Momma at the Baseball Diamond

Chain of Hope received an email and a  picture concerning a dog in Swope Park. She was emaciated and looked like she was nursing puppies. She was hanging out at one of the ball diamonds across from Lakeside Nature Center.

I went over and saw her pretty much right away. She was laying in the grass at the baseball diamond. I had some canned food and tried to coax her for a while,  but she was too scared to come close enough to me. I went over to the Nature Center and talked to them about her. They said that she’d been there the day before and they had fed her. They said that they thought her puppies were dead because she just stayed at the baseball diamond all day long the day before, never leaving.  How sad.

I went back to Chain of Hope and grabbed Judy and our large dog trap. We went back and she was still there. We set the trap for her and then retreated farther away and were watching her with the binoculars. She was curious and was circling the opening to the trap, when a car came along and pulled in there right near our trap. This, of course, scared momma dog. I ran over there and told the lady that we had a trap set for her and to please leave the area. She had come to feed her and had some more canned food with her.

After all of this, momma was not having it. She would not go close to the trap. Obviously, several people had stopped and put food out for her. She wasn’t hungry at all, so she wouldn’t go in the trap for the really good stuff.  I went back over to Lakeside and asked them not to feed her, that I would be back in the morning with my trap again.  If nobody fed her, she should be hungry again by morning.

This dog was totally emaciated, but she had lots of milk. I agreed with the Lakeside employees. I think her puppies were dead as well. She never left that area and I had looked everywhere around the baseball diamond.  Momma had an old collar on and no ID. You can’t tell in the pictures very well, but her skin and coat  looked like she had mange. This girl had had a rough life, I could tell. I so wanted to get her and show her what a good, happy life could be like.

I had the trap and all of the good treats the next morning and headed down to Swope Park. When I arrived at the baseball diamond, I didn’t see her. My heart sank. Then I looked across the road and two employees from Lakeside Nature Center were picking momma’s body up off the side of Gregory and putting her in the back of their truck. Momma had been hit and killed by a car.

I know you see  a lot of happy stories on this blog, but we aren’t always successful. We try so hard, but we don’t always have the outcome that we were hoping for. This was one of those situations. This poor momma deserved a chance, but someone miserably failed this dog and now she was dead. We don’t always win and when we lose, it hurts like hell.

Skyler

We were at a house in mid-town about a week ago helping some people with their pit bulls. A  small tri-colored dog was running around loose, but kept running  to a couple of yards over where a lot of people were sitting outside. The people hollered at us and asked what we were doing. When we told them, they said that they had a couple of dogs and asked us to come down there and talk to them. It turns out that the little tri-colored dog was theirs. She was running around loose, she was skinny and she wasn’t spayed. They said that she was a pain and was always getting away. They told me that she was dumped in the park across the street in the winter when she was a tiny puppy. They took her in, but now were clearly getting frustrated.

Their other dog was a male pit bull named George, who was 8 yrs. old.  He was at a good body weight and he was an indoor-outdoor dog. When he was outside, he was on a chain. He had something wrong with his rear end . It looked like a prolapsed rectum or something. They said that he had had surgery a few months before and they had spent $400 and it wasn’t better-it was worse. He’d also been attacked by a dog while on his chain and had a puncture wound in his chest. They said it had happened several weeks ago and they had been cleaning it everyday and putting neosporin on it and that it had gotten a lot better. They were very concerned about George’s rear end, but George wasn’t neutered and Dee, as they called the little girl dog, was not spayed. Chain of Hope will only help people who are receptive to spaying and neutering their pets. I told them that I could take George in and get him looked at, but that he’d need to get neutered when I took him in. They said that was fine.

When I picked up the dogs the next morning, I talked to the woman about Dee. I told her that I could find a good home for her if she wanted me to take her. She was waffling, so I told her to think about it during the day while Dee was getting spayed and we’d talk that evening.

It turns out that George had  a tumor. I forgot the long name of it, but it was from being older and not being neutered.  Getting him neutered would help and the doctor also shot some estrogen into the tumor. In all my years of rescue work, I’ve never seen this kind of tumor before. The doctor told me that it should start shrinking up. They cleaned his chest wound as well and I took George and Dee back home.

