Pet Stories

My name is Nadine, Little Mimi came to me on her birth month and mine.  We have bonded well immediately.  She enjoys her daily walks and naps with me.  She knows her boundaries, give a little squeal instead of barking. I am very grateful to Margaret from CSADA and Charlotte from Meade Canine Rescue.  Mimi found her forever home filled with love. She is a treasure and a furry, baby angel.

About a year ago FEBRUARY 2025, our daughter died of an accidental overdose in Calif. Her unruly and very scared little dog, Sasha, a mixed Jack Russell Terrier/Chihuahua was in the car with her and was terrified.  Good friends were allowed to pick the dog up to foster until we could go to claim Sasha. Many trial adoptees reneged on offers for Sasha just too defensive & often bites handlers.

On arrival to California from Salt Lake City UT, our other daughter contacted CSADA for help in seeing if Sasha could be calmed and helped to adjust to a new safe home with 2 seniors in their 80s. There was talk of having to put Sasha down if not adoptable and continued self-defense of biting!

Our good fortune, Margaret at CSADA referred us to Springdale Pet Ranch for dog training. Though Sasha had learned to trust me only, I needed her to behave with my husband, our family and many friends (staff in an independent senior living center where we live.

Jack Balster with Springdale came to our home in Nipomo for a remarkable 1-hour session to work with me alone in our California house.   Jack is immensely wise and skilled in conveying tactics learned in dog science, in college.  He also brought a car restraining collar and offered many tactical suggestions for daily help in building Sasha’s trust and ability to bond with new people without over reacting with fear and
ferocity.

Amazingly after a month or so using jacks training protocol: avoid eye contact, toss a few treats and ignore the dog, to let the dog slowly gain TRUST BY SMELLING newcomers.

Jack said a dogs’ smelling is as beneficial as walking a dog for 20 minutes.  Using Jack’s tactics, Sasha slowly came to accept my husband Mark immediately upon 
arriving in Salt Lake City and us as her new family as well as others in our lives.

It was a slow process of consistency in applying the learned training. Most importantly, Jack advised that our new little “biter” dog mostly needed to feel secure and loved in a safe home. DON’T WE ALL! So, we wish that for all of us in 2026.

Please if you can add your Support along with ours to CSADA in its mission on behalf of senior dogs & their people.

Our sincere thanks are extended to Margaret at CSADA and Jack and the staff at  Springdale Pet Ranch in Arroyo Grande, Calif. We animal lovers unite.

Sincerely, Fredrica (Freddie) & Mark Nebeker

I am eternally grateful to Margaret Camara and CSADA for their unwavering kindness and financial assistance in allowing me to take my cat, Coco, to the vet. I found Margaret through word of mouth.

Coco had blood in her urine, and I noticed an unusual growth on her belly. I discovered the blood in her urine when I cleaned her litterbox. Of course, it was two weeks before I would receive my Social Security check.Coco is currently undergoing a round of antibiotics, and the lump on her belly turned out to be nothing more than fat.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to Margaret and CSADA for being there for me during a truly challenging time.

Birdie went to see Dr.Tim Bell at Monarch Dunes Veterinary Clinic today, to get her stitches out after a successful removal of a very large lipoma (a fatty non-malignant tumor).  The surgery was made possible thanks to a wonderful organization, CSADA, Care for Senior and Disabled Animals and our generous community that donated money to help pay for Birdie’s surgery.  Birdie made a full recovery, and is pictured giving a kiss to her bird mama Sheila.  Thank You Margaret Camara, founder of CSADA

Ginger came out of the Bakersfield SPCA as the older person who had her was not able to care for her. Today Ginger and Kiki are best of friends.

We have more updates thanks to our wonderful supporters!

When we found out that our recently adopted senior Chihuahua “Georgie” needed a vital and expensive surgery to continue living a normal life with us, we were very distraught and confused about how to proceed. The help we received from CSADA allowed us to go ahead with the surgery and hopefully give our sweet dog more time to spend with us. Today Georgie is happy and healthy, and we’re so grateful to CSADA for making that possible!

Sincerely

Jeff and Sylvia Bohrer
Grover Beach, CA

Nala was found in a park as a stray dog with a major injury to her rear leg. It required bandage changes and sedation every few days. Once she healed from those months later, we realized she had some special needs. Our shelter veterinarian had diagnosed her with Syringomyelia and Epilepsy based on her symptoms. She would scratch at her face, something we learned was called phantom scratching. She would walk in circles, and she seemed to have some vision issues, she also started having seizures. Ideally the Syringomyelia and Epilepsy would be diagnosed through a neurologist and an MRI.

The expected price for all this was close to $3,000. Unfortunately, the shelter couldn’t pay for all the testing she needed. She was on numerous expensive medications and her seizures were not completely under control, because of this the chances of her being adopted were slim to none. Because of that I adopted her and started reaching out trying to get funds to be able to afford an MRI and consult with a neurologist. Thanks to CSADA I was able to make an appointment with a neurologist. Unfortunately, once we got down to Los Angeles that day Nala was not doing well, we were unable to do the MRI. Although we changed her medications and gave supportive care she continued to decline. She was hospitalized and the veterinarian thought we should run a bone marrow test to check for cancer since her white blood cell count was irregular. The results showed that she had a really bad form of Leukemia and there wasn’t going to be a way to cure it.

Although my baby didn’t make it much longer than that I would never have been able to know what was wrong with her and afford her testing and hospitalization if it wasn’t for this organization.

Because of CSADA I was able to help Nala as much as I could and provide a nice home for the time I had her.

– Stacy Damschroder

I was in such grief over the loss of my previous two Girls, Sidara and Tashi. They both passed in Oct. 2024 within 10 days of each other. They both had been my rescues for over 12 yrs.

I wanted to get another rescue and found my 1st girl at Woods humane society in December 2024. She is a half Schnauzer half poodle, a Schnoodle… she is now 2 yrs old as of February. Her name is Misty.

Then in December 2025 I was lucky to find Maragret online and she knew of a little girl that was in need of a forever home and sent me a photo of the little girl. She was as cute as could be. I went to her Foster home and the woman was so pleased that someone wanted her. I got her and took her home. Her name is now Noelle and she is 5 yrs old now. 

I am so thankful to Margaret for putting me in touch with the foster home. I now have two beautiful Girls that are my furbaby companions. They are my wake up and my goodnight cuddlers. I live alone and they are my protectors and my little love bugs the whole day through.