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Giving a voice to homeless dogs

Amy%2C%20Oscar%20and%20Linc%2008%20%282%29.jpg Amy Murphy, the teller of dog tales -- like the one we featured yesterday -- became a volunteer at North Mecklenburg Animal Rescue after stumbling upon the organization and its dogs at a North Carolina Petsmart.

She started taking her own dog -- Oscar, a rescued pit bull mix -- to the store on days that the rescue organization was holding adoption days so that he could meet the puppies.

"He absolutely adores puppies, and would be so disappointed if we went on a day when the rescue wasn't there," she said.

An occupational therapist, Murphy signed up as a volunteer at the rescue organization about seven months ago, specifically to work with pit bulls.

"Since getting ...  Oscar, I have become a complete and total pit bull fan, and feel I understand them to a degree that makes them very easy for me to train," she said.

Oscar, not yet three, is a registered Delta Society Therapy Dog that visits hospitals and nursing homes.

She routinely takes rescue organization dogs home to bond with Oscar.

"Oscar is so good with puppies and small dogs that he hosts lots of playdates with pups from the rescue that need socialization in new, potentially scary places. Our large fenced yard is too good not to share, so every time you turn around, there is a new dog in my car, coming to meet Oscar and learn to play ball."

Wanting to see more of the rescued dogs find homes, Murphy asked Beth Phillips, the rescue organization's director, what more she can do -- and that's when Murphy took over composing notices of dogs available for adoption.

They're not your standard announcements, though. Murphy takes on the persona of the pup in her stories and aims for readers' hearts when putting together the biographies.

"I love to write ...  So, I started writing the dogs' biographies, putting them on the rescue's site, Craigslist and Petfinders, and the rest is history. It seems that they have acquired quite a following, and Beth gets emails daily just to tell us how much they love the stories or to say that they think I should do this for rescues around the nation."

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About this blog


John Woestendiek has been a features reporter at The Sun for six years. Previously he worked as a reporter, columnist, national correspondent and editor at four other newspapers, and received a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1987 for his reporting on prisons and mental institutions for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Woestendiek lives in South Baltimore with his dog, Ace.
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