Voices From The ARC September 2013

Written by Penny Edwards

The Summer of 2013 has proven to be a season of extremes. It’s either been cooler than usual or very hot, with a heat index of 100° or more. Life revolving around the animals and ARC has been much the same over the past few months.
We lost our goat Clark back in Spring, so we wanted to add a couple of new friends to the other three goats at ARC. Boer goats were the breed we had found, and little did we know that the babies we had acquired were ravaged with parasites. Their poor little bodies couldn’t handle it, so we lost three of them. It was so sad that we couldn’t save them, but this breed of goat is really sensitive.

Mr. Crinkle gives us his biggest smile in this charming photo.

However, we do have two adult female Boer goats, Cagney and Lacey hanging in there! Cagney is playful and independent, and Lacey is a real love. Both girls need sponsors for $10 a month. If you’re interested, please fill out a coupon on page 3.
We recently took in a pot belly pig named Zoey from Larue County. She’s very curious about the goats and would like to make friends with them. You can see her photo on page 10 – this cutie is going to be a real sweetie!
Hardin County suffered a big loss on July 25th when Monica Wilcox passed. Monica and her husband John started Woodland Wildlife more than 20 years ago, where wildlife was cared for, rehabilitated and released if possible. Monica was a gifted person with the animals: she had a special touch. Without Monica, Woodland Wildlife was forced to close its doors, and most of the animals had to be placed. ARC took in six geese from Woodland, and two dogs, one of which is already adopted, while the other one, an older poodle with many problems awaits a home. Read about Sweetie on page 4.

The summer has also taken a surprising twist. In the last newsletter, we featured Bailey, the 10 year old Yellow Lab, and Dudley the 12 year old Chow mix. We haven’t done many adoptions over this summer, but we were able to send each of these Seniors to their forever home. To place two dogs more than 10 years old in the same week is nothing short of a miracle. Take a moment to read Dudley’s story in Happy Tails and it will melt your heart.
Back in the Spring we took in this kitty Lori from Elizabethtown. If you could see her Before and After photos, she wasn’t treated well. Skinny and eaten alive by fleas, she needed a lot of care. A very good Samaritan saw her get shoved away by her owners when she ran to them with excitement. Lori was caught, vetted and brought to us, and now she suffers what seems to be a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Lori still shows some aggression, but it’s mostly her frustration with the world. She’s like an abused child that has never known kindness, so she lashes out at us sometimes. We’re still working with her. When you look directly into Lori’s eyes, there is a sadness that comes with her past—but stare a little deeper, and there’s a bright light that shines on her future.
It’s been a tough summer for feline adoptions as well, and we’ve had more kittens dropped this year than in the last several years combined. Still, we were able to ….