Pearl

A compassionate and caring utility worker got hold of Chain of Hope regarding 3 dogs chained in a yard of a house that he was working at. The lady that lived there was elderly and couldn’t seem to be able to care for the dogs properly.

I went over there in the next couple of days and saw the dogs, met the owner and had a nice conversation with her. Her husband had passed away several months ago and now she was having health problems. She really wasn’t strong enough to deal with the dogs, so her daughter came over to help her as much as she could. They all had doghouses, so that was good. None of them were spayed or neutered. She had two large gorgeous Shepherds, a male and female and a yellow lab named Pearl. We began helping her take care of them. We would drop food off for them, we got them on tie-outs instead of chains, we put flea control on them, hung fly bags, etc. The people were always appreciative. They wanted all of them spayed/neutered and we were just waiting for our grant $ to come in from Pepsi (thanks for voting everyone!!!) because this woman was on a fixed income and could not afford spay/neuter.

Everytime I was there, I would ask her about maybe giving up a dog and she would always say that she would let me have Pearl, but that she really wanted the approval of her daughter and that she would talk to her. It was a sentimental situation because these 3 dogs were such a tie to her husband. She told me how her husband used to always be outside, puttering around and taking care of the dogs and the yard. I can tell she misses him badly.

The summer kind of dragged on and finally one day when I went there, the daughter was there. I talked to her about giving up Pearl and letting us find her an indoor home and she agreed. She signed Pearl over to us and we loaded her up! Judy Kerns took her to Sirius Dog Rescue, where she volunteers and Pearl found her forever home in just a couple of weeks (after getting spayed, of course!).

The shepherds are still there and we still stop by and monitor. They will be getting spayed/neutered in one week finally! I’ll be so glad to get them done. The situation is more manageable for the people to care for 2 large dogs instead of 3. We will continue to monitor and stay involved because that’s how we do things. We do not forget about these dogs, we continue to check on them. I will approach her at some point about relinquishing the shepherds, but I am just going slowly with her for now.  I know that Pearl is an inside dog now and is loving every minute of it!