Welcome to The A.R.F. Shack

* * * COME CELEBRATE WITH US * * *

PETSMART ORLANDO

3232 East Colonial Drive

The Location By The Fashion Square Mall

With July 4th being a day of celebration, we wanted to also get in line with the tradition. The ARF Shack is celebrating it's new adoption site location and we are hoping that you will come out and meet some of our four-legged friends. Our adoption event schedule is now firming up so that you can meet our candidates in search of their forever homes on a regular and routine basis. Please see our Events page for more details.

Although the faces of our animals are always changing, the policies of The ARF Shack, the beliefs of The ARF Shack and the Mission of The ARF Shack all remain the same. Each animal is looking for his or her proper placement. The ARF Shack does not strive to just place an animal in a home, it is the goal of The ARF Shack to speak out on behalf of the voiceless animals and find each and every one of them that we take in house and commit to, the utmost best placement in life available to us that will allow for each of them to finally have that final chapter to their lives. A chapter each and every on of them so greatly deserves!!

It is not just about life ~ it is about the quality of that life!

Be sure to come out and visit our adoption candidates this Saturday ~ the Fourth of July ~ between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Site location address is referenced above.

We truly look forward to celebrating with you!!

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The Mulligan Fund

Mulligan first came to The ARF Shack as a 'routine transport' ~ however ~ we find in life that all things happen for a reason but more importantly they happen to remind us of our purpose... Although Mulligan was only with us for a short time, his purpose was to touch each of our hearts in such a way that his existence will never be forgotten!

Mulligan was originally named 'Jack' because we were asked to pull this little guy from animal services clinic care for a gentleman by the name of Jack. The medical attention needed by Jack was "beyond the abilities of. . ." the local county services team. Jack was pulled on a Saturday and was scheduled for transport to an awaiting surgeon to operate on his fractured fibula. Uncertain at this point exactly where the failure in communications occurred, but the surgeon in wait was only waiting for a designated amount of time! Since Jack's pick up and pull from animal services took longer than anticipated and the overall travel in and of itself was longer than expected, the decision was made to take Jack to our local rescue vet who services the public on a twenty-four basis.

Asking our local rescue vet to watch over Jack until transport was re-scheduled, it was from the outreach of our rescue vet's heart that he said he wanted, for his own peace of mind, to x-ray the pup to make sure the internal damages were not causing any blockage and/or damage to the pup's internal organs. Upon examination and x-ray our rescue vet made the personal decision to offer his time to Jack rather than having to have him wait for the transport to be re-scheduled. A few phone calls later and a proposal from the vet for a drastically reduced fee in relation to the procedure, Jack went into surgery. Jack's procedure consisted of repairs to multiple fractures; the puppy had laxation of the right calcareous in addition to the proximal metatarsal bones being luxated. Basically, after repairs, a complete re-alignment of Jack's bones had to take place.

Although no one can be certain, it is guessed that this little guy may have been struck by a car. Not only were the above injuries noted BUT Jack also suffered from what is called a 'supple neck.' A supple neck is when the skull is no longer attached to the spine. It was purely the muscles and tendons that were supporting little Jack's head. Although abnormal, improvement would be expected to occur over time with muscle development through both exercise, strengthening and repetition of activities.

This little guy obviously had the odds against him; however, he had the eyes of a tiger and the spirit of a lion king. Jack handled surgery so very well and went home with one of our fosters to begin his road to recuperation; Jack had himself a foster that was more than willing to provide him with everything he was going to need...

It was shortly after his surgery that Jack's name was changed to 'Mulligan.' The explanation, I was told, was that a mulligan is a do-over in the world of golf. Since Jack received a do-over on life, Jack was now known to all that loved and cared for him as Mulligan. Mulligan made magnificent strides; however, it was then noticed that Mulligan was not truly acting and/or being himself. First it was noted that he was having some standard cold type symptoms. Almost simultaneously, those symptoms became accompanied by a fever. Without delay, the decision was then made to bring Mulligan back to our rescue vet. Upon examination, everything in terms of the surgery follow up checked out magnificently. However, it was agreed ~ across the board ~ that something in relation to little Mulligan just was not right. Nothing was definite and/or could be confirmed at that point in time; however, further testings were going to be required in order to find out what exactly was causing our little man to exhibit these after-the-fact errupting concerns!

This now ~ is the sad part to this story ~ Mulligan never returned home from our rescue vet's office. Mulligan never got to return to the warm and loving arms of his foster family. The final arms that held Mulligan belonged to Sue ~ the Founder and Director of The ARF Shack ~ as it was she that held this little man as he crossed over rainbow bridge. The cause to these further obstacles in which Mulligan was sadly forced to face was a villain called Canine Distemper; a disorder that causes uncontrollable seizures and affects the neurological aspects of the animal affected by the disease.

