First Comes Fido or Fluffy, Then Comes Baby
August 27th, 2010
Hershey was given up due to the kids
People give up their pets for many different reasons, but one of the saddest, I think, is because the owners had a baby or family dynamics changed, adding stepchildren to the mix.
Our first rescue, Hershey, came to us indirectly because she didn’t get along well with the family’s children. The owners gave their then 5-year-old miniature Dacshund, which had been their baby before having their own children, to the grandparents, who then decided she didn’t “fit their lifestyle.”
They admitted to us that their grandchildren tormented Hershey without repercussion from the parents. They knew she needed a home void of kids, but threatened to take her to the municipal shelter anyway, where temperament testing would have labeled her as “unadoptable.” We did adopt her and she lived her remaining years happy and spoiled.
A new study in Indiana revealed that people’s feelings toward their pets do tend to change after they have children. Pets that were once doted upon and sometimes treated as children are replaced by the human ones.
Some pets are luckier than others, being shuffled off to the backyard or into the basement, instead of being relinquished to the municipal kill shelter (some people even still believe the myth that cats will smother babies in their cribs). This paper demonstrates that “lifestyle” changes, including having children, was one of the top 10 reasons people give up their once beloved 4-legged family members.
However, parents do not have to choose one over the other. While it is understandable priorities change when parents add human kids to their household, it is possible to include everyone and every dog and cat into the mix. Proper planning and pet socialization can help your pet accept the new baby from Day 1; and keeping your pet as part of the family will also teach your human children to love and respect animal life from Day 1.
Smoky, the German Shepherd that was part of my parent’s household before I was even born, remained a vital part of our family until she died at a ripe old age when I was a teenager. From the first day I came home from the hospital, she protected me by warning anyone – except my parents – away from my crib. Her presence in my life shaped how I view animals and taught me invaluable lessons about unconditional love, loyalty and respect for other living beings.
Next week, we’ll meet a family who successfully integrated baby and pets and learn about the rewards they’ve experienced.
Have you rescued a dog or cat given up because a family had a baby?
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Tags: babies and pets, First Comes Fido or Fluffy then comes baby, giving up pets due to the kids
Posted in K9 Rescue | 3 Comments »
Do Puppy Mill Laws Help Reduce the Numbers?
August 20th, 2010
Puppy Mill
When speaking with a friend last week who has a rescue in Missouri, we were discussing some ideas on how to reduce the dogs and cats that find their way into the municipal shelter and if they’re lucky, eventually into her rescue.
One of the main problems in Missouri is that it is the Puppy Mill Capital of the Country and is home to more than one third of the nation’s puppy mills.
We discussed Proposition B, which will be on the ballot in Missouri in November. The proposed legislation would require people with more than 10 breeding dogs to meet new standards for housing, veterinary care and food. It would limit breeders to 50 dogs.
I expressed hope that the bill, if passed, would put some of the puppy millers out of business. According to ABC News, similar legislation in Pennsylvania, which competed with Missouri annually for the most puppy mills, put many puppy millers out of business.
The number of mills in Pennsylvania was reduced from over 300 to just 111 at the beginning of the year.
The cost to comply with the law was just too much for many Pennsylvania puppy millers and they went out of business. That law, however, is the toughest in the country, requiring dogs to have access to the outside to feel grass beneath their feet. It also requires them to do away with wire bottom cages and doesn’t allow the stacking of cages any longer.
Several other states, including Louisiana, enacted tougher puppy mill laws in 2008.
It’s unclear what, if any difference Missouri’s Proposition B, would make in the number of puppy mills in the state. My friend expressed doubts that such legislation would do much, if anything to reduce the amount of puppy mills. She told me she has a neighbor who has been cited several times for USDA violations and he just closes and reopens under another name.
I see her point. I’ve written stories on puppy mills since 2000 and have seen numerous mills violated on several occasions and continue to run business as usual. In one instance, a miller simply closed, sold her property in Kansas and moved on to Colorado.
Do you think tougher puppy mill laws are helping reduce the number of unwanted pets, or will, once more states enact them?
