Yordi

One day last January, I saw a picture of a little dog on Petfinder named Yordi. He was a adorable Yorkie mix in a kill shelter in rural Arkansas. He had three days to live. The shelter had labeled him as "not friendly to children" and "not housebroken".  I realized when I looked at his picture that this little guy had nothing - no friends, no freedom, and, with those labels, no hope. If I didn't help him, no one would and he would be killed.


I called the shelter and they agreed to give Yordi another week in exchange for a donation. We sent dozens of emails to various rescues offering to make a donation if they would take him. Finally, a wonderful group, the New Beginnings Shih Tzu Rescue http://www.nbstr.org/

agreed to help. They pulled him from the shelter, got him checked out medically and neutered him.

A very patient and loving woman took him into her house and fostered him along with 5 other dogs for six months. This picture is Yordi in his foster home. 

Finally, they found a family to adopt him! 

This picture of Yordi  is the end goal of rescue - save them from the kill shelter, foster them temporarily and then find them a good home for the rest of their lives! 

The world of dog rescue is filled with selfless, dedicated people who put in huge amounts of time and money into rescuing and fostering dogs and finding permanent homes for them. With the recession, the rescue world has been overwhelmed with dogs, and many are completed overloaded - they don't have enough people, space, fosters or money. In the meantime, the wholesale killing of dogs by kill shelters continues every day.  the New York Times estimates that 5,000 dogs are killed in shelters everyday in the United States.

The goal of the Doomed Dogs Rescue Club is to find dogs in kill shelters that are adoptable, find rescues that are willing to take the dogs and them provide some funding to make it possible for the rescue to pay for vetting and boarding and other costs.

Stoner

Stoner is shy, sweet ghost in our neighborhood.  He is an Akbash dog, a type of Great Pyrenees with short hair.  He is very large, about 110 pounds and 30 inches at the shoulder.  He has been a stray dog for at least 6 years.  We and lots of our neighbors feed him, but he won't let anyone touch him.  Animal control has tried to catch him, but without success.

Stoner lives in an area between two neighborhoods, which are separated by some woods and a couple of holes of a golf course.  He is very shy, but also not aggressive with people or dogs.  We have a lot of coyotes in our area and he occasionally has some wounds that indicate he has had some fights with them.

We have tried for years to adopt him, but he is very shy.  He will eat out of your hand - but you can't touch him.

Akbash dogs are very independent and bred to live outdoors as livestock guardians.  So Stoner is OK outside, but we all worry about him.  Anyway, he survives and has life his own way.  He is lucky to have many people concerned about him who are eager to feed him.

Stoner is the inspiration for the Doomed Dogs Rescue Club - we can't adopt him, but we can help some of the dogs in kill shelters that will be killed unless someone intervenes and finds them homes.


Stoner has his own Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=141787122285