Halo and Sebastian) at the vets where Bear and Miakoda were that she needed to get back to Minnesota as well. Melissa planned on Memorial weekend going to get them by herself. This is a huge roadtrip to take alone. I contacted Melissa and told her on early morning hours of Friday May 21st that I had the weekend off and was going to get the dogs back to the Midwest. She said she could go if we wanted to drive the entire way. Two of us able to drive we could pull it off. We made plans that we would head out early in the afternoon.

Koda

Koda's picture from the shelter

In the end you know what pisses me off the most? This dog was stuck in a shelter, sitting in a kennel. No one to show him they gave a damn about his life. Diana paid to sponsor him and he was pulled out of the shelter and taken to the vets office. He was in a place where people cared about him. He died in a place that people cared. Not in that horrible shelter. No one knew he was that sick and it happened so fast. Diana keeps wanting to know where her money went. Who got the best of it they ask Well Koda got the best of it, he died at the vets and not in that awful shelter. He died on his own and not by Jeff killing him with a needle to his heart. Yes, Diana that is where your money went. Horrible waste of money wasnt it? I offer you back what is left over and nothing seems good enough. It just boils down to the fact Koda died and nothing else seems to matter in the end, nothing about the gift Koda was given. I don't think you should donate to dog rescue if you expect everyone of them to live. If they dont live, if you can't see the fact that you gave him the gift to die on his own instead of a heartstick, something is very wrong with you. Nothing could of saved him in the end, we didn't know that. The only good thing that could of happened, did, he didn't have a needle shoved into his heart. God took him on his own.

There is a lot of confusion going around about Koda that I want to set straight. Koda was a Robeson County, North Carolina dog that was on death row. He was to be killed in the shelter to make more room for more dogs and on Facebook several people begged someone to save him. That is where this all started. Thursday morning.

I want to make it very clear to those that do not know me, I live in South Dakota, this dog is in North Carolina. I do not work for the shelter. I do rescue work and save dogs off death row. I do not agree at all, how this shelter is ran. At 88% if not more kill rate it is not a shelter. It's a slaughter house.

My cousin Theresa in Minnesota offered room for Bear in her home to take him in. She faxed the hold and called to have him spared of being destroyed Wed. morning. We had him pulled, a generous donor paid his pull fee. He was taken to the vets in Robeson County.

Dogs pulled from the shelter need to be taken right to the vet for many reasons. They are in a shelter full of Parvo and they are mostly strays or unwanted pets that people do not bother to vaccinate. Parvo for example is so easy to catch and it spreads dog to dog and takes them out faster then you can react. Some dogs if caught early can pull through but the death rate from parvo is way up there. It is a horrible threat to dogs.

The dogs need to be checked over, vetted like any other pet. They need to have a vet see them. They need shots and care. So they go to the vet, and most states require a health certificate in order to transfer a dog from state to state. Most people who do not do rescue even realize that little piece of information. You can not just take a dog anywhere you want. You need proof they are healthy and you are not bringing in Parvo, Distemper etc into the state. In order to get this the dogs need to stay at the vets usually 10 days to make sure they are clear of these diseases to get the certificate.

Dakota, Tilly and Tucker

On May 13th Ashley and I took three wonderful dogs to rescue from the Sioux City, IA pound.  It all started when we saw Dakota being networked on Facebook by wolf rescues. We know rescue people down there and we knew if he had a place to go to safety we could make it happen. We are close enough! In the end we ended up taking three of them for a ride.

The drive started out with chaos before we even hit the road. I had to get two new tires at last minute. They were nice enough to get me in and the tires on in a hurry once I told them what I had to do. Ashley overslept, she worked all night the night before.  Starting late was a problem. We got on the road though!

Through the day we made up time and everything went off with out any more glitches. Dropped Tilly and Tucker off in Omaha, Nebraska and took Dakota down to Kansas.

Three more lives saved.

Video after the jump...

She is here….

Penny made the trip. We got her about 10:45am safe and sound. She is such a doll. Read her story and see pictures of her coming off the plane on the main site.

It’s 7:04

Penny our new rescue

I am awake now and on the computer. Patiently waiting for further news Penny our new death row dog is on her way to us. She is flying with a pilot Sam from Pilots and Paws this morning. I contacted a pilot in the Kansas City, MO area that helps out and she told me about Sam who already had a flight planned for today to take another rescue dog into Iowa. It was perfect. I could slip down there and get her and it would save a lot of driving. Kansas City, MO is over 7hrs one way drive for us. I contacted Sam and he welcomed Penny to hitch a ride with open arms. In fact he is making an extra stop for her to bring her even closer to me then originally planned. We have to drive 100 miles or so to get her.

Last update by txt msg was at 545am they were leaving the house.  The plan is around 8am for her to take flight and make a pit stop to pick up another rescue dog. They will then land in the small town in Iowa we are picking her up from.  Very soon I have to get ready to leave and head down there. We as a f amily are so excited to get Penny and bring her in the home. We are still heart heavy over our last rescue dog being gone. We think about Jackson often and miss him so much. We are so happy he has a home and we are just ready to move on to another dog. It's time, no doubt about that. Penny was the one. I watched her for weeks and didn't think I could do it. Pit Bull type dogs are not the easiest to pull to rescue. You must understand the breed and know what you are doing. I have never owened one.

The lady at the shelter does Pit rescue and she said she trusts me and that I know enough about dogs to do it. We use the right training style in the home and Penny was a good starter Pit for us as she is a gentle mix. I went out on a limb and it worked out. I dreaded that day I would see Penny fall off the website and be put to sleep. I couldn't take it. I had to step in.

Now its December 6th, 2009 and she is heading on a journey to save her life. We can't wait for her to be a part of our home for the short duration we will share with her. Penny will be available for adoption pretty quickly. I am going to first see how much training she needs first. If she needs to be potty trained and trained basic commands it may be a few weeks before we allow her to be adopted. I make sure these dogs have the best fighting chance at a forever home.

I will post more later on Penny! Pictures included.

Silver Jet

Silver Jet came from Minnesota and spent the night in my home on Saturday. I contacted the shelter he was at and asked if he could go into Weim rescue to help him find a home. It really is the best place for Weims to be amongst those that understand this difficult breed.

He is a 8yr old Weim that has had a very rough life. He is scared, shy and timid and really hasn't had a chance to just be a dog. His life has been filled with hurt, no doubt abuse and just plain being unwanted to being used in a puppymill. Jet really does not know what real companionship with a human is like. He is terrified of the world around him. He would crawl through the door to the house, crawl back out the door to go outside and once outside the smallest noise made him crawl back to the house to go hide.

Yet Jet is reaching out of that shell of his. He reaches out for a loving touch from humans and he still fights hard to find that person that will love him for who he is and be his companion for the rest of his life. He wants it so bad. We left at 0530 to take him West to Weim rescue. The trip went well after he got a good nights rest on the couch with me. He snuggled up and just enjoyed the comfort of human touch.

On the ride there Jet kept nudging my arm to pet him and love on him. I would grab his head and hug him tight and tell him how much of a good boy he was. He really liked to hear "good boy" his nubber would wag so fast and he just loved it.

He is safe now in rescue and so his journey starts today to find his forever home. I know he will, he is a great dog.