Friends of Kuma

Kuma came to us Christmas Day through Diamond Dogs rescue from a severe hoarding situation. Kuma had lived his entire life cooped up in a house with no human interaction and no place to run, play or do things that every young pup should be able to do. He was rescued by a group of volunteers with around 60 other dogs that lived in the same situation. When he and his siblings were taken to various rescues they were terrified, unsocialized, underfed and had no basic social skills whatsoever. All of these dogs were also un-spayed and un-neutered; this is what lead to this massive dog hoarding situation in the first place. Kuma was one of the least socialized dogs of the group that was rescued. When he came to my home he would visibly shake in fear if I simply looked at him. He didn't understand his world and he didn't understand that people were not going to hurt him. Kuma began to make some progress while staying at my parents (Brian and Jeanette Gulledge) house where he was able to live with our dogs that have become experts in helping dogs relearn what it means to be a loved, happy, confident pup. Just as we started to see some real progress in Kuma he slipped out of his harness during a routine potty break on January 16, 2019. A group of volunteers, my mom, and myself began our extensive process of trying to bring Kuma back home to safety. We spent months searching, reaching out to the community, driving around, making flyers, distributing flyers, calling shelters, baiting, setting traps, setting trail cams, and doing anything and everything we could think of to bring this sweet boy home. We received word from a group of experienced volunteers earlier this week (03/18/19) that we were very close to trapping Kuma with a special live trap after baiting him for multiple weeks in one location. Our search came to an unfortunate end this passed Wednesday (03/20/19) when we received word that Kuma had been struck by a vehicle and passed away upon impact. All of Kuma's struggles and hardships could have been avoided if his owner would have spayed and neutered their dogs. This is why I have decided to create this memorial for Kuma in an effort to raise money for homeless or low-income animals to be spayed and neutered to hopefully avoid any animal going through the same tragic experiences our sweet boy Kuma did. Although we only knew Kuma for a short time, we loved him intensely. We tried to show him that humans can be good but unfortunately our efforts were cut short. Please consider donating (any amount) in an effort to avoid any animal going through this again by raising money for spaying and neutering animals. Thank you.