ResQPaws to the rescue in Sutter County

She doesn't recognize her new name yet, but Scarlett, a small black pitbull mix, seems to know her luck is changing for the better.

On Friday, the dog found tied to a gate outside the Sutter County Animal Shelter nearly three weeks ago was allowed to tour a cat room at the facility. She twitched nary a whisker at the sight and smell of felines.

"That's a good sign," said Liz Fredieu, the woman on the other end of the leash. Fredieu singled out both Scarlett and her kennel-mate, Chima, for time in the spotlight, courtesy of a local animal rescue group called ResQPaws.

In the seven months of its existence, the local, all-volunteer group has placed more than 130 abandoned and stray animals into adoptive homes.

Nearly all were dogs rescued from the long-troubled and overcrowded shelter in Yuba City. More than a few have gone to homes far beyond the Mid-Valley.

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Responses to social networking efforts by ResQPaws volunteers have resulted in adoptions to families in Alaska, Missouri, Col orado, Utah, Arizona, and Southern California. Five dogs from the shelter recently were transported, via ResQPaws connections, to homes in Canada.

The group includes 15 volunteers who provide foster care for animals that are at risk of being euthanized.

Twice a week, the grisly task of administering lethal injection to cats and dogs falls to members of the shelter staff — an unfortunate necessity resulting from a steady influx of abandoned, stray, confiscated or surrendered animals to the badly overcrowded shelter.

The shelter has no volunteer program, a fact that leaves most basic animal care tasks to jail inmates, and no resources to devote to animal placement and adoption efforts.

But in recent months, Fredieu, and a few of the 35 other ResQPaws volunteers, have developed a notable presence at the facility. They spend several hours each week socializing, exercising and assessing adoptability traits of the resident animals.

And on Fridays, ResQPaws volunteers, headed by Fredieu, make their selections for a weekly Saturday adoption fair at V.I.P. Pets in Marysville.

The group's impact has been undeniable, said Randy Cagle, interim director of Sutter County community services.

"They've made a huge difference. Look around. These kennels are not nearly as full as they used to be," he said.

Brick and Luna's excellent adventure

During ResQPaws first V.I.P. Pets adoption fair — an event that coincided with the Marysville Peach Festival on D Street — the fledgling group successfully adopted out all six dogs selected from the animal shelter.

Volunteer and foster home numbers have since grown, and so has ResQPaws' presence on Facebook.

But in the heat of the summer, with their few local foster families already over-stocked with homeless animals, and puppy and kitten season still in full force, the tiny group took on two hard-to-place animals that appeared to be headed for destruction.

Their efforts to rescue Brick, an 85-pound stray brindle pitbull mix from Yuba City, and Luna, a mixed-breed dog with a genetic nerve disease, represented the first of several multi-agency, intra-state rescue missions the group has successfully commandeered.

Masticatory muscle myositis had left Luna, whose breed could not be determined, badly deformed and barely able to open her jaw.

She had been bred repeatedly.

"But when she got sick, she wasn't good for breeding anymore. So they (the dog's owner) dumped her," according to Fredieu. "She was the ugliest dog you've ever seen in your life, and she scared people. She was covered in feces and urine and she was in heat and covered in fleas."

But once outside her animal shelter kennel, the dog showed spirit, and a great deal of affection. Fredieu and Kristi Taylor-Rymer, a fellow ResQPaws organizer, decided to take on Luna's case.

"We fell in love with her," Fredieu said.

They contacted other animal rescue groups, looking for someone with the patience and property to handle Brick, and the resources and know-how necessary to care for Luna.

Among their contacts was Rachel Kovac, a pawn broker in St. Joseph, Mo., with a soft spot for animals in need.

Through her own group, Unleashed Pet Rescue, Kovac, 29, located a foster family willing to take Brick. A group called Peanut's Place Bully Rescue in Colorado Springs, Colo., committed to working with Luna.

With urgent pleas and photos of the dog circulating via Facebook and Yahoo Meetup groups nationwide, and numerous contacts with rescue groups in the Midwest and mountain states, Kovac, 29, helped Fredieu and Taylor-Rymer to arrange transportation.

Fredieu started by driving the dogs to Soda Springs.

From there, a volunteer from another rescue group picked up Brick and Luna and transported them to another destination where another driver was waiting, and so on. A couple of overnight stops had been scheduled, courtesy of animal rescue groups along the route.

In Colorado Springs, a group called Pilots N Paws was scheduled to make the final long leg of the trip to Missouri with Brick. But weather interfered, and the chain of drivers slowed. Brick arrived too late to catch his flight, so Kovac located more drivers.

"It was a huge strip, 31-volunteers long," Kovac said of the whole enterprise. "It was crazy."

Brick's foster mom decided to adopt him. Luna is being nurtured and given expensive medical treatment through his foster mom, according to Fredieu. Eventually, she is expected to find a permanent, adoptive home.

The long process

Cagle and Sutter County Animal Control Supervisor Cheryl Bohannan recently proposed a detailed plan to implement a volunteer program at the animal shelter.

Ground has not yet been broken for a new shelter that has been in political limbo for more than six years. The plan will have construction completed in roughly two years.

But Cagle and Bohannan believe improvements made at the existing facility in the wake of grand jury criticism in April create a window of opportunity.

"We need to get things started as soon as possible, so everything will be in place when it (the new shelter) opens," Cagle said.

Between April and August, hundreds of litters of puppies and kittens are born each year in Yuba-Sutter, and like shelters everywhere, the one on Second Street will be inundated with pregnant female animals and squirming, vulnerable offspring.

"People have a backwoods way around here when it comes to animals," said Fredieu, after struggling to find a more politically correct way to speak her mind.

Too few area residents are willing to pay to have their animals spayed or neutered, she said. And too many deliberately breed their pets.

ResQPaws, which, until recently focused on finding adoptive homes for dogs, is making a push now to find homes for cats as well.

Cagle said euthanasia rates for cats at the shelter are unacceptably high, in spite of a new vaccination program that improves health prospects for nearly all animals housed there. The shelter has also expanded and improved its cat facilities, and now receives donations from local animal enthusiasts who want to encourage the spaying, neutering, and adoption of more cats.

Local feral cat populations, a product of free breeding by domesticated cats, Fredieu said, are a particular problem for the shelter, and for animals left to fend for themselves outdoors.

"Nobody wants to spay or neuter their cats. Nobody wants to spend the money," she said. "It sucks."

Shortly after Fredieu left the shelter Friday, photos of dogs and cats selected by ResQPaws began to circulate on Facebook, along with details about each animals appearance and behavior.

Fredieu said she has to believe that each will eventually find a good, stable, loving home.

"How can anyone say no to that?" she said, snapping a photo of one more hopeful face.

CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4781. Find her on Facebook at /ADnpasternack or on Twitter at @ADnpasternack.