CNN iReport

I’m most thankful for having the privilege of getting to know the president of the Randolph  County Humane Society, a 45 year old woman I’ll call “Mighty Fighter.”  Mighty Fighter works tirelessly to make sure the animals are taken care of until they find a forever home, and she spends every waking moment in pursuit of keeping the doors to the shelter open.  I first began to admire her because after two back surgeries that didn’t cure what ails me, I realized she has similar problems with her back, but uses a medicine pump that pumps pain meds directly into her spinal canal and a spinal stimulation unit that puts electric currents in her spine, just so she can walk.  Makes my back problems look like a walk in the park.  Even with all of that she spends her days cleaning kennels, walking the dogs, administering medicines, doing paperwork, etc., etc.  She’ll spend weeks preparing for and going to court against animal abusers to obtain possession of the abused and neglected animals so they can be permanently removed from their abusive situation, then she nurses them back to health so they can be adopted into loving forever homes.  I have marveled at her ability to go and go and go when the animals are involved.  This past summer I stopped by the shelter and one of the volunteers told me they’d just taken Mighty Fighter out on a stretcher in an ambulance.  This vibrant, energetic young woman had a heart attack.  Add this to what she goes through just to be on her feet, and I’m sure you’ll agree that 99% of the population would be motivated to stop doing everything except take care of themselves (and with good reason), but not Mighty Fighter.  As soon as she was able she was back at the shelter, going 90 mph to save as many dogs as she can.  She and her husband purchased a van they donated to the shelter to use for transports (when other no-kill shelters have room to take our overflow), and making all the weekly transports happen by driving the animals to another, often out of state shelter or to the airport for the plane waiting to take them away, is just another item on the list of her many duties.  She’s a one person whirlwind, and keep in mind, she volunteers all of her time.  Last month we were talking on the phone and she told me she’d gotten bad news.  She has leukemia.  Right now she is undergoing chemotherapy treatments but because there is no one else to do what she does she has continued to do for the shelter as she has always done.  Being a rural county of only 34,000 people besides being an area that is down on its luck, there isn’t a lot of money left over for donations to the shelter, and donations are our only source of income.  She constantly has to struggle with how she is going to get the medicines and vaccines paid for that she must have for the animals.  She was devastated because she was pricing the veterinary products and even though she had gotten the price down lower than she’d ever gotten it before, there was just simply not enough money in the till to get everything we need.  And again, she takes from her own pocket to make sure the animals don’t suffer.  But in the midst of our conversation she started to cry.  She said to top it all off when she got into the shower that evening a large clump of her hair had fallen out, and she just wasn’t prepared to lose her hair.  And I cried with her because there is nothing more that I can do as her friend except to offer my shoulder because as inadequate as it is, it is all I have to give. 

I would give anything if during this extreme time of need she had some of the burden lifted from her shoulders.  I can’t take her cancer away, but perhaps as a community we can come together to help the shelter, both financially and by volunteering, so at least she doesn’t have to shoulder the depth and breadth of the burden she now shoulders. 

I know there will never be a time the shelter will be without animals that need her help, and if together we can help lighten her load it may help her stay around longer, saving more lives in the process.  I can only pray that happens because these shoes are just too big to be filled by anyone other than Mighty Fighter.  She is my hero.  I’m 54 years old, but I know that as long as I live I’ll never be ½ the person she is.  The only thing I can hope is that by bringing her story to your attention perhaps your kind heart will be moved to help the one that helps the least of them among us.   And please, when  you sit down to enjoy your holidays with your family this year, say a prayer of gratitude for the Mighty Fighters everywhere because we are a stronger community because of them.