One of the visits I was most looking forward to on this trip was with RUFF (Rescuers United For Furbabies), an OPH rescue partner. They are a foster-based rescue on the front lines who are saving lives in Walker County, Alabama. RUFF supports Walker County Humane and Adoption Center in a gazillion ways, but I…
When we pulled up at the gate for our first stop in Alabama, enormous dogs loped towards us. “What are those?” I asked Nancy, incredulous. I’d never seen dogs like this up close. We waited while Rhonda, the director of Brindlee Mountain Rescue put the giant creatures in their kennels and opened the automatic gate…
We discovered the Franklin County Animal Control in Winchester, Tennessee just down a residential lane right next to the sewage treatment plant. It is a tiny aging building with no lobby, no indoor kennels, and just off the office, next to the front door there is still a gas chamber originally used to kill dogs….
We left Shelbyville Animal Control at 10:20am, and at 10:28 we were navigating the tight, tiny parking lot of Bedford County Animal Control. These shelters have more in common than I expected. Considering they serve the same basic public, I imagined
So many shelters, so many dogs. I knew at the start of this trip it would be a lot and that keeping all the dogs, directors, and shelters straight might be a challenge. Having Nancy with me helps. I badger her with questions interrupting her work (she spends HOURS editing pictures not just for me…
On Monday we finally made a pilgrimage to the mecca of animal shelters. Or at least that’s the way I thought of it. I’ve followed Nashville Humane in the news and on social media for ages, and am always impressed with their innovative programs, how many dogs they move, and their clever, clever…
Cheatham County Animal Control is making the impossible possible. In fact, Cheatham’s director Kristin Reid, used that exact phrase when she explained her attitude towards her new job as director of a shelter that had such atrocious conditions before she took it over eighteen months ago that a group of local shelter directors said it…
It’s very easy to disconnect down here. Easy to forget there is a world north of us where there isn’t an animal crisis at every turn. Before we left, as we drove down, and now that we are here, I’ve been getting email messages from other shelters and rescues— ‘Come here! Animals are dying.’ ‘There…
We are packing up and getting ready. In the morning I’ll pick up our rented SUV and then race home and see just how much I can cram into it before Nancy and I hit the road at 10:30 for our eight-hour drive to Bristol, Virginia where we will stop for the first night of…
I’d like to tell you about a shelter Ian and I visited on our way out of Tennessee during our trip in June. It’s taken me this long to catch up with the Animal Control Officer there to get answers to my many questions. He wasn’t avoiding me, he’s just that busy. Zach is an…
