If you’re anything like me, when you read about the dogs Suncoast Animal League rescued in February, you cried.
Five dogs, so badly matted you couldn’t tell they were dogs, really. More like dustmops left abandoned in a bargain-store closet.
Rick Chaboudy, in his own heart-wrenching way, described what it was like to handle these poor, neglected creatures, and our hearts broke. These dogs — Lhasas, all of them — were found in a state you wouldn’t wish on a cockroach. They all had medical issues, but Suncoast Animal League volunteers wouldn’t learn this until after they’d been able to get the dogs groomed enough to be examined, because they were so overgrown their coats and nails needed tending to before they could address anything else.
It took Island Dog Outfitters eight hours — in the dead of night, because no one at Suncoast Animal League wanted these pups to wait another day — to groom the five dogs.
In Sissy’s case, once they trimmed away the more-than-significant mats in her coat, they found 4-inch-long toenails.
One by one, they groomed the Fab Five (as they came to be known), got them all vet visits, medications and surgeries (spaying an neutering, dentals and teeth removal, and tumor removals). They helped these dogs leave their nightmarish life behind them and start news ones with furr-ever families.
While traumatic for the dogs, this is not an unusual case for Suncoast Animal League by any stretch of the imagination. This is what they do. And what they do is expensive. They don’t cry poor, but they do ask people to donate, and they’re not shy about telling people how much a dog’s vet bill costs (for the Fab Five, vet bills totaled $8,700). At their recent annual fundraiser, Bowlin’ with Buster and Chester, co-founder Chaboudy said vet bills for Suncoast Animal League average $20,000 — per month.
Clearly, every little bit helps. So, here’s how you help Suncoast continue their mission. Wahl’s Dirty Dog Contest — through greatergood.org — will donate money to the three shelters that get the most votes between now and Aug. 21. The first-place shelter receives $5,000; second, $2,000; and third, $1,000.
Suncoast Animal League’s entry tells Sissy’s story, and they’re hoping it earns them first place. You can vote once every 24 hours through Aug. 21.
The $5,000 will help so many animals that otherwise would get killed or left to die.
This article appears in Aug 3-10, 2017.
