McKee has to respond to loose dog calls and either find the dog’s owner, make sure that the owner gets the dog licensed if it is not and/or place the dog in a kennel if no owner can be located. Again, McKee goes above and beyond the call of duty here. “Most dog-owners who have lost a dog and care about them call me within 24 to 48 hours and get their dog from the kennel,” he said. “But the kennel can’t keep a dog for more than five days. If that’s the case, I do whatever I can to try and find the dog a home so it doesn’t get euthanized.”
A big part of what McKee and O’Dell attempt to do is to “educate people, particularly young people, about the need to have a dog spayed or neutered and to keep up with their shots and how to care for them.”
The two used to do a lot of travel rescue in North Carolina and in Oklahoma, where O’Dell’s mother lives. “I’ve always been a dog-lover, and began volunteering at the ASPCA when I was a teenager,” she says. “We went to visit my Mom a few years ago, and she was horrified by how dogs were being treated in her area. It was unconscionable. She showed me several places where people would shoot dogs for fun, or maybe get them as puppies when they were cute, but once they grew older, stopped caring or feeding them.” The two have a “Dog Rescue Transport” recreational vehicle that they put crates in. They would literally take mother dogs and their pups that had been abused or abandoned back to their home in Lloyd, where they would care for them, get them up-to-date with shots and try to adopt them out.
“Now we’re really focused on dogs here,” she says. “As horrible as those situations were, and we wanted to help, my one Rescue friend told me that I was ‘trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.’ The problem was too big, and I felt I could have a greater impact here where we live and work, and could educate and help dogs in this area.”
“Beth has been a huge help to me, because she can deal with dangerous dogs better than anyone I’ve met,” says McKee. “She never has to use the pole! And she can also understand their behavior and let me know if she believes a dog is truly dangerous or not.”
“I love animals, and particularly dogs, and I just hate to see a dog not live a full, happy life if we can find them a home,” said O’Dell. “It hurts when we can’t.”
Their dedication has not gone unnoticed by residents or the Town Board. At last week’s meeting, supervisor Paul Hansut read a letter from a town resident whose dog was attacked by another dog. When she met McKee, the resident said, she was so impressed with his professionalism and the time and care that he took with her. She lauded his overall approach and kindness and said that “most people believe that government does not work for them, but against them. This is a wonderful case where government does work for the people.”
“Congratulations! This will go in your personnel folder,” said Supervisor Hansut. “Is now a good time to ask for a raise?” joked McKee. Later he said that he was “touched” by the letter, and that it helped him to know that his efforts were being noticed — so much so that someone took the time to write a letter. “That meant a lot to us,” he said.
If you need to contact the McKee, you can go to the Town of Lloyd website at www.townoflloyd.com. ++
papi is my dog