March 2020 – Clifford's Army Rescue

Every day the phone rings, normally numerous times, with someone who either wants to surrender a dog to us or someone who has found a dog, many times in dire need of help. We try, we truly try to help those in need. There are times the dog is in such bad condition, we cannot say no, even if we do not have a foster available or the funds. We fly by the seat of our pants at times, but it is so very hard to see dogs in this condition and not help.

We cannot for the life of us, understand how anyone can take in the one creature who loves you more than life itself, who loves unconditionally and would truly give their life for yours, and treat them so very badly. How do you ignore, neglect or abuse such precious souls?

Because we focus on those who are injured, sick, abused, abandoned, and/or neglected, many times we have to say no to those who ask us to take dogs who are basically healthy. It is overwhelming the number of dogs we have been asked to take into our rescue. If we could, we would take them all. We realized years ago that we could not take them all, and developed partnerships with other rescue centers with the same beliefs we have so we could help even more.

We have to stop the madness. These babies have no voice but ours. We MUST have stronger laws to protect them. It is a proven fact that people who abuse animals, also abuse humans. So even if these photos do not truly reach you, remember the same person who let this happen would do the same to a human. The numbers of animals in need is now more than ever, it has not dropped since we started the rescue mission almost 10 years ago.

We NEED more fosters. At the moment we can only take in as many dogs as we have fosters to take into their home. We NEED you. Even if you can only help short term, it will help those with no voice.

We WANT our own facility so we can help more. We are working out a land donation and we now have a separate building fund that was started due to an awesome supporter who designated their donation to a building fund. They pointed out that if we never started one, we would probably never get there and that was what the donation is for. You can now designate your donation to our future facility. This would enable us to have a quarantine area, a play area, an adoption and events area, and much more. We would be able to help many more animals than we do now.

So far this year, we have had 32 adoptions and 34 other dogs that went to our rescue partners (we have a few kitties too but as most of you know we are a dog rescue that does try to help the felines when we can). We have 49 dogs in our rescue, and the list is long for those still in need.

We work hard to raise funds for the care of these precious ones. Through the end of February, we had spent $8200 in vetting alone. Rescue is not free, we have to pay for vetting just as everyone else. We have to buy food, vaccines, collars, leashes, crates, blankets, supplements, and whatever is needed.

Just this week, we picked up a stray neglected and possibly abused pittie girl who we named Eclipse. Her face is scarred, she limps on her back leg at times, not all the time, very emaciated, a torn ear that had healed on its own, missing teeth, but young. We thought that was bad enough but we had no clue what was to come. On Wednesday evening we got a message from our local county-run shelter, the dog could have been Eclipse’s twin except she was more emaciated, more scarred, and pregnant. She even limps at times on the same back leg. I checked the area she was picked up in as a stray and it was not even close, one in Shelby, one in Kings Mountain, so no connection other than abuse and neglect but still eerily so identical. Our foster who takes in pregnant females has a mom with 10 babies that are only a week old, she could not take on another. Our other foster who takes in pregnant dogs is in the process of moving and will have more room once that is complete, but is not able to help until the move is completed. We had absolutely nowhere to put her. We put out a cry for a new foster, no one responded. So then we put out a message to our rescue partners and they did respond. We are so very fortunate as now we could get Minnie out of the shelter and in a home until she can get to our rescue partner. I am going to end the article by sharing Minnie’s pictures. God bless her sweet soul, there is no telling what she has suffered in her young life, but she will not suffer anymore. She is safe, she is and will be loved for the rest of her life, she will be taken care of, and we pray she will be healthy enough to deliver her babies without issue. So please consider fostering, even short term, please consider contributing even if it is just a dollar or two, please consider volunteering, please consider sharing our articles, our events, our pleas for help. The animals need you now more than ever. Please speak up for them, we are their only voice. No matter how little or how much you can help, it truly helps and is truly appreciated.

Now, meet Minnie and keep her and her babies to be born soon in your prayers.

Recently we had someone ask why our adoption fees were so much higher than many county-run shelters. While I cannot speak for all shelters, attached is the 2018 public shelter report from Raleigh which tells what each county-run shelter in NC operating expenses were.

We are an all-volunteer 501c3 non-profit rescue that relies on donations and fundraisers to take care of the animals in our rescue. Most of the animals we take in are in dire need of veterinary care. Just recently we took in a dog with a tumour that needed to be removed and was heartworm positive. So they will need treatment once she has taken her antibiotics for a month, a female shep mix that was not only pregnant but heartworm positive, a dog with a shotgun hole in his leg, a dog on death’s door that spent two weeks in intensive care and two dogs with chemical burns down their backs. The list is long but we feel that as a rescue, this is our main purpose. We do get some dogs that are surrendered to us that may not be in as serious physical need, but many times they are in emotional need. Recently we took in a four-month-old pup who goes in his crate to sleep but then acts like someone is going to hurt him when you go towards the crate. We work through these issues too to help these animals gain trust in humans again. We take in many either directly from owners or strays and hold the appropriate time to try and help keep the dogs from ending up at our local shelter, which has a certain amount of kennels and cannot continue to take dogs in once full, which in turn leads to them euthanizing dogs.

We are very fortunate that our county shelter has a very generous budget, along with a full-time veterinarian and a full-time vet tech. I have attached the 2018 public records of all NC shelters and you can go to Cleveland County to see the operating expenses there (2019 should be out by the end of this month). CCAS had operating expenses in 2018 of $1,148,369.00 according to the state records and it has increased since. We are very grateful our county is putting forth such an effort to help the animals that end up at the shelter and has the ability to do so.
As a rescue, we must take our dogs to the veterinarians like everyone else, pay whatever needs to be paid and if you follow us, you also know we take our dogs to specialists when needed. We do whatever is needed for them. We have had veterinary bills for one dog be up in the thousands. Our adoption fee is the same for each dog no matter how much was spent on them. We do tons of fundraisers throughout the year and we are fortunate to have supporters who believe in as we do that all lives matter, and contribute to our cause.
Out of 40 dogs currently in our rescue (currently, we have had over 50 at one time), 31 are in homes with fosters, where we also know if they are crate trained, house trained, dog-friendly, cat-friendly, kid-friendly and leash trained, etc. The nine in rescue boarding are also dog tested, have playtime with other dogs, work on their leash training, have a schedule to work on kennel training and have a trainer available if needed.
We have an awesome adoption coordinator who, on her own time and dime, goes over applications, checks vet references, does home visits and meets and greets to make sure the family and the dog are a match. We strongly feel most of the dogs we take in have gone through enough, whether it be physical or mental suffering and we want to do our best to find the closest to perfect home for each and every one of them.
Our dogs are with us until they find the perfect home. We do not euthanize any of our dogs unless they are “irremediably suffering, or rigorously defined.” We furnish everything for our dogs, give them medicine if needed (we have seizure, diabetic, and hospice dogs all on different meds), food, heartworm preventive, and whatever is needed until they find their forever home.