Unfortunately, distemper is more common in local animal controls and county shelters than we wish to even have to admit and often times the symptoms do and will lay dormant until a day/date later in time... Let it be known that although Mulligan's life here was short, his time here with us at The ARF Shack and with our foster families remind us at to why we continue to do each day that in which we do! Mulligan is forever a part of us and Mulligan's Fund is going to be our on-going mission allowing us to provide a 'do-over' for each and every animal we bring through our doors. Whether their do-over will be in the form of medical needs, nutritional needs or emotional needs, each and every volunteer of The ARF Shack agrees, that a little bit of Mulligan will go out the door with each and every rescued and rehabilitated ARF Shack animal

Please remember that The ARF Shack and The Mulligan Fund both need the support of you, the members of our community, to enable us to proceed with our mission for each and every 'Jack' out there needing a 'Mulligan' in life. Please proceed to our PayPal Button in the left hand column of our Home Page and specifically state in the message box upon submission that it is a Mulligan Fund donation. It is tax deductible as we are a 501(c)(3) corporation.

Together, we can continue to make a difference,

one Mulligan at a time!

TobyStance Squeak Scrape Shag

* * * MISSION ACCOMPLISHED * * *

It has been a little over 60 days and our Mission we entitled 'Wendy's Pets' has successfully come to a close. As of this morning, the final group of dogs were transported and placed with another area rescue to assist in their proper placement into final, forever homes. Each and every member of The ARF Shack would like to thank the fellow rescues, organizations, agencies and businesses that stepped forward to assist in this Mission of great magnitude.

Wendy's Pets was a mission to assist 37 dogs and 18 cats to find homes, find fosters or find placements with other rescues. The bottom line was that each of these animals were so deserving of final placement into a forever home in which to now live out the remainder of their days.

We could not have successfully completed this Mission without the extension of assistance offered by those with such a big, big heart. Rather than name each of you individually, I know that as you read this post, you are smiling because you know you individually had a hand in assisting these ever so loving animals begin the final chapter in their lives. The nice thing to know here is that their 'stories' will now have final chapters that have very, very happy endings and this was only possible due to all of the assistance we received.

To read the details of the 'Wendy's Pets' Mission, you can visit the tab on the left hand side of this screen labeled accordingly.

Ms. Carmel has made it to the 'Big Times' ~ Watch for her name in lights!!

CarmelSitting Carmel003

After being screened by aptitude trainers Carmel was chosen as possessing the natural abilities and qualities required of a performance level pup and she is now a member of Joel Slaven's Professional Animals.

Who would have thought when our volunteers entered our local animal services shelter two weeks ago, that they would be bringing home such an unforeseen treasure. Honestly, it was due to Will, a member of the staff there, that caused our volunteers to bring Carmel back with them in the first place. Will had nothing but wonderful things to say about this little girl.

Our volunteers learned that Carmel was adopted out once and already returned due to her being three pounds over the weight restrictions of the adoptive family's owners association! Knowing that Carmel was not yet fully grown, her weight would only increase, therefore, the decision was made by the adoptive family (rather than enter into legal action with their owners association) to return Carmel to her original adoption site. The flip side of that ~ neither of them knew that once Carmel crossed that threshold back into the animal services shelter, Carmel's clock was once again beginning to click...

Who would have thought Will was able to see so deep into the soul of this little lady! She was screened for overall agility and passed. She was screened for overall demeanor adaptability and she passed. Next, full steam ahead, she will enter into the performance preparation training phase of her future.

All the animal members of Joel Slaven's staff are rescued animals either from shelters and/or breed specific rescues from all over the country. These particular types of dogs ~ like Carmel ~ are usually turned into shelters because they are so bored sitting around not being mentally stimulated; in turn they will tear up furniture, bark at everything that walks by or eat all of the food off of an owners' counter tops. Once dogs are adopted by Joel Slaven and his staff, they are trainedd to do a behavior that uses their natural ability such as opening a door with their mouth or dropping a lever with their feet.

Once Carmel is done with her years of talent being displayed, she will either be placed into a household living situation ~ or ~ be allowed to spend the rest of her days on the five acre training center to be cared for by the multiple trainers that live on site there with the retired performers.

We're so very proud of Carmel and the fact that The ARF Shack was chosen as a resource rescue for the screening staff to visit and 'screen test' our dogs as potential performers for Joel Slaven and his crew.