A Happy Ending - A New Beginning

We asked Jamie, from Adams County Pet Rescue, to show us around town. There were several neighborhoods that we had not visited and want to get a feel for the different parts of the community. We had heard about a small area known for a high number of stray dogs and cats and felt that it was important to see firsthand what was happening.

As we drove through, the people waved kindly and the animals trotted through the streets. Obvious experts at dodging cars, they reminded me of the community dogs in Guam. Just as we were exiting the area, Alycia spotted a large, black and white dog. "I see a big dog!" And before anyone could respond, we were turning around.

As we cruised past, Jamie realized that the dog was one she and the Animal Control Officer had been trying to catch for two years and she had obviously had another litter of puppies. Alycia rolled down the car window and spoke to her. She shot off across the street, barking defensively. We continued rolling past and stopped at the end of the block. We sat there for a moment - silent but all thinking the same thing. We had to turn around. We had to try to do something.

The first step was to locate where she was likely staying at. We pulled up to an empty house that people had obviously decided to use as a local dumping ground. We got out of the car and stood at the edge of the lawn looking for a sign of the puppies. All the while, mama is barking like crazy.

Just then, a woman emerges from a house across the street and asks if we need help. We ask her what she knows about the dog and the story emerges. Two years ago, the people that owned "Lady" moved out and left her behind. Last year, she has several puppies that all perished on the road. She had another eight puppies now, but there were only two left. Someone had come and taken them. Teena said she had been feeding Lady but that no one could get near her. She offered to show us where the puppies were. I thought that if nothing else, we can try to save the last two puppies.

As we walked through the debris covered yard and closer to the puppies, Lady was getting agitated. I crouched down and looked back into the truck canopy that she had called home and say two chubby, little faces looking back at me. I'd like to point out at this time that Alycia and I were dressed for a road trip, not a rescue. Me in sandals and shorts, Alycia in sandals and a dress.

Because I am the shorter of the two, it made sense to send me into the canopy and that left Alycia and a very pregnant Jamie, to keep Lady away while I went into her den. As I clamored over the debris to get in through the back, Alycia asked, "When was the last time you had your tetanus?" I laughed.

As I maneuvered into the small space, through the broken window, the puppies crammed themselves further into a hole under the debris pile, out a side window. I could hear Alycia calling to Lady - keeping her back. I had no idea how deep the hole was as it was getting dark and was even darker in the canopy. By this point Leo, Teena's husband arrived to help.

I grabbed one puppy, which instantly started crying (mom is unhappy) and passed it out to Leo, who handed it off to Alycia. The puppy squirms and cries and then pees down the front of Alycia's dress. I grab the second puppy (more crying) and quickly pass it out. And then I saw it, a third little face staring at me from the dark hole. Obviously the runt, she was feisty and a lot less interested in coming with me but I managed to get her, pass her out and then got out as fast as I could.

As we walked to car with the puppies, Lady ran over to her den, looking for her babies. It was so incredibly heartbreaking to see her sadness. She was now alone.

Three puppies in hand but no one got in the car. We just stood there looking at Lady. "Maybe we can walk with the puppies to the shelter and she'll follow us," Alycia said. In spite of shelter being a good two miles away, we started walking but Lady remained behind. We turned back and found that Ryan, Jamie's husband had arrived with the truck and a kennel. The moment we put all the puppies into the kennel, our luck turned. In typical puppy fashion, they all started crying and the moment they started crying, mama came running.

Lady circled the truck desperately while working very hard to stay out of everyone's reach. Alycia - in awesome rescuer fashion, whips out a leash that she carried in her car and created a lasso. As Lady weaved in and out of the people and cars, I advanced on her slowly, talking nicely, with the idea of getting that leash around her neck.

She shot past me and then around Leo and then through a gap in the fence. She turned around and headed back through the fence and then she just suddenly gave up. Her face softened and she dropped to her belly and rolled half way over. It was done - she was ready to go. Now we just had to get her in the truck.
I got the leash around her neck and Leo moved in and talked nicely to her. As Leo grabbed the front, I grabbed the back and we loaded her in the bed of the truck. Alycia, still wearing a dress and sandals, jumped into the bed of the truck in true country girl fashion and secured the leash so Lady could lay next to her puppies.

