St. Francis Farm Outreach Program
Winter Storm Helena
The weekend of January 6th, 2017 brought Winter Storm Helena to the southeast and with it some of the coldest temperatures in recent history. St. Francis Farm residents were all set with plenty of food, a warm place to sleep and could just wait out the storm. While so many other dogs in the Carlisle area, however, were not so lucky. Carlisle is a very rural, poor area where the majority of dog owners make their dogs live outside on a chain tied to a tree or concrete without a warm place to sleep or even a dog house. While many residents do love their animals, they struggle to feed themselves, much less are capable of properly feeding and providing for their furry companions.Staff at St. Francis Farm and volunteers visiting from our northern parent organization, Last Chance Animal Rescue, quickly came up with a plan to help our community as much as possible. They went to the local tractor supply and purchased hundreds of pounds of dog food, straw, and dog houses to deliver throughout the community. Most of the people they delivered items to were almost as happy for the help as their animals.
Unfortunately, we came across many sad cases during this weekend. Including a mother dog who had very recently given birth to five puppies. Two of them had frozen to death before we were able to get to them. Another of these tiny puppies was so close to death, we almost thought that she was lost to us. But this strong little girl started moving and our staff quickly asked the owners if we could bring her back to the farm to get her warm and healthy. Luckily the owners agreed and our farm manager, Amy, can be seen bottle feeding this little nugget above. Once we were sure she was going to be okay, staff went back to the puppies' owners and convinced them to let the mother and other puppies come home with us.
Most of the people we came across gladly took the help we offered them and we left knowing those animals were much better off than before we came. Others we just couldn't leave behind and many of the owners knew they weren't doing right by their pets. We finished the weekend by taking in a total of 13 dogs that weekend. That is 13 more dogs to add to the almost 100 we already have here at the farm. So things have been a little tight since that weekend. There were a few dogs that we were able to get into foster care or get adopted pretty quickly!
We are so happy we were able to help so many animals and appreciate all of our supporters that help us with this important outreach project! Now we need your help again with the continued care of the remaining amazing dogs still here at St. Francis. You can donate HERE to help St. Francis Farm continue to care for all of these wonderful fur babies and hopefully soon we can find them all the perfect forever home!
Thank you for your continued support in our life-saving mission!
