My Three Favorite Dogs This Week at Highlands County Animal Control (Sebring, FL)

This is turning out to be a rough week. I crosspost a lot of different shelters' animals, but my pet project is a rural high-kill shelter here in my home state of Florida - Highlands County Animal Control. They are in Sebring, FL, and their pets get relatively little exposure without the intervention of some dedicated employees and volunteers that are willing to take the information they are given about each animal and post them in Facebook albums. Their dogs are not on Petharbor, and they are not on Petfinder. These dogs and cats have a very low chance of being seen by rescuers or adopters, which is sad, because many of them are fantastic - my Lindy among them.

I crosspost daily, and of course every week I come away with a few dogs that I just can't stop thinking about, and can't stop posting, until I can see or post "SAFE" on their pictures. So today I am going to talk a little bit about my three favorite dogs that are currently on death row at Highlands County Animal Control, and why you should check them (and their fellow inmates) out in the albums I have posted on Facebook:

DOGS

CATS 

 This is Two Face. I met him last week when I went to help an adopter (my sister) pick up her new friend from Highlands County Animal Control. Two Face is beautiful - the first thing you notice about him are his really cool facial markings. He is a 4-year-old Cur Mix who seems like he has been largely ignored throughout his life, but still has hope that someone will give him a chance. He is calm and loving, and waits for you to extend your hand and calmly accepts any love you might offer him. He is on the bigger side of medium, and would make a great, loving, calm family dog and a devoted best friend. Two Face will die on Wednesday morning if no one steps forward for him.

This little boy is so alone in the world that he doesn't even have a name. He is a 2-year-old Cur Mix who still carries all of the hope in the world in his heart. This is amazing, considering the fact that he is underweight and his nails are long, showing a short life of not being cared for. When I walked up to his cage, he sat and wagged his tail, and as I put my hand through to him, he leaned into it, just so relieved for a person to be touching him in any friendly way. I scratched his face and he sat there, soaking it in like a parched sponge that has never seen a drop of water. This poor little boy is so sweet, but is a total underdog - not a fancy, flashy breed, not gravely ill, not the type of dog that it is popular to rally around...just a great, but overlooked, brown dog full of love that may be snuffed out on Wednesday. 

This sweet boy's name is Rocket, and he was abandoned at Animal Control by his family, who said that they were losing their home to foreclosure and just didn't have time to find him a home. Considering how long a foreclosure takes in Florida these days, the "I don't have time" argument doesn't fly with me. But they couldn't have cared much. Rocket spent all of his days being passed around and living outdoors, getting love where he could. He is low-key and gentle, and wants nothing more than to be petted and to lay at someone's feet, INDOORS, who really appreciates his beauty (both inside and out!). Rocket is on his second week (most never make it that far) and likely has no chance of making it past Wednesday without an adopter or rescue.

My work with this shelter, trying to help save dogs and cats that have no voices of their own, and very few advocates, can be very hard emotionally, as anyone who takes on a similar "pet project" can attest to. You get to know the dogs, either through pictures and descriptions, or in person, and you get attached. You take them into your heart and when they lose their lives due to the moronic actions of their owners, or their bad luck, not for anything that they have done...it cuts deep. Especially when you have poured your soul into saving them, in every way you can. I can't imagine what those who work at the shelters daily must feel like.

But I always say to myself, "If I stop acting on their behalf, that is one less advocate these dogs and cats will have, when they already have so few." If I can help save a couple more, maybe there will be more room and others can be held over, and I can try again next week. If I can help an out-of-state rescue take one of the dogs, that dog gets a new lease on life that he/she may not have had. If I can help connect people who want to help financially to those who want to help physically, more lives will be saved. My part may be little, but it adds to the sum of many amazing parts. Each of us put together - crossposters, donors, rescues, transporters, adopters, and rescue-friendly shelter workers make it possible for miracles to happen.

That's what keeps me going, even in the weeks where there seems to be no hope - the fact that I can do my part to help an animal live out a happy life that may not have had that chance. If you can help any of the Highlands County animals, please contact me. Thank you.

"Saving the life of one animal may not change the world, but the world will surely change for that one animal"