I got George out of the van and walked him up to the door. The people were happy to see George and George was happy to be back home. Then the woman asked me where Dee was. I told her that she was on the van, but that I knew I could find her an indoor home, where she could live inside with her family. The  kids were sitting around playing video games and she looked at them and said, “well?” and the kids started whining and saying that they wanted to keep her. I asked them what for if they were going to keep her outside on a chain. They insisted that they brought her in a lot. They wouldn’t budge, so I had to get Dee out of the van. They took both dogs into the house.

We went over last Sunday to check on everyone and this is how we found Dee. She had a big chain wrapped around her neck, she was laying in the mud and she was noticeably more scared than she’d been the week before. This was not a good situation. She seemed traumatized. George was in the house and Dee was sitting in squalor. Before I could even get up to the front door, the woman came out and said, “I think you’d better go ahead and take Dee. She won’t stay on anything.” Well, hell no! She didn’t want to have to live there like that. I’d try to run away, too!

They signed Dee over to us and off she came  to start her new life! She was scared to death- shaking and trembling. I don’t know what had happened to her, but obviously nothing good. We whispered to her that this was the best day of her life, she just didn’t know it yet!

Erica gave her a bath and we got her vaccinated, de-wormed and settled in. We kept her in the back of Chain of Hope where it’s quieter and she could recover from all she’d been through. At first, we had to carry her to go outside and potty, but in just a few days she is walking right out with us and going for walks.

Skyler is awesome! We love this girl! She has a very sweet personality. She’s about 6 mo. old and doing super at Chain of Hope. She used to hide in her crate and be scared when we’d come in her room, but now she comes out to be petted and talked to! Skyler is blossoming right before our eyes and that is the coolest thing!

Outreach has been very difficult and sad lately. Thanks for supporting us, praying for us, encouraging us and sending some good mojo our way. We appreciate all of our supporters keeping us out there on the streets!

Dorrit’s Bright Future

Chain of Hope was working in an alley in Northeast. We came across a dog tied to a dog house that was on it’s side. She was a very cute, very shy mixed breed dog and she was pregnant. The people were Hispanic and did not speak English. We had to go back when the teen-age daughter was home so that we could talk to them about this situation. We always give people the option to go ahead and spay the dog when they’re pregnant, but these people did  not want to do that. They were receptive to having her spayed after the puppies were gone, but they just couldn’t bring themselves to spay/abort her while she was pregnant. I know that it seems very callous to do that, but if you’ve ever worked in an animal shelter, you totally get it.  We told them that we needed to fix her up better and also that they should be bringing her in the house. We gave her a new dog house because the one she had was so light-weight, it would just tip over when her cable for caught on it or something.

This dog loved the woman that lived here. She seemed to be the one that she really trusted. This momma had 5 puppies and they were adorable. When they were old enough, the people let Chain of Hope take the litter for spay/neuter and then adoption. They wanted to keep momma and get her spayed, which we did for them.

We stayed in touch and dropped by in a couple of weeks. They told us that they thought they were moving and wanted us to take this momma dog. We were so full at the time, we told them that as soon as we got a spot, we’d come get her. When we were back a couple of weeks later to tell them to hang on, we’d get her as soon as we could, they said that now they weren’t moving and they were going to keep her. Geez-it was like a yo-yo, constantly changing. We never really knew what they were wanting to do. The truth was, we wanted to get her out of there, but we had no more foster homes and we were still full. But apparently now, she was staying.

A few weeks later, the teen-age girl called and asked us if we could take her! This was so frustrating, but unfortunately not uncommon for us to deal with this.  The girl told us that a male dog was hanging around and he had gone after momma. She said momma’s mouth was bleeding. We headed over to get her and we’d figure it out later. She had to get out of there.

We got momma back to Chain of Hope and got her settled in a nice dog run. She was beautiful!

Thankfully, Furry Kids Refuge was able to take Momma! They had a foster home for her. We are very grateful to Furry Kids and all of the help they give to Chain of Hope and our rescued animals. Momma went to her new foster home. When momma got there, the foster mom noticed that she would run into things. Furry Kids had her to an eye specialist and it was determined that Dorrit (as Furry Kids named her) was blind! She was totally blind and probably had been from birth. She had detached retinas and they were not operable. This was shocking to us! Dorrit had adapted so well, that we didn’t even know it! We had taken her for walks at Chain of Hope and she was using her nose and her sense of touch to move very gracefully around bushes and things outside. She was in a dog run inside. I personally have a blind dog and I didn’t know that she was blind.  The vet and techs didn’t notice-no one did. We’d been to her house many times and the people did not know she was blind either. It sounds absurd, I know, but Dorrit was very well adapted. I’m sure because that’s all she’s known.