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Tags: do puppy mill laws help reduce the numbers, missouri proposition b, puppy mill
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In the Minds of Animal Hoarders
August 13th, 2010
I watched a couple of episodes of Animal Planet’s new show, “Confessions: Animal Hoarding.”
I knew little about animal hoarding, except that the people doing it most often feel they are somehow saving the animals, even when the pets are clearly in poor condition and often sick and dying.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, the Humane Society of the U.S. estimates that 250,000 pets are the victims of animal hoarders.
Little is known about the disorder that triggers hoarding, but it is believed hoarders have an attachment disorder. “They have a desperate need to be attached and to control another living creature,” says Mary Lou Randour, director of professional outreach in the animal cruelty and fighting campaign for the HSUS. “But they are in denial and don’t see the suffering.”
A few months ago, after interviewing Madeline Bernstein, president of the SPCALA for the story on Scooch and pet trusts, I saw her on the Dr. Phil show with an animal hoarder. She seemed very sympathetic to the hoarder. I wondered how anyone in animal welfare could be sympathetic to anyone neglecting and killing animals.
I didn’t understand until I watched the shows on animal hoarding, which had me crying in sympathy with the people involved as much as I was for the pets.
The show really brings to light the fact that these people absolutely do not understand what they’re doing. “It’s like someone who is anorexic being on the verge of death, but they still see themselves as fat,” says Randour. “We all think, ‘how can they not see that’? But the disorder distorts the reality.”
Here are some of the signs someone you love or a neighbor might be headed toward hoarding:
- Hoarders often start out by rescuing homeless animals. They maybe be know in their communities for doing this and people may even routinely dump unwanted animals at their door. Hoarders sometimes pose as legitimate, non-profit 501C3 rescues.
- Hoarders are usually slightly older and usually have suffered a major loss in their lives or maybe overcame a very troubled time such as winning the fight with a major illness.
- Hoarders will most often think they are the only ones who can care for the animals.
How can you help the animals in a hoarding situation and the hoarder:
- If you think a family member might be headed toward hoarding, intervene immediately before the situation gets out of hand. One of our Rescue Me readers commented several weeks ago that her mother had rescued several cats and suddenly found herself with more than she could care for. It’s unknown if that reader’s mother was headed toward hoarding, but that is exactly how it starts, says Randour. “Step in and be direct and have a plan in place,” says Randour. “Find good homes or rescues for all but 2-3 animals.” (of course, make sure those remaining pets are spayed/neutered)
- Randour says if it is a neighbor or a friend, you can try to talk to them and help them, but if the situation is already out of control, reporting the issue to authorities is necessary. “Reporting is not doing anyone a disservice. The animals need our help because they depend on us for protection, but the people need help too.”
- If the neighbor is elderly, you might also try calling elder services. “Depending on how bad of a situation it is, it’s probably a housing or health violation,” says Randour. “Call the police if you feel the person is in danger.”
- Even after the situation is under control – the animals have been taken away and the person says they are receiving counseling – keep your eyes open. Hoarders have a very high rate of repeating the behavior.
Have you ever known a hoarder or do you think someone you know might be on their way to hoarding?
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August 6th, 2010
Buster before he was injured
Jodi Robinette was tired of returning to her home in Littleton, Colorado to an empty house everyday.
She felt she needed the unconditional love of a dog and knew she was ready to also return that unconditional love.
She couldn’t have known that just two months later, that unconditional love for Buster, a Chihuahua mix she adopted from The Dumb Friends League in Denver, would be thrown in the national media spotlight.
At the same time, two pit bulls would be hailed as heroes for saving Buster from an uncertain fate for at least the second time in his life.
Last Saturday morning, Buster awoke Jodi at 6:30 to go outside. “I went outside to make sure everything was ok because there are woods and I’ve seen foxes around,” says Jodi. Buster did his business and they came back inside. “He wanted to immediately go back out and sniff and play,” says Jodi.
Not seeing any danger, she let Buster out of the back door and just as she got sat down on the couch, she heard the “worst scream I’ve ever heard anything make,” Jodi recalls.
