Featured Non-Profit: My Fairy Dawg Mother Rescue

By Nikki Gwinn

In the spring of 2011, I received an email from one of the many dog rescue lists I was following. Concordia Animal Control in Kansas was looking for help for four hound dogs that were chained on short leads and left to die in a suburban backyard. They had been pulled by animal control, brought from the brink of death, and needed to find homes soon, because time was running out at the shelter.

Concordia Animal Control had turned to the rescue groups in Colorado out of desperation. Finding a rescue for these four hounds, or a home for them within Kansas state lines, where hound dogs are a dime-a-dozen, would be next to impossible.

My heart broke as I read the story of the emaciated hounds and the neglect they had suffered. I knew I needed to take action and help! I immediately forwarded the email to everyone in Colorado that I knew was a dog lover. Then, I trashed the email. After all, I had done my part for the hounds.

A couple days later, the same email arrived again. This time the message was marked urgent. There had been no response for the dogs. Colorado had not come through.

I was appalled to learn that after Animal Control spent thousands of dollars and countless hours nursing these four hound dogs back from the brink of death, they were in danger of being euthanized. I had to act! Again, I forwarded the email. Again, I sent the plea to everyone in Colorado that I knew had a rescue dog, wanted a rescue dog, or simply loved rescue dogs. I knew in my heart that I had done all I could.

One week later, another email arrived in my in-box. Opening it, my heart sank. Only one rescue in Colorado had stepped up, and they only took two of the hounds. Of all the people in Colorado, not one had room in their home for two hound dogs?

I was disturbed by the lack of empathy my friends had shown, and my heart was breaking with disappointment that no one offered any kind of help. At that moment, I realized that I hadn’t done anything to help the hounds either.

Forty-eight hours, a thousand phone calls later, I drove from Colorado to Kansas to rescue a couple of hound dogs, and My Fairy Dawg Mother Rescue was born.

For more information, visit www.dogrescuecolorado.org