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Hope and Misty

Judy and Jan were on outreach one day in south Kansas City.They looked down the side street as they were approaching an intersection to check for traffic when they saw 2 tiny puppies in the street. They turned down the street and saw the puppies run under an abandoned house.They got out and found where they were going in and out of, which was under a door to the basement. These poor babies.

Judy called me and I said that I would come over there and help them. Well, these two ladies did not need any help from me! When I got there, they had already gotten the black puppy in the trap, transferred it to a pet taxi and had reset the trap for the blond pup! These ladies had this handled! NIce work, Judy and Jan!

The puppies were very scared, but they were also starving and it didn’t take long to trap both of them. As scared as they both were, their entire lives were about to change-they just didn’t know it yet!

We got these two cuties back to Chain of Hope. It became clear pretty quickly that the black one (who we named Misty) was a little braver than the other one. She was the leader, the protector and she had a little confidence. The blond puppy (who we named Hope) was very frightened. They were only about 7-8 weeks old. How scared and lost they must have felt. I wonder what happened to their mother and how did they get to be under that house? We’ll never know the answer to either of those questions, but thank God they had survived and thank God Judy and Jan saw them.

They spent the first couple of days hiding behind the shelves in one of our offices!

We vaccinated them and dewormed them. They were getting a lot of love and they began relaxing. It was fun to watch their personalities. Misty was always the first to greet us, the first to come forward for anything. Hope was more reserved and shy, but was getting a lot of love and attention and she began coming out of her shell.

We just looked at these two girls and marvelled at how they survived out there. They are both beautiful puppies. Once they were vaccinated, dewormed and spayed, both of them were adopted! Both of these little girls had hernias, which were repaired when they were finally big and strong enough to get spayed. They had come a long way and it had been our joy to watch them both blossom.

Here’s Misty with her new family! Her new name is Pearl, which we think is beautiful.  She is very happy and her new family loves her very much!

Here’s Hope sitting on her new front porch. Gotta love those ears!

Here she is meeting a new friend while out on her walk with dad!

Two more puppies off the streets, spayed and adopted because of Chain of Hope. Thank you for keeping us out there!

Puppies!

I was driving in mid-town one day when I passed a house with a black and white momma pit bull tied up in the front. I saw one little pit puppy, trying to play with his momma. I could see a wire crate on the front porch, but couldn’t see what was in it. There was a lot of stuff on the porch and it was hard to see. (The pic below is from a different day). I kind of caught them out of the corner of my eye as I was driving down the street and I had someone right on my tail. I went on down the street with the intention of coming back around to check out the momma pit and baby.

As I was going back around, the next street was one way, then I turned down a street to check on a dog I could see that didn’t look good. and then I was a little turned around at that point.  I was driving up and down the streets looking for momma pit and baby when I saw a couple of tiny black puppies in a front yard near here. At first I thought someone had gotten 2 new puppies. They were loose in the front fenced yard. As I came back around in front of that house a 2nd time, I saw about 6 little ones. Obviously these people had a litter of puppies there. Someone was sitting in a truck in front of the house. I got out and went over to talk to them. It turns out that they had taken in the momma dog last winter when she was a stray. They said it was freezing cold out and she was hungry and wandering. These people already had 2 female Boxers and a male Boxer. Over the winter, the male Boxer got to this female stray they’d taken in and she got pregnant. They really didn’t want the puppies and were trying to give them away.

The momma was about a 50 lb. dog and she had had 11 puppies! They told me that one of them died at birth, one of them “got caught in something in the yard” and died and they had already given away another one. I told her that I could take the litter from her. She asked me when I could take them and I said, ” Right now!” We loaded them up in my car. They were skinny and hungry, so I just opened a bag of food in the back of my car and let them eat all the way back to Chain of Hope!

The runt of the litter had a couple of sores on his head.  We don’t know what from. His skull had a funky dip in it. We suspect that this little one was hit in the head or something fell on him. There was a lot of stuff in the yard behind all the cars. Who knows what happened to him? All of the puppies were hungry and dehydrated, but they would be fine. The people didn’t want the momma dog either. I told them I didn’t have room for another big adult dog right now, but I took some pictures of her and told them that I would try and network and find her something. I left food for everyone and told them I’d be in touch about momma, but that in the very least we would be spaying her for free for them.

I got the puppies back to Chain of Hope and then began networking to find some help with them. We reached out to The Animal Rescue Alliance (TARA), another wonderful rescue group that helps out Chain of Hope when they can. We also reached out to Heart of America Humane Society, who have helped us as well. They were both attempting to line up some foster homes. We had 8 of these little ones and they were adorable. It’s important that we try and keep as much space open as we can at Chain of Hope because we are on the front lines and we need to be able to act immediately when something like this comes up and be able to take animals, especially that are in crisis and need to removed right away.  Thankfully, we had our isolation room open the day that I got these guys. We know that something else will come up again very soon and we’ll need the emergency space available so we try and reach out to other groups when we can.

Thankfully, TARA was able to take 3 puppies initially. The best part is-they were able to take momma into their program as well!!! Thank you, TARA!!! I went over the next day and got momma and a volunteer from TARA picked her up from us. We are so grateful.

Heart of America Humane Society works with the Lee’s Summit Animal Shelter, which is a very nice shelter. When the president of Heart of America Humane Society was at the Lee’s Summit shelter one day, he was telling them about our litter of Boxer mix puppies. Their group had tried to find foster homes to help us out, but they weren’t able to come up with any. The Lee’s Summit shelter at the time had very few adult dogs and no puppies at all.  They said that they could take the rest of our litter. Mark called us and a couple of days later, we took the rest of the puppies except for the little runt over to the Lee’s Summit shelter. Many of you are probably not familiar with the LS shelter, but it is awesome! It’s a pretty new facility. They have a special quarantine room that they could keep the puppies in. It is extremely clean and very well kept.The staff was crazy about them and they would soon find good homes in the Lee’s Summit area, I was sure.

