Imagine being so passionate about a particular cause – and from such a young age – that you’d be willing to sacrifice much of your free time in order to get it off the ground. Well, that’s 12-year-old Darius Brown in a nutshell.

Incredibly, the preteen New Jersey native has his very own organisation, Beaux and Paws, which specialises in producing bow ties for shelter dogs so that they catch the eye of potential owners.

Darius’ passion for designing and creating things came about from a very early age. At the age of two, in fact, he was diagnosed with speech delay, comprehension delay, and a delay in fine motor skills, and it was due to this that his family felt the need to encourage a sense of creativity in the toddler.

And ultimately, it was from there that he drew his inspiration for entrepreneurial endeavours – well, that coupled with his love of animals.

Darius’ mother Joy Brown, 40, and sister Dazhai Brown-Shearz, 22, noticed something truly spectacular about Darius just four years ago. It was at this time that Dazhai was studying at cosmetology school – which was when she and Joy discovered the then-eight-year-old’s skill with the needle. Darius would help his sister by cutting fabrics, sewing and making hair ribbons – and it turned out that he was quite the creative genius.

Dogs are known for their faithfulness and loyalty and thus are one of the best pets to have. However, in spite of their wonderful traits, many of these animals seem to lack the love and affection that they rightfully deserve.

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, police officers were serving eviction notices in a neighborhood when they were notified by children about a caged dog. The cops found the dog outside an abandoned apartment; the sight of the helpless creature left them feeling appalled.

The dog, named Dice, was a 3-year-old pit bull mix who would’ve died if he hadn’t been found. The officers called animal control, and Dice was transported to a local shelter

A volunteer at the shelter snapped a few photos of the dog and sent it to Tracey Godin, co-founder of Feeling Fine Rescue in Loxahatchee, Florida.

“It took your breath away,” Tracey said. “I didn’t know how he was still alive. Tears immediately came to my face.”

Tracey, who was dismayed at the plight of the dog, told The Dodo, “The tenants moved out and left him in the backyard in a crate with no food or water.”

“The police, of course, asked the children how long the dog had been there, and they said they thought he’d been there a week or more,” she added.

Dice was clearly dehydrated and anemic. He could barely walk a few steps without falling, and his skull was visible; that indicated the amount of muscle mass he’d lost.

“We were in [the] parking lot at the vet, and when he took one step to get up on the sidewalk, he couldn’t hold his body weight up and just collapsed. I didn’t think he was going to live,” Tracey recalled.

Dice had probably been neglected for months.

“He was not fed properly for months,” Tracey said. “The last week would have just been the final deterioration.”

Dice weighed just 30 pounds (approx. 14 kg), whereas a normal pit bull of his age would weigh at least 65 pounds (approx. 29 kg).

“In my opinion, if he had been in that cage another day, he would not have made it,” Tracey revealed.

The very next day, Tracey and her daughter, Micaela, rushed to the shelter and decided to take Dice to the vet.

Dice was then moved to the Feeling Fine Rescue that Tracey and her daughter run from their home.

Under the watchful care of Tracey, the pooch began to make a speedy recovery.

Dice gained an amazing 10 pounds (approx. 5 kg) in the first week, and two weeks later was 50 pounds (approx. 23 kg). Within the third week, he was at his best, weighing 65 pounds (approx. 29 kg).

He also began to show signs of happiness and contentment once again.

Micaela told The Dodo, “It’s really incredible to see how a dog can go through so much at the hands of people, and … be immediately ready to love and trust new people.”

“We save a lot of dogs, and they all have stories, and they all come from such awful beginnings,” she added.

But the mother-daughter duo was really surprised with “how quick he was able to bounce back, and how gracefully he did it.”

They even referred to his transformation as a “miracle.”

Micaela also revealed that Dice had the most amazing personality. He’d been an adorable dog from the very minute they met him.

The saying “no pain, no gain” holds true in the case of Dice. All that suffering turned out for the better as he was then spotted by a family in late December 2018, who fell in love with him the moment they saw him.

The family came to visit Dice several times and even asked if they could do a meet-and-greet at their property with their two other dogs.

To their surprise, Dice not only gelled with the other dogs but also bonded with the children in the family.

Dice finally found his happy home where he would be under the care of a loving family. Not all dogs can recover as quickly as Dice.

His resilience is truly commendable, and the fact that he was able to make it through such a traumatic incident so quickly is something to marvel at.

To be considered a “no-kill” state, 90 percent of animals are either returned to owners, transferred to other shelters and rescue organizations, or adopted.

“This is an amazing first for our state,” said Deborah Schutt, MPFA founder and chairperson. “When the shelters in a state combine to meet the 90% target, that state is considered No-Kill for shelter animals. Only Delaware, which has three shelters, compared to 174 in Michigan, also reached the No Kill benchmark last year.”

In 2018, Michigan reached that percentage.

“While it’s exciting to see Michigan as a state achieve No-Kill status by reaching the 90% goal, we still have a few communities struggling to save lives, especially with cats,” Schutt said. “We will continue to work with shelters and rescue organizations to implement best practices, decrease overall length of stay in the shelter and improve the quality of life for homeless pets while they are in a shelter.”

The Michigan Pet Fund Alliance (MPFA) began tracking these statistics in 2009 from annual reports submitted by shelters to the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development.

According to the MPFA, approximately 120,000 dogs and cats were being euthanized in Michigan shelters every year.

The MPFA said that number is now just over 13,000.

An Arlington-based animal rescue group took 21 dogs from a shelter in Florence, S.C., where hundreds of people have evacuated as Hurricane Dorian bears down, and brought the animals to the Washington area to be adopted.

Lucky Dog Animal Rescue evacuated the dogs from the county-run shelter in Florence. Mirah Horowitz, founder and executive director of Lucky Dog, said Tuesday that the group is also working to rescue another 40 dogs Saturday.

She said that while the shelter in Florence is inland, it has become crowded because people near the coast are evacuating and leaving animals at the shelter.

“It’s a double whammy,” Horowitz said. The complexities of helping the dogs include the logistics of driving there, putting dogs in crates and bringing them to the D.C. area., as well as making sure they have enough foster families lined up.

“It’s like Tetris of moving dogs,” Horowitz said, comparing it to the video game.

Most of the dogs will go to foster families and then be adopted at events in the D.C. region. One dog already has been adopted. The latest load included several puppies.