Would you run into a burning building?

Just to save dogs??? The BMAR crew did...not just once. Kept going back in until all 23 dogs were out. Wet rags, crawling on the floor...couldn’t see. But we knew where they were. These are our old dogs, medical dogs, aggressive dogs and they were scared - these are big dogs and it made it very difficult to drag them out.

Keeley was in the backroom lounging around where the fire started. She is extremely aggressive so she is always separated. The plastic hangers were right above her bed, they melted and fell on her. Yep, that is her skin and hair on the melted plastic. She has burns all over her sides and back. We loaded them up with honey and put her on pain meds. Vet not open until Monday. We have her comfy til then...on the shuttle bus and hooked a portable a/c up in there with an extension cord.

Lemon was in “time out” for acting up so she was confined to the impact crate back where the fire started. The smoke was very thick. She was not breathing and had to be dragged out of the burning room. She was gone. Carried her to a staging area and Charlotte gave her mouth to mouth. She coughed out a lot of yuck (thank the good Lord) and pale gums and all she was revived. It took about an hour for her back legs to start working. No, we didn’t get pics or videos laying there like dead because everybody was running back in to get the remaining dogs. But here is her video walking around in the staging area two hours later. She has that hoarse, burned lung sound so we renamed her to Lemon Fuego in honor of Del Fuego...a former burn victim.

Been trying to raise funds for a new building for 5 years, I have told everyone it was falling apart...it was only temporary after the hurricane in 2017 and lasted way longer than anyone thought. Originally we had 44 med dogs in there. We have systematically built more runs outside this whole summer and moving them outside...then we ran out of funds for that, Myron had to stop anyway and take this last Canada transport and that was that. We were down to the 23 dogs that were elderly, medical needs, etc. The ones that absolutely have to be air conditioned. It’s still 97 F here with a heat index of 105F. These dogs won’t survive in this heat and we can’t get anyone to take them. We will have to close sanctuary, we can no longer take in large dogs without a separate building. For these 23 dogs, we will be making hard choices when the vet opens Monday....choices we do not want to make. Never thought we would have to make. All in all, we have 452 dogs at this facility...we have to do the right thing for all of them.

For what remains of this weekend...we have wire tied and chained panels together and placed them in barn aisleways. We salvaged what large fans had not burned, run electrical cords and have done the best we could. Now time to regroup and take a water break...the pipes were melted, we had to cut the water off to the whole rescue...so it has to be fixed. A lot of animals here depend on that water.

Along with that building went our washer, dryer, 2 refridgerators, rest room, shower and gazebos for 23 dogs. And of course meds and a lot of supplies.

We just ordered an outdoor outhouse with washer & dryer connections, etc. $8500. Now we need $2100 for the electrician to hook it up and hopefully funds to pay for the outhouse trailer. I am checking into having a portable building delivered to put the med dogs in instead of having them euthanized. A small one that might work is a shell and it’s $12K. I can rent to own it for about $500 a month...that’s a rip off cause you wind up paying exactly double for the building from gyp joint financing. I used to sell those buildings so I am aware. But then we have to insulate it, at least epoxy the floor and call the electrician back out. While we can do all the plumbing...we just are not talented enough to do the electric safely.

so...we have 23 dogs to save. Any sponsors out there for $1000 a dog? We need about $23,000 just to start and save their lives. Then another $10K to finish up the interior of the building before next summer arrives...we can do that over the winter. Without donations...is there anyone that will do a low cost loan for us? We can pay back about $1000 per month. It needs to be fast disbursement...cause we make hard decisions starting next week. Some of those dogs have been here 10 years...we are not about to start letting them suffer.

For the additional $10,000 for the winter work to finish a shell building I am donating my collector Harley Davidson Streetstalker and will be sell it. It's one of the last few things I have left...most of my assets have gone to the rescue already.

And there is a big if on that...we only need it if we can get the building here in time. We think we can salvage a couple of the window units from the building that didn’t burn so we can install them in the shell, run fans and do our best to save them.

People just want to bash rescues...especially our rescue....I guess because we are so rural. But they are not in the trenches with us, not doing what we do. Not seeing what we see. People are so self centered....several have contacted me since noon when the fire started...I told them our building was burning. The response? Could we just put a kennel under the trees and take their dog? It has to go today....

This is about as plain as I can make it. To the 5 of us that kept going into the burning building despite the toxic smoke: Myron, Tina, JR, Kenny & myself...we got the dogs out. Nothing else matters. To Charlotte - our hero - who gave mouth to mouth to a dog that was for all intents and purposes dead...who never gave up...that’s above and beyond. To Tommy, Lynn and Butch who kept bringing us slip leads and taking our dogs to safety and figuring out where to place them...we couldn’t have done it without them.

DO NOT EVER BASH THE BMAR CREW AGAIN. None of you will ever measure up and it will not be tolerated. A lot of people always say “it’s about the dogs” but that’s lip service. At the first sign of trouble they back away, close up, act put upon. The BMAR crew has never backed down.

Now starts the serious fundraising. We need help.

If you can’t donate...can you share this. Repost it to groups and pages? Lots of rescues shutting down...I promise this area does not want BMAR to shut down. 450+ dogs with no where to go. Our one hope is to get people to see this post...and you can do it by sharing!