ASPCA SUCCESS STORY OF THE WEEK: HEART OF GOLD

When Beth Zilbert heard one-year-old golden retriever, Rylee, yelp from inside her cage at Louisiana’s Calcasieu Parish Animal Control, she had no idea the pup would end up helping humans the same way they were about to help her.

Rylee spent six months healing from a rough past in Beth’s foster care. “I could not believe that this sweet, absolutely forgiving, beautiful creature was homeless and unwanted,” says Beth. “ After hoarding her loving nature all to myself, I finally brought Rylee to the weekly Saturday adoption tables at PetSmart.”

Within 30 minutes a family walked in and fell instantaneously in love. On seeing them, Rylee fell onto her back and wiggled happily—she was smitten, too!

“She took to us right away,” says her new forever mom, Darla Guidry. “They say dogs smile. In a picture we took just an hour after Rylee came home with us, she’s doing exactly that.”

Rylee is now putting her affectionate nature to use—she’s training to become a therapy dog, visiting disadvantaged kids at the local women’s shelter and juvenile detention center. In her free time, she’s also learning to take care of things at home. Since Rylee’s mom may be diagnosed with epilepsy, Rylee alerts her mom when a seizure is coming and gets her safely to the ground. Then, she covers her up with her own body until the seizure passes.

Both Beth and Darla agree, this golden girl gives back every ounce of love given to her-and then some.

SUCCESS STORY OF THE WEEK: THE WONDER EARS

When Debbie Cormell first rescued Sandia from the streets of Albuquerque, NM, the kitten weighed a mere 1 1/2 pounds. “I took her to my wonderful vet whom we saw every Monday for many months!” Debbie reports. The former stray was diagnosed with an intestinal bug and had lost all her hair from mange.

“At her worst moments, my friends offered to help pay to put her down,” Debbie remembers, “but I saw in Sandy’s eyes that she wanted to live. I sat with her and told her what a big girl she was going to be, and that she needed to keep on going and not give up.”

After months of medication and eating home-cooked chicken with brown rice, the kitten began to gain her health back. “Sandy’s little ears finally perked back up and we knew she was going to make it ,” Debbie says with a smile.

These days, the two-year-old named for Albuquerque’s Sandia Mountains eats regular dry cat food, plays with her three feline siblings and gives Debbie whisker kisses in the bathroom. “She waits for me to finish washing so we can do the ‘Sandy Up!’” Debbie explains. “That’s when Sandy stands on the bathroom countertop and reaches out with her front paws for me to pick her up. But the cutest thing,” Debbie continues, “is when she’s resting. She sticks part of her tongue out and forgets to put it back in!”

Comparing photos of Sandy when I first found her to the way she looks now lets me know I’ve made a huge difference in a rescue cat’s life,” Debbie says. “She is the most kissy, loving cat I’ve ever known, and she’s oh so pampered in her forever home!”