We kept the runt just to make sure that he was on his feet and growing and doing well. We named him Rudy and he began flourishing! We had another single puppy, so we put those two together and they became best of friends! All 3 of the puppies that went to the Lee’s Summit shelter were adopted. TARA contacted us after about a week and all 3 of their puppies were either adopted or in the process of getting adopted as well. They offered to take Rudy. He was actually doing awesome. He received a clean bill of health from the vet and so we moved him on to TARA as well. Thank you, TARA, and thank you Lee’s Summit Animal Shelter. We appreciate your help!

I did not forget about looking for the other mom and puppies. It was on my list to get back over there and find them but then we happened to get a call about them. Someone called just a day or so after I found the Boxer puppies and said that there were several pit bull puppies in a wire crate outside and gave us the address. That is the exact area I’d been in! This had to be them!

I headed over there and the wire crate was sitting in the front yard, full of tiny pit bull puppies. It was raining off and on Friday. Momma was tied up to the railing in front and she was very protective of her puppies, of course. We could not get up to them or to the front door because of the protective momma dog. We could tell that the puppies were skinny, though.

As much as momma was barking, no one came out of the house. There were no cars there. Then the neighbor came out and I introduced myself and asked him about the puppies. He said, “Oh yes, they’re scrawny. They need help.” He said no one was home right now, so I gave him our info and wrote a note and my cell number on it and asked him to give it to the people when they got home. I asked him when someone was usually there and he told me that someone was usually there by the time the kids got out of school. I told him I’d be back at 3:00 pm. We had to talk to these people about these poor puppies.

About 3:00 pm. Judy met me over there and we sat and waited. Pretty soon, the guy pulled up. We got out and I went over to talk to him. Well, of course, he had almost all of the puppies promised to family members (they always do that!). He was adamant about his family getting them.He said when it was all said and done that he’d probably only have one or two left over. I told him that we would take whatever he didn’t have homes for and asked him to call me. I told him we would come by on Sunday and check in and he said, “what about Saturday?”. I told him that of course I’d come over Saturday and get them, just call my cell and I’d be there. He told me that they had to be gone by Sunday because he was having a “shin dig” on Mother’s Day. I told him that we would spay momma for free and he replied that she was already spayed. The puppies were only 8 weeks old and I found that odd that momma was already spayed. But, she did not have any milk-her teats appeared to be empty. He told me that she wasn’t nursing them anymore. Who knows if momma had gotten spayed or not. I offered him some dog food and puppy food and he replied that he “had it handled”-he was feeding momma Gravy Train and the puppies Kibbles and Bits. He was pretty cocky about everything and there was no more talking to him. We left. I prayed that he would call Saturday, but I never heard from him.

I drove over Sunday morning and these poor puppies were in the crate, but he had moved it up onto the porch again. It looked like they were all there. This guy hadn’t done a damn thing. I saw him putting stuff in his car and then he left. Apparently the shin dig was at someone else’s house.No one was home now and this situation had to be resolved. We called this into animal control. I didn’t know what they’d do.

I’d had a litter on New Year’s Eve a year ago that was out in the cold with their momma. They were 8 weeks old and the owner had tied momma up to the front porch and all of the puppies were staying right there with her trying to stay warm. Momma was protecting her puppies so we couldn’t get up to the door. There was a old wooden dog house in the far corner of the yard, which momma couldn’t reach and the puppies weren’t going to get in-they were going to stay right there with their momma on the porch. It was freezing cold out so we called animal control. We sat up the street as an officer came over, got the owner to come out and talked with him for a minute and left. Yes-he left those little puppies and their poor momma outside on a freezing New Year’s Eve. When I called the next day, I was told it was because there was a dog house on the property. No matter that mom was tied up on the porch and couldn’t reach it and the puppies wanted to be where mom was.

We ended up resolving this ourselves the next day, as we often do.  The owner signed the puppies over to us. We also spayed the momma dog for free.

So, this is why I didn’t have much confidence in animal control, but there really weren’t any other options here. Momma was not going to let us anywhere near her puppies or the front porch or anything. I sat for 2 hours in front of this house and waited for animal control, but had to eventually get back to Chain of Hope to take care of our dogs.

After work, I drove by the house again and all of them were gone!!! The cage door was open, the puppies were gone and the momma was gone. Animal control had impounded them and we thank them for that! They went to Kansas City Pet Project, where arrangements were made for foster homes. They were starving, dirty, and scrawny. I don’t know how they survived after what this man had done to them. Poor little things. Here they are finally getting their tummies full at the shelter.

Chain of Hope is responsible for getting 2 litters of puppies, one block away from each other, off of the streets. Imagine if we hadn’t found these 17 puppies! They all would’ve been given away-many right there in the neighborhood, no doubt. That area would be saturated with puppies, most would likely grow up on a chain, just like their mommas. They would be reproducing, creating even more of a problem. Chain of Hope would be providing assistance to them and animal control would probably encounter some as well that would eventually end up at the shelter.

The benefits to Kansas City of having Chain of Hope on the streets are great. Just imagine if we weren’t out there. Chain of Hope spayed and neutered over 500 animals last year. These were animals from the inner city, most living on chains. We prioritized with pit bulls and female dogs on chains, who are easily impregnated. Spaying and neutering, along with our outreach program, is what’s making a difference out there. We sincerely appreciate your support that keeps us on the streets and in the community rescuing these babies and changing lives! We really couldn’t carry out this difficult work without you!

Calvin

Fair warning-this blog is PG13. I am heart broken and pissed off.People called last summer for help with food. They said they had 4 bully breeds and were having a hard time feeding them. They lived in an apartment. I didn’t know what I was going to find when I went over there to check this out. Surprisingly, the pits were in good shape. The people had a bottom floor apartment with a patio that the dogs could go out on. The patio had a pretty high brick wall all around it so the dogs couldn’t get out. They liked to look out over the wall, but none of them had come over it. None of them were fixed. I explained our program and the city ordinance saying that all pit bulls need to be spayed or neutered. I offered them free spay and neuter on all the dogs. I even told them I would do a free rabies for all of them and then they could go and get their city licenses. The animals were happy, social and looked great.

