Sprung from Puppy Alcatraz

I have been watching the posts from URGENT 2, a volunteer group on Facebook. They highlight the daily kill list for New York Animal Care & Control. ACC will kill beautiful, healthy, adoptable, lovable dogs like this pretty girl every day, starting at 6am, thousands of them every year. They make almost no effort to reunite lost dogs with their owners other than posting the pictures online. They make even less effort to find homes for the ones that are owner surrender and give them even less time to do it, and the woman who runs the show earns a six-figure salary.

As futile as it seems, efforts are being made daily by this volunteer group to save some of these dogs. There are more volunteers who go to the shelter and walk these beauties, then follow up with a short description of their behavior while walking and their personality. It was the write-up for this blue-eyed girl that got me. She walks beautifully on leash, was polite to other dogs they met on the walk, sits on command and takes treats gently. AND she give kisses. THIS is a good dog. THIS is not a dog that should be put to sleep.

I had heard that it was nearly impossible to break a dog out of Manhattan Alcatraz. One rescue friend who lives in NY tried to adopt a cat, and they Google mapped her house and said it was too small for another pet, then they killed the cat. But I figured, what the heck, who needs sleep. So I started reaching out to some of the local rescues in NY who are permitted to pull there. (Not anyone can pull - they have to approve your rescue.) Finally, after providing multiple references and applications, one of the rescues agreed to have her temperament tested, and then they pulled her. After that it was relatively simple, and I drove to Manhattan with my daughter and we picked her up and took her to her new foster home.
She has been officially adopted by my very first adopter from twelve years ago in Massachusetts. She will be going to live with a lovely family and their first rescue dog, another beautiful blue pittie girl (named Blue) who is now 13 years old. She has to wait until she is not in heat so she can be spayed, but all her other vetting is done and she is ready to start her new life.