Read Our Moonlight Dog Rescue Stories

Moonlight Rescues & Happy Endings

Harrowing tales of dog rescues

 
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AAS TOP ANIMAL ABUSE AND DOG / CAT / OTHER RESCUE STORIES

DeeDee's Unbroken Spirit

 

Being kept in a shed and bred over and over couldn’t break DeeDee’s spirit.

 

Animal Advocates gets many calls begging for help for severely abused and neglected dogs. But we also rescue puppymill dogs. DeeDee was one of those calls.

 

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To Maisie... With Love

 

From cold, lonely, misery to warmth and love. This is what AAS was told by a woman who was desperate for our help for a suffering dog.

 

“One day, as I took my dog for a walk in a town I was visiting, I saw a white Husky in the snow, chained to a small disgusting doghouse which was surrounded by body-holes that the dog had dug...

 

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Six Tiny Kittens Were Not Garbage

 

On the way to the river to take her dogs for a swim, an Animal Advocates' volunteer noticed a plastic bag littering the side of the road. She made a note of it, intending to pick it up on her way back to put in the garbage.

 

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Freezing Wet Kittens Dumped Beside A Highway

 

Someone dumped a wire crate at the side of a highway with three crying, scared, soaking wet six-week old kittens in it. It was 10 below in a fierce rain storm the night an Animal Advocates' volunteer saw little eyes glowing in her headlights. She swerved onto the gravel shoulder of the road, jumped out of her car, and ran back to the crate.

 

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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

 

The SPCA sold Alice to an elderly woman with known dementia, who the SPCA had previously sold a dog to. The SPCA was forced by a bylaw officer to repossess that dog after the SPCA ignored repeated complaints about the mistreatment of the dog from the neighbour who lived who lived across the hall. God only knows who the SPCA sold the dog to next.

 

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Zuzu – The Little Miracle

 

By the time Animal Advocates was asked for help, four-year old Zuzu was extremely ill. The vomiting had started three days before. Zuzu's mother thought Zuzu may have eaten something bad, but now that it was continuing she knew it had to be something worse. On the third day Zuzu was unable to keep food and water down and she started to pass blood.

 

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Our Feral Cat and Kitten Rescue

 

After more than thirty years, AAS is still trapping and spaying or neutering’ the adults in large colonies in BC’s Interior. We successfully trapped and spayed all the forty females, so reproducing has stopped, Next we have to do the males.

 

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Iris Is A Little Old Chihuahua...

 

... who was inherited by a woman when her uncle passed away. Iris's new family was devastated to find that little Iris had a very large growth on a mammary gland. They had instantly fallen in love with her but had no money to pay for this kind of expensive surgery.

 

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Sampson's Story Tina's Video Buzz's Video

3 Dog Day

 

Three dogs in one day (or night) is a bit unusual, but sometimes everything is right, and we never know when a rescue will be doable again. We simply didn't want to lose a perfect day to rescue 3 dogs.

 

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Cat Colony Rescue - 25 Abandoned Cats

 

We were notified of a cat colony in BC's interior that had started multiplying when an elderly woman passed away, leaving an unaltered male and female to live on her property. Local people were dumping bags of cat food, and consequently, with food and shelter, the cats soon began to reproduce. We estimate there are about 25 to 30 cats in the colony.

 

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A Dear Old Girl - Debbie's Rescue

 

This dog was tied-up in this yard of a house up North, where summer temperatures can be 100° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius), and winters 40 below. She couldn't escape the swarms of flies her feces attracted, and often there was no water.

 

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Juno Fights And Wins

 

We received a call about a dog that had birthed a stillborn puppy and then gave birth to a live one. Her family had allowed Juno free access to a fenced yard, but a male dog jumped the fence and impregnated her.

 

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Wiggy, Trixie and Paloma

 

Wiggy and his siblings had been hidden by their mother in a pile of lumber that was going to be loaded onto a freighter in four hours.

 

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Oscar

 

For the first two years of his existence, Oscar was chained from dawn to dark in mud, feces, storms, heat and flies, all alone, and often frightened.

 

When his owners got home, often late at night, Oscar was brought inside to conditions ever worse. He was locked in a crate, in the garage, unable to even stand up.

 

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Speaking for Marley

 

Every suffering animal needs to be heard. Dogs try to be heard by barking, but most of the time their barking is silenced. They have no voice — they have no choice. Unless someone speaks for them.

 

Animal Advocates Society hears — and truly listens — to the voices of many suffering dogs. Marley was one.

 

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Rescuing multiple litters of kittens

 

It still happens too often that multiple litters of kittens need help. Often the kittens, whose mother may have been killed by a predator or hit by a car, are close to death because of dehydration.

 

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Betty and Jake

 

"Please, please can you help these two dogs penned their whole lives."

 

Betty and Jake were kept in this pen for years of long, very cold winters, and long, very hot summers. They did have food, water and some shelter. But they had no life. And then one day... they disappeared. Animal Advocates had Betty spayed and Jake neutered, both tattooed, microchipped and vaccinated, before finding them the kind of homes that every dog has a right to. Both loved swimming, especially Jake, but then what Lab doesn't? Without their rescue, neither would ever have known the joy of swimming, or the comfort of love.

