A Little Magic – December Sanctuary Update

Hi Everyone!
2020 is over! I am absolutely not a superstitious person, but this year had even me wondering about something supernatural going on. While I may not be superstitious, I do believe in magic. I see it every day here at the sanctuary. The magic of caring people working together and working hard to make a difference in the lives of animals. So in this season of magic and miracles, I want to look back at some of the magic we made this year.

Whenever I show people around the sanctuary or tell people about our work, I always tell the story of Lorraina. Many of you know this story well, but it’s worth telling again. Lorraina came to us after being found and brought into a vet’s office with serious damage to the skin and coat on her back end and tail. Her tail needed to be amputated, and we took her in to see her through her recovery. Only she didn’t recover. No matter how careful we were, if she had a chance to chew up her back, she would. Eventually she was diagnosed with a neurological condition that was causing her to damage herself. We took her to several veterinarians and specialists, but only had minimal success. Finally, we decided to try putting clothes on her to see if that would prevent her behavior, and it worked! It took a while to refine her clothing to the perfect fit, but soon enough, we had a happy, healthy kitty. Lorraina’s fairy tail came to it’s conclusion this month as she found her way to a forever home. It took lots of hard work, but that’s how we make magic happen.

Another magical story from this year is the story of Vinny. Vinny came to us after losing one of his legs. Once again, we took him in to oversee his recovery, but it turned out that his surgery was not his only issue. He had some fairly serious separation anxiety. It was a huge challenge that took lots of effort and creativity to set up a life for him here that he could safely handle, including long field trips and re-arrangement of the cottage living spaces. But again, the hard work made the magic, and Vinny is living happily in a home for the holidays.

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While those are two of my favorite stories, they just scratch the surface of the magic we made here this year. There’s Sugar, the dog with heartworm and fungal infections who went home after more than a year of medical treatments. There was Ralph, the cat was the history of urinary issues who had to recover from a difficult surgery before going home. Or then there was Bonkers, the cat who had a problem with swatting an nipping people when he got here, but who was trained to become a well behaved companion, and even do a bunch of tricks. And of course, Roxi, the young, high energy pit bull who went from a training class terror to top of the class before going to her new home.

There’s lots of magic and little miracles that we see every day at the Our Companions sanctuary. But we know that it is the hard work of our staff and volunteers, and the support of everyone in the OC family that makes it happen.

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And of Course…Adoptions!!
December finished of our year with some great adoption action. With the cats, Lorraina, Neptune, and Ziti went home, making room for the arrivals of Millie and Izzy. On the dog side, Sugar went home this month, which then brought Belle into our world. It was quite the month for striking beauties to come and go here.

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Thank you all so much for whatever way you support us and our mission. We couldn’t do it without you.

Jon Phillips

Sanctuary Director

[email protected]