Asheville veteran donates his stimulus check to help hard-to-adopt dogs

An Asheville veteran donated his $1,200 stimulus payment to help his local animal shelter find homes for hard-to-adopt dogs.

When Ralph F. woke up to more money in his bank account, he drove to Brother Wolf Animal Rescue to surprise them when they opened for the day. “Ralph pulled up out front of Brother Wolf and told me that he wanted to use his stimulus check to help harder-to-adopt dogs find their forever homes,” said Leah Craig Fieser, Executive Director of Brother Wolf. “What a wonderful thing to hear at 9 am!"

Together, Ralph and Fieser split up the funds to help six long-stay or medically challenged dogs.

Adoptions fees were waived for all six and, thanks to Ralph's donation, each adopter will get a $200 custom care package from Chewy.com.

Fieser said adopters will go through the normal application process to make sure the six dogs find forever homes.

“What a wonderful way to incentivize adoption, especially right now as Americans are facing financial hardships,” said Fieser. "This is a creative way to highlight certain special needs dogs and help get them into homes. We’re so grateful to Ralph’s generosity in using his stimulus check to help animals in need.”

Fieser said Rusty, one of the six, was adopted just two days after Ralph’s visit.

The other five dogs include Billie, a 13-year-old lab mix, Lenny, a 2-year-old shepherd mix, Katie May, an 11-year-old lab/terrier mix, Queenie, a 14-year-old pit bull/terrier mix, Rusty, a 7-year-old redtick coonhound mix, and Ty, a 6-year-old retriever/lab mix. View all adoptable dogs and cats.

Wolf Animal Rescue placed 123 animals into homes in April working through the COVID-19 pandemic, Fieser said. You can help shelters by adopting, fostering or donating money or supplies during coronavirus.