These photos are of a dog we named Marley (because of his dreadlocks).  We got him all fixed up, but had to quarantine him for months due to extreme heartworm and more, including the removal of a cancerous mass on his back.

After that, we got a phone call from a nurse who saw our ad for Marley.  She said on her message that she just KNEW that she was meant to adopt this needy dog.  When she came to our place, it was love at first sight, so we set up a home visit to check out her condo and so Marley could meet the gal's African Grey parrot.

When we got to the condo and walked in with Marley, the parrot said, "Molly!"  It was chilling.  But it became more chilling when we learned that the gal had recently lost a dog who looked exactly like Marley, had had a tumor removed in exactly the same spot...and was named MOLLY.

Obviously, this was the perfect home for Marley.

This is our eldest special-needs rescue, JimBob, shown in October '15 at the vet to get acupuncture, electrical stimulation and cold laser treatment for his extraordinary arthritis.  He has come to think of this treatment table as his "happy place" because of the endorphins the treatments get going in him.  He loves to look out the window and often falls asleep during the treatments.  After the treatments, which he gets twice a week, he is more mobile for a couple days.

He lost his ability to swallow (due to a reaction to a toxic drug he was on), so he had to have surgery for the implantation of an abdominal feeding tube.  He nearly died on the table (twice; they had to perform a repeat surgery) and now receives tube feedings and medications many times a day through the tube.  The second photo shows him a few months ago in an incubator in ICU after the first tube-implantation surgery.

JimBob had at one point gotten really sick for a long period and we actually took him to the vet to be euthanized, but he perked up and seemed to be telling us "Not yet...I'll be okay."  We took him home and he lived for years more!

He was the epitome of a high-maintenance cat, but he hung in there and showed a ton of grace under fire.

It obviously takes a lot of resources to provide care for cats like JimBob and all the others, so we appreciate your support.

I found this adorable, yet blind, little dog running on a busy street about a mile from our home.  Luckily, the dog had a tag on and we were able to track down the owner.

It's always difficult to re-home an animal who's on the loose, 'cause you never know if the owner is actually good for the animal or if the animal would be better off with you or in a new home rather than going back to the owner who allowed it to start running on the streets.

We once re-homed a cat we didn't want to, but the sheriff made us.  It was a lousy home and the cat had severe health problems.  We made a vet appointment and agreed to pay for the cat's care, but the owner refused.  How amazingly selfish and cruel.

Meet Frankie and Buffy, or Daisy and Sunshine, as they later came to be called.

They showed up together in our yard and we were able to get 'em inside, but they literally were climbing the drywall, they were SO feral.

We got a call from a couple...they came for a visit...they each picked up a cat...the cats melted...it was love at first sight...we went to the people's house...the cats walked out of the carriers and acted as if they already owned the place.

We were producing a documentary on the animal situation in our city and were shooting at the city pound.  You could hear this kitten screaming all the way down the hall.  I approached him, with camera rolling, and he and I bonded immediately.  We named him Alvin...found a home for him with a great couple (who also adopted another rescue of ours named Darren) and both cats lived out their lives in one of the greatest homes two cats could ever hope for.

This is Heidi, a Terrier mix I found the Friday after Thanksgiving...in the middle of a very busy intersection.  She had traffic backed up for a couple blocks in all directions and I saw her almost get run over half a dozen times before I could jump out of the car and whistle for her.  When I did, she ran like a laser straight toward me, rolled over on her back...and lived out her life in our home.  She was a willful little stinker and liked to pee in the hallway, but we loved her to pieces.  She could jump about 6' in the air to catch a bouncing ball in her mouth and we loved to throw the ball for her.  She developed a lot of health problems and had some major surgeries, but loved her home.

These pictures are captured off the video I produced of a puppy-mill raid we orchestrated and conducted.  The preparation, including lots of planning with law enforcement and other governmental agencies, took over six months.

We enlisted the help of animal welfare people and rescue groups from a number of states.

