C.A.R.E. Free Pet Food Drive Thru

Clifford’s Army Rescue will have a free monthly food drive Monday August 23rd beginning at 10 am. Event will be held at Broad River Hemp Company, 413 S. Lafayette St , Shelby NC and will run till 2 pm and/or until we run out of food.
Clifford’s Army Rescue is trying to help with pet retention during times when some are struggling. While we may not can furnish all everyone needs, we hope to supplement the citizens of our community so they may be able to keep their companion animals.
Please enter from the north side of the building ( parking lot area), and circle to the back. We will come to your vehicle to see what you need and load for you. Then you can continue your circle out the south side of the building. You may only come through one time and only for yourself. No picking up for other family and/or neighbors.  We will continue to do these drive thru food pick ups on the fourth Monday of each month until further notice.    ( If you would like to donate food for the drive, please drop off that morning or reach out to us to pick up)

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Clifford’s Army Rescue Massive Yard Sale

Clifford’s Army Rescue will be having our Massive Yard Sale with everything that probably will include the kitchen sink! Yard Sale will be held in the Fellowship Hall at the Church, Saturday, August 28th, 8 am till 1 pm.  We have tons of donations, from furniture, tools to clothes, shoes, books, and who knows what else.  Come out, get some great deals and help us help those with no voice.
All proceeds will benefit the abandoned, the abused, the neglected, the sick, the injured, the frightened and the feral so that they may have the life they so deserve.
Donations can be dropped off on Friday August 27th .. 10 am till 4 pm

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Bicycles 2nd Saturday’s Pet & Sip

Join us for 2nd Saturday’s Pet & Sip.  Come out, relax, meet the C.A.R.E. doggies and have a cold drink.   The C.A.R.E. dogs will be there from 2 pm to 5 pm looking for love and we will hold your cold drink while you pet the dogs!    If you have not been to the Re-Cycle Canteen at Bicycles, you have missed one of the best spots in Cleveland County.   Come join us this Saturday and every Second Saturday each month!   See you soon!

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When Rescue Has To Say No

Clifford’s Army Rescue ( and many other non profit dog rescues) run truly on blood, sweat and tears ( both happy and sad ones)  along with generous donors and lots of fundraising.  Most of us are foster based which means we rely heavily on our volunteers to open their hearts and homes to help those with no voice.  Many of us have multiple fosters and have reached the limit on the number we can properly care for.   So what happens when no one steps up to foster?

Like most rescues, we post desperate pleas for fosters, begging for help.   We cover all expenses, have a huge network to help with any questions, problems, or issues you may have as we want your foster experience to be a great one so that you will want to foster another dog in need once your foster goes to his/her forever home.   When you foster, you actually save three lives, the one you are fostering, the space you emptied at possibly akill shelter, and the space you created for one of the other fosters to take another dog.

We hear  reasons such as, ” I work a full time job”.  Most of the dogs in rescue are just very happy to be in a loving and caring home.  Many have lived their lives not having hardly any human contact  so you going to work is no big deal.    We hear, ” I will want to keep them all”.  Seeing the happy endings when your foster dog gets adopted is so gratifying, and knowing you can help save more makes it so worthwhile.  While it is hard to let them go, you are letting them go to a very good family and opening your home for another in need dog.

So what happens to the dog(s) in need when we cannot find fosters and have no choice ( because our regular fosters are already doubled and tripled up) but to say no?   Most of the dogs we are asked to take have not had vaccines, are full of intestinal worms, many are heart worm positive, some injured needing surgery, some sick, and some with behavioral issues.    When we say no, those dogs do not get the medical attention they need, the emotional support, the love and safe haven from a human.   When we have to say no, many times these dogs may be left to fend for themselves.  When a rescue has to say no, there is no magical wand that is waved to help those dogs in need.  Many will never get to the vet for treatment, much less find a home to be loved.  Many will die a cold, lonely death and be discarded like trash.

