BY CYMBRE FOSTER
TRAVERSE CITY -- Shelley Thayer recently returned home after seven grueling months in the Nevada desert where she and dozens of others worked to save 800 cats found starving in a remote compound.
Thayer, a former Traverse City resident, works for the Best Friends Animal Society, headquartered on 30,000 acres in Angel Canyon, just outside Kanub, Utah. Best Friends operates the nation's largest sanctuary for homeless animals. It provides adoption, sterilization and educational programs.
Thayer's job takes her to emergency animal rescues around the country in what they call the rapid response effort.
"My role is different in each rescue," said Thayer, who was born and raised in Traverse City and visits when she can. "It can range from training volunteers, setting up dog and cat runs and triage centers to administrative work and animal care."
Typically she will travel to a rescue, spend whatever time it takes to see it through, then have a few weeks off before the next phone call.
This most recent cat rescue has been dubbed "The Great Kitty Rescue" and is being called the largest successful cat rescue in American history. Thayer said it was heartbreaking to see 800 sick and terrified cats that were so desperate for food and water they were trying to dig under the electrified wooden fence that held them.
Yet, she said there also were many success stories, and although 79 cats didn't make it, nearly all of the remaining cats have found homes.
"It was a case of a hoarding situation," Thayer said. "It was a very tough rescue, the temperatures could be 120 degrees during the day and into the teens at night. The cats walked on inches of feces and many of them were emaciated and hard to find because they were clearly fearful of people."
All but 250 cats were adopted and those have found temporary shelter at Best Friends, where they are undergoing rehabilitation so they will be adoptable.
"They're at a training school and many have gone from fearful to lap cats. This is new work and we never dreamed we would be doing this," said Thayer.
Thayer began her career as an animal rescuer two years ago when she left her home in California for New Orleans to help with rescue efforts for the pets left homeless in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
It was an experience that changed her life.
"I told my husband I would be gone two weeks," said Thayer, who was working in marketing at the time. "Then two weeks turned into four, which turned into six and five months later I came home. Best Friends asked me to stay while I was there and hired me to stay until we pulled out."
After New Orleans, she found herself in Reno, Nev., where a hoarder had 1,600 rabbits living in squalor in her backyard. Although many couldn't be saved, rescuers found homes for the remainder. Five hundred found a new home at the Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary in Whittaker.
Best Friends also stepped in to take 22 of Michael Vick's dogs. The former NFL football star was sent to prison late last year for running a dog fighting operation.
"These dogs are now in rehabilitation and those that were once cowering in the corner are now playing," said Thayer.
Thayer, who is in the process of moving closer to Best Friends headquarters, said she has found her dream job.
"The only detriment is that it takes me away from my own pets," said Thayer, who is the owner of a Katrina dog and six cats.
The fact that she's saving animals from horrific situations helps keep the animal lover from getting depressed by what she encounters.
"It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done," she said. "I just try to find the positive in every negative situation."
Best Friends operates through memberships and donations. Memberships are $25 a year and include a subscription to their magazine Best Friends, a general-interest animal magazine. For more information, visit the Web site at www.bestfriends.org.
