Animal Rescue Stories

There are two main reasons why there is a need for animal shelters and officers. First, because an astonishing number of people are cruel to animals ignorantly or thoughtlessly. The second reason is because the animals do almost incredible things, getting into plights that no human would devise. One of their primary jobs is rescuing animals from curious predicaments. Here are seven rescue stories with happy endings.

The picture is Buster, my Lab Boxer mix dog.

A long time ago I worked for the Humane Society and I was a vet assistant, dog trainer, and dog groomer for quite a few years. These animal stories that were told by someone I know, happened in San Francisco many years ago. He ran an animal shelter there.

The intro picture is my Lab Boxer dog Buster that I rescued from a puppy mill almost ten years ago. Buster had parasites, was very very difficult to house train, and many other problems. Puppy mills where they just breed dogs in terrible dirty conditions to get as many puppies as possible need to be stopped!

Late one afternoon, a humane officer hopped into an animal ambulance to go to the aid of a cow. He was unprepared for what he found . In a small pasture was a large tree with forked trunks. The cow had climbed into the fork and become wedged. The officer arranged a sling under the cow but he didn’t know what to do next. So he called for the fire department. Darkness fell as a fire truck arrived, trailed by a procession of interested citizens. Another sling was put under the cow’s hindquarters and attached to the fire truck. The officer chopped down one trunk of the tree. The cow was lowered safely and freed of the slings. She chased the officer into his ambulance and put a dent in the fender, to the delight of the spectators.

One morning a lady raised her window shade and stared right into the eyes of a black monkey on the window sill. It grimaced and scratched the screen . She hastily slammed the window down and raced to her telephone. All morning the officers tried to catch the monkey while helpful neighbors shouted encouragement and advice. They used ripe bananas and honey but the monkey remained aloofly disinterested. They called a lady that used monkeys to put on shows for children. She leaned against the tree that the monkey was perched in and prepared bread and jam. It descended, crept trustfully into her arms, and reached for the goody. They restored the little fellow to its owner.

One morning a skunk was in a ludicrous fix. Its head was wedged into a tin can. As the small creature lashed its tail and charged aimlessly, scattering the spectators, the officer noticed that the skunk had no fear of humans. He picked up the ball of fur and removed the can. The skunk sighed gratefully, snuggled into his arms, and went to sleep. It was a deodorized house pet. When the owner came to claim it, they had three skunks. Twins were born a few hours after the mother's rescue.

One night an officer checked on a car that had been parked for two days. The officer opened the car door, turned on his flashlight, and stared into the gaping jaws and slitted eyes of two alligators. He slammed the door and backed up to think. His solution was direct and effective. He lassoed the alligators and one by one, walked them out of the car and into his animal ambulance. It turned out that a prankster had brought them from Florida and jokingly put them in a friend’s car. The friend, who was afraid to enter his car, was delighted to give them to the animal shelter. They were taken to an alligator paradise at the city aquarium.

In the field of animal rescues, cats outnumber all other animals by a wide margin. Thousands of cats are abandoned by people who think erroneously that cats become attached to places, not humans, and so just leave them to starve or go wild when they move away. But they also cause themselves distress sometimes. Cats do the darndest things! Animal officers rescue cats from chimneys and light wells. They get on the top of flag poles and steeples, in furnace pipes, under the hoods of cars, and in fresh concrete. They get in washing machines, television sets, and automatic dishwashers. They get their tails caught in doors, and other things.

During the five o’clock rush hour one afternoon the officers received an emergency call from the traffic squad. Across the waterway is a bridge that can be raised and lowered to permit ships to pass. The operator had raised the bridge, and while it was lifted a mother cat had somehow led her kittens into the pit and they couldn’t get out. The operator refused to lower the bridge. Hundreds of motorists were backed up on each side of the bridge. Six policemen lowered the humane officer into the pit where he lured the little family and got them out. The owner never appeared, but the entire cat family was adopted by one of the citizens who admired what happened.

One night a pedestrian was walking along a street in which a new sewer had just been built and covered over. He heard a faint meowing that came from underground. A cat was trapped in the sewer. There are manholes to use for rescuing animals from subterranean places, but they had not been installed yet. The only opening was the uncompleted end of the sewer. The officer borrowed a mechanic’s creeper from a garage and went inside the narrow black pipe and saved the cat.

There was a wealthy widow that had a pet Siamese cat. She took the cat for a walk on a leash several times a day. One afternoon he tore the leash from her hand and disappeared. After searching until dark, the woman called the animal officer. He located the cat in the wall of her mahogany paneled library. The cat had climbed inside the wall through a small opening in the basement and his leash or collar had gotten snagged on something. The woman ordered the officer to chop a hole in the wall. When he apologized for the mess he had made of the lovely room, the woman dismissed it and gave him a substantial contribution for the SPCA.