Dear members and friends,

It’s been a busy few days for ESRA's Mark Samuel and his local volunteer team in MO. They have been working around the clock with the state to get all the dogs into boarding and vet care. I can't imagine how Mark is still standing up after making so many trips and moving dogs all over the place. He received about 90 MO dogs yesterday. In addition to Springers, Mark also received cockers, which will be moved to cocker rescue. As if all those dogs weren't enough, he also took in some more Springers yesterday that hadn't yet been collected from our massive rescue in December (making a total of 75-80 dogs from that effort).

It's hard to conceive of the fact that Mark and local ESRA volunteers had to find housing for 200 or more dogs basically overnight, but they did it! Now they are just going to begin the process of identifying and tagging the dogs, getting vetting started, and coordinating with cocker rescue and the local rescue organization taking the German shorthaired pointers.

On top of that, Mark is communicating with me and the ESRA board. He is working closely with Linda Lintz, who is the Midwest VP. She is in charge of organizing this event, handling the paperwork for getting the dogs placed in various states for foster care, and working with the transport team.  Our coordinators are communicating with Linda to see that we have enough foster homes, and it actually looks as if we have more foster homes than dogs right now!

Meanwhile, our transport leaders are working on trucks and supplies as well as lining up volunteers to do the moving. Carolyn Molloy was able to get 40 crates donated, and shipping was arranged by another member at an amazingly low cost. Carolyn is also working on gathering and sending other supplies.

Our public affairs team and our website team are in action to get pages up on our website.

Suzanne Bell is busy with donations and organizing the mountain of paperwork necessary for grants and gifts.

Right now, the most important part is getting the dogs to safety and into boarding to prepare for the teams of volunteers who will be starting to move dogs next week.  

Could I be any prouder of ESRA than I am right now? No way. Our members ROCK! We are also receiving support from our ESSFTA springer fanciers, and donations are coming in from all over the country.

These dogs will be moving into foster homes starting early next week, and on to loving homes in the weeks to come.

Way to go, ESRA! Way to go!   Thank you to all our supporters and donors. This operation will cost ESRA thousands of dollars; your financial support makes it possible for us to take on a major project such as this. 

Thank you to everyone from the bottom of my heart!

Caryn Pola
English Springer Rescue America, Inc.
President