 

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Puppy Jack tried his best to guard the drug house

 

Over the years Animal Advocates has been called frequently by social service agencies asking for our help with a dog that needs AAS's rescue services. We were called about a pup, tied to the door of a derelict drug house in Vancouver's Downtown East Side where there are many homeless people and many people who prey on them.

 

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Rescuing cats from breeders

 

Animal Advocates is known for its fearless rescue of dogs on chains, dogs in garages, dogs in pens, dogs in sheds, and dogs in puppy mills. We are less well-known for our rescue of cats kept in cruel, inhumane breeding conditions in sheds and basements, but we also fearlessly rescued those cats too.

 

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Hunting dogs rescued from hunters

 

Animal Advocates has rescued many hunting dogs from the lonely lives many endure in dirty backyard pens. It's common for the dogs to be taken out for only the few weeks they are used to help the hunter hunt and kill, and sometimes for a bit of training.

 

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Bella – a big rescue for a big dog

 

When she was still a puppy, Bella was put outside on a chain. She quietly endured seven years of heat, rain, cold, feces, and flies. Appeals for help for Bella fell on deaf ears - until Animal Advocates was told. We heard. Bella was rescued and was found a real home, where she was treasured, where she was an equal member of her family, where she went everywhere with her family.

 

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Mario

 

Poor old Mario had been through so much already as an abandoned dog, scrounging to survive. Before we knew of him, he stoically suffered with a broken leg for an entire week in the August heat.

 

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Harley

 

Bad winters mean there will be a lot of frozen dogs. Many get rescued. A young Rottweiler named Harley was one of the lucky ones.

 

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Cherie

 

If it weren't for a brave rescuer, sweet Cherie would have starved to death, imprisoned in a tiny crate.

 

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Barney

 

For more than twelve years Barney endured a life of misery on the end of a heavy chain that he had to drag. Twelve years of mud, ice, snow, numbing heat, flies, feces, urine, terrifying storms, lightning and thunder.

 

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Ozzie

 

Ozzie was a very sick lost old cat when he found shelter on a porch. He was emaciated down to skin and bones. His long fur was matted all over his body. It was so tight between his legs that walking was painful for poor Ozzie. Who knows how far the poor old boy struggled to walk until he gave up and huddled on that porch.

 

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Bruce

 

Another appeal to AAS, one of hundreds asking us to help an abused dog.

 

"I live next to a dog who does not have a good life. His totally wrong name is Brutus. He is what you would call a 'yard dog'. A neighbour told me that he's been there for four years. He is penned alone outside all day every day, as well as every night. He's been left for up to 18 hours without food or water, and sometimes the water is frozen, so I sneak over and give him water..."

 

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Spencer

 

When we got the call to help a wandering dog with no I.D. it was clear he had been hit by a car. His jaw was distended at a bizarre angle and one eye had hemorrhaged and was very red. Despite being overbooked, the vet made room for him and he determined that, yes, the dog was most likely hit by a car and his jaw was broken.

 

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Joe

 

When we first saw Joe he was starving, matted, dirty and lost. But most horrifying were his paws. They looked like they had been burned in a fire.

 

We took him immediately to our vet, who told us that Joe had stepped into acid. How the burns got up his legs we will never know. We hope it wasn't deliberately done to this gentle soul.

 

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Zoey embraces her new life with passion and energy

 

AAS got this email, one of hundreds we get a year asking us to help an abused dog:

 

"Two weeks ago we rescued a young dog who had been mainly in a crate outside in the rain and cold and heat for her whole life and the people who owned her moved away and left her! She was emaciated! We took her home in hopes of keeping her, however, she is an extremely active dog and we don't have time to train her properly."

 

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Sweet (and stinky!) Dougie rescued after being abandoned and fending for himself for months

 

We got a call regarding a wandering abandoned dog who appeared to have been attacked by some wild animal or other dogs.

 

Dougie had been abandoned by his owners several months before. We searched and found him. He had heart-rending injuries to his neck and ears, and his putrid odour from festering wounds filled our car. He continually licked our hands and rubbed his head against us. He was terrified of being in a car, but he was so sweet. He seemed to understand we were trying to help him...

 

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Our long-time post office shut down recently so we have been forced to change our mailing address. Please update your records to:

 

Box 32, RPO Edgemont Village
North Vancouver, BC
Canada
V7R 4X1

 

Ellie's rescue and lifelong care - 76 maggots can't keep Ellie down

 

"I received a call this morning to pick up a sick kitten someone found. Her anus and vagina were full of maggots and she is quite dehydrated. I've bathed the area, given her an enema and I'm trying to hydrate her by injecting saline under her skin. I can't find a vet open or willing to take her today..."

