Always rescuing: Nicole Melamed, Parkland BY RYAN CORTES
My Animals Rock myanimalsrock.org My Animals Rock doesn’t have a building where you can find its dogs – and it doesn’t have a team of volunteers. It’s run by one woman, Kathy Cremer, and she finds almost all of her dogs near one place. The Everglades. Cremer started My Animals Rock in 2009 after spending many hours volunteering at the now-defunct Pet Rescue Miami. After finding abandoned dogs near the Everglades, she blitzes social media, dog websites (like petfinder.com), and dog shelters looking for someone to adopt the pets. .ICOLE -ELAMED WAS AT A "* S 7HOLESALE #LUB LAST *ULY WITH HER husband Rob when they saw a dog bolting through the parking lot. “We stopped the car and we got out – and she jumped in,” Melamed says. “She was very friendly and that’s how it all started.” The Parkland mother of three already had one dog — a 4-year-old golden retriever named Basha — and didn’t want to take on another with her son’s Bar Mitzvah upcoming. So she partnered up with a rescue organization called My Animals Rock, and within a month, the pitbull/boxer mix with “a face only a mother could love” had a permanent home. It was nothing new for Melamed. “We’re always rescuing something,” she says. “My son and I rescued an injured bird in the parking lot of our orthodontist. We had two baby bunnies in my pool last year — one drowned, the other one we rescued. We’ve always
been animal people.” &OR HER SON *OSHUA S "AR -ITZVAH last October, he dedicated his personal project to helping animals and raised $600 and 1,000 pounds of dog food for My Animals Rock. That was when the family — which also includes Melamed’s two daughters, 9-year-old Liza and 11-year-old Olivia — decided they were ready for another dog. They adopted an all-black terrier mix named Polly from My Animals Rock. “When we first took her, she was terrified,” Melamed says. “She hid under the coffee table for a week. But she’s the happiest, most loving puppy now that she’s adjusted.” Melamed lives at Heron Bay in Parkland and after being married for 16 years, she says she wasn’t sure when Mother’s Day was or what plans she had for it. “But,” she says, “I know my husband will come up with something.”
Sometimes the process takes a while, because of the condition of the dog. “They always come off the street really in bad shape, with heartworms and broken hips and legs because they’ve been hit by cars near the Everglades,” she says. There’s a $150 adoption fee, but Cremer says it’s a small price to pay. She estimates that every dog rescued has $400 spent on it before it’s adopted – and often more, if the dog needs surgery. Cremer is also particular about who adopts the dogs. She has potential customers complete an application, checks their vet references to see about their previous animals, and she insists on a home visit with the dog before an official adoption, just to make sure the house (and fence) is suitable. “I’m very, very strict,” she says. “These animals have been through hell, so we want to make sure they’re definitely going to a forever home.”
LIFESTYLEMAGAZINEGROUP.COM | MAY 2013
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