The rewards of rescue...priceless


Nell earned her stripes the hard way. But life has turned around for this lucky survivor.


Witnessing turnarounds is the most gratifying aspect of animal rescue. A skittish, bony creature who arrives terrified and smelling badly can be transformed into an unrecognizable success story.

Gradually, as scared animal eyes look into kind human eyes, they begin to trust again. Or for the first time.

Watching it happen feeds the soul, soothing the frustrations of compassion fatigue. And it inspires tears of pure joy, even for those rescuers with the toughest shells and a career full of experiences.

Animal rescue is not a perfect system. It’s woefully underfunded, unsupported by government, and not organized. It is characterized by loose affiliations and alliances. For example, contrary to popular belief, humane societies aren’t connected to each other. Neither are SPCAs, otherwise known as societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals. These names are generic, like “hospital”.

But the places aren’t as important as the people. Whether they land at a shelter, a sanctuary, an independent rescue group, or a foster home, animals blossom after rescue at the hands of people driven to save.

Some come further than others. Some won’t come far enough to make it out alive.

But for those animals who take to the lifestyle—one that requires them to wait patiently until a permanent place can be found—they are given another chance at happiness.

Nell is one such case that makes the heart soar. I met her at Whatcom Humane Society recently. The photo below portrays a frightened dog who had just been rescued after being tied to the train tracks. She was hit by a train, thrust into the path of danger by someone's twisted idea of sport.

The photo above shows Nell now, lounging under the bedcovers at her foster home.

I haven’t spoken to Nell’s foster parents, but I’m sure they are in it for just that moment in time. The one when she gives them those puppy eyes full of hope and trust.




To read previous stories about Nell's rescue, click these links.

Right on track

Already trained

A furry fashion plate

Jackson the Chihuahua fancy-foots through fall modeling his too-precious sweater knitted in autumn tones. Notice how the sweater's sage-colored panel on the right complements his eyes perfectly.

Jackson's photo was taken by Los Angeles-based Kim Rodgers of Bark Pet Photography. Kim's passionate about photographing dogs, and she's also a dedicated animal rescuer in her own right.

Bits and bites of happiness

American Thanksgiving is rolling into place for 2009. It will be my first year celebrating the holiday as a newly-minted American, and a Canadian too (Not born in the USA, Oct. 21, 2009).

I am grateful for so many blessings. Animal rescue sits at the top of the list. Those entrenched in the field know how rewarding and meaningful this work is. Having purpose nurtures the soul, and makes every day matter. And for me, documenting the heroic feats of rescuers keeps my belief in humanity going strong. I’ll be toasting my Tofurkey drumsticks to that.

In the spirit of giving thanks, here are updates from recent stories with happy endings.



I got him!

Yesterday I trapped Montana, the orange cat living outside Cafe Akroteri. Finally appetite overrode caution. He went on the WeSnip van to be fixed and treated. It was a treat for me too, because I had the chance to watch this crackerjack crew in action. I’ll be posting a story on the WeSnip experience shortly.

Initially I had suspected Montana’s ear injuries were caused by fighting with other animals, but that wasn’t it. It turns out this gentle boy had a terrible case of ear mites. The itching had caused him to kick his poor little ears open himself.

Special thanks to Lisa Weston of Richmond Animal Protection Society, a terrific shelter north of the line. She saw the blog story and worried that wily Montana wouldn’t be caught. She offered to give up her weekend to come down and help me catch the cat. You’re the best, Weston!

Previous blog stories on the Akroteri cats:
Almost catch of the day
Compassion is on the menu




Right on track


I was horrified when I first encountered Nell at Whatcom Humane Society. Some human had tied her to the tracks, and she had been hit by a train. A railroad employee rescued her and the shelter took her in. Soon she was bundled off to a foster home, where she has recuperated marvelously. She’s bouncing around like a new dog, and needs a new home.

Those of you on my Facebook will know there were some nail-biting moments when Nell disappeared from her foster home on Halloween. A storm had struck the region, and the fence enclosing her blew down. Nell was off like a shot. Rescuers put out the word to keep an eye out for her through social networks and more traditional channels too. Sure enough, she jumped into someone’s car at Lake Padden, rescued a second time. You can read more about Nell's progress on the Whatcom Humane Society website.

