Rescue pets with a past

The “Got any pictures of pets you want to share?” thread is great. There are a lot of pet lovers on the board! I’m sure some have, or have had pets that have come from difficult situations.

We’ve probably fostered/rescued over 100 dogs over the the years, many (too many?) went on to become Foster Fails that lived the rest of their lives with us.


A sheriff found Bonnie the Border Collie in an abandoned car in the high desert of Oregon in December. She was about four months old. A friend operates Save-a-Stray and she asked us to foster her. Well, my wife fell in love.

Joey, a Blue Heeler, had been owned by a person who was mentally ill. The dog had spent his first 8.5 years in a pen that was normally covered in feces.

Joey was randomly fed. During freezing spells, often as not, his water would be frozen for days. A quasi-relative of the man would come over and check on Joey, and the owner would frequently hide the dog so she couldn’t steal him. When the owner became ill, I found out about Joey from Save-a-Stray and immediately adopted him.


He has far surpassed my expectations. He’s my buddy and travels with me everywhere but Vegas.


Bonnie at 9 years of age, and Joey at 10.

 

Bless you @booker ! Lucky doggies and lucky you.

(Our daughter and husband have adopted 2 Rescue German Shepherds over the years, one led a painful and malnourished life, and with love and patience she changed from a scared and distrustful dog into a love-bug of beauty, grace and protective ‘mama’ dog to our grandson).

Thanks to all out there who are able to serve as foster homes and forever homes for these loving animals.

 

That's an awesome picture of Bonnie and Joey on the beach. I guess if you're going to be a failure at something in life, a foster failure is as good as it gets!

One night on his way home from work DH saw a cat on the edge of the road not far from our house. Thankfully traffic was swerving around her. Our good old neighbors, again. They moved out and one of their grown kids was supposed to be feeding the animals they left behind, but didn't. We walked down the road and got her. Skin and bones, teeth resorbed, lice. Just a mess, but so sweet.



Once her teeth were fixed, the parasites taken care of and of course, she got some regular meals, she turned into a real beauty. My girl Abby.



Abby only lived another 2-3 years after I took her in. Although she was a younger cat, maybe 6-8 years old, she developed a very aggressive cancer. I try to remember what Ted Geisel said when I think of her. Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. And then I cry.

 

The dogs we have now were pulled from a shelter. We've vowed to never buy a dog (e.g. pet store, etc.) again. Too many good dogs need homes. Our dogs are dogs. That's it. They don't generate revenue or stimulating cocktail party conversation. Just leave it at that.

 

Our Ralphie was a stray. She was spotted out on the street for 3 weeks. She was super skinny and malnourished. He coat was overgrown and matted. She was pretty puny looking. But now she is so very loved and spoiled rotten!

 

GREAT THREAD!

This little peanut came from a beagle rescue that I used to volunteer for. The story was that her Mama was a pregnant beagle stray. After a few months, I had her DNA tested on a whim, and as it turns out she is primarily dachshund and rottweiller haha! She has a beautiful disposition and we adore her. She just turned twelve, and is definitely feeling her age.


Next up, Lola

 

My son saved this little lady from the streets of Boston. On his way to work one day, a blur went past him and then came back towards him. He watched her dodge a few cars and grabbed her. He couldn't find anyone in the area that knew her, so he dropped her off at a shelter. She had a microchip, so we assumed she would be reunited with her owner. After several attempts by the shelter, the owners did not come forward. I had told my son that if no one claimed her, I would take her. I never figured that would happen, but she was my 2012 Christmas present Vet estimated that she was just about a year old, so we think she is turning 8 this year.

Other than being neurotic and having chronic hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, she is perfect!

Next up, Ludvig.

 

This little deaf asshole was rescued by the same son. When my boy moved to San Francisco in 2015 he asked if we could take the little guy for awhile. It has been awhile! He is actually quite an amazing dog, and the deafness is rarely an issue. He does have that chihuahua mean streak though, and suffers from night terrors. We think he just turned 9. He is quite a handful!





My husband has forbidden me to even discuss any other dogs But, they are a lot of work, and I travel quite a bit leaving them all to him. Considering he swore to never have a lap dog, I am thrilled that he fell in love with all of them!

 

Since the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, here is my other son with the blue heeler pit that he rescued from the streets of San Antonio. He is one of the smartest and best trained dogs I have ever known. Whenever I visit my boy in San Antonio, Red and I always go on at least one date. He is so much better behaved than my tribe, it is embarrassing

 

This is my Ling Ling. My moms vet assistant rescued her from her courtyard. When she found her she had a swollen paw which was due from getting burned. Her behavior was of an abused Animal. So despite being fixed and having a chip the assistant took her and kept her at the vets place until I came along.
I still can’t believe why anyone would ever hurt her. She’s the kindest and most gentle cat I ever met. I can’t believe how much I love her.

 

Well, you know how them Beagles are...if they're not eating like a Great White with fur they're diluting the pedigree gene pool with reckless abandon.

