There had been some fights. The battle scars were evident, but just because he may have been in some skirmishes did not mean he was mean spirited.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth when it came down to Jeffrey’s personality.

“He is a very sweet dog, and he is sweet with kids,” said Oak Park resident Jan Nolan.

Named by the residents living in the subdivision, the stray dog, which no one claims to know how he got there, had made friends over the past year while wandering the streets of the neighborhood. Residents even had been eager to feed him.

Jeffrey, who belonged to no one, but yet everyone had become a mainstay for the Oak Park residents and when he wound up at the Vicksburg-Warren Humane Society, and the residents found out through Facebook, they all rallied together to save one of their own.

“I said ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the neighborhood dog.’ I went crazy, and we started writing on the Oak Park Facebook watch page,” Oak Park resident Donna Thornton said.

Posts were multiplying about Jeffrey, which prompted Thornton to call the shelter and see what the residents could do to bring him home.

Thornton said she spoke with Georgia Lynn, the Humane Society president, who reiterated what others in the neighborhood already knew, Jeffrey was a sweet dog and needed to be spared.

Unfortunately, Thornton said, the Vicksburg-Warren Humane Society is not a no-kill shelter and unless someone adopted Jeffrey quickly, he would be put down.

With this news, chatter on the website escalated with residents of the subdivision trying to figure out what they could do to save the neighborhood dog.

“People kept asking what are we going to do, and somebody said we could find out how much it is going to cost (to get Jeffrey out of the shelter) and maybe we could all chip in and adopt him,” Nolan said.

“I talked to my husband, and we said we would adopt him, but we would still let him roam the neighborhood. We just wanted to make sure everything was taken care of,” she said.

Nolan said she put it out on the neighborhood watch page that she and her husband would officially adopt Jeffrey, but they would need to secure some financial help.

Residents responded positively and said they would help pitch in.

Nolan said she put a plastic container near her mailbox for the neighbors to have a place to drop off their contributions, and two days later had received enough money to save Jeffrey.

“I think I collected $190. People were just dropping $30 and $40 dollars off,” Nolan said.

With the amount of money received on behalf of Jeffrey, Nolan said she was able to get him spayed and up-to-date on all his shots.

“I am so appreciative to everyone who pitched in.” Nolan said.

Funds collected also made it possible for Nolan to purchase Jeffrey a collar and tags.

“On one side (of the tags) it has Jeffrey and our phone number, and on the other side it has Oak Park. I did not put our address because to me Oak Park is where he lives,” Nolan said.

Once Jeffrey made it home, Nolan said she posted pictures of the dog so the other residents of the neighborhood could see how well he was making out.

“They had not seen him in a few days and wanted to know how he was doing,” Nolan said, adding, “He seems to be happy and fine.”

Nolan said the neighborhood did make a pact that she would be the only one that would feed him to cut down on his roaming.