Previous blog stories about Nell:
On track for recovery
Already trained




Freeway of love

The woman I saw panhandling just off the freeway to raise enough money to keep her dogs will have a less stressful Thanksgiving. Rescue groups stepped up to help her. Her pit-Rottie mix Calla has already been fixed by WeSnip, which greatly reduced her licensing fees. And Alternative Humane Society donated the money to pay for the licensing charges. Then a generous animal rescuer named Belinda Ogley sent money to me on PayPal all the way from Singapore to defray Kristina’s dog food bill for a while. You're a kind soul, Belinda, to care from so far away.

Previous blog story on Kristina:
Working to make it work

The little shelter that could

This goat named Marty was a lobby greeter for the RAPS shelter until her mischief-making and counter-jumping caused so much ruckus that she had to be closed into a kennel in the dog area.


I stopped by one of my favorite shelters late last week.

The Richmond Animal Protection Society isn't nearly one of the largest shelters I have formed a relationship with. Nor is it the oldest, or the best financed.

But it does have something going for it.

A giant heart.

Executive director Carol Reichert provides the capable and compassionate leadership that makes it all possible for this little shelter that could.



Richmond Animal Protection Society executive director Carol Reichert cuddles a puppy picked up as a wandering stray two days ago.


Helen Savkovic and Bluey the cat work the intake desk together.

Crossing the line

It was a dark and stormy night at Peace Arch.


I got to the U.S.-Canada border last night with something to declare, but it wasn’t anything I had purchased.

It was my mission. Animal rescue.

That was relevant because of what I’d just seen. I had been driving down the lanes towards the checkpoint booths around dinnertime when I noticed a thin dog resembling a yellow Labrador trotting along the grassy shoulder. I was headed home to the United States. But the dog was going in the opposite direction, north towards Canada, with her nose traveling close to the ground.

I wasn’t sure if her guardian was nearby, maybe on foot enjoying the lush Peace Arch Park. Perhaps waiting for her in a car.

Peace Arch Park—named for a giant white arch that declares peace between the two nations—surrounds the border crossing connecting British Columbia to Washington State, and Canada to the United States. It's a popular park, and the busiest crossing west of Detroit.

When it was my turn to pull up to the booth, I asked the officer if he knew about the dog.

It turns out I wasn’t the only animal rescuer on the premises. Not only had border officers spotted her, but they had started feeding her too. And had tried to get close enough to catch her.

But so far, the dog had eluded them.

I asked the guard for permission to try. He sent me to park my vehicle in the area usually reserved for searching cars, and into the office to speak to the supervisor. I grabbed a leash from my rescue kit and set off.

The supervisor was kind, expressing concern for the dog and for me. He warned me to be careful amid the traffic. It was stormy, and hail had started pelting little round pellets the size of peppercorns. I trudged along through the slush and searched. My pink skirt wasn’t the best attire for the job, but the galoshes I was wearing were perfect for the task.

Unfortunately the dog had vanished for the time being.

But still I drove off feeling peace. She will resurface again, and I'm sure the guards will help her when she does. When I returned to the building empty-handed, several officers promised to look out for the border-running canine.

Because at Peace Arch, humanity is international.





I was soaked to the skin after my fruitless search for the border-dashing dog.










I recently became a dual citizen. You can read about the citizenship ceremony by going to Not Born in the USA.

Working like a dog to make it work

Kristina Van Vorst is worried she won't be able to afford to keep her dogs, so she hit the streets with her handmade sign to plead for help.


As the American economy continues its steady collapse into itself, people’s livelihoods are being swallowed by the implosion.

Each day, jobs are being cut, houses foreclosed, bankruptcies filed. Shelters and makeshift tent cities are overwhelmed with trying to house the homeless.

And that includes animal shelters, where donation dollars are dropping as intake numbers are climbing. Animal guardians are surrendering their beloved pets because they can’t even afford to house themselves.

So when I saw 35-year-old Kristina Van Vorst on the street clutching a cardboard sign begging for services—not money—so she can afford to keep her two dogs, I had to stop and inquire further.

