Name/Age: Gator - 12 y/o
Family Members: Jennifer, no human children. 4 - legged children: I have a Tree Hound named Bailey that was a foster fail because she likes to take out men by their Achilles. I have my older hounds Breeze and Pretty. I also have Allen Frog, he was feral when he came to me with his brother Edgar. They had scabies I fostered them that was fun…
How long has Gator been in the family? 1 year
Profession: RN Trauma ICU & Director of Renegade Paws Rescue
Location: Savannah, GA.
Nicknames: Gator Bait
4 words/phrases that best describe Gator?
Outgoing
Loving
Hungry
Sleepy
What makes Gator unique? Gator is the most outgoing of my babies. He is a favorite everywhere he goes. He will put his big ole head in your lap and wait for you to pet him. He is perfect and I could not love him more.
Gator with the beautiful eyes and the big contagious smile.
Rescue Story: Gator was a junk yard dog and was not ever allowed to be pet, he is 12 years old and has heartworms. Everyone loves Gator, he goes out and plows down stereotypes. Even people that don’t like “pit bulls” love Gator. He is not a candidate for fast kill HW treatment so he decided to stay here and eat chicken and pizza.
Gator heading home!
What is your favorite pastime as a family? We foster many dogs and Gator helps to make them more adoptable by teaching them how to dog. Gator also loves to take short rides to Starbucks for Puppuccinos.
What is life like since you rescued Gator? Gator is the type of dog that would not have had a chance without rescue. And to be very honest with you, when the days in rescue get sad and hard all I need to do is look at him and I remember why it is worth it. He is how I keep going when it is too hard, because I know they are worth every single tear and every 12 hour day.
Photographers Note: Where do I start, this is going to be a long one. First of all Jennifer was the person who reached out to me about coming to Savannah. She had rescued one of my past volunteers (Mama Mitts) and learned about Shine A Light when her Mom posted Mitt’s story. She was absolutely amazing, she found all the volunteers for me and from there it was just coordination. It went so well, I already promised her I would be back down.
Next Gator, what can I say about this lumbering goofy boy. I only got to spend a short time with him but I was smitten pretty quickly. He has that huge contagious smile with those beautiful blue eyes and then all he wants to do is be near you and be loved on. However, this boy is no fool; my usual tricks to get the ears up and a smile from the pups did not work for him. I had to resort to the crinkle of a treat bag and the highest (and most annoying) squeaky voice I could manage. Once I got the shot he made e beeline over to me and just laid in my lap. See what I mean, completely smitten!
Originally Jennifer had planned on featuring two of her dogs, however as we were going through the coordination aspects of the trip her pup NeNe passed away. Absolutely heart breaking for Jennifer and her family of pups. After reading about her and seeing her rescue picture, I so wish I had the opportunity to meet her. She will always live on in Jennifer and in every pit bull that Jennifer helps to rescue and provide a good home to. I wanted to be sure to share some of NeNe’s story with you all:
NeNe was confiscated by Chatham County Animal Services from a fighting ring. She was used as a breeder and bait dog. She came to rescue with her 5 puppies. She came to me as a foster but people did not understand that she could be a good family pet, she actually loves children. I took her to a few events and people were scared of her because of her scars. The last event I took her to she looked up at me and I felt something, and in that moment, I could not let her go. I have fostered more then 100 dogs and let them go, NeNe was meant to be mine.
NeNe was 7 years old and had been with Jennifer for 3 years.
RIP Sweet Girl