INNISFAIL, Alta. -The mangy terrier was found wet and cold, his leash wrapped around a post. He was agitated and angry and snapped at all who came near. Only Sherry Dobler of Innisfail, Alta., was brave enough to approach, calm and release him.
The dog then bounded into her car en route to a new life with new owners who named him Lucky.
Dobler has either tamed, nursed back to health, fed or helped others adopt hundreds of critters including skunks, cats, birds and deer.
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For her tireless and long-term commitment to the welfare of animals, Dobler was given Alberta SPCA’s highest honor last year, the Zeke Young memorial award. It is named for the agency’s founder and has been presented to well-known Albertans such as Grant MacEwan.
“I love animals, they’re so honest and love you whether you’re ugly, rich or poor,” said Dobler, who drives around her community with dog food in her trunk and houses strays in her basement.
Dobler does all that, despite a severe allergy to the feathered and the furry that requires regular injections of a $90 drug just to contain serious reactions. That cost is combined with the hundreds of dollars she spends on veterinary bills and animal feed.
“She is a role model and inspiration to family, friends, neighbors and all who are privileged to know and to work with her, a kindred spirit of Zeke Young,” said SPCA president Joy Ripley in presenting the award to Dobler last fall.
Ripley said Dobler picks up every stray she finds, cares for it and spends hours on the phone trying to locate its owner.
She has even been known to trap live bees in her purse at a store and release them outside.
She lures strays to safety with Boston crme pies and sausages from her grocery bags. A bag of cat food sits on her sunny backyard deck to feed the homeless creatures that wander in from the pasture behind her home.
A barbed wire fence is all that separates her yard from a horse pasture. She recalled the day an old horse came racing to her fence, highly agitated, only to turn and run away again.
She followed him to find a pony on the ground close to death with severe bloat. The animal was treated and recovered.
“It’s quite amazing to find out how intelligent animals are to ask for help,” she said.
Dobler learned much about animals from her work as a veterinary assistant. Dobler has cared for many human patients too, from past jobs as a licensed practical nurse to her current position as a teacher’s aide for a handicapped child.
“Animals and children and old people cannot stand up for themselves. They’re at the mercy of whoever is around.”
She travelled and lived across Canada when her husband Ron was in the air force. Now on disability from a job at the nearby penitentiary, Ron relies on help from his wife due to difficulties with walking and memory. Dobler also checks in regularly on her 85-year-old mother.
Her caring for others reaches back to her childhood, when she would routinely drag home animals either hurt by cars, lost or abandoned. She relies on a network of family contacts, like her two adult children, to find good homes for her temporary pets.
Ron grew up as part of a farm family who saw animals more as commodities.
“They decided if you couldn’t eat it, use or milk it, then it was useless to have,” Dobler said.
“(Ron’s) come to realize how important animals are to us.”
Many creatures are brought to the Doblers, who advertise their temporary animal refuge on signs posted around Innisfail.
“I could not turn an animal of any sort away,” said Dobler, citing the high numbers of unwanted animals euthanized at SPCA shelters.
The rewards are many, she said.
“You help people, and sometimes don’t get a thank you. But animals thank you.”
She hopes what she does will set an example for others.
“If people find out there are people that care, it makes them feel more responsible,” Dobler said.
“The more people see that, the more willing they are to do the same.”
