Animal rescue sob stories

[KDbeads]

I figured I'd drop a few rescue sob stories on ya'll since I was asked by one of our new victims, ah, members, for some.
I shall limit them to just the dogs that are living with me now as I'd probably could write a book with all the stories!
Keep in mind, until a few years ago I was NOT a dog person, well I'm still not a dog person but anyway...

We shall start with Curie (Madame Curie), aKA Princess Whiny Butt:
We adopted Curie 10/07 from our local pound after they retrieved her from some idiot who left her in a crate 24/7 for who knows how long.  She was 7 months old, thin, underweight, boney, stinky, whiny, flea/tick/worm infested, tons of infections of all types but hubby wanted her and so began our dog rescuing days.  We were given her AKC papers and they had NOT been marked out for breeding.  She had massive bladder and kidney infections.  We were able to get her spayed within 3 days of getting her but it took about 3 months to fix the bladder and kidney infections.  She still has bladder issues due to the infections and occasionally has accidents in the house if I'm not paying enough attention.  She also had a fierce case of pano that lasted until she was almost 28 months old.
I did finally meet her breeder and from what I can tell she came from very good lines of hunting/sport style bassets (these are not the overly squishy ones with all the skin).  When I told him what had happened with her he was outraged, he doesn't just place his dogs with anyone and thanked me profusely for helping her.


Next up is Gus (Gustav Hertz), aka Pokey
We took Gus from another rescue in 5/08 that didn't normally deal with 'large' dogs, they were a jack russel rescue, they had been watching him on deah row and pulled him right before they put him down at the shelter.  They admitted he was an escape artist and they didn't know much about bassets in general.  So, right off the bat he had massively over grown nails, overweight, and pustules all over his hide.  We had the first one excised the next day and then a cancer removed from his leg the following week, followed by some intensive anti bacterial and anti yeast shampooing to kill the mess on his skin.  Once everything was under control we noticed the bite wound on either side of the penile shaft... and the corresponding bite wound on the penis itself    I just don't want to know, really, I don't.
Then he started having little grouchy spells, well grouchier than normal.  He was diagnosed with hypothyroid and has been doing great since.  Right now he's a bit 'poofy', I need to take about 6 pounds off of him.


Next up is Kelvin (Lord Kelvin), aka Mopey
One day I got a weird feeling that I needed to look at the kill list for the shelters.  Just a very strong urge.  For a few days I just scanned, sent out notes to the rescue community for possible pulls and then one day I saw this (this is my pic, not the shelter's):

Started making calls, could not get someone to pull a senior in this shape.  Hubby and I decide we have enough room to pull him.  A few days later in 12/08, he survived the neuter, and I brought home a nasty, smelly, crusty, nasty, yeasty, did I mention smelly yet, basset weighing 34 pounds, he should have been 55 or so.:

Our vet tagged him at 12 years old and just started listing the problems......  Once he gained enough weight, 2 months, he went back under for a serious dental but what we found was more devastating.  His teeth were fine but the smell was being caused by renal failure.  He was not adoptable to those who normally adopted from me so we decided he could stay.  He was given 6 to 9 months, that was it.  We are now 27 months out from diagnosis and his chronic renal failure is very well managed.  He has seborrhea and requires a bath in t-gel every week to keep it and any yeast build up in the oil under control.  His ears are quick to ulcerate and have to be cleaned nearly every day. He was recently diagnosed with gingival hyperplasia, so now he has a tooth brushing every couple of days, he's not a fan of this at all.  He weighed in at 54 today at his yearly check up.


And now we have Ada (Ada Yonath), aka Ada Monster/Munster
Curie lost her bonded buddy (dane/lab mix, Tesla (Nikola Tesla, not a rescue) here a few weeks ago and didn't take it well.  So we decided to find her a companion.  I made phone calls, I've been out of rescue for a year now due to lack of funds so I didn't know what was urgent an what was 'safe'.  There were no urgent female bassets but there was a technically 'safe' puppy mill / BYB drop off at one of the shelters about 3 hours away.  One of the other rescues I've worked with had tagged her but hadn't found a place for her to go yet, it had been over a month already.  So I go and get her. Curie immediately stops with the 'poor pitiful me' baying and starts watching her.  I bailed that basset out so fast it was obscene.
They had her listed at 2 years old.  She was in heat.  Her boobs, all 9 of them, drug the ground.  She was a bit skinny.  And her ears were NASTY!
She was spayed as fast as my vet could get her in, but she was already about 3 weeks along by the time he could get to us.  Her uterus fell apart when it was removed.  She had scar tissue from the type of breeding she was subjected too, I won't go into details but it's horrific.  She is most likely deaf on one side due to the impaction of wax for so long and the infections we are now clearing out.  AND he thinks she's 10.  No front incisors, we can't tell for sure.
She's been here 4 weeks now.  Just as hyper as the rest of the herd.  Loves the cats.  Has finally figured out what grass is and no longer fears it.  we are still working on house training and commands but we are getting there.