 

The big dog came from a shelter in Longview, WA day before Christmas Eve 10 years ago, last dog left in the litter, cold shivering ,the shelter had concrete walls but was exposed to the outside rain, 7 weeks old and wasn’t a whole lot to look at! The shelter people were trying their best but the shelter was awful! I’d compare it to the old Western Hotel and Casino.The cat came from the Oregon Humane Society which I’d compare to I guess Caesars as far as animal shelters go, not overcrowded at all for cats, just a few in each area. The small dog came from a feed store which I’m not sure what to compare it to so I’ll say the Terribles Hotel in Jean, NV!

 

It breaks my heart that anyone would abuse an animal. My sweet dog shows signs of abuse also. If we raise our voices she shakes and hides. If you raise your hands in the air she cowers and shakes. And when my husband takes his belt off she hides. He hides int he bathroom or closet now so she doesn't get scared. She's the sweetest most loving thing in the world. People are just plain evil if they can harm an animal. Glad your kitty found a loving family!

 

We too had an absolutely adorable Cairn Terrier mix that was abused by my former next door neighbor. I've told this story before, but I heard him beating her in their garage one day.

I told my husband that we were either going to take her or I was going to report him to Animal Welfare. I should have done both. Long story short, we did take her and she lived with us for sixteen years.

To her credit she overcame her abuse and absolutely loved everyone she met except the guy who beat her. She actually shook at the sound of his voice and would get as close to me as she possibly could.

All of our pets have been rescues. Our cat was a neighborhood stray. Turned out to be the best guy ever. My husband who never liked cats grew to absolutely love him.

Our current Sheltie mix, we adopted from a rescue. She's been a little bit of a project, but she's turning out to be the dog I knew she could be.

I've got other stories of pets that were abandoned around here that I have helped find homes for, but I don't want to bore you.

*NOTE* I plan to rate every post on this thread a big You all deserve it!

 

I don't know how to post pictures on here. But I actually run a dog rescue. ( not my job, it's just what I do when I can) I rescue small senior dogs that have no hope of getting out of the high kill shelters in LA, and bring them to Canada to be adopted here. I deal with many abused and neglected dogs and the seniors really tug at my heart strings. I would say in the last 5 years I have fostered almost 100 dogs. I have rescued dogs that were super old, blind, deaf, etc, and all have found homes. It is great to see many people on here adopting dogs. I have a facebook page for my rescue, if anyone wants the page message me.

 

@marcianofan, I know that the Longview shelter had a horrid reputation. Is it better now?

Oregon Humane helped with this rescue. http://harneycountysaveastray.com/2010/02/

We fostered a dog or two from it. What ghastly conditions! The dog that we fostered ate off of and lived on a bone heap that the people "fed" the dogs from a rendering plant. Actually, there were perhaps three similar rescues in this area. This was the smelliest, dirtiest dog that I've ever encountered. It found an amazing forever home and eventually turned out to be a loving, normal pet. It's still alive … or was at this time last year, a very old, loved pup. The 15 year-old kid whose pet it is, is now an EMT.

 

This is Pixie. She’s a rescue dog. She was found on the streets and taken to a shelter. She had some medical issues and needed surgery. The shelter was considering euthanizing her, because they felt as an older dog it wasn’t worth the cost of surgery. Fortunately someone that worked at the shelter knew of a rescue group that would pay for the surgery and get her a good home. We saw her online, arranged a meet and the rest is history. They estimate she was 8 when we got her, now she’s 11 and still acts like a puppy. Some rescue groups wouldn't give us a dog, especially a few puppies we looked at because we are not home all day. I can understand a puppy, but the puppy we wanted to adopt we would’ve brought him to doggie day camp. We were willing to adopt 2 puppies together, but got the same response from a shelter, tried to get us to adopt an older dog, which I had no problem with, but they only had pit bulls. Nothing against pit bulls, but as a kid had a bad experience with a large dog.

In the end it all worked out for the best.

 

I haven’t been back to the Longview shelter since we got Rex, and that was 10 years ago this Christmas. It WAS AWFUL back then where the dogs were, the walls and floor were concrete and the top part of the walls were open to the elements (rain, wind), made the whole area wet, damp and cold. As bad as the dog area was the cat area was even worse, I don’t know how many cats were thrown together in a single room but it was A LOT. Hopefully it’s better now...

 

At first, when Joey was on his bed, I would kneel down to pet him and he would jump up and run away. Nowadays, I kneel down and he rolls on his back for a tummy rub

You are wonderful, @BC_ girl. From here on out, I'll only adopt/rescue senior dogs. I'm almost 70 and I don't want to leave a pup if I die. I cringe when people older than me adopt young pups or kittens. My niece who lives in Las Vegas and is a shelter volunteer wants me to adopt a kitten that she is fostering now that my old beloved Bootsie died this year. If the kitten lived like Bootsie, to 18 years, I would be 88. And with my health history, although I'm good if not great now, that ain't a-gonna happen.

 

Well there's no way I can skip past this thread! Meet Daisy:



The shelter thought she was about 7 months when we rescued her. She's about 3 and a half now. They had a notice saying it was her final chance (she had been through 3 other shelters with no takers) and we just could not say no to that face.

Here she is on her first Vegas trip...