Miracles do happen. And sometimes, when someone cares enough, they just keep happening.
At least at the North Fork Animal Welfare League in Southold, where an internet plea not only made one dog, Chester, famous — and found him a forever home — but where similar Facebook appeals have meant new families for some of Chester’s four-legged friends.
This weekend, two dogs, McCoy and Zeus, were transported by NFAWL volunteers to meet and go home with their new moms, according to NFAWL manager Gabby Stroup, who’s been hailed as a miracle worker in recent days for her efforts to find new homes for dogs who’ve been in the shelter for months, and sometimes, years.
After her photo of Chester staring plaintively at a camera with a cardboard sign around his next proclaiming his plight went viral and sparked calls from around the world, Stroup decided to use Chester’s Facebook page and a winning formula to find homes for other dogs at the shelter.
And this weekend, two hit the jackpot and found their new families.
“Zeus was chained in a backyard for his whole life,” Stroup said. “He was only fed by another rescue group and never brought inside. He was taken away when his owner was arrested. McCoy was picked up running loose and no one claimed him. Bella was also a stray; Rocky was an owner surrender after his owner became too ill to care for him.”
This weekend, Zeus headed to North Carolina and McCoy, to Maryland
“It feels great to have had this help so many dogs here,” Stroup said this weekend. “It is still working, as now I have created another Facebook page for another dog, Freckles, and we are seeing some real interest now. I hope this keeps going. It’s just awesome how people have kept sharing.”
Freckles, the page says, has lost her family twice. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” her Facebook page reads. “I am so sad and confused. I just love to be with my humans. I am mellow and gentle. I can’t go through this again. Are you my forever family?”
The love shared is uplifting, with the dogs’ new owners also touched by the outpouring of caring that Chester’s happy ending sparked.
“I finally had a chance to go through all of McCoy’s things that were packed for him, and it really brought me to tears,” said McCoy’s new mom, Jessica Griffith. “I really admire what you all do everyday for these precious dogs that people just give up on, and I don’t know how you do it because I’d cry all the time. Adding McCoy to my family is my little way of helping the best way I can, and here I am still crying. He is such an amazing dog, and he seems like he’s going to adjust very well. I am glad he likes milk bones because that’s my treat of choice.”
Both dogs have met their new doggy sisters and all is going well for both Zeus, whose new mom’s name is Michelle Hatfield, and McCoy, Stroup said.
McCoy was at the shelter for almost a year. “My family tossed me out I was found roaming the streets and they never came for me,” his Facebook page read. “I was a loyal friend for nine years and they tossed me aside. Now I find myself at nine years old in a shelter. If you are looking for a mature, well mannered guy who likes to lay on the couch I’m your guy.”
Zeus, meanwhile, was chained in a backyard for eight years. “My humans never gave me any love; they barely ever even fed me. I broke off my chain and ended up at the shelter,” his Facebook plea read.
Earlier this month, Chester, a pit bull who was living in a shelter for five years — first at the Riverhead Animal Shelter, where he was found a stray, and most recently, at the North Fork Animal Welfare League’s Southold location, where he has lived for the past months — went home with his new family.
And he went home a celebrity.
After Stroup launched a Facebook page, “Chester: Waiting Five Years”, the response was massive and unheralded, with calls and emails coming in from as far away as Australia, Nova Scotia, and England as the unbridled power of social media worked its magic.
“It was crazy. I posted the original photo on the League’s Facebook page and by later that day there were over 6000 shares,” Stroup said. “Someone suggested I make him his own page and I did, at about 3:30 p.m., and that evening there were close to 2000 likes.” On Saturday, the page had 4,385 likes.
Stroup said she received at least 300 emails, and possibly more.
“There were more phone calls then I can count; the phone just never stopped. People called from Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey Wisconsin, Nova Scotia, Australia and more — people tearing up as they called.”
Stroup said the tremendous popularity of the Facebook page sparked a massive response and to that end, other rescue groups have already posted on the page, hoping to find other dogs their own happily ever afters. Stroup plans to continue creating Facebook appeals, “one dog at a time,” she said today.