It was very disturbing to know that she lived outside on a tie-out, was raped on her chain and gave birth on her chain, and the whole time she was blind. That is a hard enough situation for any dog to go through, but being blind through all of this was unimaginable! This girl was a survivor and she deserved so much more than this. We were so thankful that the people had called again and decided to give her up. Now, Dorrit is finally living the life she’s always deserved. She is in a wonderful foster home with Amanda from Furry Kids and doing well. She goes to adoption events and gets along with all of the other dogs in her foster home. She’s amazing!

What some of these dogs go through that we rescue is not even imaginable sometimes. To think of Dorrit out there, blind and with a litter of puppies to care for. Dogs are so resilient and so forgiving all at the same time. They are incredible animals.

Dorrit is finally having the life that she deserves and should’ve had all along. She is comfortable and happy and very well-adjusted. If she gets adopted by a special someone, that’s wonderful! If not, she is safe and very much loved at Amanda’s. Thanks for keeping us out there!

Batman

Judy and Karon were on outreach one day when they spotted a little, black dog at the busy bus stop on Van Brunt and Linwood. They tried to pull over and toss some treats to her. Then Judy noticed her teats and thought that she had puppies somewhere. They couldn’t get close to her, but they didn’t feel like they should try to get her because she might have babies somewhere. When they came back in from outreach, they were telling me about her and were obviously worried. A couple of days later, I decided to drive through a neighborhood just north of Linwood and look for her. I was driving through slowly when I spotted  her. She was sitting in the yard of a vacant house! Perfect! I pulled over and got out with some treats, I tossed some to her and she would eat them if they were close enough to her, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She was very wary and very clever. She always stayed just out of arm’s reach.  I kept working with her, got out the canned food and was just trying to be patient.  No one ever came down the street. There were a lot of dead ends up in there because of I-70 and it was a pretty quiet area. I was thinking I ought to go to some doors, but I really just wanted to get her out of there. She’d been on Van Brunt and  obviously had  had puppies. It definitely didn’t sound like a good situation for this dog. She didn’t currently have milk like Judy was worried about, but you could definitely tell that she’d had puppies in the last  few months. I just could not get her and was thinking I’d have to come back later with a trap.

Finally, after about 1/2 hour, a car pulled in across the street. I decided to go over and talk to them and see if they knew anything about this little dog. I hollered at them and asked if they knew whose dog this was and they said, “Ours!”  Geez! It was a female named Batman-go figure!  I told them that the volunteers had seen her down on Van Brunt a couple days ago and they just smiled and nodded and said, “Yeah-she goes down there. She runs all over the place.” I asked if she had had puppies and they told me yes. They had put them on Craig’s List and they were all gone. That had been her 2nd litter! They put them on Craig’s List both times. I offered to spay her for free and they were very receptive and appreciative.  We made the arrangements for what day I would pick her up and I gave them some food and told them to keep her home and off the streets. They told me that they did keep her inside about half of the time.

I picked Batman up a couple of days later. She was pretty scared to ride in the car and was pretty shy at the clinic, but she did just fine!

We got Batman spayed and vaccinated and de-wormed. She stayed all night and I took her back the next day. I hadn’t been back by there in about 3 weeks or so, so one day I headed back over  to check on Batman. She was out front with her owner. She was on a light-weight chain. The owner said she was keeping her in better and that Batman did  not even run off if she did get out of the yard. She was now staying closer to home and she could no longer get pregnant! Thank you Chain of Hope  supporters!

Batman is now a spayed, healthy and happy girl. They have done a good job with her. They do  not keep her outside all the time.  We have educated this owner and I think Batman is going to be alright. Thanks for keeping us out there!

Linda

Chain of Hope received a phone call from a neighbor that was very concerned about the dog 2 doors down. Apparently, the owners had moved 2 weeks ago and just left her there, on a heavy chain and pregnant. She was absolutely stunning! She was very sweet, too. The neighbors had been feeding her for 2 weeks and they finally decided she had to get out of there. They didn’t want to call animal control, so they called Chain of Hope.

When we got there, we saw Linda, down the drive way, chained to a cinder block.

