In three short months, rescue dogs Tiger and Bear have come a long way.
Mowi fish farm workers on Minstrel Island spotted the pair at the end of last December. It took five hours to coax the dogs onto their boat, and both were in rough shape.
“We were surprised that they had survived out there for that long, it’s very remote out there,” said fish farm worker Ashley Riley in a previous interview with CHEK News.
“They were very skinny, you could see their ribs and their hip bones and their spine and everything.”
A few days later, the dogs were taken to a vet in Port McNeill before being handed over to Jill Laviolette and the Tri-Port Wildlife Response Team, with Laviolette spending the past few months nursing the animals back to health.
“They’re such good boys, they have such lovely temperaments, they’re just such big, soft, gentle giants that just want to snuggle and love,” says Laviolette.
“So to see very guarded dogs, very broken souls come right back around to being loving puppies [makes] all the hard work worth it.”
Now well on the road to recovery, a GoFundMe page has been launched to help pay for vet bills as well as to help find a forever home for both dogs.
“We want to get them neutered and make sure that they’ve got all up to date on all their shots, all of their flea meds, all of their deworming and everything,” says Laviolette.
“They’ve responded so well to food and love and the little bit of treatment that they’ve gotten, so now that they’re getting rehabilitated, we just want to get them to that next step for them to be adopted out.”
The original owner was contacted and said the dogs had been re-homed. Laviolette says there is evidence that the dogs were abused and that this story is an example of why pets should not be abandoned.
“Dogs, no matter how overwhelming they can be, don’t just abandon them,” says Laviolette.
“Even though rescues all say they’re full, reach out, don’t just let them go, don’t just abuse them or neglect them, because it makes it so much harder for the next person that’s trying to fix them.”
To help with the medical bills or to inquire about adopting Tiger and Bear, you can visit the Tri-port Wildlife Response Team Facebook page.
Cole Sorenson
