Renegade Paws Rescue

💔 We know. We were just here yesterday, begging you to help to save a dog who had been starved nearly to death. His update is coming…

And now we're back again, with another stomach-churning heartbreak.

Meet Paddington. He's just six weeks old and a kind lady found him under a shed this morning. She panicked, scooped his bloody body up and brought him to Renegade.

This tiny, fluffy baby has somehow suffered catastrophic trauma.

Part of his little leg has been severed and his bone is exposed. His pelvis is fractured and he’s running a dangerously high fever - likely from an infection.

We don't know what happened to him. We don't know how a puppy who has barely been alive for a month and a half ends up with injuries this horrific.

We also don't know how we're supposed to look at his little face and say we can't afford to help him.

He is currently at Case Veterinary Hospital, where our amazing vet, Dr. Torres has evaluated him. He needs an amputation, to start, and his cost of care is estimated to be around $7,000.

We're exhausted. We know you're exhausted and we know we ask for so much.

But Paddington doesn't know we just had an emergency yesterday. He doesn't know our medical bills are piling up or that we're running out of ways to ask for help.

Paddington just knows that he’s in pain.

Please. If you have anything left to give, help us give this baby a fighting chance. You can donate here, by calling Case directly, or by signing up to join the mightiest team of monthly medical donors to ever exist. Our monthly donors allow us to even consider taking yet another medical case.

Please share 🙏 Help us show Paddington how good life can be.

Your Friday night side quest has been assigned.

We’re heading to Petco tomorrow for an evening of Dungeons and Doofuses!

📍 8108 Abercorn St
⏰ 4–6 PM

Come meet some of our adoptable pups, get some puppy kisses, hand out a few scritches, and see who might be the perfect addition to your adventuring party.

And yes, Druid D&D will be joining us. His character class is basically Professional Snuggler, with special abilities including polite leash walking, gentle treat-taking, and maximum cuddle damage.

Come roll the dice with us.

Two years ago, we vaccinated a beautiful grey puppy at the start of his life. At the time, his dad refused to surrender him, saying that he would sell him to “the perfect family.”

These photos tell the story of a life gone very differently.

We remember the round, happy little puppy we tried to help. Now, his hair is falling out and we can count each rib.

At our public community clinics, we microchip and vaccinate anyone who comes our way. We believe the first line of defense in animal welfare is harm reduction and keeping pets out of shelters. But in this case, right from the beginning, we feared for the bubbly boy.

He ended up at Metter Animal Control in such poor condition that they are planning to press charges.

The animal control officer who found him said that he was laying in the middle of the road, too weak to move. He is slowly eating and they are monitoring his condition with a vet. The shelter worker said he loves his Bluey blanket.

Renegade is sick over this boy. His body condition score is a 1/9 and he is severely anemic.

Metter is transporting him to us right now. He is going to straight to the Faulkville Animal Hospital and then we need to find him a foster family to help him recover.

We have named him Cup of Ambition, because we have hope for him.

But we need you. A hospitalization is always expensive but he is worth it. And when he is released, he will need a soft place to recover.

We are able to accept sick dogs like this because of our incredible crew of Monthly Medical Donors, who give us the support we need to make life-or-death decisions. Please consider joining this group (linked in the comments) - and helping us give second chances to dogs like Ambition today.

Please apply to foster. And - if you have just $5 to spare - please consider donating. And please, please please, share his story.

Pit bulls. Let’s talk about them.

These block-headed beauties have been part of our lives for generations.

Frolicking in fields. Chasing their tail. Taking up 90% of the couch. Farting beside you and then looking personally offended that you noticed.

Basically: dogs.

Except somewhere along the way, “pit bull” became less of a description and more of a conviction.

So for Pit Bull Awareness Month, let’s clear up some of the nonsense.

MYTH: “Pit bull” is a breed.

Nope.