The woman proceeded to tell me that the big boy (third from the left), who I think was really an American Bulldog, belonged to some other family member and he was only going to be there for a couple of weeks and the guy was coming to get him. She said she didn’t have the authority to ok the neuter of his dog. We hear this all the time! There’s always a dog or two that “isn’t theirs”, someone’s coming back for it, blah, blah, blah.

The other 3 pits were 2 females and a male. I decided to go ahead and get those in and get them fixed and vaccinated.  I told the woman that that was all I was going to help her with until they decided to neuter that male. A couple of weeks later, the male was gone. I guess the guy did come and get him. I was helping this woman with food for her 3 pits since they were all fixed now (thank you donors!). One cold winter day, I delivered some food and treats. They had me step into the apartment because it was so cold out and I couldn’t believe what I saw. These people had screwed handles into the walls around the living room and entryway of the apartment and each of their 3 pits was chained on a 3 foot chain to one of the handles in the wall. I really was speechless. I’d never seen this before. I asked them why the dogs were being kept like this and they told me that in the mornings when they are getting all of the kids ready for school, the dogs always run around and tear stuff up, etc. They claimed that they keep them like that until the kids get off to school and then they let them off or give them turns being off the chain or whatever. I told this woman that they absolutely could not keep their dogs like that. They had a pretty big apartment, so I told her that I was going to bring her 3 large wire crates and that when they needed the dogs to be put up, they could use those instead of the inhumane thing they were doing. They seemed receptive and grateful.

After a while, the big male American Bulldog was back. He still was not neutered and they still claimed it wasn’t their dog to decide on. Chain of Hope needs to set boundaries out there and I told her that we were not going to be able to help them anymore because they wouldn’t neuter the American Bulldog, whose name was Deuce. I told her that we don’t support animals that aren’t spayed or neutered with food and supplies because we believe so strongly in spay and neuter and we know that’s the only way out of this over population mess that we’re in. We offered the neuter for free and we pick them up and take them back home for free, but they declined.

This woman did not call anymore and we did not go over there. Several months went by and this past weekend, this woman left 2 messages on Sunday morning about one of the dogs being very sick. She said on her message that he needs to be neutered, but she didn’t think that any vet would neuter him right now with the shape he was in. It was then that I knew it was the big boy and he must be pretty sick. She said that the dog had been throwing up all last week and that she had been pouring Pedialyte down him. She claimed the vomiting had stopped, but he kept getting worse. I jumped in our van and headed over to see what was going on. When I pulled up to their apartment building, they were all outside having a party on the corner. They had a couple of grills fired up, about a dozen adults were hanging out, drinking beer and playing their music. Lots of kids were riding their bikes and running all around. It was a Sunday afternoon party. I saw the woman that had called me when I pulled up. She was in the middle of the party, holding a toddler. I parked around the corner and ran over to them. I asked her where the sick dog was. She said that he was laying on their patio and that he was really bad. We had to go through her apartment to get out to the patio and this is what I saw when I got there: Deuce was almost dead. He was flat out and could not even lift his head. When I went out on the patio and said “hi buddy” quietly to him, his tail thumped a couple of times. Help had finally arrived. He was covered in urine stains and he smelled. He obviously had been laying there for quite awhile urinating on himself.  He was emaciated, dehydrated, really not even fully conscious. Except he knew I was there and he responded when I talked to him. This was so incredibly sad. The fact that this dog was laying on that patio dying all by himself, covered in urine was INFURIATING.. No one was with him, no one was talking to him and stroking him-they were all out front having a fucking party. I was very angry and deeply saddened, but I had to concentrate on getting this boy to the emergency clinic. I told them that I was running to get my paperwork for her to sign and that she needed to get one of those guys to come up there and carry Deuce to the van. I ran to the van, ran back through the apartment and when I got back out there, the owner was still just standing there, some guy was standing there and poor Deuce was still laying on the patio. I shoved the paper at the woman for her to sign and I bent over and picked up Deuce. The guy started stuttering that he was “going to get him”, but I had just stood up with Deuce in my arms. He said, “oh-you got him?” and I said no-and shoved him in his arms and told him to hurry to the van. Truthfully, Deuce was dirty and he stunk and I don’t think anyone wanted to pick him up. Assholes.

While I had been inside the apartment, I didn’t see any other dogs. I asked the woman where her other dogs were. She replied that animal control had been down the street one day handling another call and she claims she walked down there and asked them if they could take her pit bulls and find good homes for them, so they did. Who the hell knows what really happened? I said “you mean the 3 pit bulls that Chain of Hope spayed and neutered and vaccinated for you and brought you 3 big wire crates for?” She replied that she “couldn’t deal with the dogs anymore”. Nothing surprises me anymore. I hope to God that those 3 pits all got good homes because they were all very sweet dogs.

I drove Deuce to the Animal Emergency Clinic up north. Dr. Mischke and his staff are excellent and I take all of my emergencies there.

Deuce was very, very ill. We ran blood work, took x-rays, did a fecal, and ended up tapping both his abdomen and his chest. The x-rays were funky and it was hard to tell what was going on. They thought that the most likely thing was that he had some kind of blockage possibly. He had not been eating, obviously, for quite a while. We opened some smelly food and he just turned his head. He didn’t want anything and he was exhausted from fighting to stay alive.

His white blood cells were elevated. They decided to get him on an IV and get some fluids and antibiotics into him. They were puzzled as to what was going on, but we pushed to get him through the night.

The next morning I picked him up to take him to Independence Animal Hospital. He walked very slowly outside of the emergency clinic, peed in the parking lot, and I lifted him up into the car. He seemed maybe a little perkier-at least he was holding his head up. I’m sure the fluids helped him feel a little better-he had been dehydrated. Independence Animal Hospital decided to give him barium and then re-xray him after a few hours.