Hundreds of animals were rescued, provided all the veterinary care they required, fostered, rehabilitated and placed in loving homes.  The Sheriff' who went through the door with his gun drawn ended up adopting a little dog from the raid, which was quite a sight since the dog was tiny and the sheriff, uh, wasn't.

Luckily (and amazingly, given the conditions), only one of the animals had to be euthanized.  She had advanced heartworm and it was affecting her ability to breathe.  She was an older dog who had been bred way too many times and was overweight and not in good health.  Still, it was very hard on us all to have to end her life.

The video I shot was used by all the television network affiliates and we and others were interviewed about the raid, which received a lot of coverage and really seemed to help spur a change in attitudes about animals and their care.

There were cockroaches everywhere and more filth than you can imagine.  We felt quite sad for all the animals, but also the people, who obviously had issues that caused them to think that all this was ok.

This raid was an enormous drain on us in a number of ways, but was one of the most fulfilling things I think we'll ever do in our lives.  It was one of the key dominoes that seemed to really spur positive change in the Central Indiana animal situation.

We're honored to have been able to make such a difference in these animals' lives.

This poor dog, who we named Steve for some odd reason, was chained up day and night, 365 days a year, without adequate shelter, fresh water or food.  He was terribly flea infested and more, as you can well imagine.  In fact, he was scratching himself when I took this photo.

We worked with law enforcement to assist this poor dog.  Julie even went to the front door of this house, wearing a wireless microphone, to inquire about the dog.  She was brave...and I don't think would do it again.  Interestingly, the people said they didn't want to give Steve up 'cause he was their "protection."  Really?  How much protection can a guy on a short chain provide?

What you don't see in the photo is the GIANT lock that is hanging around Steve's neck.  It had to weigh more than five pounds...and the chain was digging into his neck.

We got him all fixed up and then found him a loving, forever home.  He was a changed man, indeed!

I was producing documentaries for Habitat for Humanity and arrived at a build site at 6AM one day.  I saw this poor dog chained up nearby and went to investigate.  The poor dog seemed sweet but, as you can see if you click on the photo to see the larger version, his right eye was in terrible shape.  I'm standing there and these two very angry and very large men came up to me and made it clear that I wasn't welcome on their land or to mess with their dog.  I managed to get out of the situation, called the lead Animal Control officer, the dog was rescued...and the gentlemen never hunted me down.

These are some of the videotapes and printed teaching guides we purchased (with private funds) and distributed to Central Indiana veterinarians in an effort to get more of them to practice what's called Early-Age Spay/Neuter.  We also invited them to come to our spay/neuter clinic to watch early-age surgeries being done.  You know what?  It worked!  Now there are TONS of vets in Central Indiana who perform early-age spay/neuter every day.  We couldn't be happier, as early-age is so much better for the animals than waiting 'til they're older.

This is a kitty we rescued and named Simon.

I went to pick up some pasta and salads for us to have for dinner one evening and there was this small kitty.  One of the restaurant employees helped distract the kitty while I crawled on the ground and sneaked up behind the kitty.  I leaped forward and tackled the kitty, who either melted or froze with fear, and drove the kitty back home.  He lived with us many years, then went to live with an elderly cancer survivor who adopted another of our rescued cats, Ernie.  Ernie and Simon were inseparable and lived out their lives together, passing away not too far apart.

We were going to take part in a big adoption event on the other side of town.  I was in the car and on my way there when I found this turtle in the middle of a busy road.  I figured I'd release him in the canal in a trendy area of Indianapolis, as it was on my way.  But when I climbed down the embankment and set him by the edge of the water, then climbed back up the hill to get in my car, the turtle just turned his head and looked right at me as if to say, "Really? You want me to live here?"  I picked him up and drove 'cross town to a city park.  I hid the turtle in the trunk, paid the admittance fee, drove back to a pond I knew of in the park and released the turtle.  He scampered very quickly down the embankment toward the water and I was lucky to get these two photos of him.  He was a lot bigger than the second photo would lead you to believe and didn't smell very good at all.  In fact, he peed on me in the car as we drove 'cross town, all the while trying to bite me, but he (or she, I suppose) was also enjoying looking out the car window.  He was obviously quite happy with his new home, but didn't stop to say thank you.  Given that turtles can live so long and the pond is in a protected park, he's probably still alive...and is undoubtedly a lot bigger now.

