Emergency events are always tough for evacuation centers, especially when intakes are high and happen over short period of time. As noted in a previous article, Rescue Ranch took in 159 McKinney Fire dogs in less than three days last week! The current total stands at 169, although many have now gone home.
Caring for a large number of dogs requires organization, people, and supplies. In this case, we were dealing with roughly four times our regular complement. Although we transferred 17 Ranch dogs to the Sanctuary to make space at the Adoption Center, they still needed looking after.
All dogs are fed twice daily, watered regularly, and their enclosures are kept clean. Currently, with the hot weather, they also need help staying cool with shade cloth, pools, and water. One evacuee border collie couldn’t get enough of the spray from a water hose and kept trying to catch it. It was very cute.
Thank goodness, help came quickly, in the form of volunteers and in-kind donations, as well as off- and online monetary gifts. We even exceeded our online fundrasing goal of $20,000! We really couldn’t have managed without our community.
A big thank you to all Rescue Ranch supporters
That’s why we’re dedicating this week’s post to our supporters who, once again, helped Rescue Ranch help dogs in need. We did our best, but, given the circumstances, it was diffcult to fully document every instance. Please know that, whether you appear here or not, we deeply appreciate you.
Early in the crisis, we put out a call for assistance with fixing the generator unit that supplied the AC on our animal transport vehicle. In that heat, we couldn’t do without it. Nick Krizman kindly responded, but the parts he required weren’t immediately available. So, he came up with a creative, temporary solution: another generator on the roof! He got us the AC we needed.
So many wonderful friends traveled from points near and far to bring us food, supplies, or donations. Among them: John Burtson from Sonoma County, Steven Farrington of Grange Co-op in Medford, Vern Lawrence of Cowboy 911, Janet and Rex Gesberg of Evelyn’s Angels in Redding, Kelly Bumpus of Petco in Klamath Falls, MRJ Welding and Fabrication, Brian Christensen of CA III %, Brent Kell of Valley Immediate Care, and David Step of Rogue Camera Guys.
Jenn Rogge and members of the YESS Crew brought supplies from Etna and volunteered for several days. Among the local residents who gave, Gary donated 21 fifty-two-pound bags of dog food. And there were others. In total, Rescue Ranch received much needed supplies and about 6000 pounds of dog food! We even got a visit from Sacramento police officers who came up to help first responders.
We’d also like to acknowledge a generous gift from The Arthur R. Dubs Foundation, a long time friend of Rescue Ranch. We’re very grateful for its continued support.
I’ve said it before: our motto is “We do it for the dogs,” and we do it best when we do it together!
