Hope for Christmas?

Published 9:24 pm Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Hope’s rescue could hardly have been timed better. As volunteers and supporters of the Suffolk Humane Society gathered in June to cut the ribbon on the organization’s new office in Driver, someone drove up and told them there was a dog wandering nearby that needed help.

As it turned out, Hope, as the female pit bull-mix came to be known, needed all the help she could get. Emaciated, weak and with a serious skin condition at the time she was found, the dog appeared to offer little in the way of hope to those who would end up naming her. But she became something of a cause célèbre — almost a mascot — to the Humane Society volunteers and to the veterinary professionals they enlisted to bring her back to health. Today, she’s got all her fur, she’s gained weight and she truly reflects the spirit of the name that volunteers so hopefully bestowed upon her in the summer.

Now that she has recovered, the next hurdle for Hope is finding a “forever home” where she will be loved and treated well. To that end — and toward the goal of finding similar safe homes for a three-legged kitten named “Tiny Tim” and 50 or more other adoptable animals — the Humane Society is planning a special holiday adoption drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Suffolk Animal Care Center, located at 124 Forest Glen Drive.

Email newsletter signup

For each of up to 50 pets adopted that day, Mike Duman Auto Sales will donate $50 toward the costs. Usual adoption fees are $60 for cats and $75 for dogs, and Duman, a Humane Society board member, will refund $50 for those who bring proof of the adoption to his dealership at 2300 Godwin Blvd.

Not every adoptable animal has a story as incredible as Hope’s. But for Hope and Tiny Tim and all the other animals awaiting adoption here in Suffolk, the stories can all have happy endings if kind, caring people will commit to opening their homes to a new four- (or three-) legged family member this year.