Blackdogs Rescue: Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The money was used to reduce the adoption fee for the dogs in our care.

This grant allowed us to reach some people that ordinarily not be able to adopt. Some of our adopters come from rural backgrounds, and the adoption fee to cover our costs can be more than someone can pay up-front.

How many pets did this grant help?

We used the funds to help 12 dogs get to their new homes and families.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

We had some hard-to-adopt dogs who were overlooked and not getting adopted. One particular one was Roland. He could go from sweet to fear-biting in one second. He tried, unsuccessfully, to bite our executive rescue organizer — she is quick. We had taken him to several adoption events, but he would do well up to a point, and then he would go into his fear mode. One particular event, we did adopt him, and he went home with the adopters with no problems. That night, however, he became fearful, hoarded all his toys and food and would not let anyone near him. We had to turn around and get him. That trip was from Lexington to Maryland and Maryland to Lexington. We tried unsuccessfully to get him into the right home; then a woman saw his story on Petfinder and fell in love with him. We reduced his adoption fee and met her at a local PetSmart. She owned a horse farm and thought he would make a great sidekick for her barn horses. We doubted this highly, but gave it a try. He was absolutely perfect with her — no fear-biting, and now he has a job: just what he needed the whole time. To say that Roland hit the jackpot is an understatement.

We received this note from his new adopter: “To say Roland is doing marvelous would be a giant understatement! He is a remarkable little fellow! My husband, Jay, and I are thoroughly enjoying him! He seems to be taking in stride the many adjustments to absolutely everything in his life changing as of about noontime last Friday. While we have a peaceful household, our lives are hectic. If we are ‘going and doing,’ he is ‘going and doing’ likewise. Yesterday afternoon he had a check-up with our veterinarian; was a bit frightened at first, but eventually just sat on the exam table munching treats while wagging his tail. Then we headed straight to the Dairy Queen. He seems to have a newly discovered love for their little ‘puppy cup’ of ice cream. He has been going to the barns with us, gets along wonderfully with our 15-year-old male border collie, and is quickly establishing a queue to let us know when he needs to go outdoors to tend to his business. We continue to have sporadically cool (borderline cold) temperatures here, so he is sporting a handsome new sweater for such occasions. He is so happy when Jay and I are both in the house in the evenings, he can barely contain himself; he enthusiastically wants to be petted which, of course, we enjoy. Then, everybody settles down a while prior to bedtime; he takes a nap on his little bed while Jay is on the computer and I catch up on some reading. He is an amazingly joyful little boy! A majority of the time, ‘the tail wags the dog,’ which is fun to see.

“Many new things remain to which he will be exposed and experience during the coming days, weeks and months. Thus far, he is seemingly an extraordinarily happy little dog who behaves as though he is thrilled with his new living environment. His new ‘parents’ already love him!”