A Good Girl Named Remy

16 month, blue-brindle, female pitbull. 40-45 lbs who will be coming in heat anytime now. If you’re interested, please email me. Thank you. Rehoming fee of $250 obo.

That’s how a recent post read on Craigslist. But it left me with a few questions like……. If she’s such a good girl, why are you getting rid of her? Is she usually tied out on such a short chain and with no water in her bowl? Does that mean she doesn’t get exercised and isn’t socialized? Why is she not spayed? Did you breed her or were you just too cheap or too ignorant to ensure she couldn’t have pups, especially by some stray who might mount her while she’s tied outside?

The most pertinent question, of course, is why did you get a dog in the first place?

Here’s another…..

Cute dog needs a good home!

4 month Golden Retriever/Boxer needs a good home!

He is crate trained and is a very active puppy. He can already sit, shake, and lay down. He is more of an inside dog and does not run off when you take him outside. Needs a home where he can be inside most of the time and not tied up! $25 rehoming fee to let us know that you are serious about keeping him.

For crying out loud, he’s just four months old! And the way he’s dressed I’d say he was a Christmas puppy so somebody really put a lot of thought into this (note the biting sarcasm) because 9 weeks ago you had to know you couldn’t afford a dog! Or is it just that you didn’t think? You didn’t think that puppies chew, they need to be house-trained, they need time and effort and patience! You didn’t think that this is a living creature and by bringing him into your home you would be making a lifetime commitment; that a puppy is not like an old rag that you use for a while then throw away.

Oh, and by the way, how much did you pay for this pup? Must have been less than $25 if you think that’s all it takes to find someone “serious about keeping him”.

And here’s a slightly different one….

3 year old white dove w/ cage and stand

Beautiful white dove 3 years old handled by a 9 year, who has a very busy after school schedule. so he would be better off with someone who has more time to love him. small re homing fee.

Come on! You had the bird before the kid’s schedule “got busy”.  A captive dove can live for 12 – 15 years. It was pretty unrealistic if you thought your then six-year-old would care for the creature through college age; you should have been prepared (and willing) to pick up all the slack before you brought the dove home.

OK, you see what I’m getting at here. When you get a pet, it’s for the life of the pet. Just ’cause your girlfriend moves in with her rottweiler who doesn’t get along with the hound that’s given you love and loyalty for the last four years you don’t just chuck the hound out! Try training! (By the way, I wonder if the girlfriend will give love and loyalty for four years).

Because your kid whines about wanting a pet don’t wimp out and just get one. Do your due diligence and help your child understand what it takes to care for an animal.

When it becomes inconvenient to care for your two 12-year-old cats that have been with you since kittenhood because you want to spend time on the road with your new boyfriend, you don’t euthanize them with the excuse that “they’ve had a good life anyway”. (Yes, I used to know someone who actually did this).

Of course, there are people who are beset with genuine hardship, who do everything possible to keep their pets. And if it truly does become impossible, they do everything they can to ensure they find a wonderful new home including, perhaps, putting an ad on Craigslist. Shelters and rescue organizations also use Craigslist and it can be a great resource for prospective pet parents.

“You become responsible forever for what you have tamed” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Rescuers Creed

Help may have come too late for this little pup. She was found recently in a park with severe second and third-degree burns to her head, back, stomach, tail and legs. Her ears were burned off and she had a broken jaw and teeth. Based on the development of maggots (*see below) that covered her body, it’s estimated that the 10-week old pit-mix was abandoned about two weeks before her rescue. Her case is still open and the suspects unknown.

I promise I will take your unwanted animals.
I will heal their wounds, their diseases, their broken bones.
I will give them the medical attention they need and deserve.
I will nurture their starvation and give them a warm place to sleep.
I will spay and neuter them, vaccinate them against the diseases that can harm them.
I will treat them and honor them.
I will buy them toys, blankets, balls, and teach them to play.
I will speak softly to them.
I will try to teach them not to fear, not to cry, and not to hate.
I will whisper sweet, kind, gentle words into their ears, while gently trying to stroke their fear, their pain, and their scars away.
I will face their emotional scars and give them time to overcome them.
I will socialize them, potty train them, teach them to be obedient, show them dignity, and hold their paws, and stroke their ears if they have endured too much and walk them over the Rainbow Bridge, BUT most of all I will teach them LOVE.

Author unknown

“Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

As weird as this may seem, it’s possible the maggots helped this little girl survive. Throughout history maggots have been used for medicinal purposes and, today, are known to liquefy dead tissue, kill harmful bacteria and stimulate healing.

Angel’s Story; Life At Home

You know, the adaptability of erstwhile abused dogs (and other animals) never ceases to amaze me. Pet adoption is never something to be taken lightly and, prior to Angel and Vinny moving in, my husband and I had gone to great lengths to anticipate every possible problem that might be encountered. To some degree or another I’ve been involved in pet rescue all my life and for the last 10 years my husband has been right there with me. Considering the severity of Angel’s abuse, however, we were very concerned how she would react to another major change in her life. Enter Vinny…….again.

Stacey Hall from Southern Hope rescue really knows her stuff. She was adamant that Angel and Vincent stay together and she was so right. Vinny came into our home as if he owned it. He was casual with our nine cats (that’s another story) and they pretty much had no problem with him. He exuded bonhomie with us and with everyone he met; was a model of responsive canine behavior. He was home and had no doubt about it. All of which, I am convinced, had a far greater impact on Angel than anything my husband or I could have done because Vinny was, most of all, Angel’s protector and guide.

Although Angel’s physical condition had improved dramatically her emotional state was still fragile. Her abuse had been so incredibly severe that she had even been used as a poster dog for Southern Hope’s Don’t Get A Dog campaign. She was afraid of just about everyone and everything but Vinny was her ally. His immediate acceptance of, and faith in, us rapidly transmitted to Angel so that within a couple of days she was very much at ease in the home and in the confines of the back yard. The dogs took turns chasing each other round the garden shed, wrestled with their toys, ate their meals with gusto, slept deeply on their sheepskin bed and relished the love and attention they were getting from us.

This status quo was maintained for a while with the exception of a visit to the vet for check-ups. Angel got as far as our front door and refused to budge. Nothing would get her past the portal; not treats, pleading, firm command, not even Vinny. Each time we reached the door she would shiver and shake, park her paws on the floor or bolt under the dining room table with tail between legs and ears back. In desperation I had to carry her to the car, quivering in my arms while I felt like one of the lowest forms of humanity on earth for forcing her to go. Once in the car she accepted her fate and lay meekly in the back fixing me with those big, soulful eyes every time I looked round to check on her, as if to ensure that my guilt would not mitigate. Vincent, meanwhile, was delighted to go for a ride and, as with the house, pridefully claimed the car as his domain by alternately barking or wagging his tail at every other vehicle we encountered.

Funnily enough, once at the doctor’s Angel was a model patient. She’d had lots of practice, of course, but I had expected her reaction to be one of some trepidation. Instead, she was as sweet as could be to everyone and they, in turn, were really sweet with her. Our return journey, while not exactly jolly, was at least less tense and the return home called for a burst of wrestling and chasing throughout the house.

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.