Wordless Wednesday – Saving Dogs Living on the Streets
Everyone who reads this blog regularly or is connected to me on Facebook, Google+, Twitter or Pinterest knows that I volunteer with Gateway Pet Guardians.
I recently started helping with community outreach. Teams of us gather on Saturdays and Sundays and make the 15 minute drive from St. Louis to one of the poorest cities in the country, East St. Louis (which isn’t actually a part of St. Louis) in search of dogs who need our help.
Below is a window into some of our successes from just one day of outreach last weekend.
Strays Get a Meal:
This dog was limping and may have had an ear torn off through scuffles with other dogs. We talked to a man on the street and identified where the dog might by staying. PJ’s team will go back and look for him and see what we can do to help.
This dog might be owned since he has a collar on, or he might be on his own. Either way, he got a good meal.
Another beautiful dog living on her own who got a good meal on Sunday.
This is a pack of 3 dogs who are regulars on our feeding route.
Stacey had just dumped several piles of food on the ground as the dogs warily watched.
Two of the dogs came over as soon as Stacey backed away for some food. The other waited until we drove away.
Saving a Lost Dog:
A few weeks ago we saved some puppies from the attic of an abandoned house. The mother ran off so PJ has been leaving food at the house for the mother, but she clearly hadn’t been back because this tub of food hadn’t been touched.
When we drove by the house, we noticed a dog in the attic window that wasn’t the mother we had seen there before. We went up to investigate and found a friendly skinny dog who had wandered upstairs but was too afraid of the dark steep staircase to go back down. One of our volunteers carried him down the steps and set him down by the tub of food…and he immediately dove in. After he ate for awhile, we found his family and they were thrilled to have him back after 3 days of being missing. If we hadn’t seen him in that window, he would have likely died from the frigid temperatures that hit Sunday night.
New Doghouses for Everyone:
While we were out driving around, we ran into a woman who recently worked with Gateway Pet Guardians to get all 4 of her pitbulls fixed. We had already given her some dog houses and straw, but one of the dog houses had a broken floor and she asked if she could have one more. We stopped by her house later in the afternoon to see what we could do.
The dog house in the background was from one of our previous visits. This guy got a new collar before we left so the chain didn’t have to be tied around his neck.
This was the dog with the broken dog house. As soon as it was set up, she immediately ran inside and wouldn’t come out.
This dog clearly was thrilled with his new dog house, collar and lightweight tie-out.
Finding Spikette a Family:
We found this adorable pitbull in an open field and stopped to feed her. She ignored the food and instead showered everyone with kisses.
We decided we just couldn’t leave her out on her own, so we decided to save her. But first we went knocking on doors to make sure she wasn’t owned by someone in the neighborhood.
We ran into a little boy who was a former student of one of the volunteers with us. He said he had seen the dog around for a few weeks and had been calling him Spike. We all walked over to his house and his mom agreed that they needed a dog.
We gave them a doghouse, straw, collar, leash, tie-out, food and a food bowl. She agreed to keep the dog inside most of the time and is going to let us help her get the dog spayed. We nicknamed her Spikette until they pick out a new name.
Spikette gets a family of her own
In a follow up call to the family we found out that Spikette is so happy to be an inside dog, they have a hard time getting her to go outside. We love happy endings.
Dory Gets Rescued:
I’ve saved the best story for last.
Dory has been the dog at the top of the list to be rescued for awhile because of an injured leg, but she is feral and afraid of people and refused to let us help her.
On Sunday afternoon we were driving down a street and Stacey spotted her in a fenced front yard. Within seconds she had a plan to save Dory. Stacey and Brian get all of the credit…I just guarded the fence gate and took video.
Yes, I know this was a Wordless Wednesday post and it was far from Wordless. But these dogs deserve to have their stories told.
