What animal have you rescued today?

[freemotion]

Oliver and Topaz (cats) were thrown away and found me and dh....the newest dog, Biscotti was loved at one time and I don't know if he was thrown away or escaped and the owner didn't know how to find him but he is happy with us now. Two of my goats were rescued.

These five are the current ones in a lifetime of strays and rescues.

 

[lupinfarm]

Well.. I rescued Mylie from ending up at auction. She had other interest in her before I bought her, and I have no doubt that had anyone not as forgiving as I had bought her, she would have been shipped off to any one of the livestock auctions. They would have realized once she got to their barn that she was completely unhandleable. She wasn't really a rescue though, she was fat and happy at Gabriel's place LOL.

I did however take in Luna, our QH x pony mare. She came to us from a rescue (but really they found her for us, in a way). She's really a sweetheart, she just doesn't like to be fussed over like other horses and ponies do.

She came to us pretty underweight, you can't really see in this photo because she had a huge winter coat but she was all ribby, her bum was boney, and she had no energy at all. She also has a hock problem, but the vet says that is from being worked too hard too early and he reckoned she was a kids barrel pony who had not the greatest conformation to begin with, and was worked way too hard. I know she weighed in at around 732lbs when we first got her, at 14hh (though she'll probably be more like 13.2hh or 13.3hh in about a year as she's being trimmed by a corrective trimmer in April! We're going to get rid of those awful heels somehow!). She now probably weighs about 900lbs, I haven't taped her in a while.

Before (February 2009):

After (August 2009):

We still have a long way to go, we have to get those feet in order, I've had her just trimmed by a regular trimmer for the last year because I wanted to get her used to having her feet done again and wanted the vets opinion, but this is her last month seeing our regular farrier and April which will be her next trim, is when she sees Dan. She's also doing marvelous on Cortaflex for her joints and will be started in light work this year!

We took in Accio, my crazy housecat as well and we may be taking in one of the barn kitties soon, a little girl who was frightfully thin when she wound up on the driveway. I think she's living in the garage in the goat hay with the boy cats (SmokeyPokey and Mr. Spots). We also took in the boycats from the THS as barn kitties. They live in the garage now of course, drink out of the heated horse bucket, and sun themselves in the hatch door on the front of the barn

This is SmokeyPokey scouting out some tastey voles in on Luna's field fencing..

And Mr. Spots (also known as Spottykins) having a snooze in the flower garden

We also have Ginny, a breeder throwaway from out west. Her breeder wasn't exactly the best owner, but one year her kennel flooded and she left the dogs she didn't want there. Ginny was one of them, with a litter of 6 shihpoo puppies (allllll gorgeous of course, healthy, and found new homes). Ginny was super skinny and covered in matts. We breed dogs, and she wasn't what we were looking for but we took her anyway, fed her up, and this year she'll be going to a friends place to live, finally as an adopted out dog -- We've just not had the time to advertise her for adoption.



Now... I must go and make sure Mylie is sleeping and not getting up to mischief.

 

[savingdogs]

Yea, I'm a sucker for any animal that is too skinny......

 

[Jamsoundsgood]

We have this wonderful dog that we rescued from my father-in-law. He was born blind and would have lived his life rather miserably being bullied by the other dogs and in a small back yard. He's now my sweetie, and has lots of room to roam.

The puppies that we couldn't take from him have already died from malnutrition or some other disease. I wish we could have taken more, or convinced him to get his female fixed sooner (something like 6-7 litters before his wife just took her in herself). He collects dogs like my grandmother collected salt and pepper shakers.

 

[Occamstazer]

Savingdogs, your pibble is adorable! The before/after is heartbreaking.
I got into wildlife fostering freshman year of college. I was working at the county animal shelter (nicely put, a hellhole), and during baby critter season we'd often have non-pet things brought in.
No one there besides me had the inclination or interest to help them. Shelter policy is that strays must be held for 8 days before either being euthanized or adopted. There was no wildlife clause.
You can see the problem. The result (before I stirred the pot) was that a lot of orphaned wildlife starved to death in a pet taxi at this shelter.
I thought this was crap.
Either care for them or put them down pronto, but take ACTION!
Everyone there already thought I was insane, so I just started taking them all home. I learned completely by the seat of my pants. Many emails to rehabbers, a few panicked 2am phone calls, you know the drill. This country is filled with wildlife rehabbers who can coach from afar through *anything*
One of the managers at the shelter actually asked me "why do you interfere, why can't you let nature take its course?"
AAAGH! Since when is starving to death in a box "nature's course"?
Anyway, I didn't give a rip that they thought I was a loon, since I thought they were all dumb hicks

