PHIL IN THE BLANK: Hope for animals

I was a bit star struck last Wednesday when Erica McCarthy and Gretchen Terpening of the Canine Companions Rescue Center stopped by the office last Wednesday, along with Rumble the dog in his little red coat (due to his injuries, he can’t regulate his body temperature properly).
The puppy’s rescue from abuse and neglect struck a chord with the community, making him a celebrity of sorts.
The rescue group’s Facebook postings about Rumble gets hundred of likes, shares, and comments.
My bank teller pulled me aside last Friday as I was depositing my check. She saw photos posted by CCRC on Facebook about Rumble’s visit to the Clarkston News office, and wanted to know how the pup was doing.
Rumble is just one of many animals the center is helping. They have more than 60 right now, they said. He is just one out of all the suffering creatures big and small all over the world.
But he’s a face people can focus on when trying to fix a larger issue. A cute, furry, brown-and-white face of a very good boy, with deep soulful eyes and a shy smile.
Kudos to everyone helping out in the case so far.
Animals are so helpless and innocent, and the authorities focus on abuse cases involving children and other humans, as they probably should, so private citizens are often animals’ only hope.
For me most recently, that involved a skinny black-and-white cat hanging around my garage a couple years ago.
I was reluctant to take in strays to protect my two housecats from diseases wayward animals could be carrying. I lost a cat that way when I was in college.
But the little B&W feline kept coming around, and I eventually started feeding her, thereby making her an ex-stray cat, I was told. I took her to the vet for a health check, and finding it clean, took her into my home. My cat Emma was fine with it, but Lizzie refused to accept another cat in the house, even though she was a shelter rescue herself.
I found someone to give the stray a home, though, so now she has a house and human of her own. Her name is Moomoo, due to her markings. She’s also not that skinny anymore.

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