Friday Friends - An Animal Rescue

So everyone who knows me knows how much I love all of God's creatures (okay, I'm working on spiders and snakes) and this past week an email came to me that was both disturbing and heartwarming.

On Thanksgiving Day, someone found a three-month-old puppy, a Border Collie/Collie mix, nearly frozen in the road. This kind person took the puppy to a local veterinarian, where they discovered both back legs were broken, as well as the right tibia and the left femur. The injuries were consistent with someone having thrown the dog out of a moving car.

She was named Angel and was brought to the Robeson County Humane Society in Lumberton, North Carolina. They paid for surgery and while she does have a pin in her leg, she has recovered very nicely. A foster couple currently has her in their home, and they have potty-trained and crate-trained her. They tell me that despite the cruelty and the pain she endured, she is very, very sweet and loving.

To read more about her, follow this link.

The story was disturbing to me because I do not understand the cruelty of some people. I don't know of any other creature that treats others with such hatred and disregard for their health and safety. Just thinking of that poor puppy lying in the roadway freezing to death with broken legs brings me to tears.

The story was also heartwarming, because a chain of people stepped in to save this dear puppy's life and nurse her back to health... From the person who found her in the roadway, to the veterarians who worked to save her life and her legs, to the Robeson County Humane Society whose volunteers footed the veterinary bills, to the foster couple who lovingly care for her...

Angel will soon be ready to find her Forever Home, and I hope that all of the loving and giving people that have come into her life have completely erased the memories of the cruel and inhumane treatment she endured.

Friday Friends

Today is Friday Friends Day and I'd like to introduce you to Eddie, our Jack Russell.

Eddie was picked up by the dog pound after he was found running loose in a bad section of town. He had no identification and no one called or came by the pound to claim him. After three days of waiting, he was scheduled to be euthanised because he had a bad limp. That's when the Robeson County Humane Society stepped in.

One of the volunteers goes to the area pounds each week looking for dogs and cats she can rescue. She thought Eddie could have had a broken leg and she rescued him and took him to RCHS's no-kill shelter. But when he was examined, it turned out he had been shot in the leg. It had happened some time previously (he was only about a year old, so no more than a few months had gone by) and the outside wound had healed - but his leg was atrophied and the shrapnel was still inside.

My husband, who was volunteering at RCHS at the time, fell in love with the little fella. So we adopted him and brought him home.

Our collie Simone thought he was one of her puppies and immediately took him under her paw.

We took Eddie to a specialist in Cary, NC, who reconstructed his leg and put a metal plate inside so the bone could fuse to it. After his surgery, he ran around and jumped through the doggie doors with his little blue leg splint on. It didn't slow him down.

Here is Eddie playing with our other Jack Russell, Lucy. When Mattie, the foxhound matriarch, steps in to say "cool it, kids" Eddie stops - but Lucy doesn't. Watch her jump over Eddie's head over and over, trying to entice him to play with her. The barking at the end of the clip is Simone, the collie, who protects our house from neighborhood joggers. The others stop to watch the joggers go by.



Friday Friends

This blog is usually about my experience in raising angelfish but on Fridays I like to talk about the other creatures in my home - my dogs.

This is Simone. She is a tri-colored collie who was rescued by the Robeson County Humane Society (a no-kill shelter) and adopted by yours truly.

Simone was used in a back yard breeder's horrific breeding program. She was kept in a crate barely large enough for her to turn around in. She was not taken out of the crate - not even to use the bathroom. I was contacted by the Humane Society and asked to foster her because they did not believe she was going to survive without immediate intervention. I was stunned to find that she had no undercoat (a collie trademark) and although she was fully grown (two years old) she weighed only 42 pounds - half what she should have weighed.

She also had just given birth, which made her skeletal condition even more heartbreaking. We don't know what happened to her babies. Given her condition, they might not have survived. (At right is Simone when she was saved by the Robeson County Humane Society. What a difference in her appearance today! The day she was rescued, her head was the largest part of her body.)