When they x-rayed Calvin again, it showed that the barium was moving through his system. He did not have a blockage. Dr. Wingert thought that Calvin was septic (over run with bacteria). Whether being toxic had already damaged his liver and kidneys, we weren’t sure but it was highly suspected because he just wasn’t rallying, He also had ulcers in his mouth. We began to fear that we really had gotten to him too late.They were flushing his system and had him on multiple antibiotics. I went over Monday late afternoon to see him and he was hanging in there, but barely. He was flat out in his kennel with his IV going. He didn’t look good at all. We discussed what to do and we decided to give him the night. I didn’t want him to possibly lay there and die in the night, but he had fought so hard, we wanted to keep giving him a chance-he just might pull through. He was pretty out of it, but we prayed he’d be alive the next morning. He was. I called over to check on him and they said he had gotten up and walked a little bit. He still would not eat and was generally very lethargic like the day before. This poor boy did not feel good. I was angrier and angrier with the woman who had failed this dog. She waited much, much too long to call for help.

I went over to see Calvin that afternoon and he was still in terrible shape. He got up and walked, ever so slowly outside. He finally made it over to the grass to pee. And then he just laid down. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the wind was gently blowing. It was the perfect temperature. People saw him and came over wanting to know his story and they stayed and pet him and talked to him and wished him well.

When we went to go back inside, Calvin could not even get up. I carried him back into the vet clinic. I got inside the back door with him, set him down and he basically collapsed. His breathing became labored and we knew it was time. We just couldn’t let him go on suffering. He had struggled for 3 days and had even gotten worse. He was wasting away. It broke our hearts, but it needed to be done. We let this boy go, as I comforted him. I told him that he WAS loved in this world, that I loved him and that he was going to be free of his pain and his struggle. Thank you to Dr. Wingert and his wonderful staff at Independence Animal Hospital for their care and efforts to save this boy.

Our hearts break just about everyday. Calvin’s story will stay with me forever. No dog deserves what he went through. Once again, I hold the dog that another owner has failed while it’s euthanized and a little piece of my heart breaks all over again. The fact that this dog laid over there extremely ill for days on end in his own urine and diarrhea, wasting away and no one gave a shit about him-I can’t tell you how upset and angry I was when I saw him. If they would have called earlier, we might have been able to save him. Letting him lay there and pouring Pedialyte down him for a week is inexcusable.

We had extended so much help to this one address and we still had 3 pits gone to the shelter and this poor guy suffering unimaginable suffering. Disappointing, maddening and sad. As tough as it is, our work is necessary and vital to animals living in the inner city. We must continue to be in the inner city everyday-there is much work to be done. Thank you for keeping us out there.

Maisy

We were in the hood one day and saw a dog chained in the front of a house and another one chained in the back. We went to the door and met the owners. They actually had a couple of special needs young children, one of them was going in for some kind of surgery and then they told us that they also had 2 puppies. The puppies came from somewhere else-2 different circumstances, they were not siblings. There seemed to be a lot going on over here and these people obviously needed some help. The dog in the front was an unspayed female and we talked about getting her spayed. They said they had no money, so we told them that we would spay her for free (thank you donors!) and that we could pick her up and then bring her back home the day after surgery. They agreed and we got their contact info. so we could get the appointment set up. Surprisingly, the male was already neutered and both adult dogs were at pretty good body weight. I then asked them if we could see the puppies, so they brought them out. One was a young, light brown pit mix puppy, about 12 weeks or so. He looked pretty good. The other one was this sweet little girl.

She was a very tiny, black and white puppy, with wiry hair and little tiny whiskers! She was adorable!  We started talking to them about letting us take these puppies. They would not give up the pit mix because he was going to some relative or someone. They finally relinquished the tiny black and white one, after we pretty much just kept talking and weren’t going to leave without her.

This poor little thing was dehydrated, underweight, and dirty. We got her to the vet right away. Aging her by her teeth, she was about 6 weeks old, but she looked like a 4 week old. She was malnourished and had parasites. We gave her a bath and had to soap her up twice to finally get the water to run clear. Thank God we got her-this poor little one didn’t stand a chance over there. She was too small and fragile to be down at Chain of Hope. She needed more care and a lot of TLC, so Patty took her home to foster her. She called her June Bug.

June Bug got healthier and happier and was a joy to everyone who met her!

Well, of course, it didn’t take long for this girl to get adopted after she was bigger, spayed and vaccinated. We had a lot of interest in her, but she was adopted to a single mom with a couple of kids. They named her Maisy and they seemed pretty crazy about her. We had called and checked on her a couple of times like we always do and things were going well.

A couple of months ago, Maisy’s owner contacted us and said that she needed to return Maisy, through no fault of Maisy. This woman had had to take on a 2nd job and she said that she just didn’t have enough time for Maisy and she didn’t feel it was fair to Maisy to have to be home alone so much, especially at only a year old.

Our adoption contract states that if the pet owner can no longer take care of the animal, it has to come back to Chain of Hope-they can’t just give it away to whoever or take it to a shelter. When I do adoptions, I always tell the new owner that that is the paragraph in the contract that I care about the most-the animal comes back to us if something happens and they can’t keep it. Our rescues have come from bad situations and it is our vow that they will never be in the position again. So although we are always needing more space (thank you to all of you who foster and help us create more space!), we are glad when we get that phone call. We don’t want any of our animals falling through the cracks. We made arrangements for Maisy’s owner to bring her to Chain of Hope. We were anxious to see this girl after a year! We’d all wondered what she would look like as she got older.

Maisy came back to us just as adorable as when she left. We love her whiskered face! She has the best personality-she is social and playful and quickly made friends at Chain of Hope.

She is young and playful and silly! Yet, she is so loving and affectionate as well. She listens well and minds very well. She is crate-trained and very smart. Maisy is the total package, What a great dog!

Maisy likes to climb on top of the doghouses that we have stacked up. She plays King of the Mountain with the other dogs. She’s usually the one on top!

We are now looking for a new home for Maisy. She weighs 40 lbs., loves playing with other dogs and loves people. She’d be a great family dog, a great dog to take to the dog park, a new best friend. You are guaranteed to smile and have a good day when Maisy’s around! Please share this blog and let’s find Maisy a new home! Call 816-221-8080 for more information.

