For the past several months, I've been working with OC Animal Care and dog rescuers who use Facebook in their efforts. I periodically coordinate communications between them in an effort to minimize staff time needed to deal with the placement of animals at the shelter.

On Tuesday, an urgent message came from Irvine resident Crystal Christensen from Barks of Love Animal Rescue and Placement Services  asking if I could make sure that OCAC staff knew that she was working to get a dog named "Prince" (ID A1066946) out of the shelter.

With the county shelter in Orange constantly at capacity, there is always a risk that a dog may not make it out alive. With Prince, there was added concern, as he was listed as 12 years old. Older dogs are considered less likely to be adopted, putting him at even greater risk.

On Monday night, Christensen happened upon a picture of Prince, a Jack Russell Terrier, on the Angels for Animals Network Facebook page, something out of her routine as foster program coordinator for Barks of Love. “Ordinarily, I only view dogs that are specifically sent to my Barks of Love email address,” Christensen said.

The Angels for Animals page was set up in 2009 by J’aime Ketchum of Laguna Beach, another avid animal welfare advocate, to increase the visibility of dogs from OCAC and other overcrowded shelters in Southern California, thereby increasing their likelihood of adoption. The latest Facebook statistics show that AFA has 16,190 followers.

It’s not often that Christensen has the time to look at the dogs on the Angels for Animals page, but for some unknown reason she did—and is very glad.

Christensen immediately recognized Prince as “Speck,” a dog she knew from more than a year earlier when she was a volunteer at the Irvine Animal Care Center. When she saw his picture “wearing the same collar he left IACC with, my heart sank,” she said.

She slept only two hours, spending most of the night sending urgent pleas for help to other rescuers.

"I knew the picture I saw was Speck and couldn’t believe that he was back in a shelter,” Christensen said.

She spent the better part of the next 48 hours networking and confirming that Prince was, in fact, Speck, a 7-year-old who had been adopted from the Irvine Animal Care Center in late January 2010 through its Third Chance for Pets program.

Funded entirely by donations, Third Chance for Pets takes animals into the Irvine shelter from other overcrowded shelters throughout Southern California—as space is available—and adopts them out from there.

Speck had been at the Irvine shelter for at five months, according to Christensen, who had been a volunteer there. She worked three days a week for the entire length of Speck’s stay. She knew him well. Christensen said that Speck was at first a hesitant dog and it “took him some time to warm up to new people.” He was also scared of noises and tall people, but liked to chase shadows.

When Speck finally got adopted, Christensen felt he got a good home. Speck's eventual adopter spent more than an hour getting to know him before she made the decision to adopt him. She exchanged email addresses with Christensen, and sent her pictures of Speck in his new environment, still wearing the red collar, the nametag and ID that he had from IACC.

Christensen emailed Speck's owner on Monday night. To date, she has not heard back from her, although she believes the email address to still be valid.

On Tuesday, Christensen went to OC Animal Care to see Speck. When she arrived at his kennel, he didn’t seem shy. She called his name, and he answered by coming to greet her.

Christensen also visited with Speck in a play area. He ran right up to her. Then he brought her a toy. She noticed that his red collar didn’t have any tags.

Christensen asked OCAC staff about Prince (Speck) and was told that he was found on the streets of Orange and was so emaciated that he could barely walk. It was obvious he had been on the streets awhile.

Although there were no tags on Speck, he was microchipped. Unfortunately, the dog's owner never activated the chip, leaving the shelter without contact information for his owner.

Prince had severe dental tartar, and was badly in need of dental surgery. Based on that, his age was incorrectly estimated to be 12.  This is not uncommon when dogs have lived on the street.

After obtaining the microchip ID number from OCAC, which could be released only because it was unregistered, Christensen took the chip number to Irvine. She confirmed with staff that Prince is Speck. Sadly, however, Speck’s owner’s two known phone numbers had been disconnected.

No one knows exactly why Speck was in Orange. Given that the contact information is no longer valid and his tags were removed, it appears that he may have been abandoned due to a change in circumstance rather than being lost or having escaped. This has become more commonplace since the economic downturn and foreclosure crisis began.

With Speck ending up at his third shelter in the past couple of years, he is back to square one—needing a new home.

As soon as Christensen confirmed that Prince was Speck, she posted that information on the Angels for Animals Network page and volunteered to contribute money toward getting him out of the shelter.

Barks of Love stepped up and agreed to cover Speck's "pull" fees—the money needed to bail Speck out of the shelter. Christensen committed to paying for his dental care.

The only things left to save Speck were to find a responsible party willing to pull him from the shelter and identify an approved foster home while he is being treated until a suitable permanent home is found.

That's where Russell Rescue stepped in.

Ally Edgerton, San Diego area coordinator for Russell Rescue of California, responded to Christensen’s plea for assistance late Wednesday, and we confirmed with OC Animal Care that help was on its way. Luckily for Speck, one of Edgerton’s approved foster homes had immediate space available.

At about 11 a.m. Thursday, with Christensen in attendance, Speck was pulled from the shelter. Christensen said her goodbye and Speck was transported to Edgerton.

Edgerton took Speck for a checkup and then to his foster home, where by 6:30 p.m. he was photographed seated comfortably on the sofa.

Dental surgery is next. Soon he will be ready for his new—and hopefully—permanent home.

This successful rescue wouldn’t have happened without Christensen, her hard work and the fluke of her viewing the Angels for Animals Facebook page on Monday night.

Yet she said that Edgerton is the one to thank for Speck’s rescue. Her reasoning: Without Edgerton stepping in to arrange for Speck to be pulled from the shelter and sent to a foster home, the results could have been tragically different.

This is a typical response from a serious animal rescuer, as it really is a process of networking and coordination between numerous parties to achieve a successful result. However, there is still much work ahead to place Speck into a permanent home.

If you are interested in adopting Speck, please contact russellrescuesoca@gmail.com.

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Don’t forget to send me pictures of your dogs in their winter clothes. Send your pictures to animalwrites@ariel.net.