“Pit bull” is an umbrella term commonly used for multiple breeds and mixes, including American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Bullies and mixes.

And here’s the kicker: humans are REALLY bad at identifying dog breeds just by looking at them. Studies comparing visual identification with DNA have found significant disagreement.

That blockhead isn’t wearing a name tag on their forehead, folks.

MYTH: Pit bulls have locking jaws.

Nope.

There is no special locking mechanism in a pit bull’s jaw.

They have jaws.

Not deadbolts.

MYTH: Pit bulls are inherently aggressive.

Also nope.

Individual dogs can absolutely display aggression. We should take that seriously with EVERY dog.

But breed alone cannot tell you whether an individual dog will be aggressive. Large-scale research has found breed is a poor predictor of an individual dog’s behavior.

Because dogs are individuals.

Wild concept.

MYTH: You can tell if a dog is dangerous by looking at them.

That big head isn’t a personality test.

Neither are cropped ears. Muscles. A giant mouth. Or a breed label.

Behavior is behavior. Appearance is appearance.

Responsible ownership, socialization, training, management, environment, health and the individual dog all matter when we’re talking about safety.

And yes, we’re going to keep talking about responsible dog ownership and bite prevention, too.

Because advocating for pit bull-type dogs doesn’t mean pretending dogs can’t bite.

It means we stop pretending a label tells us everything we need to know about the dog standing in front of us.

So here’s to the blockheads. The meatballs. The velvet hippos. The couch potatoes.

Judge them for who they are.

Not what somebody decided they were before they ever met them.

Happy Pit Bull Awareness Month, you beautiful big-headed weirdos.

Tree Trunks came to us skinny, shy and scared. We wanted her to feel safe, maybe out of her shell a little.

She has since blown the damn shell off.

“LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOOOOOOOOOOR.”

We were hoping for a tail wag with a kiss but instead we’ve been graced with the opening act for Drowning Pool.

We suppose being shy was a calorie issue because that she’s eating (guzzling) regular groceries, she has enough energy to bark “NOTHING’S WRONG WITH ME” four times before she dives headfirst into the kiddy pool.

She’s dog friendly, which is great because she would like to involve other dogs in her rockstar antics. Why run around by yourself when you could get a whole group of idiots going?

She’s here to PLAY. Please clear your schedule and secure your beverage because whatever calm little afternoon you had planned is now a Tree Trunks concert.

We love it. That skinny, scared girl had this much life in her all along. She just needed to feel safe enough to let it rip, and holy 2000s frosted tips, did she.

Please adopt Tree Trunks. She needs a family who sees all this enthusiasm and says, “Get in punks. We’re going on an adventure.” 🖤

We’re not sure if you’re aware, but we had a VIP at our run this morning. 💕

You may have met Roman, who is basically a local celebrity, and one of the poster pups from last year’s race.

Roman loves to run and keeps his humans in tip-top shape so that they can accommodate his weekly mileage. He requires weekly run club outings, at a minimum.

Earlier this year, need for speed hit a huge snag when, at 11 years old, he was diagnosed with Lymphoma. His parents were devastated but they sprang into action, pooling their live savings and launching fundraising campaigns for him on every platform to pay the thousands of dollars his chemotherapy would cost.

They saved his life.

Adopted at 4 months old from Daytona Halifax Human, after his first Wag-O-Ween Savannah x Howe2Run 5k, Roman became an honorary Renegade (I mean, duh - just look at that doofy mutt smile!).

We were thrilled to give Roman’s dedicated humans free entry to this morning’s race, so that his sweet snoot could get back to pounding the pavement.

We also wanted to share a few Lymphoma tips in Roman’s honor:

💕Take your speed racer to regular vet appointments. A routine veterinary examination saved Roman’s life when his vet noticed swelling.

💕Check your pup’s lymph nodes. Roman’s only symptom was lymph nodes that rapidly grew. He was otherwise active, happy and eating.

