Air Rescue: Sausage Links

January 21, 2022 8:51 AM

Perhaps you would like to start your weekend with a feel good story of community cooperation, dangling sausages and a rescued pup. (single link to CNN)

Please get to know your neighbors' pets, so you know what emergency rescue snacks to have on hand if necessary.

Forewarned is forearmed.

posted by the primroses were over (15 comments total)

Please get to know your neighbors' pets, so you know what emergency rescue snacks to have on hand if necessary.
once we were helping a neighbor catch a very naughty chicken and I could not believe they didn't know about mealworms. woulda solved that problem in a second!
posted by supermedusa at 9:49 AM on January 21, 2022

This story is honestly almost too good to be true.
posted by praemunire at 9:51 AM on January 21, 2022

I regret that my only personal story of pet rescue is too low stakes to be interesting, luring a gerbil out from under a refrigerator. I did know which foods were likely to tempt her enough to overcome her aversion to recapture by small children who wanted her to frolic in our Barbie dream house against her wishes to be left the fuck alone.
posted by the primroses were over at 10:02 AM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

to capture a dog one must think like a dog. A wiener dog

(I'll let myself out...)
posted by djseafood at 10:52 AM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

now I am thinking "what tasty treat would best lure me from a hiding spot I did not want to leave?"

that little doggo is so cute, I'm glad she was rescuted and I for one would encourage others to share their animal rescute stories (maybe in the FREE THREAD if not here...)
posted by supermedusa at 10:53 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Please get to know your neighbors' pets

I am a bit ashamed to say that I know more about my neighbors pets than I do the actual neighbors. Humans tend to hide, dogs come up to say hi in the yard and even indoor cats will look out the window to judge passersby.

My animal rescue story: last summer I was getting the mail when I saw some movement in our front window-well. It's about a foot deep and it's got a layer of old leaves in it. I looked more closely and there was a little bitty vole, desperately trying to jump out/climb up the steep side.

Whenever I got close it would dive under a leaf and the whole leaf would shake pitifully as it shivered in fear. First I tried a piece of cardboard, creating a ramp, but that didn't work. Next try was some folded up chicken wire. Nope, didn't care. What worked was building little steps with some leftover wood pieces. It scrambled up the steps and disappeared into the garden. Now all of my window wells have little wooden steps in them to save the voles.
posted by Gray Duck at 11:17 AM on January 21, 2022 [20 favorites]

I'm ready for a prodecdural drama series about the adventures of the pet Drone Search & Rescue team.

"DSR: Denmead"

I think it would be a...

( •_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

... doggone good show.
posted by Kabanos at 11:20 AM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

My rescue story: some years back, there were three feral kittens in my yard, who made their way into the front yard where two of them fell into a storm drain on the street. Fortunately it was summer, and there was only a bare trickle of water. The kittens were kind of freaked out so when I lowered an old towel into the drain they both glommed onto it and I was able to haul them out. All three became part of my catfamily, but have since died after a good life.

By the way, it was the two males who fell into the drain...their sister stayed well away from the street.
posted by foonly at 11:28 AM on January 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

It's not a daring rescue, but several of the neighbors in my apartment building seem to have mutually (and without discussion) decided that we're going to take care of the stray cat that's been hanging around the building for a while. (He's so affectionate and snuggly, it's very clear that he's not a feral, he was someone's much-loved cat who somehow wound up on the street; based on the look of his ears, he's been in a few scraps since then.)

Someone put down a feeding station with a bowl for food and water, and somehow (somehow!) the bowl always seems to be filled with food and the water is fresh. (Incidentally, no, I have no idea why the amount our own household spends on cat food per month has increased, no idea at all.) Someone put down a blanket for him to sleep on in a space that's shielded from wind and rain, which he has been taking advantage of.

I dubbed him "Scraggles" based on his ears. Apparently other neighbors call him "Frankie". A friend suggested meeting in the middle and calling him "Frankie 'Da Stray' Scraggles". Mr. Scraggles if you're being respectful.

There's another stray cat who also hangs around the building. She's more skittish than he is, but seems to be warming up to the humans who keep bringing food and not trying to get too close.
posted by Lexica at 11:43 AM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

I will shoehorn this non-tool-based cat "rescue" story here, from my college days.

I have a friend, J. I did not like cats at the time (I'm "tolerant" now). J had a cat, Punkin, that she loved. J was always trying to get me to engage with Punkin, to no avail. Like, I really didn't want to anything to do with Punkin. One day, Punkin goes missing. A few days go by, J is distraught, and has basically started grieving.

I've started spending time with another person, K, we're in the beginning phases of maybe a relationship (narrator: they weren't). J lived between me and K. So one night at like midnight I'm walking home from K's place, passing J's apartment. At midnight. I hear meowing from a nearby shrub. I look, and it's Punkin.

I'm like, fuck me, I have to try to engage with this cat now. So I try picking her up, she scoots off. I follow her around, calling her name, trying to entice her into my generally-anti-cat arms. Finally the cat relents, sort of, and allows me to pick her up, although she wasn't that happy about it, as the claw-marks on my arm bore witness.

Cat-in-hand, I go to J's door (at now, maybe midnight-thirty), and knock. A blearey-eyed roomate opens the door, and I say "get J". I hear J coming to the door, muttering "Gorgik, what the hell do you want at this time of night?!". I hold out the cat, saying only "Here's your cat". J immediately starts crying, and retrieves Punkin from my grip, with profuse thanks.

J delights in telling this story whenever she can, about how her cat was rescued by the person who always "pretended" to hate cats. Mrs. Gorgik also loves the image of me chasing a cat around.
posted by Gorgik at 12:23 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

We once rescued a big snapping turtle from our road which is a mile away from the river. It had rained a lot, not sure if that had anything to do with its being there. It was really large and we knew enough to be careful of it turning its head around and biting. They can be nasty.

We got a big empty garbage can and were able to maneuver the turtle into it with a rake. We put it is the car and took it back down to the river where it happily swam away. Just recently I rescued a small box turtle out of the road, glad to see it was not injured.

We have taken in many stray cats over the years. I love animal rescue stories.
posted by mermayd at 3:39 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

This is good. I thought I knew what mud flats were, but clearly I don't.

The rescue I'm most proud of was a terrified chihuahua running down the middle of a very busy street at the end of New Years Eve. I tackled the angry, wet, snappy little jerk and then had to figure out what to do with it, given that it was 1 am and I lived in a very small home with an old and territorial cat several miles away. So, I decided to just see what happened and started walking blocks in widening circles from the center, holding the dog out and asking anyone who I met if they knew where it lived. Within 20 minutes, a very old woman who shared no language with me flagged me down from across the street and took her dog back. I have no idea what she said, but I'm pretty sure she was grateful.
posted by eotvos at 5:03 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

... Millie, who is a jack russell whippet cross ...

Jeebus. Lucky it was still in the same county.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:35 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Good thinking Dave!
posted by crosley at 12:09 AM on January 22, 2022

now I am thinking "what tasty treat would best lure me from a hiding spot I did not want to leave?"

You've reminded me of an old joke.

A very snooty lady was visiting London zoo, and was disappointed to find the monkey enclosure apparently empty. She approached one of the zoo keepers and asked where the little critters had got to.

"It's the mating season," he replied. "They'll all be shagging in that shelter at the back of the enclosure."

"Oh, dear. Do you think they'd come out if I threw them a biscuit?"

"I don't know, madam. Would you?"
posted by Paul Slade at 12:27 AM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]