These two photos are of an injured deer who lived on our property and who my wife christened "Deer Abby."  Abby had a right front leg that she held out straight and stiff, likely because it had broken and not healed correctly.  We befriended her and trained her to come near us to get an apple.  God bless her...she would hobble all the way across our sizable wooded property to come to her designated spot to get her apple.  Words cannot describe how heartbreaking, yet heartwarming, this was to see.  If you click on the photos, you can see larger versions in which her stiff leg is more evident.  To see her hobble on only her left front leg was incredible and heartbreaking, but she had an incredible amount of grace, even bearing children...who also learned to come to us for apples, though we discouraged this and tried to only give them to Abby.

It broke our hearts when she stopped coming around, likely because she had passed away or had been fallen prey to a stronger animal in our woods.

We learned a lot from Abby, though, about maintaining grace in the face of adversity and making the most out of a bad situation.

She was one of a kind!

This is Lucy, one of the animals we rescued from a local shelter that was, uh, not being run well.  There were sick and dying animals everywhere, despite the fact that the organization was sitting on a pile of cash.  We orchestrated a campaign, along with a local television station's investigative reporters and lots of undercover video/audio, to expose the goings-on at the shelter.  It worked and the place changed its practices.  Whereas I had been invited to join the Board, I decided that I didn't want to be a part of it and we instead decided to help the animals via other means.  The president of the organization recently passed away, so it's my hope that now he understands how it felt to be an animal in his "care."

Lucy still lives with an elderly woman & loves her home!  She and her "mom" are inseparable.

This is a video capture of a little three-legged gal named Samantha.  She ended up at our main vet's office and we helped them do a number of surgeries to save her leg, but to no avail.  We adopted her and she enjoyed life with us, but then we found her an awesome home, where she lived out her life in love and peace.  She got awfully heavy later in her life, which put a strain on her three functional legs!

This is a sad photo, but it exemplifies a wonderful day in which we conducted a feral cat roundup at the site of a local downtrodden motel that was going to be torn down.  This poor kitty was the aged alpha male of a large colony and unfortunately had to be euthanized due to advanced FIV.  The other cats in the colony were relocated to other colonies after being given the veterinary care they needed.

This is Riley, a dog who'd become paralyzed in his lower extremities but who had an amazing zest for life and a really sweet personality.  We helped support Riley's care by helping his "mom," who was a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and did everything she could to see that Riley had the best quality of life possible.

As an aside, we also worked with this woman on other occasions, including supporting the care (and surgery) for a mother goose and all her offspring, who we rescued from the middle of one of the busiest roads in Indianapolis.  We released them in the same pond where I released the turtle shown above, in fact.

This scruffy little kitten was my girlfriend, Tango.  She and I had a great relationship, but we thought her life would be better in a loving, forever home, so we found her one.  She had a heart condition and needed daily medication, but we heard through the grapevine that the new owners had decided not to give it to her.  Then, we got a call from the pound saying that Tango had been turned in!  OMG!  But by the time we got there, Tango had gone to a rescue group that wouldn't give her back to us or tell us where she'd gone.  Losers.  We hoped and prayed for Tango's wellbeing and feel terrible for the way things turned out for her.  We can only hope that God looked after her better than it sounds like her humans did.

Speaking of scruffy girls, this is Lilly.  She belonged to neighbors of my father's and I took this first photo of her as I was at my dad's house (the house I grew up in) after his passing.  I spoke with the neighbors, who said the vet had Lilly on antibiotics.  I knew that her problem was much more severe than needing antibiotics, so I convinced the neighbor to let us take Lilly to the vet, where oral cancer (due to the neighbor's smoking) was diagnosed.  Lilly went into hospice care at our facility and passed away less than two weeks later, but BOY did we pack a lot into her short time with us.  Learn more here and here.