What animal have you rescued today?

[On Our own]

Another rescuer here. Sigh.

Found a racing greyhound in the woods behind a track. It was so skinny and sad. I took it home ask around the track, one of the dog owners said it was not uncommon for people to dump losers anywhere. I could not keep him. I found him a lonely old widower who took the dog everywhere for years. The dog slept under his desk at work. Many years later when the old guy died the dog just laid down next to him and died. Very sweet, very sad.

I have rescued kittens - found one in a drug addicts glovebox! She'd been giving it cocaine. It was never right in the head, but it lived for 18 years with me.

Had another rescue for five years when I finally needed to put it down. No one knew what had been done to it, but it had seizures and strokes.

Now I have a rescued pibble/lab mix no one would adopt because she was very high energy, not dog friendly and a little aggressive. She is now sleeping in the sun on the floor with my 7 year old daughter napping on her tummy. Ooooo viscous dog. All it took was love and plenty of exercise.

 

[dreamweaver]

You know, sometimes I feel guilty that I seem to feel more concern, outrage, just plain ole rage, about mistreated/abused/neglected animals but yet when I had TV I could watch CSI or any of those shows where people were killing each other and not even flinch. Those before pictures yall have just break my heart, though. I guess it is conditioning, watching violence on TV, but if there was an animal involved, I couldn't watch.....but that's another subject entirely and I don't have TV anymore, so that's that.

 

[ORChick]

I took in a cat off the street about 31 years ago, and have had cats ever since. All but one were rescues of some sort or other - unless you count the one kitten that we kept from that first one's litter. I took her in to be checked over and spayed, and found that she was already pregnant, so we kept one, and found homes for the others. She was a beautiful Siamese, and after she died I actually spent money to get another Siamese. But all the rest have either come from the pound, or found us. Of the present 5, 3 are from the pound, 1 came crying to our back door, skinny, hungry, scratched up head (due to earmites), and still an intact male. We got all the medical and hunger issues taken care of, and he is still with us. #5 was a feral kitten, trapped, with her mother, by our neighbour. Neighbour got them both vetted and spayed, turned Mama back out to the wild where she was happiest, and found a home for the baby with us. Our limit is 3, but this is the second time we have got up to 5

 

[buckeye lady]

I found this cat on the side of the road about 3 years ago, He had been hit by a car, It was a cold rainy day, he had a crust of ice covering him. I took him home and thawed him out, named him Kitty Underfoot because he was always underfoot. He's blind in the left eye from head trauma and he had to have a few broken teeth removed. He is a very happy spoiled cat! (DH in background)

Found this kitten in the neighbors yard, when the house was empty and for sale. We never did figure out where she came from. Kitties falling from the sky? She now lives with my sister.


Have rescued many others but I am now exhausted from trying to upload these 2 photos! I'm Technologically handicapped.

 

[savingdogs]

I am Soooooooo loving my thread, I can't contain myself. I had a feeling there were some fellow rescuers out there with the "sucker" sign on the forehead like me, but it is awesome to hear these stories, they warm my heart about the human race.
But I have found the people on this forum and BYC to be pretty special.....


My hubby and I once passed a stray dog on the road on the way to visit a relative who was staying in a travel trailer and vowed if it was still on the highway upon our return, we would pick it up. Of course on the way back we saw it, but it had been hit. I always stop for strays whenever I possibly can and have ever since that day. Especially if I can see dog tags and know I can probably easily return it to an owner. I have returned dogs to their homes more times than I can count, but I rarely got the feeling the people had much caring about it one way or another. One stray literally came to us because it was looking in our front window and my son (a toddler at the time) told me a dog was looking at him from outside, couldn't I let it in?

Are you all "rescuers" in other ways too? I have a semi-medical background, have worked in dentistry, transcription and a veterinary clinic. So I've had CPR classes, etc. But one day while vacationing with my family and eating at a trendy little beach restaurant, an obese diner in the booth across from ours starts to choke and cough and finally it is obvious to all (everyone is watching by this time) that he cannot breathe. His companion is doing nothing. The servers, very young girls, stood with plates of food in the hands, watching with their mouths open. The chef/owner didn't seem to know what was going on. The guy is gagging and choking for air and turning blue.

I finally LEAP from my chair and shout to the waitress, "You! Call 911!" and said to the restaurant. "Who knows the Heimleich?" and a big guy raises his hand. I shout at the guy "Help him!" and he does what I say. He makes an attempt or two (the guys is slumped by this time) and finally says he can't. I again shout to the restaurant, "Who can do it" and a woman says "I'm an RN" and we literally pushed her behind the guy and supported her in getting the heimlich done right and he coughed up his food (all over the table, gross!.....but he breathed and lived.

