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Hope For Hooligan

I never really considered myself a dog lady. I was a self-declared crazy cat lady. All of that changed when I met Hooligan. I’ll be honest, at first I thought he was incredibly obnoxious. His howl-y, raspy beagle bark, his personality, his several attempts and his one success to bite me. You can say I held a special place of distaste for him in my heart, but this didn’t last very long because I am a softy at my core. The man who surrendered Hooligan was in a pretty difficult situation. His mother had passed away and he was on disability, so he could not afford to keep Hooligan. Hooligan had gone missing for a few weeks and when he returned, he had a bad leg injury, he looked like he had been beat up and he was severely anemic. With some tender love and care, he returned to his Hooligan self. I started taking him for morning walks with the two lovely ladies, Barbara and Glenda. I hoped that it might help him release some of his energy because, boy, he has a lot of it. He loved ...
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Summer of Hope

Ashley as a child rescuer Believe it or not, at one point I held some resentment towards animal rescue before this summer. I didn’t like what it did to my mom and how it caused us to drift apart. I think my mom was a little wary about hiring me because she knew what my feelings were. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I insisted that I can do the job. The first days were rough because I didn’t realize how much hard work went into maintaining the sanctuary. When my mom told me some days she would be there all by herself, I couldn’t believe it. It was hard enough for the two of us to get things done, I can’t imagine doing it all alone. I quickly got into the swing of things and the pain turned into a great feeling of fulfillment. My eyes were opened to how animal rescue really is a full time job that takes over every aspect of your life. Even when you’re not working, you’re still thinking about the animals. I even have dreams of the animals. My heart grew bigger and wa...
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Woody - Working Together to Save Lives

Woody and Buzz in their shelter plea photo In February of 2012, Woody and his littermate were posted on the Orange Cove facebook page. Orange Cove is a rural shelter that is strictly animal control and at that time there were no adoptions from that location and only one volunteer to network the animals. This volunteer was pleading for someone to take these two in and that their time would be up that day as there was no room at the shelter. I could not resist their cuteness and the panic in her post, so I volunteered to foster them. They went to a local family that weekend and the family’s young boy named them Woody and Buzz. Unfortunately, Buzz did not survive the weekend, and so starting on Monday, I fostered only Woody. I found Woody to be extremely cute and charming. He has a very sweet demeanor, big brown eyes, huge ears and long legs - he looks very much like a baby deer. The first adoption event I took him to, I was so convinced that he would be snapped up immediately th...
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Grandpa- An Adopter's Perspective

I adopted Grandpa, now Max, from ACT 3 years ago. I didn't know his sad story when I first saw him on the ACT website. I saw this beautiful white fluffy poodle and I fell in love. He was the sweetest little guy. An ACT volunteer went to one of the small shelters in another small town to pull several other dogs that needed rescuing. While there she saw this hurt and scared little white dog in the back of the shelter. She asked about him and was told they were going to put him down. They said he was old and had been hit by a car and his pelvis was broken and nobody came looking for him.   She told them that they were NOT putting him down and she brought him back to ACT.   After many, many months in his foster home he was able to walk and play and had a second chance at life.  He ran the halls at the ACT center and was loved by many. The volunteers at ACT see hope in every animal they meet. They know they can't save them all but that does not stop t...
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Broken Cat Has Hope - Beautiful Bella

We get a lot of requests from people wanting to surrender dogs and cats. We can't always help. Bella's story caught our attention and captured our hearts. This was a cat truly in need. We received a call from a young man desperate to find help for his cat. Bella had wandered away for nearly a week and when she arrived home she was dragging her back end. He had no way to secure help for her. We believe our lovely  Bella had been hit by a car.  This brave cat managed to drag herself home and there she sat for another week. We agreed to take her. A visit to vet confirmed our fears, Bella had a thoroughly shattered pelvis. It had been over a week since the accident and if fixable at all, it would be an incredibly complicated and expensive surgery. Pain medication and a safe place to heal was all we could offer her.   Our cat team went to work and made Bella a very comfy and swanky  “flat” home inside a 5 foot screened enclosure.  Yoga mats on th...
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RayRay - Fostering from a dog's perspective

They call me RayRay.  Not as impressive as Ishmael, but I’ve grown accustomed to it My life began in May, 2015.  According to medical records, I was born two or three months before that, but my life didn’t start then.  I don’t really remember anything from before.  My foster mom tells me that I must remember something because I am told that a couple of times, I have been sound asleep yet growling and fearful. I wake up to see my foster mom and my besties and all the bad stuff is gone.  Which brings me back to where I started.  My life began in May 2015.  The day I met Snuggles … and Opal. As the story goes, Joyce saw me at a different shelter … an “Animal Control” facility.  I had only one eye and my legs – all four of them – were bent in the wrong place.  Some called it Rickets.  I called it a drag. I laid in the corner of a small, stainless steel cage, too afraid to stand up.  I don’t remem...
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Killing them with Kindness?

Cats, cats, and more cats! When we see stray cats, we all want to help.  Unfortunately, if not done right, we end up with an even bigger problem.  If you are feeding stray cats but not having them spayed/neutered, you are actually harming them in the end. We recently received a call for help from the mother of a young man who had been feeding stray cats for quite some time.  None of the cats were spayed or neutered so the colony grew.  As well as not being fixed, most of the cats were sick. He loved the cats but sadly watched them produce litter after litter of kittens. He had several generations living at his house and could proudly tell you who belonged to who. To compound the problem, the home he was living in was rented. This created a crisis for the cats when he was asked to move.  His landlord told him he ’d better take the cats or find a place for them.  The landlord threatened to poison the cats if left behind. ACT was called...
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