Inglath Cooper

Charlie

The day Charlie was brought to the Franklin County Animal Shelter might have been both the worst and best day of his life.

He arrived there with someone who said he had been hit by a car.  His back leg was retracted, and he could not walk at all.  He kind of rolled instead.  A Franklin County Humane Society volunteer happened to be there at the time and said she would take Charlie with her to the Rocky Mount Pet Clinic where it was determined that the injury was actually an old one.  His nails were so long and curled that they were almost embedded in the pads of his paws, compounding the difficulty he had walking.

The old injury could not be repaired in a way that would allow him to be without pain and to walk normally.  So Dr. Eric Lorens removed the leg, and there began Charlie’s journey to healing.

Shan Sirry volunteered to foster him during his recovery, and Charlie could not have hoped for a more loving, nurturing foster home.  Shan took him in as her own, shuttled him to vet appointments and therapy sessions to help him adjust to his new life as a dog with three legs instead of four.  And just gave him truckloads of love.  Which was all he’d ever really wanted anyway.

Today, Charlie starts the next phase of his new life.  Shan and her mother are driving him to New Jersey.  If all goes well, he will join his new family where he’ll receive the kind of love and care he deserves.

Dogs like Charlie leave permanent paw prints on our hearts.  Watching him heal and show joy for even the little things, a car ride, a cookie, a new toy, well, you see, that’s what it’s all about.  Every volunteer involved in his journey from that shelter to the home he’s travelling to today knows they have done something meaningful, something that matters.

Because Charlie matters.

Charlie matters.

Water Therapy

If you’re a dog who ends up in need of a new family, it would be a far better deal to be a seven pound poodle than a dog like Columbo.

You see, Columbo is a big boy.  Eighty pounds easy, and brawny with cords of muscle like a linebacker.  Oh, yeah, he’s also a Pitt Bull.

But to know Columbo is to want a dog like Columbo.  First off, he’s just drop dead gorgeous.  Like one of those pro football players who not only got the gift for the game but the looks to go with it.

Columbo’s game is a love for life.  And he’s so darn good at it.  That was the one thing he made abundantly clear during the October 22^nd Franklin County Humane Society Adoption event hosted by Tractor Supply.

The boy’s never met a stranger.  Whenever someone new would stop to greet him, he was up on his feet like the Southern gentleman he is, wagging his tail and panting one of his big goofy smiles.  “Hey, how are you?  Nice to meet you. Glad you could come out today!”  You could almost hear him say the words.

Columbo didn’t bother with sitting around looking pitiful either, dwelling on the fact that he’s been at the FCHS Adoption Center since May, watching weekend after weekend as his buddies leave with a new family or head out on a transport for New Jersey or New Hampshire.

He’s had to watch a lot of newfound friends leave him behind.  He misses them when they go.  But he has lasting people friends at the Adoption Center.  Ray, who takes care of him everyday and Karin, who tries to make sure he gets seen by the families who come to look for a dog.  And all the volunteers, too, like the ones who signed up as his date for the adoption event.

It turned out to be a beautiful day there, and Columbo enjoyed every minute of being outside in the sunshine, getting lavished with treats and chew toys, and ooohed and aaahhed over by each of his escorts.

The puppies were popular, and three kittens got adopted.

No one filled out an application for Columbo, but when the event ended, and he climbed into a volunteer’s car to head back to the adoption center, he seemed to be okay with that.  He knows he’s not a dog for just anyone, but he’s a dog for someone.  And he can wait until that person comes along.  Someone who’s been looking for a dog just like him.  They’ll be every bit as special as he is.

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If you’re the person Columbo has been waiting for, please email ascott@embarqmail.com.

Got a Bliss Hit Thursday afternoon when visiting the Adult Cat Room at the Franklin County Humane Society Adoption Center! I bent down to snap a pic of one of the cats and this precocious little bundle hopped on my back and proceeded to purr himself into my heart! These cats are all so wonderful – loving and sweet as can be. I’ve never experienced so many sweet-as-pie personalities at one time.  If you could use a bliss hit, visit with the kitties at your local Kitty Rescue!

