I Once Was Lost, But Now I’m Found: Daisy and the Olympic Animal Sanctuary Rescue by Laura Koerber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Olympic Animal Sanctuary (OAS) was a rescue for dogs who couldn’t be looked after where they were because of being labelled as unadoptable, it was in a small town in the middle of Washington State, it looked like an old dilapidated warehouse, but what lay inside was beyond anyone’s imagination, the conditions were cramped and deplorable, but it still functioned and people believed the owner was doing his best. This book focuses on one of the dogs there, Daisy and her story, but the stories of the other animals are interwoven into the narrative too, it is a story of hardship and hard work, blockades and is not the only story of its kind, there are still many places out there which are the same as the OAS was, but on a smaller scale and this book highlights what happens to the animals involved and what needs changing to help them all.

Daisy is a short, stocky balck dog who is hesitant and nervous in nature, she looks like most rescue dogs you would find in shelters around the world, but Daisy was not the first dog seen from the OAS, the main picture associated with it is a dog called Max who is desperately trying to get out of his cage. The story of Daisy and the OAS started with a volunteer whistleblowing and noting down her experience at the sanctuary in the hopes that someone would come to the rescue of the dogs within, thus creating a Facebook page and sharing the information with the police, however, the laws around animal protection and welfare are not as strong as you would hope them to be and that is why it was so difficult for local government to help when lawyers and the law get involved as well.

To get back to Daisy, she was originally brought to another rescue from a reservation where she had been removed because people were sick of seeing her being beaten and abused everyday, she had an embedded collar and after this was removed and she started to heal on the outside, but the emotional and psychological scars would take a lot longer to heal. The rescue decided that she needed some extra help and so asked a couple to foster her, to which they agreed and this started Daisy on her road to recovery and it went well and she was put up as available for adoption. This first adoption was unsuccessful and she returned to her foster home, until she was left with another dog unsupervised and unfortunately attacked it, this led to her reverting when she went back to the rescue and being labelled as a “potentially dangerous dog” and the rule was to euthanize dogs with this label, however, another option was found which was the OAS and this is how Daisy ended up there.

As Daisy’s story continues, this is where the descriptions of the OAS and life within it start, this is the true story of Daisy, the Olympic Animal Sanctuary and the other 124 dogs and one snake who ended up there, their experiences while there, as well as how they left, the book is as full of heartbreak as it is full of love, so prepare some tissues because this is a hard going emotional rollercoaster from start to finish.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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