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Animal Rescue Group Needs Volunteers

Evie Morera

Candy, a German shepherd rescued from death row at a Miami shelter, is staying at a foster home in the area as part of Heidi's Legacy rescue group. Her pups have since been weaned and adopted, but Candy is still looking for a home.

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: July 29, 2008

Updated:

TRINITY -- Happy tails to you.

Pet rescue group Heidi's Legacy has recruited some area volunteers to give rescued dogs temporary foster homes. They hope to sign up more people to help with what the group calls their "fur babies."

Courtney McCoy, an attorney who is a Trinity Rotary Club, has been caring for Candy, a young, medium-sized female German shepherd, for the past week and a half.

"It's been very rewarding to think that I'm helping a dog that was rescued from a kill shelter in Miami with her 6 pups, get trained and experience a loving, stable environment," McCoy said. Candy's pups have long since been weaned and adopted, so now she is "footloose and puppy-free."

Evie Morera of Palm Harbor has been helping out for more than a year now. "I, along with my children Kaitlyn and Daniel have saved a total of 19 dogs just this year alone, and you can not replace that feeling for anything in this world," she said.

Volunteers can call Morera at 727-785-5076. In addition, information is available online at www.heidislegacydogrescue.com>.

The nonprofit Heidi's Legacy is based in the southern Hillsborough County community Lithia, but rescues homeless pets and animals in kill shelters all over Florida and places them with foster families, McCoy explains. Most of the pets windup here on the Suncoast, with a lot of them going to the founder's farm in Lithia.

Although Candy is from Miami, the program helps a lot of homeless animals in this area as well, McCoy emphasized.

"Just imagine as the foreclosures continue and increase how many animals will be homeless here in Pasco where the foreclosure rates are pretty high," McCoy observed.

McCoy laments that "most people aren't aware of this organization and the wonderful work that they do."

Heidi's Legacy is set up a bit differently, Morera elaborated.

"The great thing about fostering is that when adoption applications come in for the dog that you are fostering, you get first pick if you want to keep that dog or let it go to a new forever family for adoption. You also (if needed) get to choose the size and type of dog you want to foster.

"The most wonderful feeling is knowing that you are saving a life, then providing an approved family for this dog, and once again having room in your home for another life to save."

The statistics posted on the Heidi's Legacy Web site are both startling and staggering.

A counter on the home page tracks the number of dogs euthanized minute by minute - more than 23 million since October 2001. That is one pet life lost every 6.5 seconds.

U.S. taxpayers pay an estimated $2 billion each year to round up, house, kill and dispose of homeless animals. For every child born, so are 15 dogs and 45 cats.

"Lassie and Cleo and Rin Tin Tin and Toto don't show up in rescue," a note reads in part on the Heidi's Legacy site. "We don't get the elegantly coiffed, classically beautiful, completely trained, perfectly behaved dog. We get the leftovers. Most rescued dogs have had it. They've never had proper veterinary care, kind and consistent training, or sufficient company. They've lived outside, in a crate, or in the basement. They're scared, depressed and anxious. Some are angry. Some are sick. Some have given up. We never give up on a dog. We know that a dog is a living being, with a spirit and a heart and feelings. Our dogs are not commodities, things, or garbage."

The leaders of the rescue group promise that a "rescue dog will make you a better person."

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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