Unchained

It was 111 degrees in Little Rock yesterday.  The only place hotter in North America was Death Valley.  I got a text from the rescue director, a picture of a dog chained to a tree.  No visible water or shelter from the brutal heat.  The lady who owned the property had called the rescue and said that the dog belonged to her daughter and was not being cared for.  It was only a pup, at eight months old.  She wanted it gone.  She had agreed to surrender the dog to us, but she didn't want anyone to take it until her daughter was home and that wouldn't be until Thursday.  Anyway, we had no available fosters and no money for boarding.  Still, I couldn't get that picture out of my mind.  My stomach hurt.  The poor thing was going to die if nobody acted until Thursday, so I volunteered to go there myself, get the dog, and bring her here until arrangements could be made.  I called the lady and talked her into letting me come and take the dog right away.  I could tell that she wanted to do the right thing, even if it meant getting herself in trouble with her daughter.  She didn't want the dog suffering and dying on her watch so she gave in pretty easily. 

Jonathon and I headed out to rural Saline Co. to free this suffering dog before the heat took her life.(rule of thumb is never to go on a rescue on private property alone...you never know what you will find when you get there!) We arrived to find the poor girl chained up in the dirt. The chain was about eight feet long.  This dog had spent her entire life in that dusty circle of dirt.  She ate, slept and eliminated there.  Only a small, plastic crate sat next to her.  I guess that was suppose to be a dog house.  There was a dirty, empty old bucket covered in algae.  I guess that was supposed to be her water supply.  Other than those two luxuries, her life was dirt. What a sad existence.   

She was filthy.  Her eye lids and lashes were covered with a thick layer of dust.  Her nose, mouth and tongue were dried out.  She was visibly dehydrated.  She wouldn't have made it another 24 hours in that situation.  She was also terrified of us.  But, she was gorgeous and her fearful eyes had a sweetness in them.  Living as a prisoner, she was longing to be a family member.  We loaded her up and got out of there. 

We stopped at the first gas station we passed to get her some water.  She was so hot and thirsty.  I'm sure it was the first clean cool water she'd had this drought stricken summer. 

We brought her home and introduced her to Dixie and Jax.  She was terrified of them, too, but that didn't last.  I bathed her right away.  She needed cleaning up and cooling down asap.  Most dogs do not enjoy their first bath.  I turned on the hose and she immediately put her face in the water.  She opened her eyes and mouth and let the water wash the dust out of them.  Her white stripe became more visible.  She moved her entire body around in the water, getting fully soaked and loving it.  I soaped her up and she started doing twirls and jumping around.  It must have felt amazing.

In the after bath came a different dog.  She began to run around the yard full speed.  She was finally free.  She could stretch her legs for the first time ever.  She was just discovering what she she was capable of unchained.  There was running and jumping and flailing around with six months of stored energy coming out.  It was a sight to see. 

She is only a temporary house guest.  She has a foster applicant that gets her home visit tonight.  If everything checks out, she will head down to Texarkana to her foster home in the next couple of days.  She appears to be healthy but she has never been to the vet, has had no shots or preventatives,  and therefore probably has heartworm.  Sigh. 

I have named her "London." ( The Olympics have occupied a lot of my attention since it's too damn hot to do anything else!)   I already love her.  She reminds me so much of a young Asia with her thick, reverse brindle coat and little white stripe on her nose. 

First taste of relief



AAAHHHH

WOOHOO!

There is a thin line between a happy dog and a miserable one.  It's called a chain.