Those words made famous by Forrest Gump. Its true. You just never know what your gonna get! In the world of animal rescue its like that everyday. The door opens and there’s an influx of requests, calls, emails, animals that need looking after, medications that need to be given, dogs that need walking, litters that need cleaning, animals that need meals, water, laundry to start, vet appointments, floors that need mopping, vacuuming, dishes to be done and repeat. One or two emergency calls can throw a wrench in the entire day. You may think you have your schedule mapped out exactly and that one call can send everything into a chaos.

This happened to us in a big way, eleven years ago. We received a call about 59 dogs of various breeds. Yorkies, Boston Terriers, Boxers, Poodles, Labs & Labradoodles. The breeder of theses dogs was shutting things down. He arrived with the dogs in horse trailers, full of dogs! One trip after another, after another and another. I called a friend in a panic (Christy Pool), she and John Clarke sprang into action. Some how we sorted through all of these dogs, all in terrible shape, matted beyond belief, covered in feces, fleas, teeth rotted or falling out, others were having puppies during transport, trembling in fear, we worked far into the night and the next several days. We managed to find places for all of them. Foster home after foster home. All 59 dogs were placed into temporary foster homes. After several weeks of care and a $38,000 vet bill all found loving families. It was a monumental task. It felt like it could never be done but it happened and it was possible because of many people’s efforts.

What is the moral of the story? 1) A day can never be planned perfectly. 2) If you try hard enough you will succeed. 3) Refer to what Forrest Gump said about Chocolates!