One year ago today..... a rescuers story

KDbeads

Songster
10 Years
Aug 20, 2009
1,879
11
161
East Central VA
For those of you who rescue, have rescued, thinking about rescue, I want to tell you a story. It's a basset story since we mainly focus on bassets.

I posted 'bail' for this hound at a shelter 104 miles away from me (one way drive), he was only going to be given 2 days on the adoption floor because they thought he was too old, I got there the last day, about 2 hours before they had him scheduled to be put down:
DSCF3290a.JPG


This image does not tell the full story, it does not show the real detail of how bad off this poor dog was thanks to my nice nifty anti shadow flash on my camera. This skinny dog weighed in at 34 pounds and promptly lost 3 pounds when we got him home on the 12th. He was far sicker than we knew.

This is the day I picked him up, on the drive home, December 12th, 2008. They wouldn't let me take him without having him neutered before leaving the shelter, it was a big risk, vet gave 80% odds he wasn't well enough to survive the surgery but we couldn't get any type of medical waiver to get him out so we had to take the chance. He would have been euthanized anyway had we not.
DSCF3309a.JPG


Progress videos for those who want to know more about his story:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?gl=CA&hl=en&p=96EEB7AAE813676F
And his page that I really need to update one of these days:
http://www.krausdesigns.com/Kelvin.html

We had 4 potential homes lined up for him but...
He had kidney problems and wormed his way into a hardened rescuer's heart. I refuse to let myself get attached to my rescues, and there have been a LOT of them, but well... this old man was different. And still is. Originally he was thought to be around 9 or so, my vet thought closer to 11 in the spring so his probably getting close to 12 now. He's a pitiful excuse for a well adjusted dog. He whines because of everything, he's a master at pouting and putting on the pity me face. He is still a velcro dog and probably always will be. His kidney issues are under control for now with a strict diet and supplement program. He also weighs in at 55 pounds. He chews on everything not above his head by 3 feet. And he stinks when he gets wet, seriously this is not your normal wet dog stink. We have to be vigilant on the cleaning of his ears or else we end up with ulcers practically overnight. If you pull out a barbell or any kind of weight lifting equipment he will hide and pee himself. If he sees a baseball bats he pees himself while trying to hide. And now that Sally (one of our other long term fosters) has gone to her forever home... he has decided to howl. Often. Loudly. Off key. And with a certain grating screech right at the end of it.
And we wouldn't give him up for the world. He has defied vet predictions on his quality of life with CRF and defied what we were told on potential life span, see we should have lost him back around August. His latest test results show ALL his blood values are normal. All of them, every single thing they check for and my vet is shocked. Now the vet is thinking years instead of weeks or months.
These were taken on 12/3/09:
DSCF4617a.JPG

DSCF4633b.JPG


If you have a chance to adopt on old guy/gal.... don't pass it up. This is what you could end up with
wink.png
 
The eyes are the window into a dogs soul.
He seems so sweet. I am glad you kept him. He needed stability.
Give him a 'Good dog" and a head rubbing and ear flapping from me.
 
Great story. Thank you for doing that.
I just took in an 18 year old cat missing half of its face. Face is almost healed. Ears are healed. She's gonna get a chance to live out her life in a warm comfortable house. She purrs even when I'm treating her.

Imp- BTW- I used to have a neighbor with 3 bassets. When they howled I'd just grin like a fool and laugh till they stopped. Found it just joyous to listen to.
 
What a super story!
Hooray for you --- rescue is just the greatest --
please kiss his sweet head -- right between the ears, for me --
 
