The details of the rescued pups are told on their own page. The short of it is that one of the yellow females went back to live in the Yorkie pen, and the black and tan came to live with me. I call her Jasmine. Good for Jasmine, bad for Peanut.
If the yard got cleaned up, I had to do it. It was wall to wall poop sometimes, and colorful poop at that. They were living on the cheap stuff. It was evident that everybody had worms, including tapeworms. This all changed when they became my dogs.
In May we had some pretty hot weather, and I was worried about Annie. She was still in the tool shed. Sometimes I heard her bark. After some juggling around, I had a pen available for her, and she got to stay with me for a year and a half. No more puppies for her!
Sometime that summer, a six by eight foot chain-link pen showed up, along with a Ruff Hauz dog house, and a small plastic crate. Whoever was put in the pen, invariably escaped, with little cable to spare. I learn later that Chloe's owner supplied them.
Dogs were constantly getting loose, usually when no one was home. They were gone a lot, especially on weekends. When their daughter got married and had a baby, they spent a great deal of time at her house. Thinking they would care if a dog was running around on the road, I always tried to locate them.
One Sunday the subject came up about the possibility of the dog getting killed on the road, and the daughter said, "Oh well, that's one less mouth to feed." That's when I lit in to her about not getting Star spayed.
One day I found Star on the road dragging a strange concoction of cables, snaps, and chains, with a piece of barbed wire wrapped around her from the old fence along the road. About the time I got her free of all of this, I met the Mrs. with her grandaughter in a stroller.
Another time, when Star was tied to one of a row of boxes along the privacy fence, where there is no shade, she dug under it and couldn't get back. I got her loose and put her in a pen where she remained for a couple of days. I suggested a cement block so she wouldn't dig there again. I guess it worked.
The friend who had helped rescue the pups, was forced to move into an apartment in town, and couldn't take Chloe with him, so she was left at the neighbor's as a "boarder." At that time he also brought a wire cage on legs, which he had built for fox, but I call it the rabbit pen. He used it to transport five cats for the neighbors to take care of. This pen is where certain hapless dogs are incarcerated for months at a time.
That fall, he brought Chloe over for obedience lessons on Sunday afternoons. We spoke about the sad situation, and he made the comment, "A dog has to be tough to survive over there." He knew this, but because of his friendship with the family, he chose to leave Chloe in their "care." To his credit, he did have Chloe spayed, wormed, vaccinated, heartworm tested, and lord knows what else, to the tune of about $400. When he told me, I gave him a big hug.
I mentioned that it was curious that the yellow male was living in the rabbit pen, while females in heat were at risk of being bred. He must have said something, because a couple of days later, Peanut was in the pen, where she remained until an extremely cold winter day when someone I know made a call to the dog pound.
You can cover a wire pen with plastic, but the dog will not be able to maintain body heat under those conditions. I know of a dog that died of hypothermia in a horse barn where it was thought he could keep warm sleeping in the hay. Their vet told them that he needed a box to keep his body heat in around him. That's why I worry about dogs living in the tool shed all winter. It's more of a refrigerator than a warm shelter.
Not long after Chloe's owner brought her for classes, he had a stroke, and that pretty well sealed her fate. He is dependent on the neighbor's and loyal to them, which is relevant to a later event.
The good is that five dogs got out of that mess, the bad is that the rest of them didn't, and the ugly is the unmowed grass, the rat invasion, the horrid dog houses, and the sight of dogs who are deprived of every need. But it gets even worse! Keep reading! |