I kind of cleared my throat and went over and sat down with my family. My husband hissed "Who put YOU in charge?"........But seriously, the guy needed someone to direct action and the rescuer in me just popped out. I responded to him that it would have been nice if the RN had leapt into action like I had in the first place I would not have had to do anything. Or if the restaurant owners/employees had done something.
The paramedics got there about five minutes later.

 

[freemotion]

There is a need for every role to be filled in a crisis. Good for you! You saved his life.

I went to Ground Zero in NYC to work on the rescue workers as part of a group called MERT. I actually massaged a Rottie there, a FEMA SAR dog who was exhausted and was pulled in a vet check and was on his way home when a friend and I came across him with his owner on the street.

It is a long story, but let's just say I started that massage terrified of dogs and ended it NEEDING a dog and got my first dog pretty quickly after that experience. Much to my husband's confusion....

 

[savingdogs]

I've been the recipient of this kind of rescue too.

At age 46 my husband suddenly comes down with epilepsy, out of the blue one day he has a grand mal seizure in a grocery store. I was shopping with him but was grabbing last minute things for the cart while he was in line.
I heard a commotion and look up, a man is catching my husband and supporting his head, preventing it from going through a glass door, and helping him flop to the ground. I run over, freaking out, thinking he had a stroke, asking people to call 911. The man who caught him laid my husband gently on his side and cleared the area around him and in general did exactly what you should for an epileptic. I thought he was having a stroke and was spilling my purse looking for aspirin and he stopped me, put my wallet back in my purse and said, "No, he is not having a stroke. Just wait for the paramedics." Something about his assurance made me know that was the right thing to do and that my husband was not dying.

Paramedics came and took him off and I turned to thank the man but he was gone. I swear to this day he was an angel. But perhaps it was my karma coming back from helping the stranger in the restaurant. Maybe my "angel" was really just a "rescuer" like those of you drawn to this thread.....

 

[lupinfarm]

That is so bizzare savingdogs, when my brother was about 2 years old we were at the Oshawa Centre Mall and he was in the shopping cart and god only knows how, but he managed to fall OUT of the shopping cart and land on his head! Of course my mum is freaking out, we lived in Bowmanville and had no idea how to get to the hospital in Oshawa and my mum had only had her license for probably a couple years and thus hadn't done much driving being a suburban housewife for the most part at that time lol.

This guy showed up out of no where and led the way, we followed his car and when we got to the hospital after checking in he just disappeared. Kevin was alright, he had about 40 hoods and hats on (it was January LOL) which saved his life more or less, but mum described the man to the doctor who said it sounded like this guy who had had cancer and died about a month earlier.

Oddly enough, about a month later my dad was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma Multiforme Brain Tumor, inoperable, supposed to kill him in 6 months... He's been in remission for 11 years this valentines day.

 

[Beekissed]

Those were great stories!!! As a nurse, one is required to stop at auto accidents that are unattended by medical personnel and such, so I've done that quite a bit. I don't recall saving anyone's life other than a patient of mine...did compressions until the paramedics arrived. But...that's my job, so no heroics there.

In my real life, I try to "rescue" anyone who needs it and I teach my kids to do the same. I'm sure that one day this will backfire and our good intentions will be repayed with an evil deed....but not yet!

So we continue to pick up little old drunken men walking along the highway carrying gas cans, inform farmers and assist when necessary when livestock are in the road, move that fresh deer kill out of the road, help a co-worker keep the lights on or the rent paid, help a widow auction her husbands stuff to save their home.....it all comes back to you one day, so it's an easy thing to do. No heroics but I like to think that it makes a difference somehow.

Its the little things in life that make the biggest impact, I think. A kind word, a warm smile, a cheerful wave....these are the things that "rescue" me when life is a little rough around the edges.

 

[lupinfarm]

Everyone waves to everyone around here

There was a lovely boarding facility that opened north of me about 10 minutes, beautiful place, and I bought some hay from the owner last year because I ran out at the very end of the season. His place wasn't doing so hot, they couldn't get a single boarder!


So secretly I started putting up notices at tack shops, and posting on EMG and a couple months ago I was up there to talk to him about training for Mylie because I knew my trainer was coming and he was thrilled to tell us he had 2 horses coming in for training, and some other awesome things were going on.

It was awful cheeky of me to meddle, but I felt good about it.

My AccyKnackers was a rescue kitty, I wasn't the first to rescue him though. The lady I got him from said she found him on her doorstep (she lives on a hobby farm), he was a week old, and hungry as all heck. She fed him up on raw goats milk and I got him at 4 weeks old and he was absolutely teeny weeny. She even gave me some goats milk to keep him going for a couple more weeks as he was so tiny and "weaned' prematurely. Of course now he's that crazy cat of mine, but I love him to pieces.