It is very hard for those who have been directly involved with rescue to not be able to find a place for the dogs in need.  It is not out of sight, out of mind for those of us who have witnessed animals on death’s door, emaciated to the point they look like a skeleton with skin over the top of the bones, to the point they cannot get up and walk, have to learn to eat again, are terrified of  every noise and even the human touch because someone has abused them.   The photos we post begging for fosters are embedded in our minds as we scramble to find a place for safe haven for those in need.  If we fail, we  know the end result may be very tragic.

You may say, find a no kill shelter or take them to the local county shelter whether it is no kill or not.    County shelters who have achieved 90 percent live release  are considered no kill.   Dogs still die due to health issues, behavioral issues.    Many county shelters in our state and others still kill for space.  Once all the kennels are taken, dogs die to make room for more.    The ones that are doing their best to be no kill have to manage intake.  While we are very glad our local shelter manages intake and no longer kills for space, it leaves more dogs for rescues to try to help.  Some people will dump their dogs out, some will reach out to rescue but at the end of the day, rescue tries to help so that these dogs have a chance at the live they deserve.    Healthy dogs do not deserve to die because of lack of space and healthy dogs do not need to be dumped out because there is no space at a no kill shelter to fend for themselves and who knows what happen to them.

So what happens when rescue has to say no?  Dogs suffer, some ultimately paying with their lives.

If you would like to consider fostering you could truly be a lifesaver.

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Introducing Cookie’s Cookies

Our sweet girl Cookie was owner surrendered to our local county run shelter very pregnant.  We immediately got her out of there, and to one of our amazing fosters, Annette Pendergraft, who has done a wonderful job helping Cookie through delivery and now Cookie and the nine babies.

We are taking pre-applications on these sweet, adorable puppies.   Potential adopters ( after application and home visit is approved) will be able to meet puppies and we hope to have them a home by the time they are old enough to be away from their mom and have all their vetting done.  ( will be after 8 weeks)

If you are interested in one of Cookie’s beautiful Cookies, please fill out our on line application.   Below is  a copy of our adoption procedures and a link to the app.

1. on line application
2. email contact
3. phone conact
4. home visit
5 meet and greet
6 adoption contract/adoption
We travel up to two hours one way for home visits. We do not do virtual home visits. Please correspond via email until a volunteer reaches out to you. Our Clifford’s number is needed for calls for dogs in need of rescue. Link to our adoption app:

Adoption Application

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Clifford’s Continues to Grow

First, we would like to wish all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May your holidays be blessed. We are blessed with a total of 57 dogs in our rescue at the moment. While that is a lot of dogs for us, we are blessed we are able to help them recover from their tragic days and find their forever loving homes.

With the Christmas season here, we will not be adopting any dogs during the next week. We do not believe dogs/puppies are Christmas presents and as such will spend time with our CARE babies next week and our families.

That being said, it brings me to a few things I would like to address what we do, how we do it, and why. First and foremost our rescue is about the animals. It is not a social drama club but is for and about the welfare of animals in our area and well beyond.  We will always stand up for them, be the voice of the voiceless, and do our very best to protect all of those in our care.

We will not be quiet when we see wrongdoings toward the animals. We will speak out for them. Everyone should speak for them.  Stand up and be counted. We are the only voice they have.

We try to take in the abused, the neglected, the sick, the injured, the handicapped. We strongly believe all lives matter and will take those in who are considered not to have a chance. We work hard at fundraisers to raise funds to continue to help all those in need. Hence we have strict adoption policies. We require a home visit from us, so we only drive two hours maximum to potential adopters. We don’t need a picture of your house. Michael Vick ran a fighting ring in a mansion. The size, cost, etc. have no bearing on being approved for adoption. We want to meet you, talk to you, and do our best to find the right fit for both the dog and you.

We also require all domesticated animals to be spay/neutered and current on vaccines. If not, we will turn you down. We want our animals to get the best of care and how your current animals are being cared for is the best way we can judge how your new family member would be taken care of. This is the second sentence in our online adoption application and yes we check.