Kristina moved to Bellingham, Wash. three years ago, and at first she scraped by working as a nanny. But by the time the family’s children grew out of needing her services anymore, the economy had already began its plummet. Now she picks up odd jobs: landscaping, tutoring, cleaning. Kristina’s live-in boyfriend is lucky if he makes $30 working half-days for a temporary day labor employment agency.

To add to their financial strains, her boyfriend’s father also lives with them, and he’s afflicted with Alzheimer’s.

Kristina needs money to license her two rescue dogs. Three-year-old Calla is a Rottweiler-pit mix who had been beaten with a skateboard in Nebraska. Two-year-old Solonas is a pit hound mix who was relegated to a backyard before Kristina adopted her. Calla also needs to be spayed to reduce her licensing fees, and both dogs need vaccinations and special food.

By the time I encountered her, Kristina’s panhandling hadn’t panned out. She had only collected $5 and a turkey sandwich. But I put the call out to rescue groups I know in the area, and they are already working to help these girls stay together.


Calla is well-behaved and friendly.

A fairytale friendship in the 'hood

Lily dressed up for Halloween as Little Red Riding Hood, with Mungo as her sidekick—a dog in wolf's clothing.



One of the best parts about having a sibling when you’re a kid is that a brother or sister provides a convenient scapegoat, someone to finger-point and blame bad deeds on. An only child doesn’t have such luxuries.

Unless you have a Mungo.

Lily and her Sheltie Mungo get up to all the usual sibling hijinks—sharing food, laying claim to each other’s belongings. And then there’s the mischief-making.

“Lily likes to ensure that the dog is nearby whenever she is up to no good in the hopes that Mum and Dad will fall for the-dog-did-it defense,” said Lily’s mum Nancy MacKinnon, whom I attended Carleton University School of Journalism with back in the late 1980s.

“They’re a really funny pair, as sometimes it seems they merely tolerate each other, yet they are acutely aware of the other and how he/she is doing.”

Particularly in the last little while, when three-year-old Lily came down with a bad bout of the flu.

“Mungo has been her shadow, keeping an eye on her, and if she fusses, coughs or cries, he comes over and pokes me on the leg with his muzzle, then walks back to her and waits for me to see to her.”

Mungo’s playing nurse now, but in the past, that’s been Lily’s role.

“She will use him as her patient when playing with her doctor’s kit. He lets her, but gives me a look that I interpret as “why, why???”



Mungo has been intrigued by baby Lily since her first day home from hospital, showing acceptance into his pack by bringing his toys to her.

On track for recovery

Here's a still from the old cartoon that inspired the name for Nell the dog. It was part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and featured dim-witted Dudley Do Right, a Canadian mountie. He would save his heart throb Nell when evil Snidley Whiplash tied her to the tracks. But Nell always gave the horse more affection than her hapless human hero.


On Thursday I told you about Nell, the Whatcom Humane Society dog who had been tied to the train tracks and left to die by some heartless human being.

Many of you have written to ask how Nell is doing. I'm thrilled to report that she was transferred from the shelter to a foster home yesterday. It will take time for her to trust people again. Who could blame her. She will get patient, tender care from her foster family.

Already trained

I saw this dog recovering in a back kennel at Whatcom Humane Society when I stopped by to visit last week. She was terrified. Rescued just days earlier, she had been tied to the train tracks by someone and hit once by a locomotive. I see or hear about cruelty every day, but this one shocked even me.

Shelter staff named this poor girl Nell, after the woman in the old cartoon who was tied up on the train tracks by evil Snidely Whiplash. She would be rescued by her hero Dudley Do-Right. In this case, it will be the shelter that's doing right for sweet Nell.

A road-worthy friendship

It didn't take any provocation for Adam Wayne to display his body art.


There are times when I wear my work in animal rescue like a hairshirt: it inspires reactions that are uncomfortably itchy.

Last week, I was relaxing in a local pub when my hairshirt caused someone else to show me his.

The man in the photo—who would only identify himself by his first and middle names, Adam Wayne—partially disrobed when he found out what I do.

Granted, it wasn’t me who inspired his undress.

He was driven by love for his pit bull mix, Charlie. To show me the tattoo he got as a tribute to his beloved dog. It’s an exact tracing of Charlie’s paw print, complete with nails.