I rode the two miles to the shelter, in the back of the truck petting Lady gently. Once we arrived at the shelter, we placed the puppies (Piper, Penelope and Poppy) in a large dog house in a big run. When Lady was brought in, she calmly walked over, crawled in the house and curled up with her babies.

Now, she and her girls are safe.

The plan: Lady and her girls will be allowed to settle in for a few days and then the puppies will be placed up for adoption. Once they find a forever home, Lady will be spayed and then sent to the Ridge Dog Program for socialization and training. Then, she will be ready for her own "Forever Home".

Rebecca

This post was originally published on the Animal House Facebook page

Snow Days

I love the snow. Not the wind or the cold that comes with it - just the snow. I particularly enjoy sledding the driveway, that is when I don't have a nasty cold and a dreadful cough that is grinding me into the dirt. Since I need to get well as quickly as possible I am leaving the "playing in the snow" to Buggy and her friends.

Ground Hog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Ground Hog Day, the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray is one of my least favorite movies of all time. Even now, when I think of that film, or Ground Hog Day or Bill Murray, I'm swept with the same aggravation that I experienced when I watched the film for the first time. I have never been a fan of repetition (sounds, music, banter, etc…) and this movie, where Bill Murray is forced to relive the same day, over and over, is nothing short of (in my opinion) a living hell.

The only upside of this day is Punxsutawney Phil – a groovy little creature that the entire country looks to when trying to determine if Spring will come early or if there will be another six weeks of Winter. According to Wikipedia, “The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a Celtic tradition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2, the Pagan holiday of Imbolc, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend says spring would come early. The ties in Pennsylvania may have actually come from the Germans, when clear skies on Candlemas Day, February 2, was said to herald cold weather ahead. In Germany, the tradition morphed into a myth that if the sun came out on Candlemas, a hedgehog would cast its shadow, predicting snow all the way into May. When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, they transferred the tradition onto local fauna, replacing hedgehogs with groundhogs.”

Here in Washington State, where nothing casts a shadow in February (because there is no sun), Buggy is our gauge. And since she refused to go outside today, it was obvious that we are in for another six weeks of Winter.

Stay warm!

Rebecca & Buggy

OH GREAT!

Winston Churchill and Rufus

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a British politician, an officer in the British army, an historian, a writer and an artist. He was also an animal lover.  He shared his life with two poodles, several cats and Charlie, a blue macaw. In true responsible pet parent fashion (he was quite a progressive fellow), Churchill indicated in his will that there "should always be a marmalade cat named Jock in comfortable residence" at Chartwell Manor, where he resided from 1922 to 1965.

Named Greatest Briton of All Times in 2002, thirty-seven years after his passing, Churchill was a visionary and an inspirational leader. "The price of greatness is responsibility", he said in a speech delivered at Harvard on September 6, 1943, while being presented with an honorary degree.

I'm often struck by the applicability of this quote, to the animal rescue movement.  The price of greatness is paid each day by thousands of dedicated volunteers, rescue workers, foster parents, etc...who show up to be "responsible" for the thousands of discarded animals that flow into shelters each day. While they are deserving of the title "GREAT",  these individuals hardly realize it.  For every animal placed in a loving home, there are twenty more still waiting. Each day feels more like a failure than a triumph of a great person.

I've often thought (and Buggy concurs) that there are endless opportunities to be great but often times, being great is only "greatness" when you look back. Being "great" on a day to day basis happens through the act of being responsible and can feel an awful lot like work.

Human beings (Buggy is pointing at you) have a tremendous capacity for greatness. If we could all find it in ourselves to contribute just a little more elbow grease to the positive side of life, the world could become a better place for animals, a little sooner.

Everyone can use a some "greatness" in the bank, for those moments when we look back and ask if our lives had meaning. It's then that we'll see the faces of the ones we saved, the ones we placed, the ones we took home, the ones we loved and the ones who loved us back. It's then that we'll see what was there all along - our very own greatness.

Rebecca & Buggy