Gabe

Twister is a very sweet yellow lab mix that we had come across on outreach. We brought him in quite a while ago and neutered him. The woman that had him sometimes kept him on a tie-out off of her front porch, but she also let him come inside a lot. It was a pretty good situation-better than most that we deal with.  We, of course, followed up and monitored Twister. He was pretty thin when we met him and he was still pretty thin a few weeks later even though we were supplying this owner with some good quality dog food. We de-wormed him and thought he would start gaining. He never did. This boy has always been thin, he didn’t really act like he was starving when we went, so we didn’t worry about it too much. We de-wormed him twice last year, just to make sure we were catching any parasites. He never acted ill and was always excited to see us.

Well, as time went by we noticed that Twister was always outside when we came by and he used to be inside part of the time.  Turns out the woman now had grand babies in her house and she didn’t want the dog in there with the grand babies. Because you know that you can’t have dogs and babies or kids inside the same house. Geez….

We hadn’t been by in several weeks because compared to what we are dealing with on daily basis, Twister’s situation wasn’t good, but it wasn’t horrible. He did have a dog house on the front porch.  The woman hadn’t called for food or anything, but I put Twister on the outreach list one day so that the girls could check in, see how he was doing and drop some food.

When they got out of the van, the woman came out. They started looking at Twister and it was obvious that he had a wound on his neck. His neck had yellow pus all around it and it smelled horrible! The woman told them that another dog had gotten hold of him. When the girls looked more closely,  it was an embedded collar.  They got his collar off and his neck was disgusting. They told the woman that they needed to get Twister into the vet, so they loaded him up. Thank goodness Twister’s wounds weren’t very deep like some we’ve seen, but I know his neck still hurt like hell.

Twister’s neck was repaired and he started the healing process. There was one puncture wound on the top of his neck where it did look like another dog had bitten him. The rest of the mess was his in-grown collar. His neck was infected and he started a round of antibiotics and pain medication.

Through everything, Twister was so good, gentle and sweet. He was still pretty thin. We ran a fecal and heart worm test. In the meantime, the woman kept calling wanting to know when her dog was going to be back. Of course, we did not want to return him. He was so happy with us, he loved going for his walks and getting the love and attention that he was finally getting. We had a conversation with the woman that we were obligated to turn this kind of neglect over to animal control. We also told her that she would have to pay Twister’s bill. She was not phased whatsoever! She said she’d deal with all that, she wanted her dog back. She was adamant about it. Twister had now been with us for about 4-5 days.  We decided to let her sit and think about what we said and the fact that she may have to go to court, etc. Finally, a couple of days later, Dr. Kennedy called her and also told her that she was obligated to turn this into animal control as a cruelty and that there were going to be repercussions for this. She also told her that she wasn’t happy with his body weight, that he was too thin. She gave her the option to sign the dog over to Chain of Hope and avoid animal cruelty charges and finally the woman did! Thank you, Dr. Kennedy. This was Twister’s only ticket out of his situation. Leah and Devin went right over to her house to get her signature on the relinquishment form and Twister was now ours! We always change their names when they leave their horrible lives and begin their new lives. We named him Gabe. Look at the smile on Gabe’s  face when we told him that he didn’t have to go back there!!!

There are only good things to say about Gabe. He is the BEST dog. He is adorable, very well-behaved and very loving. He liked being with other dogs, but he had no idea how to play with them! He’s made some pretty cool friends at Chain of Hope, though. He, Harley (a brindle pit) and Maisy (black wiry-haired lab mix) are all buddies.  I was standing at the window the other day watching these 3 in the yard. Gabe had been doing a lot of just kind of being near Harley and Maisy when they were playing and watching them, because he didn’t know what to do. The other day when I was watching them, Maisy was really trying to get Gabe to play with her. She had a toy in her mouth and she kept trying to tease Gabe with it. After a bit of that, Gabe  finally took hold and shook it and he and Maisy started playing tug-of-war! It really brought tears to my eyes to see both of them so joyful.  Gabe had finally figured it out! This playing with another dog thing is pretty fun!

What I’d like to point out is that when you see one of our stories like this where the dog eventually becomes ours, you have no idea what goes on behind the scenes to secure that dog’s freedom. We deal with all kinds of people and most of them in this type of situation are not very nice.  People yell at us, cuss at us, and threaten us, There is usually a lot of tension in situations like this and a lot of back and forth. It can be very tense and it can even be dangerous, but we stay in the fight . We persevere through it all and accomplish our goal and because of that, Gabe and so many others are free. It is worth it all!

If you would like to offer Gabe a foster home or an adoptive home, please go to http://www.chainofhopekc.org and go to our adoptable pets page to find the application! He is an amazing dog. He deserves the most loving home after what he’s been through. He is grateful to be at Chain of Hope. Gabe’s neck is almost healed up. This is a perfect example of why it’s so important to monitor these animals and stay in touch with that household. Nobody does it better!

Liberty

Liberty has quite a story. We spotted her one day. tied up on an enclosed  front porch, whose door had been left open so she could go in or out of the porch. The woman was an older lady and her dog named China was a young, adorable, brindle female. She had no vaccinations and wasn’t spayed. We began monitoring China, we spayed her and stopped by often checking up on her. Everytime we went, China would be all tangled up in the furniture on the front porch. She rarely had food or water. We kept harping on this woman that she needed to move her-she couldn’t keep her on that porch getting tangled up all the time. So her solution was to tie her up to the porch of the abandoned house next door. Really??? Yep, really.

Same thing happened repeatedly over there-no water, no food, tangled or caught in all the crap around the house all the time. China would be out there in the terrible, terrible heat and be all tangled and have no water. It was disgusting how she was being treated. This woman was obviously not going to step up despite all of our help, so we decided that we needed to bring China into our program.

