Pictured is Adele, a 35-pound boxer mix believed to be around 2 years old. Adele currently resides at Crossroads Animal Hospital in Moody.
Rebecca Macks of Crossroads Animal Hospital gives some love to Charlie, a rambunctious resident of the clinic.
Hobo is 8 years old and weighs around 60 pounds.
MOODY — Crossroads Animal Hospital is not purely a non-profit rescue service for strays.
Rescuing strays, however, is a passion of the staff there.
“We try not to actively take dogs in, but if they come our way and need our help, and we feel like we can help them, we will,” says Rebecca Macks, who is responsible for the rescues at the hospital. “Dr. Nelson and myself and most of the people here really have a true passion for rescue; we’ve been doing this quite a while now, with pretty good success usually.”
Currently the hospital has six rescued dogs. Macks said all the animals are well-behaved, up-to-date on shots and other medicines and devoid of any complications — aside from one, Ruby, who has what she described as “trust issues” — that would limit their options to be adopted.
Even so, Macks said the hospital has not received any inquiries about these animals in some time.
“I think because of most of them are kind medium-sized red dogs,” she said. “People don’t see a picture of them and say, ‘Oh, how precious – let’s go get them.’
“We’re having a real hard time getting these guys out of here. Right now they’re just living in our kennel; we don’t have any foster homes, currently. We would love to have foster homes; we don’t think it’s fair for them to just continue living in our kennel. That’s not the kind of lives that these guys need.”
The hospital also is housing a number of rescued cats. But the dogs are the biggest concern:
• Adele is a 2-year-old female mixed breed that is about 35 pounds. She was left tied out to a tree in front of the clinic. She is very social, medium energy, very silly and inquisitive.
• Charlie is a 1-year-old male who is about 35 pounds. He is higher energy, playful and friendly. Would be perfect for a family with a fenced yard or as an active companion for hiking or running, and he does well with cats, dogs and kids.
• Fred and Snowman, littermates, are 6 months old and about 50 pounds. The two were literally tossed from a truck into the road in front of the clinic a couple of months ago. Both are friendly, enjoy playing with other dogs, with toys and can be quite the couch potato.
• Hobo is an 8-year-old male, about 60 pounds. He does well with cats and dogs, and loves attention. Will be difficult to place due to age, but is very healthy.
• Ruby is “our special needs girl,” about 40 pounds, and possibly a husky mix. She needs someone with the patience and understanding to love her back to the place she was before and beyond.
Macks said the hospital will accept volunteer efforts in the form of foster homes or donations.
“Anything that people donate for our strays would be used for the strays,” she said. “We’re not looking to gain anything by this – we just want to make sure they have what they need.
“If anyone were to be interested in fostering, that would be amazing. Having a foster home makes a dog much more adoptable, because it is able to have an opportunity to learn how to behave in a home, versus, here, it’s very limited what we can teach them, because it’s not a home environment.”
For more information about the strays at Crossroads, call 205-640-4327, or email crossroadsanimalhospital@yahoo.com.
“Just put in the subject line that it’s for Rebecca,” Macks said. “I check it daily.”