With over 2.7 million animals being euthanized throughout the US a year (cats and dogs), I do think everyone can find their companion animal even if you do not meet our requirements. So please understand we are trying to do what we think is best for them. It is not personal, it is about them, what they have already been through in their short lives and protecting them as much as humanly possible by checking out their new family as much as possible.

We will end our year with 74 adoptions and many more that we sent to rescue partners up north to find their forever homes.   We hope to do even more in 2020 along with work on raising funds for our own facility. We hope you will follow Kubuki who will stay in our rescue and become a therapy dog as he starts to visit different facilities and groups. He does have his own Facebook page, ‘The Adventures of Kubuki‘, so be sure to go like and follow the page. He is the most adorable boy ever. We hope to recruit more fosters, more volunteers, more people to join the army as we could easily have over 100 animals if we took everyone we get tagged, called, messaged on. It is truly neverending and the animals deserve a home. Without more people willing to help, we are limited on how many we can take in.

 

 

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Rescue Speed Dating

Meet your Match and get the perfect date for Valentine’s Day.

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Sponsor a Dog for Christmas

$1 a day for the 25 Days of Christmas!

Can’t adopt or foster?  You can still help a dog in need by donating $25 to sponsor a dog in need for the holidays.  Don’t know what to give that person who has everything?  Why not sponsor a dog in their name as a gift?  There are a million ways to support those with no voice and here is a great one to help.

Donate $25 and receive a digital Holiday Card with a photo of the dog you sponsored for the holidays.

In the donation notes, please include “Sponsor a Dog for the Holidays,” and an email address where your digital card should be sent.

Those with no voice, appreciate your help.

Donate

 

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Rest Easy Sweethearts

How many innocent lives have to be lost? How many innocent lives have to suffer? When will humans, who are supposed to be the most intelligent animals on the planet, start to respect other animals with no voice?

Above is a photo of Louie. Louie was found outside, cold, alone, covered in lice, by a person looking at a rental property. Louie was only days old, and now Louie is dead. He never got to run and chase a ball, have a child, have a best buddy, or snuggle with his special human.  Instead, he was born only to die as a puppy. Who knows where Louie’s mom is? Dogs do not leave their puppies, which leads us to believe something happened to Louie’s mom.

Who was Louie’s Mom’s human? Why was she not spayed? Why was she left to wonder and her pup left to die? If her owners were responsible and caring, none of this would have happened.

This is Blade who we rushed to our vets and tried to save him.  He was literally starved to death, a skeleton with skin over the top of the bones.  His body temperature was low, his blood sugar almost non-existent, full of parasites, and who knows what else. We rushed him to our vets, stayed with him, helped with fluids, warming his body, and gave him meds. No matter what all we did and how hard we tried, we lost him. The neglect was too much. This sweet boy never knew what it was liked to be loved.

Here’s Shorty, a senior, dumped at a shelter to die. He was with us for a bit before cancer got the best of him and he was such a sweet boy. He was well mannered, house trained, and a love bug, but yet, someone dumped him out in his old age, to die alone.

How would you feel as you get older if your family did this to you? How can you take a defenceless animal and dup him/her without care? How can you open your door and let your dog run out into a road and not know if they got hit?  How can you let an unaltered female run loose only to get pregnant and then dump them?

These babies are only three of the many animals we take in and we do everything possible to save them, so that they may have the life they deserve.  Until humans value their lives, we are fighting a losing battle, but you can bet we will continue to fight.

Dogs (and all animals) require commitment. They are for their entire lives on this earth, not just until you’re tired of them. They are not toys to dispose of when humans get tired of them or when they get old.  They are living breathing creatures who love us unconditionally. You would think we could learn from them and love them as they do us.

Next time you think you want a dog, please think about the commitment you need to make, and if you are willing to let them be part of your family, provide medical treatment including spay and/or neuter, keep them for their entire life, love them as they love you, then go for it.  If you are going to tire of them, chain them in the yard, neglect feeding them, neglect the care they need, then please go by a stuffed animal out of the toy department

 

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