This picture may seem a tad dull for this exciting blog except for one thing - you are looking at volunteers installing the drain system for the Claiborne Animal Shelter! They worked for three solid days first in scorching sun, then torrential rain which turned the sun baked soil into sticky Playdo goop, then intense heat and humidity.
Steve Barr, building contractor and owner of
Mountain Dream Homes Tennessee, LLC performed the complete installation free of charge! We saved tens of thousands of dollars because of this generous man. Thank you Steve!
As the workers toiled, this fella unexpectedly showed up.
"Here comes your first customer," quipped one of the volunteers.
"Oh no it's not!" The rest of us said in chorus. There is no way we can take in animals. Not now, and not anytime soon. But....
Even though the pooch looks well fed and is wearing a collar, he had what looked like two gaping stab wounds on his back, smelled like a privy, and was covered with fat ticks. We called one of our Board members who loves Beagles hoping to pawn him off on her, and she brought her husband, an M.D., who quickly put an end to
that notion. (they have five dogs already)
Nevertheless, the couple whisked the dog away for emergency medical care: wound cleaning (the wounds were too old to stitch), antibiotic cream, and oral antibiotics. They then canvassed the area surrounding the shelter property, looking for the dog's owners. Nobody claimed him.
Now what? The dog was house trained, sat up, played dead, and was as sweet as he could be. Only no one had room for another dog in their family.
Well, news travels fast in this part of the world and the next day a man called a shelter volunteer to say he was looking for a Beagle to adopt and he'd heard we had one. (How did he know???)
The woman who was keeping the dog interviewed the potential adopter, deemed him worthy of the dog, and "the first customer" is now in a loving home.
And that's the end of this story.
p.s. We still are NOT taking animals
