Jun01
Rescue Without Borders
League rescue truck in Alabama
What a year it’s been already. With the many disasters we’ve all become witnesses to, we’re all hyper-aware of the tragedy and suffering our fellow citizens, and their animals, have endured. We’ve had our rescue truck for only a little over 3 months, and already we’ve used it to stage multiple rescue areas and load up transports of animals from more than 1000 miles away. It’s been a busy spring.
And at the end of this week, we’re sending another disaster team to Joplin, Missouri, to help with what’s left of that city’s animal control facility. No rest for the weary.
But we don’t want to rest. Because the rescues are only part of the story. The rest is the successful rehabilitation of disaster survivors and their eventual introduction into new homes. That’s the holy grail of rescue.
And as soon as we can keep our truck local for a few weeks, we’ll be heading out to our own metro neighborhoods with adoption events and attendance at summer festivals and street fairs. Because rescue and rehab are only 2/3 of the story. Getting these puppies and kittens into new homes is the final piece of the puzzle.
Cocuzzi
So let me introduce you to a few of the animals we’ve brought back from the Midwest, Alabama and Mississippi. They’ve, at so young an age, learned more than we would ever have wanted to teach them about the worst that nature, and sometimes humans, have to offer. Now we want them to know what humans are really capable of—inexhaustible love. And based on the outpouring of that we’ve received over the past few weeks, I know there’s a lot of love out there. Now we want our animals to know it.
Coccuzi is about the sweetest Weimaraner mix you could ever meet. She actually got out of her cage on the truck and came up to check on my driving somewhere near Knoxville. Then she curled up next to us and went to sleep. Whoever gets this dog is one lucky person, because she’s one in a million. Or how about Polliwog, a gorgeous black lab we rescued from a horrible hoarding situation in Ohio? Or how about Gardenia, a local pup who had a broken leg when she came to us, then had to survive parvo once she got here? Or one of the five kittens who survived the Alabama tornados by hiding in a storm drain?
Truth is, all of these animals need homes badly. Whether they’re from Alabama or Missouri or right here on Bladensburg Road, the more animals we get into homes, the more room we have to help our local partner shelters here in Washington, Prince George’s County, and Baltimore. Because taking the load off of them is our prime directive. And, as long as we have room (often even when we don’t) and our rescue truck has gas, we’ll be ready for the next disaster, whether it’s natural or our own collective man-made fault. Please help. Please adopt. There’s never been a better time.
