Update: Connie and Dave are back safely from the Chicago trip. They took 47 dogs and 2 cats on the trip! That is a lot of lives saved by these rescue angels!
Could you chip in a little gas money to help transport 18 dogs to safety on Friday?
Could you chip in a little gas money to help transport 18 dogs to safety on Friday?
There are many angels in the rescue world. People that make incredible sacrifices to help those poor animals who can suffer but not speak. You have read about many of them in my posts. Well, I want to introduce you to two more, Dave and Connie Guthrie, who have dedicated their lives to transporting doomed dogs from Oklahoma (lovely state but a disaster area for homeless pets) to the North (where life is many times better for homeless dogs and cats).
Here’s a little background, in Connie’s own words:
“In this county we have no humane society facility. Never will. People here have not the same attitude toward our 4 legged friends. I set out to change that. I put up flyers, went to the newspaper, went to the area pound, had meetings (hardly no one came). I told them there was a way to help. Transporting to out of state humane societies. I went in April 2009 to the Pet Expo in Kansas City, MO. I did a DVD about our county, about the animals. From that Pet Expo I found out about the Animal Humane Society in Minnesota and Tails Humane Society in Chicago. I sent them an email, begging for help. And they responded. Within one month we started transporting dogs from Oklahoma to Minnesota (sometimes twice a week) and once a month to Chicago with pregnant dogs, puppies, little dogs.I thought that we would only be doing this a couple of months. Boy, was I wrong. I asked only from people (some dogs came from a couple of rescues) for just money to cover our gasoline. My husband and me never stayed overnight on these trips (which is 12 hours one way). We would rest at a rest stop for a couple of hours. We wanted to save all the money that we could.
On August 17, 2010 we transported our 2000th dog to Golden Valley, Minnesota. You can check out their site about the great welcome they gave us. Rachelle, a plain black lab that was dumped in a median on I-540 with mange, was the 2000th dog. The very next week we transported our 1000th dog to Tails Humane Society.
In the next few months, our personal van that made over 400 transport trips, was needing to retire. With 477,000 miles on it, Dave and me decided to donate her to Tails Humane Society in Dekalb, Illinois for them to use to transport mostly our puppies and dogs to do off site adoptions in Chicago. They were overjoyed to get this van. It thrilled my heart that this van would still be continuing a mission of love.
About this same time, the couple of rescues we were helping, the people lost their jobs. Losing their jobs meant that they have no money to help make the transport. With us now having no van to transport, we only have a SUV, I knew I needed to seek out help.
I wrote a couple of grants. One to Biffle for a new van. It was turned down. I wrote another grant to Petco in December for a new van, still waiting on this.
My husband and me only have disability.
Our funds are so limited, but each month we try to still transport dogs to Minnesota and to Chicago in our SUV. I have borrowed a van a couple of times.”
Dave and Connie are saving 18 dogs this weekend: “Sending pictures of some of the puppies going on transport this Friday. These puppies were found and brought to my house at 10:00 p.m. last night. Ticks and filthy. Funds desperately needed for gas. Will be transporting 740 miles to DeKalb, Illinois. Have these 6 going, plus 7 other puppies, a mom and 2 puppies, 2 pregnant dogs due anytime.”
All donations go directly from Paypal to Save Our Strays, a 501(c)(3) charity, and are tax-deductible.
Please help – a little money goes a long way with these angels on earth!