What a wonderful story! He looks so much healthier and happy!! I too do rescue as time/money permits...as well as opportunity. Three of our four dogs in the past 6 years have been rescues (one of which we lost to Lymphoma in 2006 at only 5 years old
hit.gif
). That does not include the various dogs that we have found homes for along the way (another four that I can think of off the top of my head). Oh, and our cat was a rescue from a litter of stray kittens down the street. Anyway, one of dogs, Kenzie, is a similar story to your handsome guy.
Her quick story (will delete this if you like. I am not trying to hijack
hide.gif
)...I live in SoCal and came across her photo on petfinder.com. She was in Las Vegas at a high kill shelter (~210 miles one way). I HAD to get her. She was listed as a purebred blonde border collie (rare! requires TWO sets of recessive genes to be passed on) and I figured I could easily find her a forever home with a little training. When I went to pick her up, she wouldn't even look at me. If I got in front of her, she'd turn her back to me and sit.
sad.png
The lady thought I was nuts for wanting her. She seemed to have the attitude that Kenzie was unadoptable. She was matted all over, not social and hated other dogs (not really aggressive, but DEFINITELY did not want them in her space). I put her in the car and she just sat there staring out the window. Given the drive I had ahead of me to get us home, I stopped at a some fast food place. I gave her a french fry...the rest of the trip I was trying to keep her off of my lap!
roll.png
Anyway, I got her home and a few days later I took her to my mom's so she could be trained before adoption. I missed her so much! As my mom drove off with her (we met half-way), she stood on the back window looking devastated. This poor girl had been through so much and I wasn't helping her. So, of course, I kept her.
love.gif
The adoption paperwork listed her as 3-4 yrs old and a local vet (not our regular vet) said 1.5 years old. Well, our regular vet is certain she is now around 10 give or take a year, which means that she was probably closer to 4 at the time of adoption. She is definitely a special needs dog! She has a bundle of stress (kids (even teenagers), dogs (regardless of size), cats, chickens all freak her out...bluntly she is pretty neurotic). Our vet put her on acepromazine, but even small doses make her so loopy that we don't use it. She has progressive retinal displasia (diagnosed shortly after we got her), has really bad allergies (she takes allergy pills), prone to ear issues in one ear (so I have to regularly give it a good cleaning and occasionally treat it with a prescribed astringent) and most recently diagnosed with masticular myositis and possibly polymyositis (the vet said it is treated the same, so there is no reason to do further testing. LOVE our vet!). She is now on steroids for the rest of her life to treat the myositis. While she likes the "regulars" in her life (DH, our family and close friends), she is my shadow. She even has to lay on the floor in the bathroom if I am taking a shower.
idunno.gif
She is my baby and I don't regret any minute with (or dollar we've had to spend on her!
hmm.png
).
5048_p1000826_adjusted.jpg

Rescue is wonderful and so rewarding for both ourselves and the animals rescued!
 
Last edited:
My girl wasn't rescued from a shelter but from a graveyard. The day before I found her, someone had dumped 7 other puppies (I found a no kill shelter for them) My husband and I to this day have no idea why someone would dump her. My vet believes she is full blooded Cattle Dog, stumby tailed at that. She has all the markings of being from one of the original lines of Cattle Dogs, black bum and side spots. I blistered my knees getting down on a black topped road to coax her to come to me. Since then she hasn't left my side. Even when I was sick with chemo she sat there and licked my face for a straight hour as I heaved. Spook has also saved my life on several occassions by alerting to anaphylatic allergic reactions even before I knew they were starting to happen. Now at 11 years old, fat, and arthritic it's my turn to really take care of her. When the time comes to walk down the road to Rainbow Bridge, I will be there for her.

1659_n_a.jpg
 
Quote:
That is a beautiful story! She is beautiful too! (I am partial to herding breeds...especially Australian Cattle Dogs and Border Collies
love.gif
). I had rescued an ACD (that just showed up to our house one day
idunno.gif
). I adopted her out, but after 6 wks the new home didn't want her (she's a bit timid from what we assume was physical abuse). We had her for few months while I was looking for a new home. DH kept telling me, "you know we're not keeping her, right?". I couldn't figure out what his problem was! I had ads out for her and everything. One day, I saw him taking a nap on the bed with her tucked up along side him and her nose under his neck. Shortly, thereafter, I was told it is "cruel" to adopt her out. She's been through so much already.
th.gif
lol.png
She's a great dog and has become a wonderful addition to our family (she's also the ONLY dog that Kenzie likes).
 
I firmly believe that the dogs/cats brought to my attention are sent to me for a reason, whatever it may be. I think most who rescue would agree.

In Kelvin's case, I think he was sent to give me a new direction in my rescue. I've only taken senior hounds since him. He is the most gentle dog I've ever met, still a sneaky little food monger but sweet and my other old man likes him enough so share his bed with him at night. Which is a big deal because Gus isn't a fan of male rescues that come here.
I'm going to have to get used to his new howling kick though.... the other 3 here don't howl
th.gif
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom