Catoosa animal rescuer recieves $500 award
North Georgia Animal Alliance dog coordinator Dave Mayo was in for quite a surprise on July 6 when NGAA volunteer Sara Deberry asked him to meet her at Catoosa County Animal Control.
“I assumed it was about a story on NGAA,” says Mayo. “But then I saw Sara walking toward me with a stack of hundred-dollar bills in her hand and I thought, ‘Is this what I think it is?’”
Mayo was the recipient of News Channel 9’s (and sponsored by Mcmahan Law Firm) $500 “Pay it Forward” award that honors people in the community who go the extra mile to make the world a better place. He was nominated by Deberry for his work rescuing dogs from the Catoosa shelter and other places and for the thousands of miles he logs each year getting dogs to vets, foster homes and other rescues.
“I really didn’t feel like I deserved it,” says Mayo. “I see so many other people doing so much out there.”
But Deberry says Mayo definitely deserved it. “Dave, he’s just rock solid, and you can count on him for anything,” she told Channel 9 reporter Jessica Harthorn. “He’s just always willing to help, you let him know and he’s there.”
One of Mayo’s most recent adventures rescuing dogs started with a lady who lives near Villanow.
“The lady,” says Mayo, “had been feeding a mama dog and her 11 puppies.”
Mayo helped the lady catch 10 of the energetic puppies, which were transferred to a rescue 800 miles away. Mayo left a trap with the lady, but weeks went by without catching the other pup or the mama.
Then one day, Mayo got a call. A dog was in the trap — a different dog, also a mama. The lady told Mayo she’d been seeing and feeding the trapped dog for around two years and that it had actually helped nurse the puppies belonging to the first dog. The dog, all assumed, was feral.
Mayo couldn’t find anyone to foster the dog he named Sonja, so he took it home. “She has turned out to be the most wonderful dog,” he says. “She’s clearly not used to people. She won’t look you in the eye. But she’s sweet and quiet. It only took two days to house-train her. She won’t come when you call her, but she’ll stand and wait for you and let you put a leash on her.”
It’s this sort of thing, says Mayo, that makes his volunteer work so rewarding — finding ways to provide loving homes for abandoned dogs that clearly appreciate being cared for, fed and sheltered.
“I love dogs,” Mayo told Channel 9. “I think dogs are special and a gift to us from God and the universe, and they deserve better than a lot of them get.”
Tamara Wolk is a reporter for The Catoosa County News in Ringgold, Ga., and Walker County Messenger in Lafayette, Ga.