By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
It had been a sad week for InnerBanks Canine Rescue volunteers Mary McDonald and Denyce Osmundson.
They had rescued a Great Pyrenees, a large, white dog they named Damien. But X-rays taken at Pamlico Animal Hospital discovered several serious health issues, including a broken back that could not be repaired. Ultimately, the two women had no choice but to agree to have the dog euthanized.
“There have been a lot of hard days, but this was the first time we had to make this decision,” Osmundson said.
She, McDonald and Barbara Grau are the founding members of the all-volunteer dog-rescue organization.
Last year, InnerBanks Canine Rescue aided 86 dogs, including 41 of the 131 dogs surrendered late last year by Dawn Austin, who lived in Edward.
The three women met while serving as volunteers at the Betsy Bailey Nelson Animal Control Facility, where McDonald, of Washington, a retired nurse, was in charge of volunteers.
After spending two years helping the animal shelter, they were concerned that most dogs and puppies that found themselves at the animal shelter were not adopted or rescued. They decided to go one step further and form their own rescue group.
They try to select dogs they believe have little chance for adoption from the shelter — either because of their age or health or they are an unidentifiable breed. Then working with breed-specific rescue groups across the country, local veterinarians and foster families, they give the dogs needed care and prepare them for new homes.
The work, the women said, gives them a sense of purpose they had not experienced before in their lives.
“I’ll keep fighting for animals,” said Osmundson, a Bath resident. “It’s the one thing I do with my life that makes a difference.”
Osmundson moved to North Carolina four years ago from Florida, where she ran health spas and resorts and specialized in skin care. Since moving to Bath, she has opened a pet-sitting business.
“The other thing we do is preach — spay and neuter your pets.” McDonald said.
Working out of their homes and with the help of Sandra Woolard, Beaufort County’s chief animal-control officer, and her staff and the veterinarians at Pamlico Animal Hospital, the women call on a network of rescue groups nationwide to help them find homes for dogs taken to the local animal shelter.
And sometimes — because of the numbers of dogs that find themselves at the shelter and the high turnover rate there — they only have a day or two to find a home for a dog.
“You’re always under a constant urgency,” Osmundson said. “We usually have just three to five days to find a home for a dog, if we’re lucky. Sometimes we have more time if the dog population at the shelter is lower.”
Once they found a home for an abandoned Weimaraner with a rescue group in less than 24 hours.
More often, the work takes more time.
“Other times, it’s like pulling teeth to find a spot, because there are so many who need rescue,” McDonald said.
These days, the number of dogs that need help is greater than before as families are forced to give up their pets because of the downturn in the economy.
Late last year, InnerBanks Canine Rescue played a pivotal role along with other volunteer organizations — including the Raleigh Chapter of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Pilots for Paws — when animal-control officers took control of the 131 dogs found near Edward.
McDonald and Osmundson were called to help at the site.
“We were appalled, sad, mad, and then we just got down to work because that’s how we got through it,” said Osmundson.
InnerBanks Canine Rescue accepted all the small dogs that were surrendered.
Then it worked nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week from Nov. 17, the day the dogs were surrendered, until Christmas, to find places for them.
“People really step up in situations like this,” Osmundson said. “Different rescue groups from across the country were calling and asking ‘Do you need any help?’”
The group operates solely on donations.
A recent yard sale in Bath raised a little more than $2,000, which will be used primarily for veterinarian care for the dogs. The group established a special account with Best Friends to help provide emergency funds used to provide care and relocate the surrendered Edward dogs. Some funds are raised from the sales of handmade jewelry.
Besides money, the group needs area residents to provide foster homes for dogs that are waiting to be placed by rescue groups.
“The number one thing we need more than anything else is foster homes because we could rescue more dogs,” McDonald said.
Until they find more volunteers to foster dogs, they are limited to rescuing one or two dogs at a time, the women said.
And the hope one day to build some type of rescue shelter.
Until then, InnerBanks Canine Rescue will, as its motto says, rescue “one dog at a time.”
“It’s unfortunate that we cant save them all,” Osmundson said, “but we can damn well try.”