When we found out about Carol’s death, the first thing we thought was, “What is going to happen to her dogs?” Carol’s death was shocking enough for our little community, but then we found out that her dogs were at a pound. Carol’s next of kin did not know what to do with the dogs nor did they know what provisions Carol had made for her dogs so they had sent them to the pound. They were then released to a rescue group.
Carol’s cousin and Kathy Maniscalco, who knew that Carol would not want her dogs in rescue, got together and made a plan. They would get the dogs out of rescue and would make sure they got great Beagle homes! The problem that they encountered was that the rescue group required that the adoption fees for each dog be paid before they would be released, and these fees were more than the cousin and Kathy could afford. That is when AmBRNet made the decision to pay the adoption fees so that Kathy and Carol’s cousin could get the dogs into good homes. AmBRNet did ask for donations to cover this cost and received so much from our wonderful Beagle community that we were able to begin a fund to help with this type of situation. In addition, excess funds covered the travel expenses for the placement of Carol’s dogs
We created the Carol Rutherford Memorial Fund. This fund will be separate from other funds administered by AmBRNet, and will be used specifically for NBC members’ dogs when the member has suffered a catastrophic event, such as death or a health crisis which has left the member unable to care for her/his dogs. A copy of the specifics of this fund may be requested from AmBRNet .*
AmBRNet encourages everyone in our community to have a plan for her/his dogs in case of death or other emergency and to have that plan known and accessible, but we know that sometimes things happen that were not anticipated or planned for.
*Monies requested from this fund must be voted on by the Board of Directors and receive majority approval before disbursement.