By the time she crossed the 10 feet and got out the back door and around the house, she saw a coyote shaking Buster violently in its mouth.
She ran after the coyote screaming. The coyote ran, shaking Buster as it made its way to the middle of an open field.
The coyote suddenly stopped and dropped Buster.
That’s when Jodi saw a neighbor’s two pit bulls coming after the coyote. When the wild animal dropped Buster, they stopped and surrounded the tiny, terrified 4-year-old dog.
“They were circling him and licking him under a bush,” says Jodi. Her brother had pit bulls and she didn’t have some of the biases against the breed played up by media hysteria.
“I was never afraid that the pit bulls were going to harm him, I knew they were there to protect and coddle Buster.”
The neighbor, who had been out with her pitties, brought Jodi a blanket and she had him at the Columbine Animal Hospital and Emergency Clinic within 7 minutes. Buster spent 3 days in intensive care with a collapsed lung, a crushed chest and a total of 5 lacerations so severe, they required surgery to restructure the muscles.
The surgery and hospitalization cost Jodi over $4,000, but saving Buster’s life was never in question. “I’m financially secure and was ready to take on the responsibility fully and do whatever necessary,” says Jodi.
Buster came home on Tuesday, wobbly, but able to walk and eat. He should make a full physical recovery.
As for his mental state, only time will tell. Jodi says he was shy and docile when she brought him home. “I don’t know if he was hurt by someone, but he was scared around other people and large animals,” says Jodi. “I started socializing him and gave him lots of love, we had a really good start.”
There’s one thing for sure, though, Jodi says she hasn’t been in her backyard since the incident and now only takes Buster out the front door and keeps him on a leash. Her home is a rental and she doesn’t know if her landlords, who are also friends, will fence the yard. Experts warn of allowing pets alone in yards where coyotes might be present, or sticking to a routine, as coyotes have been known to learn the routines and lay in wait for their prey.
As for the pitties and their mom, she wants to remain out of the public spotlight and has ignored all requests for interviews. “I washed her blanket and took her a half dozen roses and a thank you card,” says Jodi. “But now I think she just wants to be left alone.”
Jodi’s been interviewed by local media, as well as People Magazine. “I needed Buster, he needed me and then he was rescued again,” says Jodi. “I just think it’s a good story all around.”
Have you ever witnessed an act of heroism by one dog for another dog or other animal?
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Tags: buster, Buster's Heroes, columbine animal and emergency clinic, dogs and coyotes, jodi robinette, the dumb friends league
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Are Surrender Fees the Answer?
July 30th, 2010
I don’t think anyone who has been involved in pet rescue or who have volunteered at a shelter hasn’t wondered if people really know what happens to their pets once they are relinquished to the “pound.”
Most of the general public haven’t witnessed the gruesome reality on kill day.
Springfield Missouri Animal Control goes as far as to tell people who are relinquishing their pets that they will be euthanized if a rescue doesn’t claim them, but that hasn’t deterred some from handing their pets over, sometimes on an annual basis, according to Randy Barnts, supervisor at the facility.
That’s why, he said, the municipal shelter instituted a new policy on July 1. They began charging a $20 surrender fee.
Barnts says the fee covers vaccinations and deworming, as well as boarding for a five day hold period, and if a rescue doesn’t claim the animal, it covers killing it (the shelter is 40 years old and not set up for public adoptions).
“We’ve seen private facilities charge surrender fees, but seeing municipalities doing it is not really a trend we’re seeing,” says Betsy McFarland, who works for the companion animal section of the Humane Society of the United States.
That’s most likely because municipal shelters were built to help curb the dumping of animals that will either become wild and roam in packs, becoming a danger to the public, or die terrible deaths from disease or starvation.
Springfield Animal Control took in 2,500 dogs last year and 2,000 cats (some of those were picked up as strays). Barnts says he doesn’t know if their numbers have increased this year, but added that charging a surrender fee has been in discussion for at least a year within the city and was finally approved by the city council. “We have repeat turn ins, people will get a puppy and bring it in a year later so they can get another one,” says Barnts. “At least with the fee, they will have to take at least a little responsibility.”