One of our volunteers took China home to foster her and named her Liberty. She was absolutely gorgeous! She has a beautiful copper brindle coat. She has an adorable bobbed, puff tail. She runs like a deer-gracefully and beautifully.

In fact, the volunteer that fostered Liberty was a runner! She took Liberty on group runs with other runners, some with their dogs, some not. Liberty received a lot of exposure for adoption this way and it wasn’t too long that a fellow runner expressed interest in Liberty. We thought it would be a good match and the volunteer knew him and thought he was an ok guy and his application was good. So, Miss Liberty went to live with Luke. Well, a lot of things happened that next year that Luke had Liberty. Apparently, after a few months of having Liberty, Luke adopted another dog from a local shelter. Liberty had a friend! Everything was fine, until Luke went and adopted a cat from a shelter. Well, guess who didn’t like the cat? The dogs! So, instead of keeping the cat in a room when he was gone, the dogs went into kennels and there they spent untold hours. Of course, this was months after Liberty’s adoption by the time he had the 2nd dog and a cat. and we did  not know that this had happened. The volunteer would ask about Liberty and he would always say that she was fine.

Well, I guess Luke quit running or whatever so then our volunteer wasn’t seeing him anymore. He apparently went through some kind of life crisis and decided to ditch his animals and move to Hawaii. Really? Yep, really. He wanted to return Liberty, who he had had for 1 yr. and 9 mo. He took his 2nd dog back to the shelter that he had adopted it from and apparently found a home for the cat with a friend. Nice commitments to your animals, Luke. You didn’t deserve Liberty anyway and we know that now.

Liberty came back to our facility. She was high-strung and nervous at first. You could tell that he had kept her in her crate a lot because we would take her out for a walk  then come back into the playroom with the intention of letting her run around and play for a while. She would automatically go straight to her crate when she came back in. It was a new concept to her that she didn’t have to go right back into her crate, she could be free for awhile. It made me really sad to see that and I felt so bad that this adoption had gone south after a few months. At least she was back with us and she was happy now!

We made a special effort to give Liberty as much time out of her crate as we could. She spent hours in the play yard, she played with other dogs, she wanted to please her people. But most of all, she wanted to run! Our Chain of Hope volunteers that are runners began running her on Sundays, especially. This girl can go for miles! Here she is, leading the pack back to Chain of Hope. She just ran 5 miles and she could run 5 more! It’s a great outlet for her energy because she is a high-energy girl.

We all need to make every effort to find Liberty a forever home. She deserves it so much. It’s hard to look at her and know that 2 1/2 yrs. after her rescue, she is still not settled in her forever home. It’s important to find the right kind of home for her and we need everyone to share and network for Liberty. On that note, here’s the good, the bad and the ugly about Liberty. First of all, she is far from ugly. This girl is stunning. We get asked all the time about her breed. We have no idea! We just know she turns people’s heads she is so stunning. She is thin, but strong. She has a lot of energy. As much as we have our dogs out, we know that Liberty needs more exercise. A tired Liberty is a good Liberty! She can totally chill when it’s time to settle down. She likes pig ears and raw hides to chew on. She does not like her crate and we can’t blame her. We recently moved her to Man’s Best Friend boarding facility where she has an indoor/outdoor run and a lot of great people who love and walk her everyday. She seems much happier. Many thanks to April for keeping in touch with our dogs out there, walking them and, taking them for ice cream!!

When Liberty is meeting a new dog for the first time, she can be a little ramped up. Just by giving her some time to adjust and settle down, she does really well. She played with males and females when she was at Chain of Hope. She would do best with a submissive dog. She listens well and tries to please her people! When she is left loose at Chain of Hope she does not tear anything up or potty inside. She is a very good girl. Although we always recommend crating when transitioning one of our dogs to their new home, Liberty would not need that for long. I think she could be left free when you’re gone and she would do fine.

Liberty is very affectionate and she gives and gets lots of hugs and kisses everyday!

Please share this blog with your running friends and running groups, especially. Liberty is a good dog and I know there’s got to be a great home out there for her. All she needs to do is run!!! If you’re into running, why not run together? Liberty needs someone to come into her life and give her what she needs so badly-an outlet for her energy and a new best friend! If you’re interested in fostering or adopting Liberty possibly, please go to http://www.chainofhopekc.org and go to our adoptable pets page to find the application. Or give us a call if you have questions-816-221-8080.

Liberty needs a foster home or better yet, an adoptive home! She has been through a lot and has been waiting this whole time to find her soulmate. She needs an angel, a best friend and she needs a chance.

Dee

 

I saw a small pit bull puppy tied to a gas meter in someone’s front yard one day. It looked thin, it’s bowls were knocked over, etc. I went to the door and met the woman that lived there with a bunch of kids. She said that the puppy didn’t stay out there all the time (which is what everyone tells us). They acted like they just loved her and all of that. I always think and sometimes actually  say, “you have a funny way of showing love.”

We began trying to educate these people and telling them that she was going to have to get started on her vaccinations, get treated for parasites and would also need to get spayed, once we got some weight on her. They insisted they didn’t want a dog house because she “doesn’t stay outside”. Yeah, right.  We began keeping an eye on their house and this little one would be out there pretty frequently. But then we just weren’t seeing her at all. One day, the volunteers went around back to look and there was this poor little girl, with a chain wrapped around her neck, flies all over her and her ribs sticking out. These people had moved her to the back and were completely ignoring her. We knew that she needed to get out of here, these people didn’t care about her at all. It was disgusting what they were doing to her.

 

 

We were able to bring Dee into our program the very next day, thank goodness. She was very, very thin, and so excited to be rescued! Look at that huge smile! I think she knows that her life just got 100% better!

 

 

 

 

Dee received her vax, her worm medicine and was spayed. She began putting weight on and looking much better! She was a gorgeous, dark brindle pit bull with a big happy  smile! What a transformation from the sad little creature that we had found a few weeks before!

