OkcPets Magazine January 2022

30 OKC Pets • January/February 2022 B ear was afraid when he first showed up at Free To Live Sanctuary just north of Edmond. The five-year-old dog had good reason to be suspicious of his new surroundings. Humans hadn’t been kind to Bear. He had been left alone in a backyard most of his life. By the time someone brought him to the shelter, he was extremely reactive — “which means aggres- sive,” executive director Reagan Hamlin says. But it wasn’t just an aggression problem. Bear was suffering from skin and ear infections. He was losing his hair. He was in pain. And then, after years of neglect with no human touch, he suddenly found himself being handled, poked, and prodded by a medical team in an environment that was unfamiliar to him. “We were in a situation where if we couldn’t turn this around for him, he was not going to have a high quality of life,” Hamlin said, “because he was red-tagged at our facility, which essentially means he was not safe for visitors to interact with. He was going to be kind of isolated because we have to keep everybody safe.” Hamlin and her team at Free To Live made the tough deci- sion to remove Bear’s infected ear canals, which were causing him tremendous pain. Then something amazing happened. Bear went from a danger to a delight. He began to enjoy hitting the walking trails with visitors without needing a muzzle. He didn’t even need to be sedated for vet appointments anymore. “He turned a complete circle, and now he is a happy boy and has a chance at a forever home,” Hamlin said. “We believe that every life deserves a chance, and it may look different for some of the cats and dogs here than what you traditionally think of. But in Bear’s case, we were able to take him from that backyard to actually having a full, pain-free life.” A Radical Mission for Animals Bear’s story isn’t unique at Free To Live. Since its founding in 1984, the oldest and largest no-kill animal sanctuary in Oklahoma has made its name by helping stray, abandoned, and mistreated dogs and cats with similar — or worse — stories than Bear’s. Bill Larson and his late wife, Pat Larson, were the original dreamers behind what was at the time a radical vision for ani- Free To Live Sanctuary Celebrates 37 Years by Jezy J. Gray Photographs courtesy of Free To Live Sanctuary Bear’s neglected life has been transformed at Free To Live Sanctuary, and he looks forward to meeting his perfect adoptive parents.