.jpg)
Woohoo! Today starts day one of the 2012 Blogging from A to Z challenge! Every day in April (except Sundays) participants post about anything related to the corresponding letter of the alphabet. More than 1400 people are joining in. Pretty damn neat, right? This is my first year and gotta say I'm a little nervous about some of the letters. Should be fun though! *waves hi everyone on my team!*
I couldn't think of anything to do with the letter A that I wanted to write about. All that kept popping into my head was Apples and while they're pretty they that was about all I had on apples. Finally decided to go with Animal Rescue since that's what I do and what takes up a big chunk of my time.
It all started way back in 2004 when I lost my blasted mind and created Palisades Animal Rescue. One of my cats disappeared and I went checking all of the animal shelters around here for him with no luck. After 3 weeks and 2 days with no luck I started up the rescue and brought home 3 mother cats and 13 kittens all under 6 weeks old. The next day my cat came strolling back home like he'd never been gone. It's been nearly 8 years now (as of May 25th) and there have been over 300 cats, dogs and mice through our doors. We opened an adoption center 3 years ago where most of our animals live in open, non cage rooms. We're on Facebook and there are a bunch more photos of the center over there if you'd like to check em out.
Our group pull animals from area county/state run shelters that euthanize due to space limits, minor illness, breed, etc. In our county run shelter alone over 4000 animals are put to sleep each year. Last time I checked nation-wide it was over 4 million cats and dogs per year! Pretty overwhelming and why we encourage people to get their pets fixed when. Many areas will have low cost spay/neuter programs.
If you're thinking of getting a new pet you should definitely give rescue a try. Most animals will be up to date on their vaccines and routine veterinary care, be spayed/neutered, and even microchipped! We get all kinds of animals. Purebreds and loveable mutts. Cats, dogs, turtles. Mice, rabbits, birds. You can even find farm animals looking for non-eating them homes. Not only will you find your new best friend but you'll also help save another life because the rescue will be able to pull another pup or kitten from the area shelters. A pretty wonderful thing!
One great place to start your search is Petfinder where most rescue will have their pets listed and you can search by area/pet characteristics and even by pet name!
All of the pictures are from animals that have been through the rescue or are in it now. The pup is actually my dog Margarite. I adopted her from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah back in 2003. The room pictures are from our adoption center in Cary, NC.