Since the poor dog had on two padlocks and no one had a key, we had to break the cinder block into two pieces to be able to walk her out of there on a slip lead. We tried to cut the chain with our bolt cutters, but we only had our small ones and they weren’t enough for this chain. Thank goodness, the very nice neighbor man came over and broke the cinder block  with his sledge hammer! We loaded Linda up and took her out of there! Thank goodness the neighbors had called!

We took Linda to the vet and had her spayed. It is sad to have to do that, but we have a pit bull crisis in this town-there are far too many of them

This girl is the sweetest dog. We are evaluating her with other dogs and getting her settled in at Chain of Hope. Thank you for your support so that we could get right over and rescue Linda!

Dan and Tyrone

Chain of Hope received a call from a man named Dan who left a message  that he had an older dog that was sick and he didn’t know if it was time to put him down. Dan was pretty worried about one of his 3 dogs named Tyrone and he just needed someone else’s opinion. I headed over the next day and met Dan and Tyrone. Dan is a very nice man. He and his wife had 3 little dogs and they lived in apartment in northeast KC. Tyrone was a white, shaggy little Bichon-looking dog, only bigger. All of the dogs were adorable and they were all well cared for. Dan showed me how Tyrone had several growths that had appeared on him. There was a nasty one on his side. Mostly, he had those little, pink wart-type things. He was pretty hard of hearing. Dan said that Tyrone was drinking quite a bit of water and having trouble with urination. Dan was concerned that Tyrone was uncomfortable and in pain. He said he really wasn’t eating that well lately. Dan thought that Tyrone was at the end and he kept saying that he didn’t want Tyrone suffering. I thought I’d find a dog in much worse shape than Tyrone, but actually he wasn’t in horrible shape.

Dan told me that they had lived in that apartment building for about 3 yrs. The previous maintenance guy for the apartment building had owned Tyrone. When he decided to move on, he left Tyrone with Dan and his wife. He said that Tyrone was about 12 yrs. old or so. We decided that I should take Tyrone in to the vet. Dan said if things were bad to go ahead and put him down.  He did not seem very optimistic that he would see Tyrone again. He hugged him and kissed him and told him good bye.  I don’t think that he really thought that he would ever see Tyrone again.

I took Tyrone into the vet. His growths appeared to be normal, benign growths that can come on with old age in some dogs. It seemed like he was drinking a lot of water, but not copious amounts. He did not have accidents in his kennel-he could hold his pee. We ended up doing a urinalysis on him. He was not diabetic, which is what I think most of us were thinking. We kept Tyrone a couple of days and nights and ended up running a blood panel on him. His kidneys and liver were functioning normally. The vet staff  shaved him down. He looked so cute! Dan said that when Tyrone started getting the little tumors, they started letting his hair grow out to cover them up, but it had gotten a little out of control. Tyrone was eating, drinking and doing pretty well. It was time to take him home.

Dan was so thankful to all of our supporters for the help-he just didn’t know what to do and lived on a fixed income. I took Tyrone back to Dan and it was very touching to see both of their reactions. They clearly love each other and were happy to be reunited!

Dan hollered at his other two dogs to come out the front door and then they saw Tyrone! Their buddy was back! It was a great feeling to have all 3 of the dogs back together. They all get  along great!

Because of your support, we can provide medical help to so many of the dogs and cats from the inner city. Dan and his wife love Tyrone and thanked us profusely. They were teary-eyed and emotional when I pulled up with Tyrone that evening. I could see the happiness and relief on Dan’s face when he came out to the van to get him. They love Tyrone and their other two dogs very much and it was good to know that they would have some more time with Tyrone. The 3 little dogs clearly love each other. Thank you Chain of Hope for making this wonderful outcome happen.

Momma and Her Puppies Rescued

Chain of Hope received a call from a very concerned man named Chris who told us that a momma dog had given birth and the babies were up high behind a retaining wall in his back yard. He said he heard them one day and put his ladder up against the  wall and counted 8 new puppies, their eyes weren’t even open yet. He said the momma growled and bared her teeth at him, had tried to bite a couple of times,  but he’d been giving her food and water. It was late in the day and we told him that I would head over and access the situation and then we could come back tomorrow with a plan. I headed over that evening and Chris showed me where they were. He also told me a little bit more about this girl. He said that she had belonged to the people that used to live in one of  the abandoned houses. They had gotten evicted and they left her there. She wasn’t tied up, she just hung around there on that block and I guess the neighbors fed her. Chris said her family abandoned her about 6 months ago. She is a beautiful dog, about 65 lbs. or more.

