[ferndalezoo]

On a larger scale, my partner and I foster for a dog-and-cat non-breed-specific rescue. We've had over 30 foster dogs and 6 foster cats in the two years we've been with this rescue.

On a smaller scale, nearly all of our animals were rescues in some form or another:

The Dogs:

The Bear (shepherd mix, now 11, adopted from a rescue at 6 mo)
Tasha (Aussie Shep, now 10, rescued from a puppy mill, then adopted by us, at 6 mo)
Murphy (English Mastiff), now 6-ish, was a MI Humane Society cruelty seizure. He spent his whole first 4 years tied to a tree being starved, and probably beaten.

The Cats:
Xena (now 5) found on my doorstep as a kitten.
Puck (now 4) rescued from a kitten mill and adopted by me at 3 months.

The reptiles/amphibians:
Erma (the ball python), rescued from a crazy person who "found god" and decided that her pet snake was an istrument of satan.
Zack (the green iguana) was dumped on our doorstep.
Salvador Dali, the painted turtle. Quote from sister-in-law: "If it doesn't walk up to me and ask "what's for dinner?" I forget to feed it."
Grabbie/Arlene/Agent 2-0-4 (the clawed frogs) were all "free to good home" from different sources over hte past 3 years.
Gus (the whites tree frog) was dumped "due to a move".
(we do have some other reptiles/amphibs that we got on purpose, from good breeders, but their stories don't belong in this thread).

The "Small and furries":

The Rats (Zoey and Houdini) are second-generation rescues. We rescued their parents from an idiot who thought all male hairless rats were sterile and housed him (a large, hairless male) with her (a very young dumbo/rex female.). A week later she had 6 babies, two of whom died from a genetic problem right away. Zoey and Dini are the last two surviving, 2 years later.

The ferrets: The boys (Xavie and Rupert) were dumped by a roommate who moved out without them, and Gwennie was adopted from a private party when they "got tired of her".

The Degus (Rikki and Tavi) were adopted from the Humane SOciety. Lucie was adopted from a private party when the fmaily dog ate her sister.

Eddie the Chinchilla was rescued from a home where they apparently coudn't figure out that boy+girl=babies.

And finally the PIGGGIES! Phil was found abandoned in a box in a Petsmart parking lot last winter. Oswald was "ransomed" for $5 from a guy who was selling them as snake-food.