Charlie had a hairshirt of his own to wear and bear just before he met Adam. He was the only survivor of a cruel act.

One of Adam's friends had been driving on the 5 freeway in Whatcom County, Washington when he saw the terrible sight.

Someone had treated a litter of a half-dozen puppies just like litter, offering them no more kindness than an ashtray loaded with cigarette butts tossed from a vehicle’s window. By the time Adam’s friend stopped to help, the puppies were nothing more than lifeless lumps in the road.

Then, as he drove on, a miracle.

Little Charlie, just a few weeks old, was sitting right underneath the sign for a rest stop.

Waiting for someone to stop and rescue him.

That night, Adam went by his friend’s place to visit the sole survivor. Love was instant and ardent.

“I knew when I looked at him that he was mine. I begged my friend to give him to me, and he did.”

Thirty-one-year old Charlie and nine-year-old Adam have been together ever since. The 80-pound dog is a mix of a pit bull breed, Labrador and Greyhound.

“He’s my kid for sure. He loves me unconditionally. Anything I do wrong, he doesn’t care. He does a prance when he sees me.”

Life for Charlie didn’t start out as a freeway of love. But he’s certainly found himself in a partnership that’s been road tested.



Notice Adam even included the dog's nails as part of the tattoo.

Polly Ester blend in a blanket

Anyone else like to poke their toes out of the blanket like Polly Ester? Photo courtesy of Tory Maxwell.


Fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves get crunchy and colorful, and the odd warm days feel like bonus summer.

Being an insomniac, I welcome it when the nights grow colder, because that means sunlight time is shrinking. Darkness encourages sleep.

Animals can sense winter coming just like people can. While we’re winterizing our homes, they have their own chores. Bears prepare dens for hibernation. Squirrels pack nuts away. And dogs and cats…well, they’re trying to stay cozy too.

Meet a four-year-old pup who figured out exactly how to stay warm when the chilly bite of the Pacific Northwest autumn caught up with us last week. Polly Ester—so named because she is a blend of dogs—loves to bundle up in blankets whenever possible.

Her guardian Tory Maxwell says Polly Ester is possibly a mix of American Eskimo and Australian Cattle Dog.

“Maybe??? Who really knows,” wrote Tory. “She came into the shelter when she was three months old. I remember her coming through the door. I don’t think I put her down after that. She was supposed to be a foster. Ha, that obviously didn’t work.”

The shelter Tory’s referring to is Whatcom Humane Society. She supervised the animal care technicians there for five years, and departed in 2006. That’s a lifetime in shelter years. Many employees don’t even last one year in the emotionally charged environment that characterizes the life-and-death reality of shelter life.

Calmly competent, always cheerful and upbeat, Tory’s one of my all-time favorite WHS employees. And I’m not alone in my sentiments on Tory.

Even though Tory doesn’t work at Whatcom Humane Society anymore, she will always be part of its fabric.

And so, for that matter, will Polly Ester. A fine blend indeed.


Here's Tory Maxwell writing her coordinates in my notebook at a shelter social event. I snapped a quick pic because I knew I'd be writing about her some day soon.

A photo that barked a thousand words

This is the photo of Walley that spoke to Alyssa Winters at the photo lab that day. All photos courtesy of Adrian Hitt Photography.


About a quarter of us meet the love of our life in the workplace.

For Alyssa Winters, that’s exactly how it happened.

The Minnesota photo lab technician was having a regular workday in the mounting department watching the images roll by. And then one face stood out from all the others.

You could say his picture barked a thousand words.

It’s not like Alyssa doesn’t have her share of animals to gaze upon. Six days a week—24 hours a day—the White House Custom Color lab in Eagan processes images for professional photographers.

“Being an animal lover like myself, this happens about a million times a day with all the photos I see of dogs,” Alyssa said.

That’s what made her chance encounter with Walley even more random than it already was.

“There was something about Walley's photo. Just the look in his eyes, I can still feel it. I looked and looked and looked at that photo all day.”

Within hours, she had contacted the shutterbug named Adrian Hitt who had sent in the digital files depicting the Catahoula Leopard-American bulldog mix named for his walnut-colored coat.

