Last week was another very busy week for Downtown Dog Rescue.
On Friday, I met Alex at his spot and we drove over to the North Central Animal Shelter to get his third dog, “Fire” out of the shelter. Both Sunshine and Magic are doing very well since leaving the shelter last week and being spayed/neutered. They really missed Fire. Unfortunately, Fire bit an ACT while in the shelter so she had to be quarantined. She is a fearful little Pit bull -Chihuahua mix. She only loves her Daddy Alex although she is now OK with me since she seems to understand, I was there to help her. I took this photo of her just before we started our drive back to the spot where Alex lives with his dogs. All of the dogs were strays, starving, in very poor condition when he rescued them off the street. These are not the first set of dogs that he has rescued and it won’t be the last. Alex is a dog lover, a very kind person, who can’t see an animal suffer. Since he has been part of our DDR family since 2007, he has helped many dogs live a better life, including our Rex, a dog that he rescued but turned over to us because he knew we could find him a “better home”.
FIRE
On Saturday, we were back in Compton, in the park, offering free spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations and microchips for dogs living in the City of Compton. This was our second consecutive Saturday this month. Two week total, 58 surgeries, which comprised of a lot of large breed dogs including some beautiful pit bulls! BARK dogs came out again and read to the children in the park, which is a highlight for a lot of children who are terrified of dogs but through this program are learning that not every dog wants to chase and bite them.
Pogo
Abbie
Pogo
Abbie
Abbie
Princess
Ollie
Humane education has to start early if we are going to see changes in the way that people view animals and ultimately how compassionate they are to each other in the community. While eating my lunch, I sat with two cousins 5 and 7 year old girls, who told me how much they loved dogs and that they stopped kids from hitting their dogs. Both girls got down on the ground with Clancy and looked at his ears, both wanted to know who could be so mean, cutting his ears like they did. One of the girls wanted to know if I had cut his ears. When I told her that my friend had found him almost dead on the street she gave Clancy a big hug and a kiss on his nose. Clancy affectionately known as “Daddy” was too tired to do anything but wag his tail, “thump, thump”, they both started to laugh as we went on to talk about our favorite types of dogs. No parents in sight, I sat with them until their older sister came over and motioned that it was time to go.
The park is full of children who do love dogs and do want to help animals, it just takes time and patience to get to know them and get to know the community of Compton that we serve. Because we are in the park on a regular basis with the “dog clinic”, as everyone now call the mobile spay/neuter clinics, we were able to convince this young man, owner of a beautiful pit bull, wearing a leather muzzle and harness, not because he is aggressive with people, because people tease his dog, trying to get him to bite them and other dogs, running loose in the neighborhood, trying to attack him whenever he walks his dog. This young man is doing everything he can to prevent his dog from making a mistake, becoming another statistic. When he arrived with a heavy chain for a leash, looking the way he does in the photo, some of the volunteers thought he must be a dog fighter but I knew, this is someone who is doing what he can to protect his dog including getting his dog neutered. He sat all morning, waiting for our second intake. He had walked three miles to the clinic without an appointment, hoping that we could work him in and we did!
In 2010, Downtown Dog Rescue is committed to spaying/neutering 700 dogs in the Compton area. We are ahead of our goal right now thanks to the support of donors who support our work, our dedicated volunteers and the Compton Community.
Every $100 donation pays for a spay/neuter surgery.
Please consider donating to make a change!