The new waiting room at The Pet Connection vet clinic
The Pet Connection moved in their new building on Wednesday, September 3. I will be driving over there later to deliver crates and puppy pens and will snap pictures and post them here. Please read Melody’s comment posted under “About” about the move.
Let me tell you a bit about Melody. I met her years ago at one of my first Adopt-a-Pets. At the time, I was new to rescue and volunteered to hold dogs at these events. I remember Melody as an intent, committed rescurer and, to be honest with you, I felt a little intimidated by her. A rookie at animal rescue, I soon learned how dedicated many rescue folks are….I can name so many people who taught me how to rescue. Melody Kelso is one, Shirley Allen another, Margo Miller, Pat Munn, Mary Crafton, Connie Foster….so many big-hearted people who have devoted their lives to saving cats and dogs.
Melody had been involved in rescue for several years and knows much about animal behavior and health issues. She taught me a lot, and still teaches me a lot…her knowledge and the energy she applies toward animals continues to amaze me.
I eventually graduated from dog holder to dog foster home and, since I lived on 5 acres, set up several kennels. I developed a strong liaison with Melody, the then Director of Animal Haven, and fostered a massive amount of dogs from her at one time. I remember arriving at Animal Haven — a small,
The sad face of a dog in the shelter
cramped building filled to its rim with barking, mewling animals – with my SUV full of crates. Melody and I would walk through the shelter and pick dogs for me to foster. I specifically remember a cattle-dog mix named Patches who needed to “disappear” to keep her away from unsuitable owners. Patches was a clever and inventive girl who could jump fences and liked to test her owner’s intelligence in a variety of ways. With Patches, I learned each dog I fostered taught me something new about canines, and Melody was always on hand to answer my many questions on how to solve their various problems.
For the past several years, I fostered 5 to 15 dogs at a time, on top of my own crew of 7 dogs. Eventually, I gravitated to brittany rescue and Melody left Animal Haven and began, on a much smaller scale, The Pet Connection, but we still networked in saving animals. In another post, I will tell the history of The Pet Connection, from its beginning as a small rescue center in the mall to a busy, urban shelter that operates a low-cost spay/neuter clinic.
I do want to tell this story: years ago, Melody helped me to save a small brittany mix puppy I had taken out of the St. Joesph shelter. I got the puppy home, noticed she wouldn’t eat, then she began to vomit. Melody swiftly diagnosed parvo. I had heard about the disease, knew it killed quickly and cruelly.
Puppies....these precious beings often do not survive disease in a shelter
Melody supplied me with IV fluids and showed me how to inject them into the puppy. I isolated her in a bathroom, put a heat lamp on her and for the next several days injected her with fluids. Melody patiently coached me through this dire, but necessary process. The poor puppy was so sick, her diarrhea laced with blood, her tiny body shivering. She did survive, my first parvo puppy, who we named Millie Millipede. The parvo stunted her growth, but she became a healthy adult dog who was adopted to a family with young children.
Melody and I would go on to save many more parvo puppies; some, however, we couldn’t save. There was the time when we took in too many puppies at once and parvo killed half of them. I will never forget hefting trash bags of these puppies’ corpses into the trunk on Melody’s old white Lincoln, and me driving them to Rolling Acres, who agreed to cremate them for a low cost. I still visualize face of one dead puppy, a German Shepherd mix who had the grizzled black muzzle of the breed.
In dog rescue, there is always heartbreak. You cannot save every dog and cat. You try and try, and they still die. They are always dying in high-kill shelters. As long as people do not spay and neuter and as long as they move and leave behind their pets, Melody will continue to exist, taking responsibility for animals who, due to human disregard and neglect, are thoughtlessly abandoned. How many dogs and cats has she taken and rehomed? I would guess thousands and thousands. No kidding. I’ve seen her work and her capacity for saving animals makes a huge difference to those forgotten pets fortunate to find her.
The Blog Dog
