Tara Bramblett Newberry watched a brown and white dog roll around in the leaves and grass outside Southern Star Pet Grooming and Boarding. This happy puppyâs name was Molly. Molly rolled onto her back, begging for a belly rub with her paws hanging beneath her chin, knowing Newberry would bend over to pet her. She did, and the dog smiled, its tongue hanging out as Newberry recounted the pupâs rescue story.
She first saw Molly two years ago, when she spotted a mother and her puppy walking around in the woods near Martin Dam. Newberry had grown up rescuing any dogs she or her father found on their land. Throughout her entire life, she has found lost dogs, taken them in, cleaned them, fed them and found homes for them. She felt compelled to rescue these skinny, bruised dogs, but it wasnât easy. Every time Newberry approached, the dogs ran away.
For three months, Newberry scoured the woods, looking for the dogs she would name Molly and AJ. It was coyote season and hunting season. She came across both in her search.
âAnd the hunters always told me, âYouâre never going to find a dog and a puppy, the coyotes done killed it, blah, blah, blah,â said Newberry.
But she did eventually find the two dogs again and, this time, was able to rescue the puppy. The next day, she returned to the same place, sat down with the little dog cradled in her arms and began to pet it as she waited. Sure enough, Molly emerged from the woods, approached Newberry and rested her head on the rescuerâs lap.Â
Molly â and her puppy, AJ â have been with Newberry ever since.Â
âThe weird thing about it is itâs almost like sheâs a therapy dog,â said Newberry. âIf other dogs come in that are having a hard time adjusting, they can put them with Molly because Molly, she ⦠I donât know. Itâs just like she senses if theyâre scared.â
Rescuing Molly inspired Newberry to begin her own stray-dog rescue operation, Black Dog Rescue and Rehabilitation.Â
Currently, Black Dog shelters around 50 stray animals. Newberry is also taking over for a rescue operation in Hackneyville.Â
The organization also offers a no-questions-asked, low-cost spay-neuter program, established with the hopes of decreasing the growing stray cat and dog population in Tallapoosa and surrounding counties.
âIf I could snap my fingers and have one thing in the world fixed, it would be for people to get their dogs spayed/neutered,â said Newberry. âJust because thatâs the only way to stop the overpopulation of stray cats and dogs.â
Newberry does all this while working full time managing a cleaning company. She has help here and there; every now and then, some neighbors or volunteers pop in to walk the dogs or buy dog food, or employees from her cleaning company come by. Her children help out as well, but for the most part, Newberry manages the two separate rescue operations on her own.
As virtuous as Newberryâs work may be, it doesnât come without disadvantages. Newberry said that many rescue owners, including herself, are taxed mentally and emotionally by their work. Every day, they see dogs that have been beaten, starved, malnourished, mutilated and abandoned. The suicide rate is high for people in her profession, because, often times, rescue owners are surrounded by living reminders of just how cruel some people can be.
âI think it has something to do with having an empathetic heart. Itâs almost like a disability,â said Newberry. âIt does take a toll. One of my favorite things in the world to do is ride down a dirt road and look at the countryside. But I stay a nervous wreck when my husband and I do that, because I never know what Iâm gonna come upon.â
Still, Newberry would not have spent a lifetime rescuing dogs if there were no bright side.
âWhat helps are the good stories,â she said.Â
Newberry asks adopters to send her pictures of the dogs she has grown to love, who have gone on to what she calls their âforever homes,â adopted by loving families who will care for them.
âThe best day in rescue is when theyâre being adopted. The worst day in rescue is when theyâre adopted,â said Newberry.
Adoption is bittersweet for Newberry. Itâs the reason she continues to work at rescue efforts, but itâs also when the dogs sheâs come to know and love, the dogs sheâs seen go from bloody and skinny to scarred and nourished, leave her.
âTheyâre getting to live their dreams,â said Newberry. âAnd thatâs what makes it all worthwhile.â
Even Molly will one day find another home. Although that pains Newberry, itâs what she wants for the dog sheâs known and loved for two years.
âWhenever the right person comes along, even though I love this dog with all my heart, itâs not fair for me to keep her when her person is going to find her.â