Familiar things: Foster dog receives bed, other gifts
Underhound Railroad Director Renee Coombs, left, looks on as Reno meets with veterinarian Tammy Doughty in Woolwich on Dec. 31. Doughty’s clinic donated the bed and other items to travel with the dog to his foster homes as he awaits adoption. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Underhound Railroad Director Renee Coombs, left, looks on as Reno meets with veterinarian Tammy Doughty in Woolwich on Dec. 31. Doughty’s clinic donated the bed and other items to travel with the dog to his foster homes as he awaits adoption. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
In spring 2014, Underhound Railroad rescued a five-month old hound mix from a high-kill shelter in Georgia.
“We saved him on his very last day,” the organization’s director Renee Coombs of Bristol said about Reno.
In a mix-up at the shelter, a different dog, Meyer, was being prepared for the trip to Maine instead of Reno, Coombs said. Underhound Railroad agreed to take them both.
Meyer has since been adopted from the rescue group; Reno, the hound-mix, was, too, but a family member’s allergy resulted in his return to Underhound Railroad and foster care. Now one year old, he is still waiting adoption and has been cared for in a number of foster homes.
Woolwich veterinarian Tammy Doughty had an idea for dogs like Reno who move from one temporary setting to the next: Give them things that can travel with them and can help them feel secure in their new surroundings.
“These are things that will have familiarity to them, kind of like a security blanket,” she said.
On Dec. 31 at her Woodbrook Animal Clinic, Doughty presented Reno and Coombs with a series of items including a cushy red dog bed and a snowflake squeak toy Reno immediately began playing with.
Doughty said she has committed the clinic to donating a bag a month for at least one year; each bag, including a dish, leash, collar, bed, toy and bag of grain-free dog food, will be for another of Underhound Railroad’s dogs. The donation of a bag of belongings to travel with a dog is a first for Underhound Railroad, Coombs said.
When she first heard Doughty’s idea, Reno immediately came to mind, Coombs said.
“I love this very much,” she said about the donation. “And I’m extremely grateful for this.”
She hopes to have the bags go with the dogs not only to their foster homes, but their forever homes, Coombs said.
In addition to the bags the clinic is donating, Doughty said anyone else is also welcome to drop off a bag for Underhound Railroad at her clinic at 13 Hunnewell Lane.
For more on Reno and Underhound Railroad, contact Coombs at underhoundrenee@gmail.com.
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