 Last week I had the pleasure of personally taking one of our sweet lil’ loveys to her forever home in TN. Evie, now Petunia, came into LoveyLoaves Rescue as an owner surrender from TX. She is a gorgeous blind and deaf double dapple long hair doxie. Her forever home just happens to be with my mom who had previously adopted a lil’ lovey from LoveyLoaves, Cooper.
Charlotte (my two year old grand-daughter) and I boarded a plane with Petunia stowed safely in her carry on. Petunia drew quite a crowd both in the airport terminal and on the plane, so we spent the entire time in the airport both before and after the flight educating people about blind and deaf dogs in general and also about the irresponsible breeding that occurs in order to produce such a beautiful double dapple doxie. Everyone was amazed with Petunia’s story and how well behaved she was. From the moment I put Petunia into mom’s arms, it was love at first touch!
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 When we rescue a dog, whether it be from a shelter or from an owner surrender, we never know exactly what we are going to get. When dogs come from shelters, the shelter usually has limited information, especially when the dog comes in as a stray. Stories get jumbled, information is left out or added either inadvertently or on purpose, and sometimes we don’t even know what breed the dog is until we physically see them.
With owner surrenders it is often times worse. Owners are sometimes ashamed of the dog's condition or of the reasons they are giving them up. Picking up a dog expecting one thing only to find out that the dog does not have bladder or bowel control can be an obstacle when placing them in foster care. Sometimes an owner tells me the dog is incontinent but that they have been expressing him regularly only to find the poor dog is uncomfortable with a full bladder, soaked in urine, and suffering urine burns.  This week, I had a very low moment. Not only was it a low moment, but it turned out to be a very sobering life-learning experience that has caused me to step back and re-think procedures as we move toward our permanent LoveyLoaves home at the SC Sanctuary.
We had committed to taking Casper, a beautiful one year old Pit with Demodex. This gorgeous pup knows commands, is crate trained, good with kids and pets, and had been raised in a family setting prior to being surrendered to the shelter. She couldn’t be adopted from the shelter due to the Demodex, which is why we were asked to take her. We spend most of our time doing rehabilitation for back injuries so we are new to Demodex, although through formal education I know it's not contagious to humans or pets. In researching treatment protocols the evening before we picked up Casper, I ran across some information that boggled my mind. Demodex is not contagious except under one condition. It is contagious to humans with compromised immune systems. I have lupus. |
Cheri Wells
Cheri is the founder and Chairman of LoveyLoaves Special Needs Dog Rescue. Archives
June 2015
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