The video tells the story of Sweet Potato, a dog rescued from Guilford County, North Carolina, after multiple shelter stays where her severe medical needs exceeded the shelters’ capacity. The Humane Society recognized her spunky personality and transferred her to their facility, where a comprehensive intake exam identified intervertebral disc degeneration causing hind‑leg mobility loss. The team implemented a multi‑modal care plan: acupuncture to stimulate nerves and reduce pain, and a custom high‑speed wheelchair supplied by the nonprofit Gunner’s Wheels. The rapid improvement—standing and running—demonstrated the effectiveness of these interventions. The Humane Society emphasizes its partnership model with local and regional municipal shelters, acting as a resource for animals with complex needs, and highlights its funding structure: entirely donor‑supported, with no city, state, or grant money, underscoring the importance of community contributions. Staff also discuss plans for a new, state‑of‑the‑art facility to further elevate animal welfare standards. Finally, a foster caregiver shares his personal journey: after meeting Sweet Potato online, he fostered her for a month and then adopted her, describing the reciprocal love, mental‑health benefits, and how Sweet Potato embodies the organization’s values of tenacity, positivity, and perseverance.
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When we first got Sweet Potato, we right off the bat recognized how spunky and special this girl was.
She's probably been through so much, and she's still this happy, bigger-than-life personality.
We transferred her in from Guilford County, North Carolina. She was in and out of that shelter a couple times, and then And they realized that her medical needs were just too great for their facility.
What's great about our partnerships with our local as well as regional municipal shelters is they have really finite resources available to them. They have a very limited space, limited time, limited budget. And so we are a tool that they can put in their tool belt to utilize to help their animals in their community and have a more positive impact in their community.
We knew that she needed over-the-top medical care and attention, so we went right into work with her intake exam, getting her checked out and getting a medical plan in place.
She most likely has intervertebral disc degeneration. As a result, that caused her to lose some of her mobility in her back legs. We used acupuncture to help stimulate some of those nerves and help with any residual pain that might be going on, and that's helped her tremendously.
We realized that her wheelchair was not adequate for as quick as she moved, so we reached out to another group called Gunner's Wheels, and they have wheels for dogs who need a little bit more assistance. Her personality and her general demeanor just drew people into her from the very beginning, and so once she was able to come to the Humane Society, receive that extra care, she now has a great prognosis for the rest of her life.
It was really amazing just to see the results of that so quickly, just her standing up and running. Me and my coworker were like, do it again, do it again!
When they come to us, we're providing everything that they possibly could need. We provide top-notch care despite this facility that is so subpar. We're so far back, decades, and to be able to be providing what we're providing now in this facility, it's just unbelievable what we're going to be able to do in a new facility. We're just so excited about what what the future holds with us going into a new building and a new facility that's state-of-the-art, that's up to, you know, standards of animal welfare today. We are not associated with any other national animal welfare organization. We don't get any funding from the city, state, any local government. There's no grants that we get. We are completely 100% supported by individuals that care about our work. So it's vital. We would not exist without our donors.
I went to the Humane Society website and saw the video of Sweet Potato. and decided I needed to come down and meet Sweet Potato. I've been her foster dad for a month, and today I adopted her. It's reciprocity, so you give an animal love and they give the love back, and then you share that kind of connection. So for somebody like me, Sweet Potato provides a lot of mental health relief, and she's just a real joy to have around.
Sweet Potato represents, I think, everything that we embody as an organization. I think her tenacity, her Love of life, her staying positive, that's who we are as an organization, and that's what we've always prided ourselves on. We're gonna keep going, we're gonna fight through, we're gonna make it happen. And, you know, that's kind of what she represents to us is, you know, just never give up, and, and we're not gonna give up.
I think she has a very long and joyful life ahead of her, and I look forward to sharing that with her. I love her.
