Rodeo. Squid. Firefly. Sharky.

These are just a few names belonging to the lucky souls rescued by Elli Smith and Caitlin Beall, partners in Sky Sanctuary Rescue in North Phoenix. Founded by Smith in 2016, the nonprofit has rescued more than 4,000 animals.

“Our first year, it was me and my eight-year-old daughter rescuing dogs all over Arizona,” said Smith.

“Most dogs were coming to my home — I had three fosters. I think we had about 70 followers then, and I was spending six figures of my own money to operate the rescue.”

Fast forward seven years and the organization now has over one million followers on its combined social media channels. Smith was joined in 2018 by Beall when she put out a call on social media asking for help to rescue a pregnant dog.

“I was tagged on social media about 100 times because I specialized in tracking, trapping, and catching dogs no one else could,” said Smith.

Says Beall, “Little Elli jumped out of her Jeep, and I told her a trapper was coming because I thought she was just a random person coming to help. For some reason, I was expecting someone who looked like Steve Irwin.”

Inundated with hundreds of tips per week from the general public via social media and their website, the two women act quickly to rescue those animals that are most likely to die if they don’t intervene. The pair have become a saving grace largely for dogs with severe medical needs, leveraging their large social media following to raise funds for treatment.

A fan favorite of Sky Sanctuary’s followers, Squid — a 10-week old “wrinkly dog mix,” as Beall refers to him — was rescued by Sky Sanctuary in mid-March from the Arizona Humane Society upon learning that he would be euthanized due to his continuing medical needs. Initially, Squid was diagnosed with a rectal prolapse but within hours of his rescue, he began to suffer from respiratory distress and was rushed to the emergency vet for evaluation. He received an ultrasound, radiographs, and critical care to get him breathing again.

Twenty-four hours into his rescue, his medical team became increasingly concerned about his inability to go to the bathroom and worked to bring his body relief, while Squid underwent further evaluation from two surgeons. Over the course of the next three days, while Sky Sanctuary awaited the results of a Distemper PCR test to diagnose his respiratory issues, Beall tended to the pup and administered stool softeners, laxatives, and enemas to avoid further damage to Squid’s system.

Six days into his rehabilitation, she received the news that Squid was distemper free and that his respiratory condition was most likely severe bronchitis. He was released out of quarantine and into the backyard to play with the other dogs where he roamed free, rolled in the grass, and romped toward Beall’s camera, displaying his incredible progress for social media followers anxiously awaiting updates on his well-being. Then just four days later, Beall filmed him struggling to walk as his front legs bowed dramatically outward. Test after test ruled out conditions like rickets and myasthenia gravis, but his condition still remains unknown and unique to him. Squid has also been treated for torsion of a left lung lobe — for which he had part of his lung removed — along with colon stricture and colon perforation surgery in which he had only a 20% chance of surviving. He is undergoing physical therapy and wears a brace for his orthopedic condition. In order to support both his orthopedic and digestive conditions, Sky Sanctuary’s team is also working with Just Food for Dogs to put together a special dietary recipe to meet his specific needs.

Rodeo, another of Sky Sanctuary’s recent rescues, is a 12- week old Shepherd/ Pitbull/Husky mix taken in when they were contacted by the owners of the puppy who had been brutally attacked by its own mother, left without a nose and the majority of its snout. The owners had left the dog without medical attention for over 72 hours before they contacted Sky Sanctuary. Found in critical condition, Smith rushed Rodeo to Veterinary Emergency Group for stabilization and has fostered him in her home since. A local plastic surgeon volunteered his services for wound care, advice, and a surgical plan. Once Rodeo is big enough, he will have his much needed operations where they will tack down the skin around his one functional nostril, with a long-term goal of reinforcing and preserving it. They will also create a flap from his own tissue across the top of his teeth and sides of his mouth.

Smith notes that the reason she started Sky Sanctuary was for cases like his — those in which most shelters would have either turned away care or euthanized the animal due to the profound nature of its medical needs. Sadly, many shelters simply don’t have the funds to care for animals with truly critical and cost- prohibitive medical conditions.

She states, “The thing is, [Rodeo’s injury] will actually get him adopted faster.”

She’s careful to consider that they’ll need to be extra cautious throughout the interview process for his adoption, noting that while people are well- intentioned when looking to adopt an animal that has an injury or requires special medical attention, not all are equipped to maintain that kind of care long term. It is with the help of skilled medical professionals from groups like Heidi’s

Village, Dermatology for Animals, Veterinary Emergency Group, and VetMED who often donate a portion of their expertise — along with substantial support from the general public — that Smith and Beall are able to provide the kind of care that they do.

While the two previously housed all of the animals in their own homes and with foster families, through generous donations from their supporters, the duo was able to finish renovations on an official facility in January.

“We are completely supported by the public. We now have a beautiful 26-room facility, five employees, 40 volunteers, and about 30 foster homes,” Smith notes.

The last phase of the renovation will happen later this year, in which the team plans to turn the last room of the building into a small studio apartment complete with a kitchenette, table, couch, large flat screen television, and even a stationary bike.

“We’re turning this into an apartment so the volunteers can hang out with the dogs truly in a home environment,” says Smith. “And then the volunteers can watch TV, do schoolwork, or work from home with the dogs.”

She continues, “Dogs don’t decline in this environment like they do in the shelter. They actually improve here, which is what allows us to get dogs adopted that would never be adopted otherwise.”

Smith also says that Sky Sanctuary hasn’t had the same uptick of pets being returned following their owners going back to the office in a post-COVID environment.

“We don’t have that [here]. We do home checks and have excessive applications,” she notes.

Between Smith and Beall, they have personally adopted 18 of the animals they have rescued (those with the most complex behavior, medical, or hospice needs) and 11 are still with them — the others have passed away due to their medical conditions.

Reading through the thousands of comments on the rescue’s social media pages, it seems to be the spirit of compassion, empathy, and understanding of animals shared by Smith and Beall that resonates most with their followers. A recent Instagram post written by Beall touched on the loss of Smith’s beloved dog Firefly, which she fostered as her own from a hoard of 48 dogs they pulled from deplorable conditions in the Arizona heat last summer.

She writes, “I have this theory and put simply, the theory is that dogs have a way of holding on until their souls feel understood and they finally experience peace. It’s like they soak in the love they had been hoping for all this time, they take a deep sigh of relief and fulfillment and then their physical body just lets go.” She continued, “I believe that as Firefly’s ever-so-loved soul left her physical body, her spirit felt fulfilled as [she] finally had everything she could have ever wanted in the love she had quickly come to know.”