Over the course of that year I raised Starlings, Grackles, Sparrows, Bun-buns, Opossums and squirrels. Plus numerous puppies as well. The Starlings and Sparrows are an invasive species, so I worked hard to make them into pets, and then found them homes. The other guys all went into the wild at the proper age.
Full disclosure: despite absolute sterility and perfect procedures/handling of materials, both my rabbit litters died of sepsis. I bow to anyone who can raise baby rabbits.

Squirrels were the cutie-bootiest, but Starlings are the most fun. I wish I had kept one. Great talkers, almost too smart for their own good

I also have four dogs, but that's another matter entirely

 

[justusnak]

After posting in here yesterday, I was going through my mail..and saw that I had an E Mail from A Critters Chance. A rescue orginization here in IN. I have talked back and forth with them before...about fostering farm type animals. Well, The lady who runs it, E Mailed me and asked if I was able to take pot belly pigs. :/ Yes, I can...but I dont want to end up with hundreds!! She said she gets call " all the time" but has no one to foster them. So, She asked for pics of my pens...and if I would be willing to foster for them. Here we go..I think my place is going to turn into "pig heaven" LOL I explained to her...2 at a time.. thats it!! LOL

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

all these cats came from somewhere... even the cat we got on purpose was a rescue from the vet.

we've spayed and released probably a dozen barn cats

as for rescued pot bellied pigs... oh geez.. we call that 'small cuts of bacon' around here!

 

[justusnak]

all these cats came from somewhere... even the cat we got on purpose was a rescue from the vet.

we've spayed and released probably a dozen barn cats

as for rescued pot bellied pigs... oh geez.. we call that 'small cuts of bacon' around here!

OFG, once the piggies start rollin in here...I will let you know. I really hope we dont "foster" them too long....I mean..jeesh! I really DO have my hands full already. But how do you say no to a PB pig?

 

[rebecca100]

My favorite was a beagle/hound that had been thrown out. My dh found him wandering scared down the road in the middle of nowhere where we lived and brought him home where he promptly met our other dog(not in a bad way) and ran off and my dh couldn't find him. Well, I was coming home from work and saw him(having no idea that my dh had picked him up) running down the middle of the dirt road in the pouring rain. Well he was soaking wet and I felt sorry for him and was suprised to see him because as I said we lived in the middle of nowhere with very few and far apart neighbors so I stopped and opened the door and called him. He ran to the truck and I put him in. Well when I got to our driveway(which was a mile long-literally!) I stopped and checked the mail. Of course he made it out of the truck before I could get the door shut quick enough and wouldn't let me touch him again. He stayed just out of reach and it was still raining. After about 30 min in the rain trying to catch him i said the heck with it. Well I got in the truck and started down the road and here he came running after the truck like his life depended on it. I stopped several times on the road to let him in, but he wouldn't get close enough for me to get him. He chased the truck for a mile all the way home baying like a hound dog. I think he was saying "don't leave me!!" That time he stayed. We named him Duke and he was my son's first dog. He ranked high up there in the list of "good dogs" we've had. You know what was weird is that he never that I know of chased a vehicle again or showed any desire to do so, but he had the most beautiful hound voice I ever heard. I think that was one of those meant to be things. Btw I did try to find his owner and no one claimed him. I refused to call him ours for 6 months for fear of getting attached only to find out he had an owner who was missing him. We only have good dogs, but some dogs are just special and he was one of them. We all cried when he died a gray muzzled old dog. He seemed almost human at times.

 

[sylvie]

A Newfoundland mix puppy wandered into my yard a couple years ago. He was only 8 weeks old.
I had no dog at the time, but absolutely no spare money to feed the puppy into adulthood. I posted signs and an ad in the paper, but I was certain he was a drop-off.
I wanted to keep him so badly but knew that I couldn't, and that if he had any chance at adoption it would have to be while he was cute and adorable. I took him to the Humane Society and as I was at the front counter checking him in, a lady and her 10 year old son fell in love with him and signed the papers to adopt. They had a 10 day waiting period so he could be fixed and receive shots. Had I waited a week, they would have walked out with another.
I cried the whole way home.