 

 

 

We were extremely full at the time of Dee’s rescue, so we sent Dee out to Aunt Crystal’s doggie day care at Winding River. Let me just say that Dee had the time of her life!  She ran and played all day long. She ran free all day and slept in a room with a couple of other dogs.  She was getting bigger,  getting older, had a lot of energy and she had no manners at all! After a few months, we decided to bring Dee up to our facility to start working with her.

We began kennel training her and putting  her in play groups with various dogs. She did great! She absolutely loved the baby pool this past summer.

 

 

 

Dee has been with us since July of 2014. She always gets over-looked. I don’t know if it’s because she’s dark brindle. I know everyone is now thinking, ” but I love the brindles!”. However, right now at our facility, we have 3 brindle pit bulls that have been with us for a long time, all with great personalities and all deserving of a home. They totally get over- looked. We want everyone to know how wonderful Dee is! She gets along with male dogs and most females. Every once in awhile she comes across a female that she doesn’t care for. She is excellent in her crate-she’s just very quiet and chews on her raw hides!

 

 

 

 

We discovered recently that Dee has a luxating patella-a knee cap that pops out of place. She began limping and favoring her leg. We tried some pain meds for awhile but it wasn’t getting better.  We took her to our orthopedic vet at Independence Animal Hospital, where she was diagnosed. Poor Dee-just can’t get a break!

Dee is having surgery today as I am writing this. She would love a foster home to recover in. She has been waiting for a foster home or adoptive home for 9 months! She deserves a break and the chance to be in a home environment. Could you offer that to Dee? We would send her with a nice kennel for crating her and letting her rest.

 

If you would be willing to offer Dee a foster home to recover from her surgery in, please fill out a foster app on our website, http://www.chainofhopekc.org and go to our adoptable pets page.  Just to give her a break would be wonderful and she can come back here once she’s healed up, if she needs to. The other thing you could do is share this blog and let’s get as many people as we can aware of  Miss Dee! We love this girl and our hearts go out to her. Thank you for your support so that she can have her surgery that she needed! Chain of Hope supporters are the best!

 

 

 

Daphne

 

 

Daphne left this difficult world a few weeks ago. I have never told her story, but it is one you will never forget. This precious soul was beaten to within an inch of her life. This is Daphne’s story.

A woman had called for dog and cat food in the north east part of KC.  Judy and Karen went over and when they got back, Judy started telling me about a poor little dog over there with a smashed face and it seemed to have difficulty breathing. The woman had told Judy that one night, someone had this little dog out in the middle of the street and was beating her with a baseball bat. We didn’t get very many details because when we asked  the woman what had exactly happened, she said, “Well, I took that baseball bat and I marched up to his house and I tore up the inside of his house. That’s what he gets”, she said. She was more interested in telling us how brave she was to go “take care of it” than anything about the dog. Apparently this had happened a few months before. The woman did take the dog to the vet, but when pressed for details, she didn’t even know the name of the vet or what they did for her. I know it was the bare minimum because this lady had no money. They took her home and decided to keep her. This is not a good part of town. People are very transient and this asshole that did this to Daphne didn’t even live there anymore. We know nothing about him and he had seemingly no consequences for what he did.

Judy stopped by the next day and came back and told me that I needed to get over there-this little dog was in bad shape. She was starved and wanted to eat, but it took a lot of effort to crunch the food. Judy put down some canned food for her and she scarfed it up!

April and I went over. I could  not believe what we were seeing. This little dog had a smashed face so bad that she looked like a duck bill. She had copious amounts of green snot coming out of her nose, her breath was terrible, she could only breathe from her mouth and she sneezed a lot. Our hearts were sick. We tried talking to this woman, but she was convinced that this dog was ok. This woman kept this little one outside, and it was cold out at night! This poor dog would lay up on the circle that the wound up hose made on the side of the house.  We could not talk any sense into this woman. she wanted to keep her, thought she was fine and that was that. I think in her mind, she thought since this dog hadn’t died from the beating and she was up walking around that she was ok.  She obviously was missing some brain synapses.

I hugged this broken little girl and told her that we were getting her out of there-just hang on.

 

 

 

 

 

How this little girl survived in that back yard, in the cold, unable to eat very well and full of infection, I will never know. I did know that she wasn’t long for this world.  Our volunteer went that night and got her. When she got there, this poor little girl was curled up on her hose. I got in the next morning early-couldn’t wait to see this poor little thing. Not in a funny way at all, but we kept saying that she looked like Daffy Duck. Since she was a female, we decided to call her Daphne. When I got in there, I just hugged Daphne and hugged her. My heart was broken just looking at her and knowing what had happened to her. It can make you hate the human race when you see things like this.

Daphne looked terrible and I’m sure felt even worse. She only weighed 30 lbs, you could count all her ribs, she had teeth hanging out at weird angles and her tongue hung out the side of her mouth. She could only breathe through her mouth, she drooled a lot and her skull had been crushed in and was very misshapen. It was all very, very sad.

I ran to the store and bought her several jars of meat-flavored baby food. I figured it was very smooth and she could probably eat that better than anything right now. Her mouth had to have been so very sore. She loved the baby food! I felt so much sorrow for what Daphne had gone through.  I wanted to do everything we could to save her and give her some happiness.

 

 

 

We elevated her bowls of food and water to help her not to have to hang her head down so far to eat and drink. Daphne had several kinds of intestinal parasites, which we immediately treated her for. Her skin looked terrible-she had sores all up her front legs. She had to be miserable. We spent the first few days , just getting her to eat (she was so hungry), getting rid of her parasites and settling in, We knew we were going to have to get her to a specialist. She sneezed all the time and blew green snot out constantly. She had sustained massive injuries in her head and mouth. Her sinuses were crushed, she could not breath through her nose at all. She could only open her mouth 2 inches.