In her spare time, the Tennessee-based photographer parlays her picture-making skills into raising public awareness for the plight facing millions of animals euthanized in the United States every year. Arming rescued animals with professional photographs of themselves helps puts their best paws forward to potential adopters.

In Walley’s case, it was a shoot in mid-January for a Nashville-based rescue group called Camp Chaos 37206 that landed his photos at White House Custom Color this past February. The dog had been rescued trotting down the street on New Year’s Eve with a rope around his neck.

Adrian suggested Alyssa get in touch with Camp Chaos.

“I worked with a volunteer named Jen and filled out the application and references. I had her become my friend on Facebook because we have another dog at home and I wanted her to see how his life was. It was hard with me being here and them being there. It was a huge trust building moment on both ends.”

A week and a half later, Alyssa was on a plane headed from the north to the south to meet Walley. And that night she brought him home.

“Walley has made me so happy. My husband is in love as well. He's also a huge animal lover and says that Walley was meant to be.”

Alyssa and her hubby aren’t the only ones thrilled with the new addition. Walley’s dog brother Maynard is overjoyed.

“He has been a huge happiness to Maynard,” Alyssa said. “They play together and take walks together and kiss and love each other. Maynard has always been social and I have wanted another dog for quite a while but it just never felt that right ’til I saw Walley.”

Alyssa didn’t just save Walley. She’s using his snuggly, calm personality to educate others about pit bulls, a group of dogs often unfairly maligned by the media.

“Everywhere I take him he gets noticed because he's so handsome and people are very curious about a 'pit bull' you know? So I take it as my chance to educate people about bully breeds and adoption as well.”

Now that’s what I call a Kodak moment.

The atmosphere sparkled with love at first sight when Alyssa flew from Minnesota to Tennessee to meet Walley.

Newshound

This dog posed for me. Notice the Bellingham Herald building in the background.

The Princess and her Bean

Kristopher Wentworth adopted Princess, the little dog on the left, just three weeks ago. He's letting Isabella -- otherwise known as Bella Bean -- take Princess under the paw to show her the ropes in dogness. So far it's going well. Can't you tell?

This blonde ale's on tap

I'm still out there on the road writing. Today I met Sirus. She's an eight-year-old yellow Labrador. But she's a whiter shade of pale than yellow. She resides in Anacortes, a community found on Fidalgo Island in northern Washington state.

Sirus is a lucky pup, and she knows it.

Watching the paws go by

Justin Hadaller (left) and Kyle Burt hang with Tatayana and Dakota.


While I love working in the solitude of my forest, there are times when I crave white noise. A din of background sound was the backdrop against which I learned to write as a 19-year-old cub reporter in a busy newsroom.

When the buzz bug bites, I take my laptop into the world to write from busy places. There’s an added bonus: I find photo opportunities and stories begging to be told all over the place.

On my travels today, I met Justin. I approached him because I thought his dogs might make a nice photo.

It turns out the dogs aren’t his. At 25 years old, Justin believes he’s still too young to make a lifelong commitment to an animal. So for now, until he gets his own dog or two, he volunteers to dogsit for friends, and he does it for free. Today he was watching 10-year-old Tatayana, a Husky, and Dakota, a Malamute who’s five.

Even though they barely know each other, they are clearly in like.

Kids would rather read to dogs

Jane Talbot's struggles with dyslexia inspired her to participate in the program that has children reading to dogs.


When Jane Talbot was a tiny girl, visions of monsters under the bed weren’t what she feared most.

It was words on a page that frightened her.

Jane was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was six. The prospect of trying to read in front of other kids was paralyzing. The sentences looked like a jumbled mess. In her mind’s eye, words jumped ahead of their proper place, causing her to read them out of order.

“I had a fear of reading out loud – it was intimidating and terrifying to me,” said Jane, who has been volunteering at Whatcom Humane Society (WHS) for ten years.

Jane is 41 now, but the memory of that fear is still fresh. As if she were still attempting to decipher text while standing in front of a classroom of kids. Or attending college, where a creative administrator skirted Jane through the red tape by categorizing her as a visually-impaired student. That way, she was allowed to access textbooks on tape. By hearing and reading the words simultaneously, her comprehension increased.

And she graduated.

Jane’s experience motivated her to help other kids struggling to read. This past fall, she and her Labrador-Shepherd cross Betty participated for the first time in the four-year-old WHS reading program Dog Day Afternoon.

