Busy Times, Sad Times and Little Dougie

It has been a while since I blogged – I seem to get busier every day – work and planning clinics and transports and re-homing dogs and cats and so on and so on and so on.  My priority list is constantly changing – depending on whom or what is yelling the loudest.

My last blog was about the successful spay/neuter clinic that was held in Leech Lake in March.  A lot has happened since then:

• Since May 11, we have transported 42 dogs and cats from the Leech Lake Impound

Yepa - Transported on May 13

• We started to help with animal transport from Morrison County Animal Humane Society in Little Falls and Northern Border Rescue in Roseau.  Since May 13, we have transported 34 animals from Morrison County and 13 from Northern Border Rescue

• We successfully re-homed 14 animals not able to be placed up for adoption including Chewy, an incredibly sweet German shepherd; and Lewis, who was literally hours away from being euthanized but was saved by the hard work of a dedicated group of people

Chewy

• On June 11 and 12, we held a garage sale/dog wash in conjunction with Kindest Cut and Animal Humane Society to raise funds for the next Leech Lake spay/neuter clinic.  We raised almost $5,000.  I figured out that if I had been getting paid for coordinating and volunteering at the garage sale, I made about seven bucks an hour

• On June 15, we found out that the spay/neuter clinic we had originally scheduled for the last weekend in June needed to be rescheduled.  After some crazy scrambling, we were finally able to pin down new dates for the clinic - August 11 and 12.  Preparations have begun in earnest

• On June 17, we transported a total of 21 animals from Leech Lake, Morrison County and Northern Border.  The transport began at 6:00 a.m. and wasn’t completed until 7:00 p.m.  It included a three-hour stop at Pampered Pooch Grooming in Little Falls to bathe all of the dogs from Leech Lake and Morrison County.  We needed to be in Buffalo by 6:00 p.m. and because of road construction and cabin traffic, we were insanely delayed and pulled into the parking lot at 5:56.  Nothing like cutting it close

Esmerelda - Bathed and groomed

And more sad news - A sweet hound mix named  Eckes was supposed to be part of the “E3” transport on June 17.  When we arrived at the Impound, we found out that Eckes had died the day before of unknown causes.  RIP sweet boy.  We are sorry you died alone in the cold and dark impound.  You will not be forgotten.

Eckes - Rest in Peace

And another especially sad event happened in June:

On Wednesday, June 13, I received a call from Rory, the Animal Control Officer in Leech Lake.  He had picked up a puppy from the side of the road that he assumed had been hit by a car and was taking it to Animal Care Clinic in Bemidji to be examined.  When the vet called later that day, I was told that Doug had not been hit by a car.  He had been shot – three times.  How he survived three bullets and how he ended up along the side of a busy road will always be a mystery.

Brave Little Doug was brought down on transport on Thursday to AHS and was examined by their vet the next morning.  The news was terrible – one of the bullets had penetrated Doug’s spine and he was paralyzed from the waist down.  Little Dougie had no control of his bowel or his bladder and was unable to move his back legs or wag his little black tail.

Little Dougie on Transport

Marilou and I spent time with Little Dougie on Friday.  We took him outside and sat him in the grass and kissed him and loved him and told him what a good boy he was.  Many of the staff of AHS came out to say their good-byes.  What an impact this sweet little puppy had on so many people.

Marilou and I were with him when he was euthanized.  What a very tragic ending for an innocent little boy.

Doug on his last day

Since January 1, we have rescued over 200 animals from the Leech Lake Impound with the help of a dedicated group of volunteers.

We have cried tears of joy and sobbed tears of sadness and frustration.

We have struggled to understand what appears to be the utter disregard of animals by some humans.  And we have opened our eyes in wonder and amazement at the kindness of others.

This journey I began more than a year ago has taken me to places I could not have imagined and introduced me to people and animals who will be forever in my heart.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.