He says it’s always a concern that people will simply dump their animals rather than paying the fee, but he says only time will tell how the new policy is working.
I’m not sure that in a state that has always been in the top five with regards to being home to puppy mills and in an area with so many people having a disposable mindset to animals, that charging a surrender fee will deter anyone or make them take responsibility.
It looks like more education might be needed.
What do you think about municipal shelters charging surrender fees, readers?
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July 23rd, 2010
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ Dr. Seuss.
Our new BBD, Chloe
Last week we began at the root of the problem in Animal Lover Action with my post about establishing a low cost spay/neuter clinic in your area.
There’s many, many other things you can do to help homeless pets and sometimes it’s as simple as punching a few keys on the computer.
Here’s 5 small things you can do to help in a big way:
- One of the greatest advantages for animal lovers, rescuers and advocates has been the Internet. Thanks to this medium, thousands of pets have been “networked” via social media sites, allowing rescues and animal lovers to be alerted to pets needing to be pulled from kill shelters. There are hundreds of rescues involved in networks on Facebook. You might start by putting in the name of your favorite rescue or no kill shelter and linking to them and some of their “friends.” Through these links, you can become a part of the network, helping to find fosters, adopters or donating money. Be careful though, about your donations, remember, this is the Internet.
- Get involved with your local municipal shelter to make things better. Co-K9 Cuisine blogger, Allie Johnson, who writes Pet Tips and Tails, volunteers as a dog walker each week at her local municipal shelter. She says it’s very rewarding making sure these canines have some quality exercise and love while in such a stressful environment. She’s also dedicated to one day seeing her shelter become a no-kill shelter. A couple of weeks ago, she plucked a dog from death row (a BBD!) and fostered him, attending adopt-a-pet events until he found his forever home! She’s also very involved in networking pets on the Internet as well.
- Make phone calls to see what your local rescues and shelters need. Sometimes it’s food, blankets, toys or cat litter. Call your local grocery, pet supply and farm and home stores. I learned one of our local stores was throwing away outdated pet food. While this food cannot be sold, rescues and shelters can still use it. It took one simple phone call to the manager and now that store is donating their food to a local rescue. Another good place for this food is food banks. So many people are struggling to feed themselves and their pets, food banks are now also distributing pet food.
- Foster a dog or a cat through a local rescue. I’ve written about fostering before and while you can become attached, it really is very rewarding loving and nurturing a homeless pet. The best part is seeing it go to its forever home. Sometimes, the sponsoring rescue will pay for the food and most always pay for the vet bills while the animal is in your care.
- If you can’t foster or adopt, a great way to help a rescue or some shelters is to sponsor a pet. Sponsorships give rescues the money they need to pull animals from death row and to care for them until their homes can be found. Sponsorships also make a great gift for animal lovers who have enough stuff (don’t’ we all!?)
You can be that one big difference in a pet’s life.
What do you think you can do for a homeless pet today?
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Tags: animal lover action, donating, Five Simple Things you can do, fostering pets, pet tips and tails, rescuing pets
Posted in K9 Rescue | 6 Comments »
Animal Lover Action: Establishing Spay/Neuter Clinics
July 16th, 2010
This will be the first in a series of what ordinary animal lovers can do to help the animal rescue movement.
When I read about a local low cost spay/neuter clinic in my area, it seemed appropriate to start with organizing low cost spay/neuter clinics. Approximately 70,000 puppies and kittens are born in the U.S. every single day. Between 8-10 million of them a year are killed in shelters.
The only way to help curb these stats is to get to the root of the problem and keep spreading the word about spay/neuter.
Anyone can organize a temporary low cost spay/neuter clinic by soliciting the help of local veterinarian(s) to reduce their fees. If you are already a non-profit rescue organization, you could hold fundraisers to subsidize the cost of the reduction by providing vouchers to people. However, some vets who are aware of the pet overpopulation problem might agree to absorb the fees temporarily.
Michelle Dormady, president of Spay & Neuter Kansas City, formed the organization in 2002. Michelle worked in a shelter for 4 years and part of her job was euthanizing the animals that weren’t claimed or adopted. “I realized that wasn’t the answer to the problem,” says Michelle.
