Planned PEThood Blog

If you have never been to Habersham County, GA it is filled with scenic views located the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This is an agricultural community known for peaches, apples, poultry, and the stunning Tallulah Gorge. This small and quite county is a lovely place to live, but it is often filled with wildlife such as bears and coyotes. 

After trying to catch a stray dog that was evading rescue for about a week, Habersham County Animal Control received an alert from 911 late one night. A woman called crying. She found a severely injured dog struggling. The face was barely recognizable and the dog needed help. (We won’t share those images, because you DO NOT want to see them. Trust us.)

Animal control sent out an officer and brought her immediately to an emergency veterinarian. She had been shot with a shot gun— in the face. A resident suspected she was a coyote on his property, and he shot her and left her for dead. The sweet girl, later named Tink, mustered up the energy to find a kind soul and beg for help. Habersham officers wanted desperately to help this dog, but unfortunately the county does not have a veterinary team, and has limited funding for special medical cases. They typically would have been out of options for Tink, and would have been forced to humanly euthanize her. However, Planned PEThood’s Go Fix Georgia program visits the shelter weekly to transport cats and dogs to our clinic for spay/neuter surgeries. 

Knowing that our van would be arriving the next day for transport, Habersham Animal Control contacted our Go Fix GA Coordinator, Tanya Weaver, begging for help. That set the wheels in motion. Our veterinarian, the amazing Dr. Simpson, quickly jumped on board with the rescue effort and agreed to see the dog and attempt to remove the pieces of bullet from her face and remove her injured eye. Our medical team didn’t hesitate to step up to add this sweet girl into their surgical day even though that meant they had to work late. Our staff has nothing but the best of intentions for every animal and could not ignore the severity of her injuries. Regardless of her pain, Tink was nothing but the sweetest dog who was the perfect patient. Her eye removal surgery went smoothly, and donations poured in from the community to help with her care. 

After a few weeks in recovery at Habersham Animal Control, and a follow-up spay surgery Tink was ready for adoption. As fate would have it, the woman who called 911 after finding this sweet soul decided to adopt her!

Her story is an example of why our Go Fix Georgia program is so vital for those counties just outside of our metro area. Without veterinarian care on staff, they were limited in options to care for her. We were able to step in and provide not only her spay surgery, but also the eye removal and fix her up so that she could be adopted out and not just another statistic. We hope you enjoy seeing her smiling and happy face, and thank you to everyone who donated for her care!