On July 29, 2005, having been out of town, I had not opened my email in several days.  When I did, I was inundated with requests to help Kimmi. Kimmi was an older Catahoula Leopard dog that had been dumped in a shelter in northwest Florida. Making the six-hour round trip, we got Kimmi home. She was in horrible shape. She had multiple tumors and severe anemia due to flea and tick infestation. Taking her immediately to the vet, we found she had osteosarcoma, bone cancer, that had metastasized to her lungs and spleen. She was given about two weeks to live.
    I made the decision to treat her as a hospice type case and simply give her all the needed medication, love and comfort I could. It was plain to see very early on, this poor dog had never known human love. She would not even look up at me. I let everyone in our rescue organization know that Kimmi was safe but I did not think her name fit her. I asked for assistance from everyone to come up with a new name. My dear rescue friend in Montana, Janeen Jackson came up with “Hope” and it was perfect.
    Hope surpassed her two-week life expectancy and surprised us all by making it to a month.  At the end of month two, Hope finally looked up at me. I had my first miracle, her trust.  Hope became my constant companion moving ever so slowly to wherever it was that I went. She has inspired a great many people including myself. In her honor I wrote a song entitled “A Song For Hope”; in addition, she inspired Book V of the series, “Adventures in the Kingdom of Mim: Hope: An Inspiration To All.” Hope is currently our poster “dog” representing Catahoula Rescue, Inc.
    On December 8, 2006-one year, five months and eight days later, I smiled through my tears as I laid my dear old friend to rest. Hope has taught me more about the power of love and life than any human ever could….


Carolina’s Real Story

    In Book IV of Adventures in the Kingdom of Mim: Carolina’s Story, we just touch on her life’s story. The truth is, she probably should not even be here. In July 2004, at the age of seven weeks, Carolina was one of ten puppies who, along with their mother, Princess, came to me at Catahoula Rescue Florida. They were in the Miami/Dade Animal Control system and I had fifteen minutes to make a decision as to whether I could take them all or not. If I did not, they would be put to sleep-all of them.  With the ever on-blinking neon S symbol for ‘sucker’ on my forehead, I said yes. Oh my, I had no clue as to what would come.
    In one day’s time, a transport was organized and I met my leg of it in Cocoa Florida at a hotel near the interstate. I got them all home and I looked closely at them for the first time. They were all bloated with worms, covered with fleas and worst of all, almost every one of them had ringworm, a highly contagious (yes, even to humans) skin virus. Off to the vet we go. Dr. Burger of the Melbourne Animal Hospital diagnosed them and gave me a bottle of sulfa to bathe them in. Out came the gloves, long-sleeved shirts and pants and clothes pins for our noses for the smell. One by one we dipped little puppy butts in the sulfa bath turning them all bright yellow. There was one little girl that was almost all white that was much smaller than the rest of her littermates.  I especially noticed her dilemma when it came to feeding time. The bigger, stronger dogs pushed little ‘Liney’ away from the food and she went without unless I intervened. Understand that at the time Princess and Co. came to me, I already had eleven other dogs to care for.
     I was looking for the nearest, tallest bridge to take a dive from after about a week. Why? After a week, the REAL problem became apparent. These puppies were sick. Not just ringworm sick, but kennel cough, pneumonia sick. An undiagnosed ailment had befallen these dogs and it was bad. It had already been labeled, unbeknownst to me at that time, The Miami Crud. Yes siree, although unnamed officially at that time, the CDC in Atlanta and the University of Florida already had the facts. I, however, did not. What was categorized in the very recent history of our animal world as the Canine Influenza, it hit me with the blast of a double barrel shotgun and I was in for it. I will not go into all of the horrors of all the puppies, but will use one of the worst-case scenarios, Carolina, and then you may multiply it by ten-literally.


    My first thought was of course kennel cough. It is almost a given in the animal world that shelters are notoriously ill with it. This gave way to my idea of pneumonia. It had all the telltale signs. Carolina was so ill, that I literally packed her into my car and took her EVERYWHERE I went. What? No dogs allowed? TOUGH! I had to keep pushing fluids, namely electrolytes on her or she would surely die. She could not even hold her head up. I hit my knees and I asked God to please spare her so that one day she could grow to be happy and healthy, maybe making a difference in this world. He listened. Although I ruined my septic system with the amount of bleached laundry I had to keep doing; although I was reduced to tears, temper tantrums and God bartering most of the time; although I know longer had any idea what true sleep was and looked like a black eye-ringed zombie and although I took the largest financial hit I had ever taken with vet bills, I won this one. They all pulled through. Very sadly, in the forth-coming months I had two Florida Rescue affiliates that did not win. They went through everything I went through only to hold lifeless little bodies in the end. Oh God, how we cried…..Carrie and Magi, from my heart, I love you.
Thus is the nature of Rescue. We do not always win, but by God we will all die trying!


Barbara McGillicuddy                                                      
Catahoula Rescue
State of Florida Regional Coordinator
Vice President Catahoula Rescue, Inc.

mailto:hoularescuefl@bellsouth.net
http://www.petfinder.org/shelters/FL257.html
http://www.catahoularescue.com/