Her organization uses a 3-pronged approach, which has reduced the number of municipal shelter intakes by 35 percent and the number of animal control calls by 30 percent:
- First, she secured grants, some of which came from funds that were going to be directed toward a new shelter in the city. “To do a long-term spay/neuter clinic right, you have to have grant funding,” says Michelle. Although most of their grants dried up during the recession due to budget cuts, the clinic is surviving now on donations fund raising and offering low cost veterinary services.
- Next, Spay & Neuter Kansas City targets the highest at risk population, which is determined by the number of animal control complaints. “Only 3 percent of the population contributes to 80 percent of the pet overpopulation problem,” says Michelle. The areas they target tend to be lower income areas where dogs are chained or allowed to run loose in the neighborhoods. They do not leave fliers, but go door to door talking to residents and pet owners, educating them of the benefits of altering their pets. “If we would leave fliers, it wouldn’t work,” says Michelle. “And if we targeted people who would alter their pets anyway, it wouldn’t help the problem.”
- Finally, they use incentives to further convince the pet owner. “If we see a dog outside without adequate shelter, we tell them we’ll give them a dog house, but the only thing we ask is that they get the dog altered,” says Michelle. “And then we tell them we’ll throw in a bag of food and also take the animal and bring it home. It’s a whole package deal.”
Rural areas are a bit different in that people are farther apart and veterinarians tend to be older and less educated on the pet overpopulation problem (thus less willing to help).
Mobile clinics, such as Arkansans for Animals (the one coming to my small town), are a viable way for anyone to set up a low cost spay/neuter clinic and many areas and states have them.
Jake Hillard, executive director with Arkansans for Animals, says they travel all over the state at the request of rescue organizations, shelters or even just a couple of volunteers who want to organize and publicize the clinic in their area. The mobile clinic operates on grants and donations and has a veterinarian, a technician and an assistant.
Most people pay, but there is grant funding for those who simply cannot. People managing feral cat populations don’t pay, she says. As well, Jake says 90 percent of the animals they alter have never seen a vet and they will also offer low cost vaccination services if the pet is being altered.
The organization also offers vouchers in some areas with vets who are willing to participate. Vets agree to charge less for their services and Jake says it’s best, if you are going to offer such a program in your area, that you talk to all the vets. “They can agree to participate or not, but at least they can’t say you are referring work to other vets and they weren’t given the chance,” says Jake.
One way to convince vets to go for such programs, says Michelle, is to tell them they can establish a whole new base of clients.
Have you ever helped established a local low cost spay/neuter clinic or program? Do you have other ideas or suggestions?
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Tags: Animal Lover Action: Establishing Spay/Neuter Clinics, establishing low cost spay/neuter clinics, pet overpopulation
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July 9th, 2010
Melanie Bruski with one of her rescues. Photo by Pamela Marches
She only had him for 6 days, but Melanie Bruski still cries when she thinks of Gideon Brown.
The 1-year-old pup was diagnosed with a severe case of kennel cough, but after Melanie rescued him from the shelter, she knew it was more serious. A more thorough diagnosis revealed the dog had suffered a hit or kick so severe that it had collapsed his diaphragm.
“He would do any command you asked of him, he just wanted to be held and loved all of the time,” says Melanie. “In the first couple of days, I thought he would make it, but those last handful of days were very hard.”
Gideon died on the operating table, as the vet just could not get his lungs to inflate. “They called me and let me say goodbye and hold him,” says Melanie, in a breaking voice. “I still have him in a box in my bedroom.”
This is what Melanie does – rescuing mostly the sick and elderly – so these canines will die in someone’s arms, knowing someone cared and loved them.
Melanie, 26, has been involved in rescue for the past three years, in between balancing a full-time job and caring for her family, which includes a husband, two children, a teenage niece, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 hermit crabs.
Melanie with her 3 canine kids. Photo by Pamela Marches
Melanie, who is now a resident of Temecula, Calif., grew up in Montrose, Colorado, on a farm around animals and 4-H.