And if you can't tell by now, we are geeks/nerds when it comes to the dog names 

So rescue sob stories anyone??

[Tank]

You're going to have a lot of friends waiting for you at the rainbow bridge!

[Norbie]

Thanks for sharing.  I loved the stories!  I'm racing off to work with you and your fur-kids in my heart.

It's funny, I was always a big dog person, and certainly never a weenah-dog person -until I got my first rescue by a weird twist of fate.  I'll tell you more about him, and the rest of the herd later.  And even weirder, while a weenah was the only one who bit you, a basset was the only dog we had that turned out to be a very negative adventure... very sad... but it doesn't change my mind about the breed.  For whatever reasons, he was a very aggressive dog, probably abuse in his background.  If only they could tell us their full stories, although I'm quite sure I could hardly stand to hear them.  The main thing, is that they have found a safe and loving home now.

I hope your pack is having a great day together.

Peace,  Kim

[KDbeads]

I grew up with doxies so I never thought badly of them but once I met the doxie-in-laws, well, it's been downhill since.  I will and have pulled a few for rescue but I still get bit!  Even my neighbor's Molly will bite me for the hell of it, and she visits for treats!
As for aggression in bassets, had we started with Gus we would have been leery about pulling another.  Gus is male aggressive, he's fine with Kelvin which is really really weird, but all other males that have been here cause him to fight or be grumpy.  He's food aggressive and possession aggressive, we have worked very hard on that since he came in and he's far better, I can take stuff out of his mouth and food bowl without issues now.  If he decides he likes you, he'll guard you from anything that gets close, cats, dogs, people, etc.  He does love his cats, but I have to watch him because he'll start guarding one of them from the others.
Had we started with one of our fosters from a few years ago we would have sworn off the breed entirely.  That boy was a food whore.  I had to keep lock on the cabinets and the fridge.  There was nothing safe on the counters or table.  He had to be outside while I cooked, ate and cleaned up or else he was into it.  We even had to keep our trash can on top of the counter while he was here.

[DaveD]

A few years ago I fostered a cat that the vet had said would only last a week, two at the most. She was very friendly, though she wasn't keen on other cats, and because of her illness (hyperthyroidism and kidney failure)and general condition she was unable to retract her claws, so I felt like a pincushion all the time she was with me!
The two weeks max that the vet was so sure of turned into a year!

[Lizarda]

the top photos remind me of my sisters friend dog who died a couple of years ago (due to old age), but she use to depress my sisters cos she just looked so depressed, even though she was treated well, but apparently she was that depressed she nearly topped herself (so her owner thought) 8-[, as bad as it may sound, one of my sisters mates found that insanely funny, had us all laughing cos how on earth would an animal come to that decision to commit suicide??? lol

[Illbethewriter]

Your Bassets are lovely! I love how sad they look! I hate hearing about people being cruel to dogs. If someone touched my babies I would kill them (and I don't mean that in a 'figure of speech' kind of way). I don't understand people harming animals. Not a harm story, but my next door neighbour couldn't house train their dog (probably because they were never there and kept it in a cage all the time) so they got rid of it. They had it for two years - I don't understand how they could do that as most certainly after that amount of time I would consider it to be part of the family
We sort of saved my baby Poly (Napoleon 'Bone'part). He was a mistake between a French Bulldog and a Pug (the breeders said the father got in with the mother accidentally), and he was going to be given to this older man for free. But we fell in love with him and paid some money for him so he was given to us - turns out if he'd ended up with the old man he would have spent his life outside on a chain! Now he's spoilt rotten, sleeps in my bed every night, has his own toy box, the best dog food money can buy, is walked every day - it really is a dogs life! He's so loving to everyone and doesn't have a nasty bone in his body! He's a 'Frug'.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us