Peace4Paws: Orvis Dog Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Health and wellness of a 4-year-old pit bull named Bing (aka Belle).
This helped pay for food and medical for Bing, who had been suffering from heartworm.
How many pets did this grant help?
One: Bing
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Thank you so much for your help! Bing (a.k.a. Belle) was abandoned at a very rough shelter in Florida, where she lived for 10 months. Because she is a 4-year-old pit bull and had been severely overbred, she was always overlooked by adopters. The shelter staff recognized her inner beauty and found ways to keep her alive, including some good social-media work. That is how this New Jersey-based foster group discovered Bing. In the middle of the night, I saw her picture and description under “Urgent” and vowed that our rescue group would indeed help her.
Bing was very affectionate and friendly with all the dogs she was kenneled with. For 10 months, each time her kennelmate was adopted, she was left behind in the cold kennel alone — until Peace4Paws came along.
We filled out applications, we worked on transport. Step one: Our volunteer drove six hours each way in one day to remove her from the shelter during what was possibly the last week of her life. While they drove together in his truck, Bing had her head in his lap. Later that night, she slept in the same bed with him. They became attached to each other so quickly.
Bing is so affectionate and so eager to love people and other dogs, but because of her breed, her age, her heartworm, and the extremely large hanging teats, she did not stand a chance of getting adopted. We are so happy that not only did our volunteer go out of his way to take her into foster, he later adopted her. Originally he was supposed to foster until we brought her up to N.J. for the foster-adoption family. This family waited a long time for Bing to come to them while we worked on transport.
Step two was confirming private transport from Florida. We applied to Kindred Hearts Transport and the application took weeks. Once the transport from Florida was confirmed, Bing’s daddy could not part with her! Bing now lives in a very comfortable home in Western Florida with four other dogs and that same forever daddy who saved her from the shelter kennel. Bing still sleeps in the bed with her forever daddy, but she has a bed of her own on the floor as well. She enjoys her house and backyard with her siblings. She never fights; she just loves. There is another female pit bull in the house, and they get along great. They defy the negative stereotype about pit bulls. Her heartworm is being managed by medicine and she is getting stronger every day.
Fortunately we had the generous support of the Orvis grant to secure Bing’s transition from a scared, lonely, sick dog to a happy, healthy dog. We are so appreciative of your grant and support!