Melanie’s husband is also an animal lover and his mother is involved with the Southern California Golden Rescue. Melanie, who is also now a board member of the organization, says her mother in law asked her to pick up some Goldens from shelters in her area.
Melanie was hooked.
Melanie, who ironically is allergic to dog slobber, also sports a large tattoo on her forearm to hide a scar from a dog that attacked her at one of her shelter visits.
She doesn’t discuss any hardships she has endured in her rescue work but she openly shares all of the stories of the animals she’s loved.
Most are Goldens, but Melanie will rescue any dog that tugs on her heart. She recently just rescued a blind dog she dubbed Ray Charles.
There’s also been Prudence, who couldn’t see, had open sores, broken ribs from beatings, and a choke chain embedded in his neck; Jim Abbott, a 10-month old puppy that was hit by a car and dropped at the shelter to be euthanized (he survived); Macey, a pit bull abandoned at a home without food or water for at least 3 weeks, and James Howlett, a French Mastiff found lying in a ditch, his skull cracked and tail broken from abuse.
Every dog gets a name, sometimes its named for a shelter worker who took the time to call, sometimes the dog is given a first and last name.
Melanie has saved over 100 dogs in her rescue work. She doesn’t know how many she’s lost overall, but says she lost 15 just last year. “The best part is getting the old ones,” Melanie says. “I will take a 14-year-old over a puppy any day because those are the ones no one wants.”
Melanie recalls Henry, a Golden whose owners dropped off at the shelter because he had a severe case of Cushing’s Disease. “He could barely walk and was bloated,” says Melanie. “He weighed 125 pounds, but I managed to carry him to the car.”
Henry only survived a short time after Melanie got him home. “He was loved for an hour, at least he got to die in the arms of someone who really loved him,” says Melanie.
Of the dogs Melanie has rescued that were adoptable, she has found homes for all but one so far. She doesn’t know what accounts for her high adoption rate.
Perhaps her passion for the homeless and broken is contagious.
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Tags: abused, dogs, elderly dogs, In the Arms of an Angel, Melanie Bruski, sick, Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue
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When Love for Animals Defies Reason
July 2nd, 2010
Dogs left in unfamiliar places are often scared and confused. Is this love?
A few weeks ago, I was really distressed to hear follow up stories on a couple of dogs I’ve profiled here on Rescue Me.
Camille, a blind rescued Pit Bull, had an “accidental” encounter with the male dog in the house. Both were obviously not altered and it resulted in a litter of puppies (mea culpa, readers, I had no idea Camille had not been spayed when I wrote the profile, much less that the male dog in the home had also not been neutered).
I worry that these puppies, no matter how hard the owners try to find loving homes, will either be used as bait dogs for fighters; breeders if they’re given away unaltered, or at some point, end up in a shelter and spend their last days unwanted before being gassed to death.
When I expressed my concern to Camille’s mom, she expressed valid health reasons Camille’s spaying had been delayed. But she also argued that her boyfriend – who consciously refused to have his male dog neutered – wasn’t irresponsible; she insists he loves his dog and he felt it was the right thing not to do.
Of course, this defies conventional wisdom. Every animal welfare organization agrees that altering a pet is best (unless you’re one of the very few reputable breeders in the world). Pets that are a result of “accidental” breeding are a part of the 8-10 million that end up dying in shelters. Spaying/neutering a pet isn’t just a responsibility to society, but it is also beneficial for a pet’s overall health (unaltered males can be more aggressive, unaltered pets of both sexes also run a higher risk of certain cancers and studies show that 80 percent of dogs hit by cars are unaltered males).
The other story was about a woman who convincingly told me during our interview that her little dog rescued her at a time in her life when they both needed each other the most. She said she loved her dog beyond measure.
I was told that the woman recently gave away her little dog she dubbed “Hope.”
As I wrote last week, my dog Emma literally saved my life. I couldn’t imagine giving her up and I know most animal parents feel the same. I’ve also seen the confusion in the eyes of a dog left at an unfamiliar place, so how could someone give up an animal they truly love?
