WE LEFT ONE BEHIND

Then we learned he was scheduled to die.

We’re an emoji-light rescue, but 🆘🛑 🆘🛑 🆘🛑 🆘🛑 🆘🛑 seems fair.

Imagine this: you’ve just completed a grueling rescue of 25 dogs from a wildfire-wracked region. You’re wrecked. Physically. Emotionally. But you know your team and your community did this *extraordinary* thing and you’re starting your post-pull emotional convalescing (if you’re Bethany*) or your grueling two-day drive with 25 dogs in tow from California to Oklahoma (if you’re Jenni and Mike).

And then you get the message from a SoCal networker: There’s a husky at SEAACA. And he’s showing as deadlined for tomorrow. Do you have him?

Houston … er, make that Los Angeles … we have a problem.

We’d told the shelter we wanted to tag out all the huskies. We literally walked the halls (y’all saw us, we were live) and made sure every husky we could find was either with us or unavailable. And yet a dog slipped through the cracks - one in a restricted area, with a stated bite history…and unbeknownst to us, the most urgent of all. In short order, we heard from networkers that his deadline was within 24 hours.

All of a sudden, the only life we could see was not one of the *25* we had saved from SoCal, but the one we missed.

The one now facing sudden and certain death by mid-afternoon the next day.

Jenni and Mike were already hours away and with 25 dogs in tow, could not simply turn around and go back. It was impossible to save him.

Problem is, we’re not much for “impossible.”

Cue the problem-solving with the team late into the night, with several of us up past midnight PT (2 AM H3 time) troubleshooting this. A plan was hatched:

Melissa would leave first thing in the morning, drive to meet Jenni and Mike, and take over Jenni’s huskies and complete the transport with Mike.

Jenni would turn around and head straight back to California, if only SEAACA would agree to keep him alive long enough to get there.

Our rockstar team would rally and cover Melissa’s absence at the rescue, putting in all the extra hours needed.

Bethany would email SEAACA, explain the situation, and plead for more time to get there. And then make this post on social media.*

The outcome:

…we just heard from SEAACA that they will agree to hold the compellingly named 25-06046 until Saturday morning first thing. And that if Chip is available, they’ll prep her to leave at the same time. We so much appreciate their flexibility and understanding of our logistics as an out-of-state rescue doing everything we can to keep these California dogs alive.

Welcome to Wildfire Rescue Ride: The Encore.

Wanna join? Let’s go meet this kid Saturday morning. ‘Cause there’s nothing we at H3 love more than a bonus husky.

Bethany

*I think we can all agree on who the real MVP is here.