Chris had been making a little progress with the mom and by the time I got there, she was letting him pet her on the head! Once I got there, though, she was growling again.  She was a good momma doing a good job. She had found the most amazing place to put her babies and she was protecting them. I got the lay out of everything and figured out what we had to do. I told Chris that I would be back the next day and we’d try to get them out of there.

I checked with one of our vets to see if I could give the momma acepromazine, to mellow her out. He said it was safe to go ahead, given the situation-we had to get them out of there. We knew the rain was coming. I went over the next morning and gave the momma some ace. We went back a few hours later when Chris got home. Momma was still alert, but I think mellowed out some. Chris climbed up the ladder and talked to momma, fed her canned food, pet her, and even picked up one of her puppies. I knew it’d be a different story when we went to remove the puppies, she was very protective of them.

In the meantime, we drove over to the street behind. We had to go behind an abandoned house, through the brush and weeds to the wall where this little family was. We carried a large  wire crate up through there so as soon as I got her on the control stick, we could walk her just a little way and get her into a crate, with her babies.

We got momma and babies loaded up in the Chain of Hope van, safe and sound. Oh, there weren’t 8 puppies-there were 10! We told momma she could exhale now-she wasn’t out there on her own trying to take care of 10 babies.

Once we got momma back to Chain of Hope, she was a total love bug! She wasn’t afraid, she wanted to be pet, she’d leave her babies and walk outside on a leash with us and go for a walk.

Chain of Hope is an outreach group. Although was have some dogs up for adoption, our primary focus is outreach. We run across so many animals in very dire situations, we need to be able to pull some into our program immediately when we come across something that is an emergency. We often ask for help from other groups that are primarily adoption groups to help get some of our dogs that we rescue out of the hood adopted. T.A.R.A., The Animal Rescue Alliance, is a wonderful local rescue group that is a great help and support to Chain of Hope. I contacted them about this momma and babies and they found a foster home for them! We tranferred momma and babies over to TARA and they will make sure they get great homes. Thank you, TARA.

Chris was awesome and I am so glad he called Chain of Hope. I was really glad when the terrible rain started a few days ago that we had gotten them to safety and warmth. Thank you for keeping us out there. There are so many animals that need us so badly. We appreciate your support.

Amy and Her Puppies

Chain of Hope received a call from a young woman named Amy, who lived in Northeast KC.  Apparently, she had been keeping her friend’of a friend’s Rottweiler because where ever this person  lived, they couldn’t have her there. The dog wasn’t spayed and Amy had a Rottie mix male named Malcolm, who was not neutered. The female got pregnant and had 8 babies one night inside Amy’s house. The mother started acting aggressively toward the puppies like she was going to hurt them or was trying to kill them, according to Amy. She called one of the emergency clinics in town and she said they were very helpful and talked to her for almost an hour. They told her to take the momma away from the puppies or she would kill them if she was acting like that aggressively toward them. Amy put the momma dog back outside on her chain. The whole situation just sucked.

The emergency clinic told Amy what and how to feed them, how she would have to make sure that she made them go potty, since momma wasn’t there to do all of that for them. Amy hit the ground running and began feeding and caring for 8 tiny Rottweiler mix puppies around the clock. the emergency clinic gave her Chain of Hope’s number and told her that maybe we could help her. Thank goodness, Amy called. We actually had quite a bit of puppy formula, so we headed over the next day with that, some bottles and syringes. Amy was thrilled to have the bigger bottles. She had the little tiny ones and she said those babies were sucking it down faster than she could fill them up again. They were hungry!

We talked with Amy and told her that the only way that we would help her was if we got the momma spayed, Malcolm neutered and all of the puppies fixed BEFORE she gave them away. We also told her that we would take the puppies when the time came if we needed too.  Amy told us that the momma dog really belonged to this other person (there’s such an evasiveness in the hood). We told her since the dog had been there more than 3 days, she was considered the owner and she could make whatever decisions she wanted for the dog. The momma was somewhat aggressive (she had every right to be upset!). Malcolm is a big marshmallow!

We told Amy that as soon as the momma’s milk dried up, we’d get her in and get her spayed.  When the owner called Amy about the dog, Amy told her that she was going to have her spayed. The next time we were at Amy’s house, the momma dog wasn’t there. Amy told us that the owner didn’t want her spayed and had come and gotten her. Ugh!!! This was so disappointing. It’s hard to take something like that, but we have to realize that we are not successful 100% of the time and what we’re doing out there is very difficult.

