Down South Justice: Animal Rescue in the Deep South by David Cowardin

Author:David Cowardin [Cowardin, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: David Cowardin
Published: 2016-01-21T23:00:00+00:00

ON THE FRONTLINE

WE HAD TO KEEP MOVING. We were on a limited time frame and needed to meet and interview as many animal rescuers as we could to get the big picture of animal rescue and rescuers alike.

I thumbed over the next name in my reporter’s notebook, Tina Watson, and made plans to meet with her that afternoon at her home in Cottondale, just East of Tuscaloosa.

It was our third day bouncing from city to city, and the affects of road life started to show. We had yet to shower, aside from the occasional wind shower that consisted of hanging our heads out the RV windows while rumbling down Interstate 20 between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. I chose to wear the same shirt every day because of its convenient zip-up pockets that carried extra camera batteries and memory cards. It was the same shirt I wore to a wedding earlier that year and that Joe said made me look like Ace Ventura. The armpits started to yellow and gather layers of old deodorant.

We missed Tina’s house at first pass, which was tucked behind a nonresidential building. I was sweating my ass off and trying to gauge how long it would take for my body to acclimate to southern temperatures. I took several gulps from a gallon jug of water before jumping out into the swelter of Alabama’s high humidity.

Tina met us at the gate in front of her house where two of her dogs were already jumping to greet us. She shooed them away so we could squeeze through and follow her inside where it was dark and cool.

Watson, Tina’s black pit mix ran down from an L-shaped sofa taking up the majority of her living room and pushed its nose against my leg. Tina’s more stalky, brindle pit bull, Girlfriend, stood firmly in the middle of the room barking at the unfamiliar visitors carrying strange gear into the house. It took a moment for Tina to calm her dogs before we could begin a conversation.

She walked us through her kitchen where several dogs were crated and waiting to be adopted. Tina recommended we take one with us, and we told her we would on our way back to Minnesota.

Like all of the southern women we met, Tina’s “hobby” of rescue began organically. She started just more than a year prior to us meeting by rescuing her dog, Girlfriend along with Girlfriend’s litter of 10 puppies from an abandoned home. Like Ingrid, Tina gained a reputation as someone to call about strays and abandoned animals. Do it once, better be prepared to do it again.

Her first year as a self-proclaimed animal rescuer she saved 60 dogs, which seemed like a lot, but Tina said all she does is drive to abandoned homes where, more often than not, she finds neglected dogs chained and left to rot. They are the dogs occupying crates in Tina’s kitchen. Some have bandages over old wounds.

“Even when you try to take a break, there’s no break,” Tina said.

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