We were nominated for a donation from a group called 100 Women Who Care in October and were then drawn from a hat, along with two other groups, to present at their monthly meeting on November 3rd. I had 4 minutes to talk about our rescue, how long we had been active, and what we would do if we won the donation. The group then had 4 minutes to ask me questions.

The night prior to this, I had a case where we had to remove tumors from a dog’s head that had eaten out the underlying skull. I was up all night tending to her and she did better than I expected. She ate breakfast in the morning, and I sent her home. We were waiting on pins and needles for the biopsy results but in the meantime, I was going to have to present to the meeting that night. That day was no less busy, and I was still in my scrubs when we got to the meeting. We decided to take Rosie as the rescue was named in her honor and Peach, our newest rescue that was now stable and doing well.

We sat in the front row and Rosie decided to poop right there and then proceeded to fall in it hind end first. I scooped her up and then Cris dropped my phone in the poop. Savahna saw the horror on my face and grabbed the phone and ran to the bathroom. I grabbed Rosie and ran to the bathroom. I cleaned her up as best as I could and set her down to make sure, I did not leave the sink a mess. In the meantime, Rosie ran out of the bathroom back into the crowd of 140 women. I grabbed her and laughed and said, “this is my crippled dog”.

We saw that Sedona Humane Society was there and a recycling non-profit group. Sedona Humane is one of our favorite animal rescue groups as we work with them all the time. Jennifer, their leader, was always professional and well prepared. They delivered their speech first and it was great. I thought, well, we had a rough start, but I will give it my best. I had Cris hold Rosie and Savahna hold Peach. Mary, one of our board members, also came up front. I held the microphone and gave a speech from my heart about why we rescue animals and all we do for them.

I told how Rosie, not so Rosy now due to her falling in poop, came from a situation where she was left injured for 3 days, and we were told she would never walk again. She was our first stem cell case, and she can run now. We have been caring for her for over 11 years. We have only had the rescue for 2 years, but have been rescuing animals for over 20 years using our own funds. We never thought of asking for help because it was the right thing to do. Cris said my face was red, and I thought because I ran out of oxygen. I poured my heart out.

The crowd asked many questions about our rescue and what kind of animals we had, and how many people worked there. In the end, I sat down, took a deep breath, and thought, whoever wins between us and Sedona is fine. We both help the animals. The group of 140 voted right then and called out Rosie’s Rescue as the winner. I started laughing with surprise, and the crowd cheered loudly.

I wanted to cry and started thinking of all the animals we could save with the money. We would have to present a year from now and let the group know what we did. I wanted to make them proud and let them know it was very well spent.