A
scared, starving little furball usually enters our lives with a
phone call that starts "I found a...". Whether its a Lone
Pine volunteer leaving a local grocery store, or the shelter
director driving by a empty lot, when we see an animal that
needs help, we stop everything.
Sometimes we end up with an animal that was a local house pet, until something happened and their family no longer wanted them. These are often the hardest to save, as they have not eaten, and are so scared they just don't know what to do. If we get this rescue during the day, the first stop is the vet's office. Once in awhile we end up with a relatively healthy animal, and the cost is minimal. Then there are the more typical visits, where the poor guy is so anemic from flea and tick infestations that he needs a blood transfusion.
Either way, we use our Emergency Rescue fund to pay for these costs. Aside from food, rescuing animals is the majority of our shelter costs. Every dollar that gets donated to us is used 100% for the care of our rescued animals. We do not have paid volunteers, and none of our board members are paid.
If you can help, please consider a donation to help support our Emergency Rescue Fund. A donation can be made online, in person, or through the regular mail system.
Aside
from the stray animals that find the way into our rescue, we
also get surrender animals. For one reason or another, a
family can no longer take care of their pet, and they try and
find a shelter/rescue to take them.
We do get some healthy household pets, whose families maybe had to move due to work, and just couldn't make it happen with a pet for one reason or another. This is not typical though. Most of the time when we get involved in a surrender situation, its due to a lack of funds necessary to treat the pet. It could be due to an accident, or an illness usually with a high veterinary cost. If a shelter or rescue does not get involved at this point, its likely that the only option available is to euthanize the pet.
If there is anyway we can help to avoid killing a pet for no reason other than a lack of funds, we will. If we can get involved, then we work with the vet's office to pay the bill, and then take the pet into our shelter system.
It's really hard to put an average cost to an Emergency Rescue like this, as it could literally be a heartworm positive test or a car accident. Either way, we rely completely on fellow animal lovers to help us with the costs of these rescues.
If this sounds like something you would like to help with, please consider making a donation.