We’ve helped people with litters of puppies many, many times-too many to count. We always give them the same speech-we’ll only help you if you spay the momma and hang onto all of the puppies until we can get them all spayed and neutered, at about 8 weeks. They usually tell us that 8 family members all want one, blah, blah, blah. Inevitably, when the time comes to get them in and get them fixed, the entire litter is not still there. They always give some away. People start giving them away at 6 weeks. They always do. As soon as they start walking around and becoming “messy”, they’ll start giving them away to get them out of there. Then we are faced with spaying and neutering whatever is left or walking away from all of the mess because they didn’t hold up their end of things. There are always difficult decisions like this everyday.  We have to opt to spay and neuter whatever we can get our hands on though-whether it’s 8 puppies or 4 puppies. We always give these people some of our cards and encourage them to give them to people that take one of their puppies.

I have to tell you that Amy is the first person in all of these years, that actually hung onto the ENTIRE litter until we could get them in at about 8 weeks and get them all fixed.

Malcolm is now neutered and all of the puppies have gone to their new homes. Amy was pretty careful about who got these guys-after all, she had put a lot into these puppies and they were her babies! In the very least, they won’t be out there reproducing. We can’t possibly take all of the litters that we come across, but we can get them fixed before they got out into the world. Amy loves these little guys and she did a great job. Syringe and bottle feeding from day 1 is pretty dicey whether  they’ll all make it or not, but Amy did  not lose a single puppy. She was dedicated to these babies and kept them all alive and healthy. I wish things would’ve been different for the momma dog, but the owner refused to have her spayed. Geez…..how many rottie and rottie mixes do we see in the shelters everyday???

But Amy-she totally got it about not letting the puppies reproduce and shutting down that breeding cycle.

The Faces We’ve Helped, II

Chain of Hope runs across a lot of heart ache 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!

Huey

Chain of Hope has been taking care of Huey for a couple of years. The poor boy was put on a chain as a puppy to be a “guard” dog. We hear that every single day in the hood. Huey was the sweetest boy with the most adorable face. He loved it when our van pulled up. He belonged to an elderly couple. Over the course of the last couple of years, the health of both of these people has failed greatly. Needless to say, Huey was more and more neglected. If it wasn’t for Chain of Hope, Huey would’ve fallen through the cracks and probably died on the end of his chain.

Huey was on Denise and her son Kyle’s south KC route on Sundays. Denise came back one Sunday last summer and said that Huey had a big wound or sore on his hip. I went over the next day and picked him up and got him into the vet. He had a large hot spot, so we knocked him out, neutered him and shaved and cleaned his hot spot. I took him back the next day with some medicine. It was so hard to put him back on that tie-out.

I know you’re thinking, why didn’t you just get him? The truth is that there are thousands  of Hueys all over this city.  We can’t possibly find a place for all of the dogs that need and deserve to get off of their chains. We have another dog that looks almost exactly like Huey and he lives on a chain. He deserves to get out of there and so do thousands of others.  What we can do is what we’re doing: canvassing this city 6 days a week and finding them , educating owners, and spaying and neutering. We are constantly working on cases to get dogs off of chains and into a better situation.  We are always in need of foster homes to make this happen.  We are making a difference out there and it’s because of all of you, our supporters, who  keep us going. You are sincerely appreciated.

Huey was always knocking over his dog house, which was an igloo. We took him a nice wooden house last fall. We kept the fleas and flies off of him every summer and stuffed hay in his dog house each winter. Chain of Hope has been his lifeline, his joy and his hope. Finally, because of their failing health, we were able to talk these people into finally relinquishing Huey to us. This darling, sweet boy was finally free!

I never knew what his name was at his house, but we are calling him Huey. He is gorgeous, gentle and thankful. He did test positive for heart worms, as most of our rescued dogs do. The dogs we rescue have lived their lives outside on chains and 80% of them test positive for heart worms. It can be an ordeal for them to go through and it is expensive, but these guys are so worth it! They get a whole new chance at life, just like Huey. Huey has received his first heart worm treatment injection and will be getting his next one soon. Then he will be able to live a long, happy life in his forever home.

Kim, our wonderful photographer, captured some great shots of Huey.  What a handsome hunk! A great personality! He’s got the whole package and we love this boy!