Neely Bryan woke up Friday with a pair of swollen eyes. She could not sleep well.
The night before, she hurried from West Point to Starkville, worried. Bradley, a 7-year-old dog she had rescued, was dying, her friend told her.
“Something happened and (his) belly flipped upside down and got twisted. It’s really difficult to fix and really expensive, and a lot of times they don’t make it anyway when it happens,” Bryan said.
Bryan rushed Bradley to the Mississippi State University Animal Health Center that night, hoping to save him. But with the small chance Bradley would survive the $5,000 surgery and the pain he was in, Bryan decided she would let go.
“I cannot deal with them suffering. On the ride there with him, I was hysterical,” Bryan recalled. “We were at the (clinic) by like 8:30 p.m., and by 10, we had put him to sleep.”
Bradley was one of the many dogs Bryan cared for since she moved from Tennessee to Mississippi in March 2017. Not long after she moved to the state, Bryan said, she started seeing dogs chained outside. The level of care, she said, was awful.
“They are skinny. They are on chains (and given) a big bucket of water,” Bryan said. “I believe that (dogs) are here to teach humans about love. A human is never going to have that bond with a dog tied to a fence.”
Bryan decided to step up. She knocked on doors and asked if she could walk their dogs for them. She brought the dogs food, medicine and water. Over the years, she said, she has developed a route in West Point and walks it every morning to feed the animals in her way.
“Cats follow my car. Dogs recognize my car. Crazy animal lady,” Bryan referred to herself with a grin.
Her love for animals, Bryan said, has roots in her family. Growing up on a farm in Memphis, Bryan said her parents would pick up animals on the side of the road, spay, neuter and care for them.
“I love all animals, including earthworms. I move them off the sidewalk. I swerve for butterflies,” she said. ” … If you ever asked, ‘ Say your name and tell me one thing about yourself,’ it’s always, ‘I’m Neely and I love animals.'”
Now, she gets to spread that love further. The Memphis native has been the director of the West Point-Clay County Animal Shelter for a year, where she trains volunteers, helps abandoned, neglected or surrendered animals gain strength and find them a new home. She makes sure dogs get the exercise they need and sets up “playgroups” in yards for dogs who get along.
“There’s never an empty yard,” she said.
Sometimes, her love for animals stretches beyond dogs and cats. At the sight of a shelter cat’s capture of a mouse Friday morning, Bryan screamed at her staff: “Save the mouse! Save the mouse!”
Due to the nature of her work, she said, the animal mistreatment she would witness was gut wrenching. Bait dogs and pitbulls, for example, were bred to fight in illegal fighting rings, and their bodies were torn with scars, she said.
“They are fought. They are abused. They are chained. They are starved. What I see is shattering,” Bryan said. “It’s the most sick, evil event … on planet earth.”
In March, Bryan adopted Willow, a bait dog who used to fight, as her own. But still, there are many more lives she could not save. Because of the dog fighting world, Bryan said, people have stereotypes against breeds such as pitbulls, making their adoption harder than others.
“It’s not their fault. It’s the humans’ fault. They bred them horribly,” Bryan said. “Only one out of 600 pitbulls ever finds a home. One in 600.”
Still, Bryan hopes her actions to raise awareness of animal care have changed — and continue to change — people’s hearts.
“My presence, I feel, people witnessing what I do, is still creating a shift on some level,” Bryan said. “I get so frustrated, but that’s where I have to realize, ‘Look, they have an awareness now around dogs. Before you came, they didn’t. So you are still doing good work, Neely.’ I’m the dog lady.”
Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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