‘It’s my calling’
Tracy Crompton is certain of one thing: Rescuing animals is her mission.
“It’s my calling, it is,” says Crompton, who is co-founder of Bridge to Home Animal Rescue in Washington. “It’s my purpose. It really is. It’s why I’m on this earth.”
Crompton and four other women founded the animal rescue organization in 2017 with a goal of helping 50 dogs per year. They helped more than double that number within the first six months and now have marked helping rescue their 5,000th dog. For their efforts, Bridge to Home Animal Rescue is this month’s recipient of the Driven By Hope Award sponsored by Washington Auto Mall.
At first, the group’s focus was on rescuing dogs at risk of being euthanized in shelters in neighboring states like Kentucky and West Virginia. Eventually, they began also helping dogs closer to home when they could.
“We take the dogs who basically have zero chance of getting out,” Compton said. “We started helping Kentucky dogs last December. They reached out and said, there’s 23 puppies here. They’re all going to die if you don’t take any of them. And I get those requests daily.”
Her network of local volunteers stepped up by pitching in to foster the dogs. The goal is always to have temporary foster homes with a goal of permanent placement in time.
While helping animals in other states, the group also helps locally when needed. “When somebody reaches out and says, ‘I have a dog; my aunt died,’ we help those kinds of cases,” Compton said. “We’re not permitted by law to take in stray dogs because we are foster-based. So I cannot take a dog off of the streets that I know no history of and put it into a foster home with another dog or cats or kids.”
She said the key part of placing a dog in the right home is getting to know its personality.
“When we get them from other shelters, they know these dogs’ personalities, they know if they’re good with cats, if they’re not, if they’re good with dogs, because we don’t have the space to quarantine a dog. If a dog is mean, I don’t have the means to take care of that. That’s when the Humane Society steps in.”
One of Compton’s favorite rescue efforts comes each New Year’s Eve when the group conducts a large transport of dogs who need help.
“We save lives on New Year’s Eve, we start the year out in a positive way,” she said, adding that the group has helped one shelter in a neighboring state that was so overwhelmed, it had no more ability to help animals.
“There were dogs left in horrible conditions, and they came in and they took over. Since we’ve helped them, they’ve been able to sustain the amount of dogs that they have. We pay for all the bedding so they can help the dogs.”
All of that help takes money to provide food, bedding and other necessities such as health care for the animals.
“We always need money for vet bills. We spend close to $150,000 a year on vet bills,” Compton said. “We have a wish list where donors can purchase dog food.”
The group is also always looking for more volunteers and foster families. Right now, they have 30 foster homes but would like to add more to the list.
“We always need more people to foster because that’s more lives we can save,” said Compton. “You fill out an application online, and then we have a mentor who helps you through every step of the way. You’re not alone.”
The foster families must eventually give up the dogs when a permanent home is found. That can take time, but with 100,000 Facebook followers, placement often goes quickly and that’s what keeps this group going.
“When that dog pulls away in that car with that family, and that family meets that dog, and they say to you, this is the most beautiful dog I’ve ever seen … that’s what gets me going.”
For more information on Bridge to Home Animal Rescue, how to become a foster family or how to donate, please visit www.bridgetohome84.org/.