 

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Animal Advocates' cat rescue campaign prevents the deaths of cats and kittens at a Prince George BC trailer park

 

In Prince George BC there is a trailer park that is home to many feral cats and kittens. All the cats need to be spayed and neutered, vaccinated, and treated for infections and parasites. With no immunities, the kittens are especially sick and often die.

 

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Get me out of here!

 

There is really only one question to ask an abused or suffering, lonely dog: "Dog - what would you like me to do?" And only one answer from the dog: 'GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

 

People, all of them kind-hearted, persistently natter around the edges of the problem of a suffering dog, wringing their hands and complaining, trying to make authorities do something for the dog that the authorities clearly can't legally do, or clearly don't want to do. These kind people do this even when whatever change the authorities might effect will still leave the dog lonely and isolated and slowly going mad in a pen or on a chain. These good-hearted, but ineffective people are betraying the dog by not taking the only action that the dog desperately needs and wants. They will do this for years while the dog slowly gives up all hope...

 

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Mojo's life was saved and she was spayed thanks to our rescue colleague and AAS's donors

 

From our rescue colleague in the interior of BC:

 

"I've been looking after Mojo for a few weeks since her family went away to treatment. On May 12th, she gave birth to 12 puppies. She had a good appetite until last Wednesday morning when she stopped eating and started drinking copious amounts of water. She also began discharging a foul smelling blood from her vagina. By Thursday morning I was quite concerned so I brought her to the vet, which I'm able to do thanks to AAS' financial support -- I know that they will cover the bills without question when an animal is suffering..."

 

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Tillie

 

Email to Animal Advocates: "The situation is grim for this dog. She has been kept for four years in a cage measuring 8' by 14', and she is basically fed enough to keep her alive. I feed her whenever the owner is out. Often I give her water as well as she is not checked on a daily basis. Faeces is left in her cage (kept locked) for weeks at a time, and she is rarely walked..."

 

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Buddy the Kamloops street dog...

 

We were told that a number of women in Kamloops BC were terribly concerned about a street-person's German Shepherd dog whose spine and hip bones were alarmingly prominent. Some of these women bought food for Buddy.

 

But worse than hunger was how Buddy nervously cringed away from the man. The women asked Animal Advocates to help rescue Buddy...

 

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Cache Creek barn cats

 

AAS got this email from one of our colleagues who rescues dogs and cats on the reserves near her asking if we could pay the vet bills:

 

"A family of cats were dumped at a farm near Cache Creek. Three of them were pregnant and the fourth was a male..."

 

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Darling Nibbles made it!

 

After seeing the condition that Nibbles was in, Cache Creek vet, Dr Quinn Gavaga (always called Doctor Quinn), called our rescue colleague to tell her that Nibbles was starting to really deteriorate and the surgery couldn't wait. He opened her up and found her intestine had been torn and feces was leaking into her body cavity, and two feet of her punctured intestine had to be removed. Doctor Quinn gave her a 50-50 chance.

 

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Two dogs and dying puppies rescued from backyard hell

 

Two German Shepherds lived in the mud and feces of a backyard in East Vancouver Canada for three years - where their scant food was thrown on the ground, and water was often only what rainwater they could find. Over the years many litters of pups were born. The puppies who survived were sold, but many didn't survive...

 

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Baha's story

 

"Hello Animal Advocates, Can you help us with a very sick puppy named Baha? I was looking at Prince George Freecycle last night and that is where I found a lady who posted that she had 2 puppies to give away. One of the puppies is the one that we rescued from this home and need help for.

 

Baha's condition is horrible. She has sores on her tummy, her legs, muzzle, and her eyes are red all around the edges. She has scabs on her stomach and legs and her muzzle from scratching so much."

 

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Jewel's Happy Ending

 

Animal Advocates gets email pleas to help suffering dogs every day. Jewel was one of those. She was being physically beaten and neglected. She was tethered to a fence with just one foot of rope for days at a time. She was rescued by two smart women with the help of Animal Advocates' years of experience and its incredibly generous donors.

 

Read Jewel's Happy Ending Rescue Story

Lytton horse rescue

 

"Dear AAS, I was told that you might be able to provide financial help to feed about 40 horses near Lytton BC. The horses are in many groups spread over a 20 mile stretch, but they have come together a bit more since I started feeding them regularly, which is good as I think they are burning less energy with less wandering up and down the roadways."

 

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Hap's Happy Ending

 

Animal Advocates got an email about a chained dog that is sadly, still common. It was originally sent to the SPCA, but when nothing improved for the dog it was sent to AAS. As you read Hap’s story keep in mind that the SPCA is the pound in this place, and since it does not do home-checks before or even after its "adoptions", Hap's abuser might have purchased him from the SPCA.

 

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Reserve cat rescue

 

Seven more cats from reserves around Cache Creek, Bella, Cairo, Edward, Hannah, Missy-Toes, Picky-Picky, and Shadow...

 

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Is wee Star's ordeal over at last?

 

Just a short time ago Star was dying, all alone … in a box … in the dark ….. and in the freezing cold. Now, she’s as alive as any dog could be. She has a family to romp and play with every day. She sleeps in a warm bed every night...

 

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