Courtney Bentley loves animals. She writes: “If I could adopt all the dogs out there that need a good home, I would. It’s tough seeing a dog or cat in a shelter for a so long, but it helps when I look at my two dogs and know that I at least could save them.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Courtney, an INB deposit operation specialist, was happy to tell her story to encourage others to donate to local animal welfare charities. INB employees are spending the last few weeks of the year supporting the Sangamon County Animal Control Center, The Humane Society of Logan County, the Vermilion County Animal Shelter and Wish Bone Canine Rescue in the Bloomington-Normal area. All branches and departments are participating by placing items from the organizations’ wish lists under our Christmas trees.

Here’s Courtney’s story. She shares the dogs with partner John Bryant, a loan servicing specialist for INB.

We have adopted both of our dogs from Animal Protective League. We adopted Niko on St. Patrick’s Day of 2017. He is a two-year-old American pit bull terrier. He was tied to a tree the first two years of his life. The rescuer who saved his life was from Montgomery County Animal Control, and we cannot thank her enough for saving our sweet boy. He is the sweetest/cuddliest dog we have ever had. He loves to sleep underneath the covers and has to be RIGHT next to you.

After our trip to Key West and leaving him at the trainer’s house with the other dogs there, we came home to a sad dog. He was missing his playmates so much. After much consideration and spending every day on Petfinder looking for the right dog, we found our other dog, Stella. Stella was a six-week-old boxer mix puppy, and we just couldn’t pass her up. We turned in our application, and we met her the next day. She came home with us that day! Four days after getting her, she got the parvo virus, which is a deadly virus for puppies. Her whole liter actually had come down with it. We had to take her back to the shelter for treatment. Finally, after waiting a little over a week, we got to bring her home, and she has been a little terror ever since!

While this campaign has ended at INB, you can always make donations of goods or cash to the APL.