💕Get Pet Insurance. Cancer is expensive - if you can insure your pup and dock a few dollars off a future bill - it’s worth the peace of mind.

Today, Roman ran his parents into the ground as they announced his remission.

Congratulations Roman! We can’t wait to see you - and your insanely amazing parents - at Wag-O-Ween.

Over 100 participants came out for the Renegade Paws Rescue + Howe2Run Fun Run and 5k and a little rain didn’t scare anyone away!

The dogs had a BLAST with the damp humans and damp backsides to sniff. We got to bring some of our adoptable dogs out for a fun morning and a fantastic break from the shelter. We are so grateful to everyone who signed up to run with a pup!

Thank you to Howe2Run and everyone who came out and got soggy with us.

This event kicked off our Wag-O-Ween Savannah month of fun. We’ll have more great events leading up to Wag-O-Ween, Savannah’s biggest doggy trick-or-treating event on Oct. 25-26.

Keep your costumes close and check out our comments for more information on Wag-O-Ween. The shenanigans are far from over!

Your Saturday is booked. Your social calendar could never.

On Wednesdays, we wear pink. On Saturdays, apparently, we spend the entire day with dogs. As if we had a choice.

Tomorrow is Mean Girls Day, and we’ve got a whole itinerary of shenanigans, adorable dogs, and questionable decisions (like thinking we can make it through an event without giving every dog approximately 47 butt scratches).

🎃 Wag-O-Ween 5K & Fun Run
📍 11 Gateway Blvd
⏰ 8 AM – 12 PM

🐶 Renegade at PetSense by Tractor Supply
📍 410 S Columbia Ave, Rincon
⏰ 10 AM – 11 AM

🐾 Renegade at PetSmart Savannah
📍 11132 Abercorn St
⏰ 10 AM – 1 PM

🙏 The Blessing of the Pets
📍 51 Wilmington Island Rd
⏰ 10:30 AM – 12 PM

Consider this your official invitation to ditch your usual Saturday routine and come hang out with us and some very good dogs. There will be wagging tails, questionable amounts of dog hair, and enough puppy love to make fetch happen.

Grab your besties, put on your pink (or your favorite dog-themed Halloween costume), and come show some love to our adoptable dogs and the rescue pups who make every weekend a little more chaotic.

Get in, loser. We have a very important date with some dogs.

WE’RE BAAAAACKKKKK. DID YOU MISS US, OR WHAT?

We’ve reclaimed our spot at First Fridays in the Starland District, and our little pack of gremlins is READY to make their grand return.

Catch us tonight on DeSoto Ave from 5 PM–9 PM with some of our pups, who are absolutely thrilled to be back out in the wild (and by wild, we mean surrounded by people who will tell them how cute they are).

Come grab a cheeseburger, shop local artists, and, most importantly, distribute an irresponsible amount of butt scratches. Our gremlins will be accepting compliments, snacks, and adoration. No appointments necessary.

Come hang with us, Starland! Let’s make this First Friday one for the books.

🚨 WEEEEEEEEWOOOOOOO WE NEED TO EVICT OUR DOGS 🚨

(Temporarily)

Home Depot is sending 60 volunteers armed with supplies, tools and the ability to fix things we’ve been staring at while saying, “man we really need to fix that.”

They’re tackling our kennel ceiling and lighting, the upstairs deck, escape routes disguised as gates, and a broken door. Home Depot bought the materials. Now we need somewhere to put the dogs.

TEMPORARY FOSTERS NEEDED OCT. 7–12 PLEAAAAAASE 🙏

Our residents simply can’t supervise construction as they have no thumbs. They also have no qualifications, and strong opinions about power tools.

Please let one crash at your house for a few days so we can get these repairs done. We provide supplies. You provide a roof and an audience for their zoomies.

Fill out a foster application and put Oct. 7–12 on it! If you can’t foster, SHARE SO WE CAN COMPLY WITH OSHA 🫡