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My BBD Rescued Me

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 | 15 Comments »

Big Black Dog Syndrome

June 18th, 2010

One of the BBD's at the shelter this week

I began volunteering this week with a network of people who are helping rescue dogs from a very high kill, “heart stick” shelter that doesn’t have public adoptions in the city nearest our rural home.

I learned something this week about “euthanasia” in our municipal shelters and was also reminded of a syndrome affecting black dogs in those shelters.

Contrary to the belief that every shelter kills unwanted animals humanely by administering a shot, many shelters still use the gas chamber and others use the heart stick method. This has been described as an agonizing death in which the pets are stuck directly in the heart with a deadly cocktail (heart stick).

The flurry of activity by the network of animal lovers and rescuers was all consuming the night before the appointed rescue was to go and pull the lucky ones from the facility on Tuesday morning. We raised over $1,600 and the rescue was able to pull 17 of the 23 dogs at the shelter.

Great for the 17, but the odds for the six that remained dwindled to nearly 0%.

When I heard from the director of the rescue that pulled the dogs that all that were left behind were BBDs, or Big Black Dogs (mostly black and chocolate labs or lab mixes), I was reminded of the story my friend, Deb Hipp, wrote for The Bark magazine back in 2006, which I believe was the first time I heard of Big Black Dog Syndrome.

The syndrome is all too familiar to rescues and shelters, many of which try in vain to find homes for the numerous Big Black Dogs that sit waiting for their forever homes for weeks, months and in some rescues, even years.

As Deb wrote in her article, “One shelter’s website just came right out with the grim truth: The general public is not aware of how doomed black dogs are when they are brought to a pound.”

Animal experts and those who rescue have long theorized why Big Black Dogs have such a hard time finding homes. The reasons they’ve cited include:

• Superstition surrounding black dogs. Much like black cats, some people feel black dogs are bad luck or “evil.” Some also fear BBDs, thinking black dogs look more menacing or are more aggressive. There has never been any proof that this is true.
• BBD’s tend not to photograph well in dimly lit shelters, making them less attractive on Internet websites.
• Big dogs in general are just harder to place in most areas of the country.

Tamara Delaney launched Black Pearl Dogs back in 2005 as a way to help educate the public. Take a look at the site, there’s a lot of good information on Big Black Dogs.

Did you know the death rate for Big Black Dogs in shelters is much higher than that of other dogs? What do you think can be done to change the public perception?

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Tags: Big Black Dog Syndrome, Black Pearl Dogs, Debb Hipp, The Bark
Posted in K9 Rescue | 17 Comments »