Category: Outreach Stories

One of our Awesome volunteers went out of her way to help !  Evonne also volunteers with Meals on Wheels to deliver food to those in need.  She noticed that at one home, the family had a dog tied up in the yard.   She tried to convince the owner to bring the dog inside because the weather was turning very cold.   The owner would not agree to do so.   Evonne and her husband built an insulated dog house for the young dog complete with bedding inside !    She even bought a sweater and plush dog bed to help ! Helping one dog will not change the world but it changes the world for that one dog !!   Thank you Evonne !!

(and not to worry, the dog is visiting a home for the cold Christmas weekend where he can stay inside!)

Marden’s Ark Dog Tales also paid for the dog to get up to date on vaccines, heartworm tested, and heartworm & flea preventative.

If  you would like to contribute to our Outreach Fund so that we can continue to help our community please visit our Donate page.

Marden’s Ark Dog Tales has a partnership with Petsmart with the common goal of enriching and improving the lives of pets and their families.   Frequently Petsmart generously will donate pet supplies to us.   We use what we can and network with other organizations to share the rest of the items with.   Recently Petsmart donated about 40 small animal cages – hamsters, rats, ferrets, guinea pigs and rabbit cages !   A few local rescues took a few of them and some were given to a local Veteran.

Volunteer, Laura Karas, searched and found the Bunny Brigade SC, Inc that said “Bring them all!”     On a rainy day, we packed a Ford F150 as full of cages as we could get it.   And off we went to meet Katie from the Bunny Brigade !  Katie was ecstatic !   It’s the time of year that they care for 300 baby Eastern Cottontails in hopes of returning them to the wild.  That’s a lot of babies !   Thanks to Petsmart we were able to give them over 20 cages.   We are working on another transport to deliver another truckload.

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Marden’s Ark Dog Tales reaches out to other rescues in need to help when ever we can.   We have made monetary donations to Mercy Rescue Haven to help support their dogs needs and medical care.   We have donated supplies such as food, collars, leashes, toys, dishes, beds, and crates to other local rescues in need.

We believe in working together with other rescues for the benefit of all the animals in need.   Helping an animal in need is helping an animal in need.  It doesn’t matter who the “legal” owner is.  Working together with cooperation provides more positive results for all!

In 2021, Marden’s Ark Dog Tales raised money to buy microchips for DEGA Mobile Veterinary Care.  DEGA provides basic veterinary care to low/no income pet families at no charge to them.   They were able to start offering Microchips with free registrations to their clients.  We also donated supplies such as blankets, food, dishes, leashes, harnesses, collars, puppy pads, pet toys and more for distribution at the DEGA medical clinics!   Helping people through these difficult times keeps their furry family members in their homes rather than being left at shelters or in rescues because they cannot afford to care for them.  This is a WIN-WIN-WIN for everyone !

As a Rescuer, I see so many posts of pets lost and pets found. So many “found as strays” show up in high-kill shelters. None of these have microchips or the microchips were never registered. In addition to Spay/Neuter, I believe that microchipping your pets is the best thing you can do. If all these pets were able to get back to their homes, they would not be taking up valuable space in the shelters and rescues. With more space, less of the animals in shelters would lose their lives. My heart breaks for the pets and the families that have become lost from each other. You may think that “Snowball always stays with me, they would never run away”. This may be true, but you NEVER know what may happen.

Fireworks, gunshots, car backfires or even being in a car accident could scare your pet and they may run off in an unfamiliar area and become lost. You just never know. So why not be safe, rather than sorry !

Vets to Vets United is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides veterans with dogs for the benefits of companion, therapeutic, and service dogs for veterans suffering from depression,  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other disabling conditions.

Marden’s Ark Dog Tales had the  honor of participating in the Vets to Vets 5K in 2021 and being able to donate half of our collected donations and sales from that day to help  veterans !   We have also donated dog food and supplies for use by Vets to Vets and their veterans and companions!

These 3 dogs all came from the same family that was no longer able to care for them.  Phyllis Rathbone, from WNC Mindful Tails, found out about their need to be rehomed.  She reached out to me to see if I knew anyone that could help.   I put a plea out to my network but received no positive responses.   Rescues, shelters, and fosters are all busting at the seams right now.   A few days later, I heard from Phyllis again “Anything?  Time is running short and these dogs will end up in a high-kill shelter”.   All three are well socialized, love men, women, children and other dogs.  I replied to Phyllis that if we could find foster homes for these dogs, that Marden’s Ark Dog Tales would do all it could to get them vaccinated, spayed and neutered, and find them forever homes.   As vaccines and spay/neuters were being arranged and scheduled, one by one, we found out that each one of these dogs was Heartworm Positive!  This was going to make finding them foster and forever homes even more difficult.  Phyllis and I put our heads together and followed every option we could come up with to save Oakley, Athena, and Hercules.  Phyllis worked endlessly for these dogs, never giving up!   Oakley found a great foster home that will care for her during her months of heartworm treatment and has fallen in love with her and plans to add Oakley to their family.   The deadline was approaching fast for Athena and Hercules.   At the same time, the miracles seemed to be approaching just as fast!  Athena went into a foster home and they too have fallen in love with her and plan to adopt her !   Hercules, being a “pit” was a little more difficult to find a place for.   After staying at a boarding facility for a month and the most searching, begging and pleading, and networking possible, a home for Hercules was found through another rescue ! Phyllis worked non-stop to save and help these 3 dogs week after week and it paid off!

Marden’s Ark Dog Tales provided the medical care for these 3 dogs which costs over $3000.   They were all spayed or neutered and are undergoing heartworm treatments now.  We were able to help a family who wanted to do the right thing for these dogs but did not have the resources.

In order to be able to help more dogs like Oakley, Athena, and Hercules and families in need please donate !   Any amount is helpful !   As you can see from this story, it takes a village, and any contribution is valuable.   If you are not able to help financially at this time, please share their stories.    If you share with 10 people, I bet at least one person will be able to contribute financially.

Another valuable truth from this story is that Foster Homes are critical to saving the lives of pets needing to be rehomed!    If you are interested in fostering, please fill out our Foster Application.