Hi everybody,

My name is Jacklyn and I found two abandoned dogs.

On Sunday, July 27th, I went to work as usual and got my day started. Around 2pm I got ready to go on Outreach out of our office on Chicago/Franklin. Upon getting into the parking lot, out of the corner of my eye, I see a mastiff head on a pitbull body (Rico--lovingly dubbed "Meat Wad" at the time since we weren't aware he had a name- brown, altered male)! And to his left I see a white pitbull/boxer mix (Darla---lovingly dubbed "Babette", white altered female) ---both tied to the fence on leashes less than 2 ft long. On this day, MN was in a heatwave and temperatures soared to 97 degrees--so you can imagine how dangerous this was for them. I walked over to them, got them water, played with them (two damn good, sweet, gentle dogs) and talked to the person that was nearest to them. He was trying to watch them for a friend who was recently incarcerated for an undetermined amount of time---but he couldn't anymore as he had nowhere to go.

I asked him if he had a plan and he said, "No. was just going to leave them here until someone or animal control picked them up-- I wish I could get them into a good home."

Well, yall know me (and if you don't, I am a dog mom, dog lover and dog rescuer, at all times.) and I asked him if I could put together something for the dogs, would he let them go with me/us? He said ok.

I posted them to socials and headed out on outreach. We returned 2.5 hours later and the dogs were no where to be found. In the meantime, our community network was able to put together someone who could go get the dogs (I had my truck stolen the previous week so I was unable to transport!) and keep them temporarily until another person was off of work and could go get them. At this time I had to leave for a meeting and was gone for the day so told said friend to look for them and let me know if they found them.

They did! They were picked up, brought home and given a bath and a nail trim (huge shout out to Lena!). At this time it was discovered that Rico had severe paw pad burns and some of his pads were peeling off., as well as heat sores on his hind area. Darla had sunburn all over her back and her paw pads are also burnt. They both suffered severe overheating and I firmly believe that had they not been rescued that night---they would have died.

They are staying with someone who is unable to care for them long term and thought they would offer better temporary care until they were able to be brought to MACC.

Darla has been microchipped 3 separate times. Upon contacting the people the micro chips were registered to, it was confirmed that they were abandoned.

Here's where we need your help!

The dogs have a long road ahead of them and will need extensive vetting (paw pad care, possibly vaccines, registration and check up), training and possibly as an incentive for a sanctuary or rescuer to take them on (money talks). We are hoping to raise $1700 to cover the costs of all the needed vetting, boarding, training and registration for both of them!

We reached out to ever rescue we know of and continue to do so...as of 8/7 I have reached out to over 60 rescue or sanctuary orgs and none of them are able to take them on. It is a a harsh reminder of the reality of overbreeding.

We can't do this without you! Rico and Darla deserve a chance at life and I am willing to put in serious labor to get them safe/structured/vetted.

(If you zoom on Ricos paws in this picture of the two of them, you can see the damage done to his paws.)

I am so grateful to our communities and if the dogs could talk, they'd just give you one thousand excessively slobbery kisses, right on your face, just like they did to me.

Thanks for reading, please do with this what you can.

-Jacklyn (and Rico and Darla-- they told me I could sign this for them. )