Manitoba April / May 2021
The trip
On April 28th, Laura (founder of Ziggy's Rescue) and Sheila (volunteer), headed towards South Indian Lake, Manitoba. A 6000km round trip with one goal in mind: rescuing dogs, bringing them back to Vancouver Island and finding them forever homes. This mission was a collaboration with K9 Advocates, with the intention of pulling 120 dogs in total, 30 of which would be coming into Ziggy's Rescue. We received wonderful donations in the form of crates, blankets, towels, dog food,...from all over. We had a fully loaded rental cargo van full of supplies.
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Once arrived in Thompson, we had 1 day to prepare for the front line work day. We donated a ton of dog food to help feed the hungry local dogs. The day of the actual rescue mission did not go exactly as planned. Because of Covid, we were not allowed into the remote community from which the dogs were being pulled. It was a very long day of waiting until the dogs would be brought to us, not knowing how many dogs to expect and what condition they'd be in. It was freezing cold and we could not let the van running, as to not risk running out of fuel.
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Instead of the 30 dogs we had planned for, we ended up with only 12 dogs to take back to Vancouver Island. Some of the dogs seemed to be in pretty good shape, others were clearly malnourished and one puppy was very weak. The dogs we took into our rescue were all super sweet with amazing personalities. We fell in love with them right away! On our way back to Vancouver Island, we were very sleep deprived. But we needed to get the dogs into the vet and into their foster homes as soon as possible, so we pushed through. Especially the weak and sick puppy Mouse was at risk. We made our way to Nanaimo where we arrived on May 3rd, 5 days after the start of this journey. We arrived on the island at 8pm and met up with the foster families so they could bring their dogs home.
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The heartbreaking news
During the ferry ride, one of the young puppies, Meena, had started showing signs of Parvo. This was our worst unexpected nightmare, especially because all the dogs had tested negative for Parvo through a Snap test BEFORE they were loaded into the van. The little girl went to the emergency vet in Nanaimo straight away. Sadly she was too far gone and the decision was made to end her suffering. The weak puppy, Mouse, also did not survive her first night on the island. Meena's littermate Meeshka was put under close observation. She started showing signs of Parvo the morning after arrival and went to Coastal City Animal Hospital in Nanaimo for treatment. She fought for her life, but unfortunately her tiny body was too weak to fight this nasty disease and she passed away several days later. We were absolutely heartbroken and couldn't believe we lost 3 out of 12 precious souls. At least the dogs knew love and care during the last days before crossing the Rainbow Bridge.
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Our 9 Manitoba specials
The 9 surviving dogs went into a 2 week quarantine period in their foster homes. They were all doing fantastic! We had a few foster fails. Mayzie went home with Sheila, who fell in love and adopted her! Mave and Mack were 12 week old littermates. Mave was adopted by her foster family. Mack found his forever home with a wonderful family who had already adopted a dog though us when we had the "Hurricane Litter". Most of the dogs have pending adoptions. Please head over to our Adoptable Dogs page to see if we are accepting applications for any dogs!
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We want to thank everyone who has made this rescue mission possible. Thank you to everyone who has donated, volunteered, fostered or supported Ziggy's in ANY way! It would not have been possible without all of you. Even though the mission did not go completely as expected, we still consider it a success, since 9 lives were saved. These 9 survivors will be able to live their best lives on Vancouver Island and we are so grateful that they all turned out to be absolutely fantastic dogs!