Since I first became involved in dog rescue seven or eight years ago, I have seen some tragically mistreated dogs.  Nearly starved hounds.  Puppies with abuse-suspicious injuries.  Old dogs who’ve lived most of their lives without veterinary care.

But of them all, I would have to say among the most heart-wrending are the Pitt Bulls who have been used as bait for dog fighting.  I know of one situation where a dog had been dropped on a side road when he was no longer usable as bait, only to be found curled up in someone’s garage just waiting to die from his horrific injuries.

In this case, he received care and treatment in time to save his life, but many of these dogs never get help because they die without anyone knowing what has happened to them.

By nature, the dogs who are often used as bait are the more meek and submissive dogs, dogs who would choose to roll over and give in to another dog’s superiority instead of fighting.

Tucker - my rescue Pittie-cross.

It’s hard for me to fathom what a person is made of when they consider it entertainment to stand by and watch while a stronger, more able dog tears a meek one to pieces.  That’s a part of humanity I wish I didn’t have to acknowledge exists.

But it does.

Hard as that is to accept, I have to believe that for every horrible action carried out by one person, there is another whose compassion can change a life.  I recently read that for one rescued Pitt Bull puppy named Rufus who had been used as bait, actress Katherine Heigl, known for her work with rescue dogs, did exactly that.  When it was determined that the puppy‘s injuries were so extensive that he would have to wear a body cast for an extended length of time, she took him home with her.

I don’t know why we live in a world with such completely opposing examples of human nature, a world where it is possible for one person to heartlessly throw an innocent puppy into a fighting ring and another to selflessly step forward to save it and nurse it back to health.

But we do.

I’m thankful that people like Katherine Heigl and all the other rescue groups and volunteers who stand up for these dogs every day continue to fight the good fight, to throw light on the wrong, to insist that right win out.  Because it just has to.

The look in Nola’s eyes is one I’ve seen before.  Its message is clear and undeniable.  Hopelessness.  She has given up on any expectation of kindness or relief from her misery.

It takes a lot for any living being to reach the point of no longer asking, of lying quietly in complete submission to whatever the next indignity may be.  What is the point in asking when there is no one to answer your pleas?

That’s where Nola is.

The picture below arrived on my Facebook page Sunday evening.  It is and was hard for me to look at.  Her poor, starved body says everything about the conditions she has lived in.  She is skeletal thin, and her head looks abnormally large for her body.

Nola

The text accompanying her picture says she is out of time at a Southside Virginia county shelter, and is scheduled to die on Monday morning if no one comes forward for her.  To read those words and know that what has clearly already been a miserable life will end in this way makes my heart both ache and rage.

I have to believe that human beings have the opportunity to show their best and their worst in the way they treat those less powerful in the chain of life.  Not only is Nola an example of someone’s unthinkable neglect, she is also proof that many of our communities have no system in place for helping her.  In the county facility where she ended up, the solution to her mistreatment was to end her life.

The Franklin County Humane Society in Rocky Mount, Virginia stepped forward to save her life yesterday morning.  A volunteer drove her from the county shelter to a local veterinarian known for his compassionate treatment of shelter dogs.

Nola is now safe.  But she has a hard road ahead of her.  She has a mass on one of her paws.  She is emaciated and malnourished.  She is heartworm positive.  However, she is now in the hands of people who want to see her flourish, who will work to raise the money for her treatment, who will treat her with kindness and respect and find reward in the moments when she shows her happiness over such small joys as a cookie before bedtime.

Simply enough, she will be treated with compassion.  And hopefully, as she absorbs each morsel of human kindness, she will begin to hope again, and even to anticipate the next rub, the next treat, the next smile.  I look forward to seeing those pictures of her in the weeks ahead.

If you would like to help with Nola’s care, any and all donations are greatly appreciated.  Please click here.  Compassion for Nola.  Or paste this link in your browser.  http://www.plannedpethoodrocky mount.com/donate.html

Nola Now Being Cared For