Missoulian, Dec. 15, 2002
You made many tails wag: Community overwhelms ranch for abused animals with flood of donations
By Ginny Merriam of the Missoulian
A group of Missoula animal lovers
unloads donated animal feed and other goods at the Rolling
Dog Ranch near Ovando on Saturday. Since late November,
the group has been collecting donations of goods and
cash for the facility, which takes care of abused, neglected
and abandoned animals. |
OVANDO - On the 11th day before Christmas, a group of Missoula animal lovers gave to the Rolling Dog Ranch 1,710 pounds of dog food, 300 pounds of cat litter, 10 bags of sheep feed, 200 pounds of chicken feed, 28 dog bowls, 485 pounds of cat food, eight cat beds, 18 dog beds, seven horse halters, nine rolls of horse bandages, 22 mineral licks and 1 ton and six bales of hay.
There's more.
One hundred thirty-three pounds of dog biscuits, 23 cat toys, 20 pounds of raw dog bones, two Christmas stockings, one dog door, three bags of cracked corn, two Christmas wreaths, a stock tank, a stock tank heater, medical supplies and $500 cash.
There's still more.
"Thank you, thank you," said Steve Smith as the 37 donors who made the trip from Missoula showed him what they brought on Saturday. "Oh, my goodness. Oh, you guys."
"I think I'm stunned," said Alayne Marker, eyes big and astonished.
Marker and Smith, wife and husband, run the Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary on their 160 acres on Kleinschmidt Flat east of Ovando. There, in the high, dry, cold country, they take in discarded animals. Blind dogs, deaf dogs, crippled and once-abused dogs play in the fenced-in five acres around their house. Blind horses, old mules and once-homeless horses live there, too.
In a pen next to the barn are three sheep, wounded once in a dog attack; Myrtle, her ears chewed off, is in grain-bucket heaven, and Minnie and May are pretty happy, too. In the cat house live a cat with a mangled head and a lost eye, another who's diabetic, another whose back legs aren't quite right and others who were lost and sick and wandering before they came to the Rolling Dog.
Smith and Marker have been there two years, supporting the ranch on their own money saved while they worked for Boeing in the Seattle area. They're building their nonprofit sanctuary slowly, spending much more than they raise in donations.
The Rolling Dog was the subject of a Missoulian story on Sunday, Nov. 24. Darla Steubs, who lives with her husband, two rescued dogs and a rescued cat in Missoula, read it.
"Before I got to the end," she said, "I was
dialing their number."
Steubs asked Marker and Smith how she could help. Smith said
they'd send a small wish list.
"I took the article to work," Steubs said. "Everybody had read it and said, 'We're on. What can we do?' "
Steubs works in health care, as do many of her friends, and it spread there first: both hospitals, Missoula Radiology, doctors.
"It just traveled by word of mouth," Steubs said. "All we had to say was, 'Did you read the article Nov. 24?' "
"I thought people would give me $5 bills, and people were giving me $20s, $50s," Steubs said. "These are people who don't spend on themselves."
Then it spread to businesses. Patty and Rick Gauthier stopped in a Cenex store and talked to the staff on a whim. They came away with 400 pounds of food and some horse wormer.
"They just gave us everything," Patty said.
Petsmart gave 33 bags of pet food.
"Petsmart said, 'Come on in. We've got a pallet,' "
she said.
Reserve Street Feed sold the growing group 50-pound bags of
dog food for 50 cents above cost. Neff's gave food and a screaming
deal on 28 pet bowls. Dale's Dairy. Montana Sales and Loan.
It grew and grew.
Quality Supply gave a 15 percent discount on everything.
"I said, 'Look, I'm going to drop some change in here,
and here's why,' " Steubs told them. "They'd read
the article, and they said, 'Say no more.' "
Meanwhile, Steve and Alayne sent a wish list, on which they
wrote, "Even one or two items would mean a lot."
The Missoula group, grown to involve at least 60 people, began thinking "surprise." Steubs called the ranch and suggested some of them might want to visit on Dec. 14 - or the 15th if the Grizzlies were playing football on Saturday.
They'd like to bring a few things the ranch could use, she
told them.
By the middle of last week, a gargantuan pile of donations
began to fill the front of Darla and Bryan Steubs' garage
and shop. On Wednesday night, a group of five excited donors
worked to organize it. The budding Santa Clauses could hardly
wait until Saturday, laughing as they imagined the surprised
faces of Steve and Alayne.
Darla Steubs, who helped organize
the donations, hugs Alayne Marker, right, who runs the
Rolling Dog Ranch with her husband, Steve Smith, at
left. Marker and Smith weren't aware of the sizable
amount of supplies donated until it arrived in a caravan
of vehicles from Missoula. |
On Saturday morning, 37 people loaded 13 vehicles at the Steubs' house and drove to the Rolling Dog in a caravan.
Smith and Marker were outside the barn, talking to a pair of visitors who'd been intrigued after they read about the sanctuary. They looked out at the road. They looked again.
"I saw four cars, five cars," Smith said. "Oh! Thirteen cars. Oh, my gosh."
They pulled into the yard and began showing what they brought.
"Oh, my goodness!" he said. "I'm speechless! It's just amazing! I don't know what to say!"
Marker at first could hardly believe it.
"Oh, you're kidding!" she said. "Oh, my gosh! This is wonderful!"
The pair gave their visitors a tour. Every animal was petted, talked to and given treats, bouts of delighted squealing breaking out in children, parents and grandparents. Widget, the blind beagle-dachshund cross, bossed the crowd with her commanding bark, and Toby, the nearly blind cat, wrapped his arms around as many people as he could get to.
"This is awesome," said Nicole Alexander, who was the organizer and list-maker of the group.
The event was the culmination of a river of attention the Rolling Dog's animals have had the past three weeks as their story has spread. The phone began ringing and e-mails coming the day the story was in the Missoulian.
Steve can show a pile of cards and letters that have just kept coming, many with checks enclosed - $25, $50, $5, $500, $400.
"Somebody sent us a note, 'I can't afford more than $5,' " Smith said. "We are so touched by that. Every little bit helps."
Letters came from Darby, Stevensville, Superior, Wisdom, Sidney and Troy, from Salmon, Idaho, and Waldorf, Maryland, and Columbia, South Carolina. Antioch, Illinois. New Mexico.
From Salt Lake City, a woman wrote, "God bless you for not only seeing a need but for acting on it in the generous spirit you have exhibited. May you be encouraged to continue this caring service your sanctuary provides."
A Christmas card, with $20, said, "Rolling Dog Ranch, Peace & Joy! You are doing such needed, wonderful work."
A woman sending $50 from Missoula wrote, "I wish my check could be more. I have three dogs and could not give them up no matter what problems they might have. I am just glad to know that the world has people like you both with love to give to animals that need your help."
Smith and Marker have written more than 60 thank-you cards. They've learned that with people who love animals, their work resonates.
"I think one of the chords that struck people is that this is a place for the disabled and the disfigured," Smith said. "These are animals that wouldn't have any other chance."
One of the best parts of hearing from others, he said, is a new sense of a group of friends and supporters. And, he said, "All these folks have offered to help because of their love for animals. Knowing they are out there, caring the way they do, is a wonderful feeling. You saw it today."