“I thought I could help kids in the program break down their barriers,” Jane said. “It’s so rewarding to see these kids reading to the dogs.”

Betty and other listening dogs around North America work miracles for children’s literacy. The dogs provide an attentive, non-judgmental audience for young readers. They don’t criticize or laugh. They don’t act bored, hurried and impatient. They are there just to listen.

Even kids who know how to read flock to these dogs just for fun, growing their vocabulary and public speaking skills in the process. But the greatest beneficiaries by far are those who have obstacles to reading and speaking.

Golf great Tiger Woods is one famous example. Tiger used to stutter. Before facing a human audience, he would practice speeches and presentations in front of his dog, Boom. He was building confidence with the help of his dog. Eventually he realized that if he could do it for Boom, he could also win the people over.


“Adults can be intimidating – the dogs are not judgmental,” says WHS outreach director Laura Clark.

The popular WHS Dog Day Afternoon program moves from library to library in Whatcom County for one-month stints every spring and fall. There is usually a waiting list. During the afterschool hours of 4 to 6 p.m., kids start cycling in for 30-minute sessions to meet with the dogs and their guardians. Many kids had younger siblings in tow.

This past fall, I attended a session at the Fairhaven library. Every half hour, a new batch of kids crowded at the doorway in anticipation, clearly excited for their turn to come. One little girl who didn’t want to miss her chance hobbled in with a broken leg that sported a bright pink cast.

Kids develop a love of reading while bonding with their listening dog.

“I like reading to dogs because I like animals. I really like reading and I really like dogs,” said eight-year-old Fern Beach.

Parent Tonya Lockman brought her eight-year-old son and kindergarten-aged daughter to the Fairhaven library.

“We try to make it every fall and spring because it’s hysterical fun,” Lockman said. “It was a big deal when my daughter could read to her own dog. She was very proud and excited.”

On this night, the listeners at the Fairhaven library are all rescue dogs. The program has an unexpected spin-off effect for the shelter – it piques a kid’s interest in animals, particularly rescued animals. So much so that some drop by the WHS shelter with their parents to adopt cats and dogs, Clark said. Kids also shed their fear of dogs.

“These dogs are kid tested and approved,” Clark said. “This gives the child a chance to learn about dogs with friendly animals.”

The librarian watching the session beamed as children read to their chosen dogs.

“It fulfills librarians’ dreams to see kids reading,” said Donna Grasdock, Fairhaven library specialist for the Bellingham Public Library. “It almost makes me cry.”

Do not try this at home

All day, my email box pings and bings with stories. Right now, I have more than 100 tales I'm trying to find the time to write. Some sad, some inspiring. All important. It's just a matter of eking out the moments to get them down in the midst of life's commitments.

While the rescue people send along many items that make me cringe, they also email me warm fuzzies that make me laugh out loud in pure delight.

I don't endorse this activity, but the cuteness factor was too high not to post. I wish I knew who had taken this shot. If anyone out there does know, please tell me so I can give credit where it's due. For now, I'll have to thank "Anonymous" for this photo of a water-worthy wiener dog on a board. Hang ten, Shorty.

Doing the dog paddle

I've spoken to several professional photographers who look down their noses when asked if they've considered taking pictures of animals.

They seem to think that it's beneath them. That unless their subject is inherently human, they are somehow less than. They don't get that capturing an animal's traits -- both human and non-human -- can be just as challenging and profound as the rewards garnered from people portraiture.

If only they would step outside themselves to regard the magnificence of another species.

Brooke Mayo is a shutterbug who is fully cognizant of the beauty that walks on four legs. The North Carolina photographer has poured her canine crush into a new book launched this week, and the images are stunning. It's called Diving Doggies: A Celebration of Play Underwater. You can buy it on Brooke's website.

This little piggy is blanketed by love

I find cross-species love to be the most magnetic. Check out this Rhodesian Ridgeback who adopted a tiny orphaned piglet found freezing in the forest on a 20-acre farm in Hoerstel, Germany. Katjinga had just finished weaning a litter of her own. But when this pig came into her care, she soon started lactating again and is clearly enamored with her unlikely charge.