Most of our work is done in Nassau, however, we also support the spay neuter efforts on Family islands. We do the most work with the team in Georgetown Exuma. Dr. Issah Hanson from the Bahamas Humane Society goes down to offer clinic services and at the same time Baark! subsidizes the costs of spay and neuter surgeries for roaming community strays and for the pets who belong to someone but the owner cannot afford to pay. Ellen is a volunteer who coordinates a lot of the spay and neuters with people on the island.
Of course, our focus is on spay and neuter, but because of being involved with rescues that need spaying and neutering we get to be part of some really great happy tails! Here is one recent story Ellen just shared with us that is super special and we wanted to share it with YOU!
Ellen’s words about Karma’s adoption from Exuma to the USA:
Karma is a very popular stray that has probably lived on the beach for most of her life. Some visitors wanted to adopt her in late August, but Dr. Hanson had just left to go back to Nassau and I was leaving to go to the US for a month, so the timing wasn’t conducive to making it happen. The best we could do was to ask a volunteer Nancy to start feeding her for us so we would know she wasn’t hungry. Nancy is a wonderful volunteer that travels around feeding and watering the strays on a regular basis. She also brings them to Dr. Hanson for spay/neuter as she is able to coax them into her car. As you can imagine, this is making a dent in the stray population on the beaches.
Anyway, I hadn’t even returned from the US when two more sets of visitors were contacting me to inquire about adopting her. She is one special potcake! She is sweet, gentle, very affectionate and well behaved. The lady that brought her to us wanted to adopt her as well. I told her the story of the little boy that cried when they had to leave her behind. Instead of adopting, this gem of a lady pre-paid for a pet sitter, vaccines, nail trim, ear cleaning, Nexgard, and 4dx testing, and bought her a carrier! All so that she could go to be with the little boy that first fell in love with her in late August!
Due to the travel embargo for pets, we were not able to fly Karma commercially directly to the US, so we had to find another way. A local man, Roston McGregor, flew with her to Nassau where she spent a night in a hotel there. Early the next morning, they were delayed in Nassau but eventually, they were off on another flight to Bimini. Karma took it all in stride and seemed to know she was being helped. From Bimini, they took a boat to Ft. Lauderdale. It was quite an adventure for Karma, including being pulled over by the US Coast Guard, but Karma was very well behaved throughout it all. Once they reached Ft. Lauderdale, the grandfather, Ernie, was there to meet them and receive Karma for her trip north in a rental car. It was quite a process, but it was all worth it when the little guy was reunited with his special puppy! The attached video shows the excitement of the little boy and brings tears to my eyes.
Karma is doing well, has been to the US vet, and is living a great life with a wonderful family that loves her. She now has a much better life than being stray on the beach begging visitors for food.”