 

 

 

 

I was working in my office one day and all of the sudden Daphne started screaming and crying. I ran to her room and she was in much distress. I couldn’t see what was wrong, but I knew something was hurting her badly. I scooped her up and got her over to Kennedy’s Animal Clinic. We discovered that somehow her bottom tooth had gone through her lip and was sticking out the top of her lip. No wonder she was freaking out. We sedated her immediately. Since she was sedated with this problem, Dr. Kennedy went ahead and got her on the table to repair what had happened and to get a good look at the extent of her injuries. As expected, it was terrible in her mouth. Many broken teeth, infection, missing bone, broken bone fragments. Daphne also had an open hole in the roof of her mouth and Dr. Kennedy flushed all of that out. There was old food caught up in there, etc. She got that all cleaned out and used some tissue from the inside of Daphne’s cheek to repair the hole in the top of her mouth. She had never encountered anything like this before and we greatly appreciate her help. We were hopeful that doing all of this would be enough to provide Daphne with the relief and healing that she so desperately needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was at this time that Daphne met the real angels in her life. Tom and Kathy foster dogs that need hospice or special care for Chain of Hope. They had fostered an old beagle that we had rescued from a house where the owner had gone to a nursing home, had no family and the beagle was left in his house, basically abandoned.  They had also fostered an old mixed breed dog that was found in the freezing cold, very skinny, along 350 Hwy on a winter’s night, barely able to walk anymore. They had those special babies for about a year and they ended up having to be euthanized just a couple of weeks apart due to their health problems. Tom and Kathy are a Godsend. Teena, from Dr. Kennedy’s office, called them the day Daphne got her tooth through her lip and had emergency surgery and told them about her and asked if they’d be interested in taking her home to recover and give her the TLC that she so deserved. They came to see her, fell in love with her instantly and said they’d be happy to foster her.

Daphne did better after the surgery for a short while. Her breathing was better, the snot and the sneezing were less. However, it wasn’t long before Daphne began having more problems.

She was back to sneezing constantly and producing a lot of green mucus. We took her to Companion Animal Dentistry in Lenexa. Dr. Crowder examined Daphne, did head xrays and scheduled her for surgery. She needed to get in there and clean up as much as she could. She said it would be a lengthy surgery, but that they would take great care of her. I do not know how this girl survived the beating that she was subjected to. There is a special place in hell for people that do things like this.

 

 

 

Daphne had major surgery at Companion Animal Dentistry. They were able to do a lot to help Daphne. She had numerous bone fragments in her crushed sinuses, she had impacted teeth, infected roots with no tooth there at all, The hole in her pallet had not healed all the way and so she still had a hole in the roof of her mouth, along with a couple of more that they found. They removed a pill bottle full of tiny bone fragments that were preventing her from healing and causing infection. Twenty nine of her teeth were missing already from the beating. It was a big surgery and many, many repairs were made. Daphne only had a few teeth left when it was all said and done.

Daphne went home with Tom and Kathy to recover. We all had high hopes that this would finally give Daphne much relief and let her have happy days where she felt really good! This little girl had been to several different medical establishments, been poked and prodded, endured unimaginable suffering, yet she was so happy to be here! Tom and Kathy loved her! Since Daphne had breathing problems, she would sleep on Tom’s lap all propped up so she could breath easier. Daphne also loved it when Tom massaged her gums with his finger! I’m sure he did this for hours on end, but Daphne loved it-it seemed to bring her a lot of comfort. Daphne had the best year of her life following her “big” surgery! She was up to 40 lbs., felt great, looked wonderful and had the best days of her life! Thank you to everyone who supports Chain of Hope for giving Daphne this wonderful, happy time in her life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daphne did great for about a year. She had one glorious, happy year. She spent many days laying in the sun on their deck. In February  Kathy emailed me to let me know that Daphne was having problems again. It was all the same thing-constant sneezing, mucus, she was having a lot of trouble with her breathing. They brought her into Dr. Kennedy’s. She was obviously in distress. We all decided that we would sedate her again, see what was wrong in her mouth this time and give her a temporary tracheotomy to aid her breathing. Tom and Kathy said that she could not sleep anymore because of her breathing. Every time she fell asleep, she would not be able to breath well and she would shake herself awake gasping for air. This poor, poor baby. Dr. Kennedy found a couple of more broken teeth and removed them and put in a trach.

Daphne woke up fine from yet another surgery. She went home and was doing ok, but not great. In consultation with the specialist, Dr. Kennedy decided that Daphne should have a permanent tracheotomy put in. This way she had permanent help for her breathing. Tom and Kathy brought her back and that procedure was done as well. Daphne went home to recover on February 18, 2015. On February 20, Kathy woke up in the early morning because Daphne had pooped in her dog bed, which was highly unusual. Kathy picked Daphne up and put her up on their bed while she was cleaning up the dog bed. Daphne laid on Tom and Kathy’s bed and died.

 

I don’t know what this world has come to that somebody can do this to such an innocent, loving being. I do know that karma is a bitch and this guy isn’t getting away with anything. I believe that God will take care of his evilness.

We must focus on the positive, the fact that all of us together gave Daphne a fabulous year. She had tons of love, she grabbed our hearts, and she will be with us forever. We are grateful to have found her. She taught us resilience, joy, forgiveness of the human race, and total love.

Tom and Kathy-you gave Daphne the greatest gift of all. Thank you for willingly opening up your hearts, only to be broken yet again. You have made such a difference in the lives of so many. Because of you, Daphne left this world knowing that she was safe, loved and cherished.  You gave her a priceless gift. Thank you to all of the people that helped Daphne-all of the vets and vet techs and Chain of Hope volunteers and supporters, too. What we do is never easy, we don’t expect it to be-it’s hard every day. It was our privilege to know Daphne and to love her. Run free pretty girl.

 

The Faces We’ve Helped IV

Chain of Hope runs across a lot of heartache in the hood, but there are many people that love their animals and are trying to do the right thing. You can’t be around me long before hearing, “education, education, education”-usually after getting back in the van after a frustrating visit with someone. But we get up and do it all again the next day. We are out there in the trenches, going door-to-door and talking with pet owners about the care of their animals. We have our work cut out for us, but as long as our supporters keep sending us, we’ll keep going and transforming lives! Many thanks to all of you who enable us to continue this very difficult work. Here are some of “The Faces We’ve Helped”-enjoy!