Saving Angel

I’m going to start with Angel. Because, after all, that’s what this blog is really about.

She must have been another warm, cuddlesome, adorable puppy. And another one of all too many who end up with some unmitigatingly mean, heartless or just plain ignorant human. I don’t know much about the bastard who took Angel as a happy yet helpless pup. Who broke her bones, destroyed her trust, then left her to starve to death. I do know there’s a bench warrant out for his arrest. I know the odds of that warrant ever being served are absolutely minimal. I know that if the warrant is served, punishment will be barely more than a slap on the wrist; nothing that will remotely fit the crime. And I also know that the odds of him abusing, and slowly and deliberately destroying other creatures is very high.

Anyway, we’ll get to more of that another time. As I said earlier, this is about Angel.

Sometime around the eighth month of their lives, Angel and her sister were rescued from their living hell by Southern Hope Humane Society in Roswell, Georgia. Both pups were near-dead from starvation but one was in even more desperate condition. Pressed into the corner of her torture chamber (a chain link dog kennel with no shelter from the elements), the body emaciated, skin laying loosely over the skeleton, the head seeming too big to be on those thin shoulders, her body was not only battered but horribly broken. Her rescuers didn’t know it at first but the “bastard” must have beaten her so severely that she had a broken hip and leg, for which she had received no treatment.

Something else was different about this little pup…….. her eyes; after all the savage cruelty and depravation, in the eyes there was still just a glimmer of hope.

I wasn’t there when Angel was found but I know those eyes well now. I’ve studied the images of that sweet, sad face and I’ve read a host of things in those eyes – fear, resignation, misery, pleading and, yes, hope. That, together with an innate will to survive and the tender ministrations of the folk at Southern Hope rescue saved her life. Her broken leg was mended. The hip had already begun to calcify (imagine how long she must have suffered with that pain) so was left alone. Her flesh began to fill out.

Don’t be misled, though. For Angel, the rescue and rehab were both painful and frightening, yet she never showed even the slightest aggression. Only ever offered a grateful lick or wag of the tail and was always an angel. Hence her name.

Now came the truly hard part – learning to trust, building confidence, becoming a normal, happy dog in a normal, happy family. Stacey Hall, president of Southern Hope Humane Society, deserves much credit for starting Angel on this journey. She took Angel into her own home to rehabilitate with her family and her dogs. At the same time, Angel had more help when along came Vincent.

Vincent is a miniature poodle of seemingly good pedigree and certainly noble heart who became Angel’s best friend and constant guardian. No-one knows his past; he simply turned up one day, a little thin, flea-infested and instantly attracted to Angel.

I first saw Angel and Vinny when they were featured together in a newspaper article – This Love’s Bred to be True – and knew instantly that they belonged with my husband and me. A few months earlier we had said goodbye to our much-loved Muttley, who left this life at the age of 16, and we were very ready to fill the emptiness that his death left behind. So I went to meet both dogs at a pet-adoption event. Vinny crawled straight into my lap. Angel was too traumatized to come out of her cage but lay curled in the corner doing her best to hide, so I crawled part way in to pet her. When she looked at me with those expressive eyes I was even more certain that our connection was meant to be.

Adoption proceedings weren’t simple. Southern Hope is very thorough in vetting potential “moms” and “dads”. About 10 agonizing days passed before word arrived that my husband and I were apparently acceptable parents. I say “apparently” because the adoption was not official until our home had been viewed by Stacey as well as Angel and Vincent. Happily, we were given a four-paws up and the twosome moved in.

The story doesn’t end here. Stay tuned to read: Angel’s Story; Life At Home.