Ginny found her Angel

Ginny lived with a senior citizen until he died and then she lived in his trailer alone for a month until the owner's son found someone willing to take her. This person brought her to Dogs Deserve Better in Dunkirk. We had hoped to get her adopted but she turned out to be older than we thought and had medical issues.

Ginny has been in a foster home and at a boarding kennel for 15 months as she has Cushings symptoms (drinks lots of water and needs to go out frequently to potty), and is 9 years old. No one has expressed any interest in her until Debby came along (most people only want carefree, low maintenance dogs.)

Debby saw Ginny at the boarding kennel and noticed her sad eyes and asked a lot of questions until we agreed to give her a chance with Ginny. I have been taking Ginny to the vets every few weeks or months for testing to find out why she has constant thirst and urination. She's had a couple urinary infections and had to have several teeth removed in the meantime. We still do not know what her illness is.

Debby not only loves Ginny, she wanted her even when she found out about Ginny's medical problems. She loves her in spite of her issues and has gone out of her way to accomodate her constant need for water and frequent potty breaks. She's had Ginny approved to go to work with her as a therapy dog so that she can take her to work when no one's home to care for her. Debby obviously sees Ginny's value in spite of the extra time and work she requires.

I'm truly amazed that they found each other and truly grateful that Ginny found her furever home. This tells me there is hope for all dogs, no matter what their situation.

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I am eternally grateful to the boarding kennel operator who took good care of Ginny for a long time and gave her love and attention until her furever home could be found. I have no doubt that if Ginny had been taken to the spca, she would have been euthanized. She owes her life to the people who stuck by her and respected her as a deserving creature, as they all are. I'm proud to know so many people who value the lives of these living creatures even when its not cheap or convenient.

Pepie's dead

Pepie's dead.
I first met her in March of 2005 while walking my dog. I saw this sort of "rabbit hutch" off the ground and didn't quite understand what I was looking at so I went up to take a closer look and there was a dog inside. Pepie. What the hell? I went up to talk to her and she was friendly and quit barking after a few seconds. She looked so sad. So lonely.

The rest is a series of frustrations, tears, and setbacks because try as I might, I couldn't convince the owner or the authorities to get her out of there. It was legal, they said. He was a nice man, they said. They, the good 'ole boys.

Much has been written about her on the internet. Many knew of her plight but were as useless as I in making a difference in her pitiful life. We all tried, we all loved her and now we all feel sad and angry and confused.
Did she ever know love, kindness, comfort? Did she know so many cared? Did it even matter? She will haunt me the rest of my life because she had no life, she just waited to die.

Hans

A coonhound/beagle x was adopted from the shelter I volunteer at about 6 months ago. Chris picked him up in someone's barn the other night as he had apparently run off and some people held him until they could find the owner. Turns out, the owner keeps him in a barn and lets him run loose. The rescue doesn't have a problem with this as he appears well fed (but filthy and smelly) and happy. I don't know how they can think he's happy, he was obviously happy to see them but I don't know if that means he thinks he has a great life. He could just be relieved at being found.

Anyway, the adoption contract calls for him to be an inside dog but now I'm hearing that that is just the ideal and that as long as he's fed and warm, the rest is just "guidelines". This is a rescue that I respected but now I feel betrayed! How can they allow this? I think that since they don't know how to handle the situation, they convince themselves that this is okay. Or maybe they don't really have a problem with it. We have a beagle there who was previously chained to a doghouse--she is the sweetest, friendliest dog--does this mean she was happy being chained to a doghouse? I guess we see what we want to see.

I don't want to quit as I love the dogs but last night, my volunteer night at the rescue, I was so sad. I felt like crying all night, thinking that these precious dogs may fall into bad hands and have no one to rescue or protect them. It isn't enough that they're merely better off then before. I just picture Hans being out on his 53 acres, in danger of being attacked by wild animals, shot by hunters or hit by a car. I picture him being isolated and alone in a barn. This is just not acceptable but I don't have a say or a choice. Its not my place. If I quit, I'm not helping them and I love the dogs so I'll probably continue but I just feel so disillusioned.

JR

We picked up JR yesterday from Panama. I first saw him a couple months ago on Freecycle looking for a home, a forlorn creature alone and looking resigned to his fate.

He lived chained to a doghouse for a year and a half, all of his life. I haven't been able to get him off my mind so when I found out he was still chained to that doghouse, I had to go get him. How can anyone take such a loyal, social creature and isolate him this way?

We picked a blustery, 20 degree day after it had snowed a foot to drive out into the boonies for this boy. I'd never been to Panama, a small, out in the sticks kind of place. Luck was with us and between our google map and GPS, we didn't get lost or run into any icy roads.

This poor dog growled and barked at me for about 10 seconds until he decided I was a friend and started jumping up and licking me. He was so happy for attention. Knowing that he wouldn't bite me was all I needed to see and off we went. He was scared to get into the car and took quite a bit of convincing, pushing, and pulling but we got him in. He'd never been in a car, or a house or even to the vet in all this time.

JR's at a nearby boarding kennel for now until we can get him vetted and ready for adoption. He has an inside kennel and a huge fenced in yard to run in. He seems to get along with other dogs so he will have plenty of doggy company to play with. JR is so happy to have attention now, he seems to smile at me in thanks. How can these creatures be so forgiving and so grateful after all they've been through? I can't imagine.