I was soon to learn that Simone's physical condition paled in comparison to her emotional state. She was terrified of everything and had obviously been horribly abused.

After several months of nursing her back to health, I realized there was no way I could turn her over to be adopted. It had taken too much time for her to learn that we were never going to hurt her and she was safe with us. Fortunately, the Humane Society agreed wholeheartedly and we adopted Simone.

Everyone in the family adores her. She allows my granddaughter to brush her for hours on end (and loves it) and each of my other rescue dogs love her, too. The two Jack Russells act like she is their mama - and she treats them as if they are her bald children. She is the perfect lady and we're very fortunate to have her!

Friday Friends

I started this blog about my angelfish but while I am working I usually have two or more dogs by my side.

I currently have four dogs: Mattie, a foxhound who was adopted through the Richmond, VA SPCA;
Simone, a tri-colored collie, who was adopted through the Robeson County Humane Society;
Eddie, a Jack Russell, who was adopted through the Robeson County Humane Society;
and Lucy, a Jack Russell and part corgi or bassett who was adopted through the Robeson County Humane Society.

When I adopted Mattie, I also adopted her twin brother Skipper. They had been seized in a raid of a hunting lodge in South Carolina that was neglecting and abusing the dogs. They were just five months old.

When Skipper was four years old, he suffered a fibrocartilaginous embolism (FCE), which means a piece of disk or a blood clot lodged in his neck. He was instantly paralyzed from the neck down. We took him to North Carolina State's Veterinary Hospital, which is renowed the world over for their work. They diagnosed him and stabilized him and after a few days, he was transferred by pet ambulance to ARWI, the Animal Rehabilitation and Wellness Institute in Cary, NC.

Under the supervision of top-notch vets and their staff, Skipper learned how to stand again by resting on a peanut (a ball with a scoop in the middle) while two vets gently moved him back and forth so he got used to his feet on the floor again.

He graduated from there to learning how to stand and walk on an aquatic treadmill. The vet techs would hold him up with a sling and the water kept him bouyant to take the pressure off his joints.

Special laser therapy broke up the embolism. And while he was at ARWI, he was not in a crate. He shared a large room with a Newfoundland. They had a television between them that played animal shows all day and the staff was fabulous at loving him as well as taking care of him.

After several months, he came home again. At first, he needed a sling to stabilize him as he walked. But after awhile, he got to the point where he could walk independently. However, if he ran, his back legs went at a different speed than his front legs so he would run in circles.

Skipper was a happy dog and lived for more than five more years. In the end, it was bloat that caused him to pass over the rainbow bridge, not the FCE. By then, I had a collie and a Jack Russell and I'm very thankful for them - they helped Skipper's sister Mattie get through what could have been a tough grieving process.

I am very grateful to everyone at NC State and ARWI for all their efforts in saving Skipper. They do fabulous things with animals these days; veterinary care has taken amazing leaps and bounds!

Eddie's Story

This is Eddie, one of my two Jack Russells.

I also own a collie and a foxhound and too many fish to count.

The Robeson County Humane Society has volunteers who visit dog pounds and rescue dogs that are destined for euthanasia.

Eddie had a bad limp and held his front paw up as if he was trying to tell them he was hurt. That meant when three days passed and no one came to claim him, he was scheduled to be euthanised.

The Humane Society volunteer took him, thinking his leg was broken.

But when he was taken to the vet for x-rays, they found that he had been shot.

That was all I needed to hear.

I adopted Eddie and took him to a specialist in Cary, North Carolina. He reconstructed his leg and inserted a metal plate to help the bone fuse back in place.

Eddie still has shrapnel in his leg because it would have caused more damage to try and pick it all out.

But he is happy now and eagerly jumps through the doggie doors to my back yard about a million times a day. He seems to know he was saved by people who love him.