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Rescue File 2004
Ellie was a forgotten dog. She spent her days tied in a junkyard. She slept outdoors all winter under a truck. She was always hungry and dirty – and eager to be friendly to anyone who noticed her. Sometimes when the junkyard’s owner wasn’t around a woman from the neighborhood would slip Ellie food. She called us, on a gray February day, to say the man had run out on his lease, leaving the shepherd mix behind. The building’s manager said she could take the dog if she wanted. From her first moments at the Society Ellie was gentle, responsive, utterly trusting. She is about five years old, had been in the junkyard for three years. She may have had a real home once, where she learned that people can be kind, before her harsh life in the junkyard began. In our hospital we had to bathe her over and over, six times before we could see her true color. We spayed her and treated neglected cysts and ear infections. Then we called a woman whose shepherd had recently died of old age. Ellie greeted her as she does everyone: like a long-lost friend. The woman felt the same, so the two shared a reunion, and went home together. Sadly, most dogs and cats don’t have good homes. For every well-cared-for animal there are thousands of “Ellies” – kind animals who suffer illness and neglect. At the Humane Society of New York we do our best, every day, to end suffering, to make life better for as many animals as we can. This year, the Society will care for more than 30,000 sick, hurt and homeless animals in our hospital and adoption center. Here are a few more of their stories...
Late one afternoon a couple came to the Society’s door with an urgent request. “Please, will you help this cat?” they said. The man was holding a cardboard box, crushed on one side. Together they explained how they’d just seen two teens in their Bronx neighborhood laughing and kicking the box. They’d assumed it was empty – until they heard the cries of an animal in pain. They managed to stop the attack, then opened the box. The cat inside, dazed and bleeding, was giving birth. With emergency care the cat and one newborn survived. But the kicks had ruptured her uterus. Three unborn kittens were dead. We named the young mother Phoebe. For two months while she gained strength in our hospital Phoebe watched protectively over Simon, her remaining kitten. Babies are adopted more readily than adults and when Simon was big enough, he left for his new home. Phoebe is still with us, a gentle cat made timid because frightening memories linger. In our adoption center she gazes at
Driving into the city one day, a young woman spotted what looked like a soiled rag in the road. Then the rag moved and she saw it was a black-and-white kitten who’d just been hit by another car. She rushed the little animal to the Humane Society of New York. The six week old kitten had sustained a severe blow to the head. His face was swollen, his jaw slack, broken baby teeth hung loose. Unfocused, his eyes were crossed, indicating neurological damage. It would have been easy to give up on him. But lengthy expert care in our hospital and the kitten we named Thurston’s own will to live pulled him through. Today, Thurston is triumphantly healthy, slowed not at all his new family tells us by his faintly crossed eyes, the only reminder of an ordeal survived because the Humane Society of New York was here.
Nigel came to the Society on a bright mid-winter morning, walking slowly beside the man he’d known for seven years. Dogs weren’t allowed in his apartment, the man told us. For a long time the old superintendent had given him a corner of the basement where he left Nigel tied, spending his days and nights waiting for the man to come. Now the building had new management. They said the dog had to go. In the Society’s hospital Nigel’s incoming exam revealed he’d been in pain for a long time. He needed surgery to remove a diseased spleen. We had to cut calluses from his
The first time Jenny’s husband hit her he said it would never happen again. But it did happen again. Jenny knew she should leave but she had no job and nowhere to go. It was a hot summer day a week later when we met Jenny. She told us she’d been living When Jenny came we were, as always, filled to capacity. Somehow we made room. Jenny had raised her cats since they were babies. It was a painful moment for her to walk away from the young kittens who had brought love into her life but she knew it was the right thing to do. That day we tended Mia’s swollen leg, injured when she was thrown against the wall. Mia, Buddy and Roo are littermates, eight months old, sweet-natured, trusting. In time, with much care, we chose their new homes: Mia and Roo, inseparable, were adopted together; Buddy went to a family whose two-year-old cat, Bing, needed a friend. Our job done, we remain grateful that when someone faced a terrible time in their life, we were here to help. # # # Dear Friend and Animal Lover, Each day we at the Humane Society of New York are faced with animals who need our help to go on and, in many cases, to survive. Please give as each donation makes a new beginning possible. The animals in these stories were helped by friends who cared.. Sincerely, Virginia Chipurnoi President
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