Princess

Princess is a big Akbash, perhaps the prettiest Akbash anywhere.  She was in a kill shelter in Lubbock, Texas with only a few days to live when Janet Davis of National Akbash Rescue learned about her.  Janet arranged for us to sponsor her and for Texas Great Pyrenees Rescue to rescue her.  Princess is now living with a foster family in Texas.


























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Teddy

Teddy is an absolutely gorgeous Pyr/Akbash.  He was picked up as a stray and ended up in a tiny kill shelter in Texas.  He had only 3 days to live, because the shelter had only two kennels!  Someone sent his picture to National Akbash Rescue and Janet Davis swung into action, arranging for us to sponsor him, and transport for him to a vet.  He turned out to be heartworm positive (the financial kiss of death to a rescue - it costs around $800 to treat).  Janet arranged for his medical treatment, found a foster and eventually he was adopted!









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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

Jumbo

Jumbo is a Great Pyrenees.  He wandered into Apple Valley, CA from the high desert in terrible shape and ended up in the kill shelter.  He was rescued by Sherree at Helping Paws http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/hp.html, a wonderful small rescue there.  We found Jumbo soon afterwards at the OC Pet Expo and fell in love with him.  He was such a mess that he was selected at the show to be a demo dog for a company that sells pet grooming products.  They worked on him for about 90 minutes to clean him up!  We hesitated too long to commit to adopting Jumbo, and someone swooped in and got him first.  Anyway, we were so impressed by the good work that Sherree does, that we made a donation.  This is when we realized how much good the rescue groups do, and we decided to do what we could to support them.  

If you love rescue stories, go to Sherree's site and read some of her stories.  We just love these small rescues and the work they do - the rescue world has many people like Sherree, people with hearts of gold who against all common sense spend more money than they can afford and enormous amounts of time, energy and emotion to save otherwise doomed dogs!