Buckhead reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 2007-current, February 02, 2020, Image 10

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Buckhead reporter., February 02, 2020, Image 10

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Newspaper Page Text10 | Commentary Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News ty/orfk ICnAwCnj Carol Niemi is a marketing consultant who lives on the Dunwoody-Sandy Springs line and writes about people whose lives inspire others. Contact her at worthknowingnow@gmail.com. The ‘Angels’ who save pets from high-kill shelters An urgent pet post on a local social net working site stood out from the constant stream of other urgent pet postings. It was a photo of a little brown terrier and her eight newborn puppies huddled in a cor ner at a high-kill shelter - soon to be “red- lined” if no one adopted them. What caught my attention were her soulful eyes. But with her puppies too young to be separated, all nine of them would have to be adopted together or face certain death. The photographer and author of the re cent post was Sandy Springs resident Lisa Zambacca, a founder and board member of Angels Among Us Pet Rescue, which focus es on high-kill shelters throughout Georgia. Angels Among Us saves the most vulner able and least adoptable - often the elderly or injured. Lacking a shelter of its own, the group relies on its approved fosters who take rescues into their own homes. Angels can’t remove a pet from a shelter without a ready foster. Since its founding in 2009, the group has saved more than 16,000 lives and keeps them in private homes until they are adopted. “For every foster who steps up, we save a life,” said Zambacca, who acknowledg es that many high-kill shel ters are overcrowded, under staffed and underfunded, but run by decent people who no tify Angels when an animal’s time is up. With adoption unlike ly for the little mom and her pups, Zambacca also post ed the photo on the Angels Among Us website and Face- book page, hoping to find a foster. Several days later, she posted that an Angels fos ter had come forward to save them. Who would take a stray with eight un-house- broken puppies into their home? And how do you take a dog into your home, care for it, train it, love it, bond with it and then let it go? I called Zambacca and A terrier now known as Little Missy with her puppies at a shelter where they faced euthanasia before Angels Among Us took them in. '^tConta. ’ VOLUNTEERS DIG JH THE CURT RHO INTO HISTORY CLAYTIME j» ISTTE senior Life FOURCOUPLES SHARE THEIR STORV ^ uStnior Life^ Read our monthly S§H publication for active seniors! Pick up a copy around town or read online at atlantaseniorlife.com Senior Lire learned that quite a few other kind souls are willing to do it. I ended up connecting with sev eral of them, including Karen Marques, the fos ter who had rescued the little brown dog and her pups. She too had no ticed the soulful eyes. “Angels couldn’t take her till a foster stepped forward. That’s when I volunteered,” she said. “There was something about her eyes. They were very soulful and spoke to me.” No one knows how Little Missy, as she’s now called, ended up in a high-kill shelter. But she was probably some one’s pet. “She’s very sweet and smart,” said Marques. “She knows com mands, opens doors and gates and moves chairs.” Every foster I spoke with, including Marques, had other pets in the home. Most had become fosters after adopting a res cue of their own. All were committed to the cause. All had stories that could break the hardest heart. Retired teacher Sally Angevine says her favorite rescue was Emersen, a “little poodle-y mix” who was deaf, old and partially paralyzed. She fostered him for nine months until his death from cancer. “He was such a good boy,” she said. Another elderly dog she fostered was adopted by an elderly couple, who “traveled the world” with him. “He only lived an other year,” she said, “but I bet it was the best year of his life.” Angevine has fostered 62 rescues for Angels Among Us, mostly elderly or dis abled. All but two who passed away from illness were adopted - including the one she adopted. But saying goodbye is bitter sweet. “They take a little piece of your heart with them,” she said, “but a wise person Little Missy in her new home. told me I’m the bridge from their past to their future.” Jill Feibus is an Angels foster who pre fers puppies, especially since she and her husband work from home and have the time and patience. She’s fostering one of Little Missy's remaining puppies. Like Angevine, she’s also had memo rable rescues, includ ing a little chihuahua mix with severe anx iety. “She barked ev ery time my husband or boys entered the room, but eventual ly got used to us,” she said. After 14 months, the right family came along. “Now she’s wear ing sweaters and go ing on outings to Home Depot,” she said. But fairytale end ings don’t happen overnight. At press time, five of Little Missy’s puppies have been adopted. Three are still with fosters awaiting their forever homes, as is Little Missy, who has been spayed and is also awaiting surgery on a tom ligament, for which Angels is covering the cost. For information on Little Missy or her remaining puppies, please email info@an- gelsresue.org or go to angelsrescue.org/ adopt. SPECIAL Lisa Zambacca, founder of Angels Among Us Pet Rescue.