Nancy climbed into the playpen with the 8-week-old puppies, rescued by North Shore Animal League America and handpicked by the staff. She was looking for a pup that approached her and wanted attention from her, first and foremost, even more than he or she wanted to play with the other puppies. On this day, she found four rescued pups that just might have what it takes to become service dogs.
Tessie and Jewel are puppy mill dogs who arrived on our Port Washington, N.Y. campus with one of our steadfast Mobile Rescue teams. The two Yorkies were tired and disheveled from a long journey. They snuggled together to face whatever the future held — at least they had each other. They surely seemed to be sisters-at-heart.
Gabriel was celebrating his birthday in May on the Brooklyn Barge when, in the blink of an eye, he made a decision to spring into action to save a life.
Kathy has a need to “nurture.” As a nurse, she’d worked in a pediatric office for many years and now she’s a technician with Northwell Health®, New York State’s largest health system. She knew she wanted to help medically needy dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens when she applied to be a volunteer at North Shore Animal League America in 2016.
David has been a volunteer at North Shore Animal League America for more than 14 years and hardly misses a week. David will do anything if it’ll help homeless dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens.
One school based in rural Spruce Pine, North Carolina and the other, an urban-based school nearly 700 miles away in Brooklyn, New York. In spite of very different life experiences, the students had a common goal – to save the lives of homeless animals.
“I love being a part of the Volun-TEEN program because it offers me the chance to work with animals and also meet new people my age! I’ve made many friends through the program. We work together to make sure we are getting the job done correctly.” - Samantha Rothstein, Volunteer since 2017.
“I owe Animal League America for all my wonderful cats through the years. I thought to myself that I wanted to be that person who helped someone like me.” - Kathryn St. Juste, Volunteer since 2011.
Maria Calcanes would love to volunteer at our Long Island Adoption Center. But she’s just a tad busy. First there are her three dogs, Suki, a 14-year-old Pomeranian; Butters, the Maltese, also 14; and Bruno, her 18-month-old Toy Poodle. And the cats: Mushroom and Big Boy, 6-year-old Tabbies; Toby, the 4-year-old Tuxedo; and Misty, who is 9 and has epilepsy. And the newest rescue is sweet Alice, who was probably dumped and is living upstairs while under observation. She might be pregnant. Not to mention the five felines who live on her porch, plus the four in backyard shelters, and the feral colonies she visits. All are spayed/neutered and up to date on medical care. So, yes, Maria would love to volunteer, but with more than 20 animals depending on her, well...you get the picture.
At first glance, the Tortie named Sabrina—from a South Carolina rescue—seemed like any other eight-month-old kitten. Then one of our veterinarians noticed she was having a difficult time breathing. He immediately thought it might be a lung issue and ordered an x-ray to investigate further.