Hoarders represent yet another group of once well-intentioned animal lovers who will swear to authorities they are “saving” animals. Many will tell authorities they would “never harm an animal,” even as the animals lay sick and dying in their own feces. The Humane Society of the United States estimates 250,000 pets are victims of hoarders each year. While there are different mindsets of hoarders, a majority of them do believe they’re acting out of love.
So, what skews a person’s views to make them believe not altering their pet, giving it up, or having more than a person can care for, is actually good when conventional wisdom tells them otherwise? Why do some pet rescues go so wrong?
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Tags: abandoning pets, altering pets, camille, giving up pets, Grendel, Hope, Humane Society of the United States, pet hoarders, When a Love for Animals Goes Wrong
Posted in K9 Rescue | 11 Comments »
June 25th, 2010
Emma
Last week’s post was on Big Black Dog Syndrome. When I was writing that post, I reminded myself that I have my own tale of how our Big Black Dog, Emma, literally rescued me:
Looking back, it’s fitting the first time I saw Emma, I was driving out of our suburban neighborhood on my way to our leased land to feed our horses.
Emma was coming out of a pond, walking up a hill, soaking wet.
I saw her again on another blistering hot day a few days later. She had made her way back to our neighborhood. I opened the back gate. She came to the back porch, lapped water and eagerly ate the only dog food I had – senior small dog bites.
Our first rescue, a black and brown miniature Dachshund named Hershey, was in her golden years and she was an only dog-child because she didn’t like kids or other dogs. We didn’t want to upset the end of her life and I didn’t know how Emma would get along with our two cats.
However, Emma didn’t leave and no one responded to my “Found Dog” ads in the local newspapers. Of course, the no-kill shelter was full.
A day later, I finally let Emma in the house. Hershey, wasn’t upset by Emma’s presence; she paid Emma no mind at all. Emma also ignored the cats.
My elderly mother had been afraid of big dogs since being bitten as a child, but she took Emma’s face in her hands and they met each other’s eyes. Emma was definitely “Grammy’s” girl.
Hershey, Emma and I would go to the barn each day. Emma would jump from the truck and run the land, leaping on top of 1,500-pound hay bales, swimming in the pond and chasing wildlife (she never caught any).
I usually didn’t see much of her until it was time to leave.
On December 1, we got out of the truck and Emma took off to play and run. I had two senior horses, but fed Santana, the younger one, to keep her from bothering the two seniors.
As I sat the last bucket down, I heard the unmistakable roar of hooves coming at me. By the time I spun around, the only thing I saw was a very large, open mouth clamping down on my upper left chest. When Santana locked her jaw, she flung me backwards.
I was lying on the ground, staring straight up. I heard that roar of a galloping horse coming toward me again, Santana was in a fury and directing it right at me. Dazed and in shock, I couldn’t move.
Suddenly, Emma appeared, barking and biting at Santana’s legs. She not only stopped a 1,000 + pound animal several times her size, but backed Santana into the corner of the corral, giving me time to get to my feet.
The dog no one wanted the summer before had managed to literally save me from being stomped to death.
Now a senior, Emma is still spry and always ready to go for a run or swim on our rural property with her pittie sister, Sade. Emma can no longer jump up on 4 foot high hay bales – we have to help her get in the truck now days – but I have no doubt that if anything charged at me even today she would get between us and put up the fight of her life.
I don’t consider Emma finding us on that hot day 9 years ago the day we saved Emma; I consider it the day that led her to rescue me.
Do you have a story of when a pet you rescued literally saved your life?
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Tags: BBDs, Big Black Dog Syndrome, Emma, My BBD Rescued Me, Rescue Me
Posted in K9 Rescue | 11 Comments »
Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell has had dogs all of her life. Her first rescue was Hershey, a miniature black and brown Dacshund. She ruled the Campbell household until 2005 when she passed away at age 16. The case of Scruffy, a Yorkshire terrier whose torture death was videotaped in 1997, horrified the nation when the tape appeared on national news shows. Kerri began covering the trial for the local daily newspaper in Kansas City, Kansas where the crime occurred. Her investigation into animal cruelty cases led to her awareness of the puppy mill problem in that state.
