To me, the worst feeling is to know that another being needs my help and yet I cannot provide it... I have felt helpless in this way when I would tour shelters and know that I could not take another animal with me. When we moved to our very own home, we adopted our puppy, Barlow. It felt so good to give a puppy in need a home. In December, we found ourselves in a position where we could again give another animal a warm, safe home. It also appeared to us that Barlow was ready for a friend. One late night browsing on Petfinder, I came across this cutie...
I don't know if it was those little white paws, or the thought that such a sweet dog was living in a cold, concrete pen, but I just knew that we had to rescue her if we could. So, I contacted The Rescue Express of Media, PA.
This sweet pup was currently living in Georgia and needed to be transported to PA for us to adopt her. So, we waited...and waited. And boy, was she worth the wait. The week before Christmas she came home.
This is Ivy in her crate the first night. She was very frightened and whined furiously if I left her sight. Understandably, the poor pup did not know if she was going to be abandoned again. The rescue informed us that she was found in a shelter about to be euthanized and they offered her a second chance. She was then placed into another facility and cared for until a forever home was found. Once we contacted them, she was transported all the way from Georgia to meet us. And then she was sent home to this new, strange place. All of these transitions and only 1 year old! It's no wonder she was scared!
The next day, we were off to the vet. You can see in the picture above (on her ear) that she had a skin condition when she came to us. The vet diagnosed her with a mild case of mange... scabies! You can tell from the picture below that she was underweight... (mange and worms - which she had plenty of too- seemed to contribute to this)...
We separated her from Barlow, so that the scabies didn't spread. And here she resided in our kitchen for two full weeks, with plenty of walks, ball play in the yard, and hikes to break the monotony. She enjoyed big meals and lots of treats to fatten her up!
Just this weekend, she seemed healthy enough and ready to join the rest of her new pack.
Ivy, enjoying the comforts of the living room...
And enjoying running with Barlow and chasing a ball in the backyard...
Finally, Ivy with her new forever family...
If you are looking for an animal to be your companion for life, please think about adopting. Here are some facts about animals in shelters (from www.aspca.org):
- Approximately 5 million to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 million to 4 million are euthanized (60 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats). Shelter intakes are about evenly divided between those animals relinquished by owners and those picked up by animal control. These are national estimates; the percentage of euthanasia may vary from state to state.
- Five out of ten dogs in shelters and seven out of ten cats in shelters are destroyed simply because there is no one to adopt them.
If not for rescues like The Rescue Express of Media, PA and La Mancha Animal Rescue of Coatesville, PA (not to forget Morris Animal Refuge of Philadelphia, PA - where we got our sweet kitty, Squash) our darling girls, Barlow and Ivy, would have just been a very sad statistic.
Don't buy...Adopt!
xoxoxo
