I stole a dog that belonged to my friend's neighbour.

These people got her as a pup, and immediately put her outside and left her there. She was about 12 weeks old, and small enough to squeeze through the fence to visit my friend. Unfortunately, my friend always gave her back. These people were drug dealers, and my friend was afraid to cross them, so the poor little pup always went back to her lonely yard.

As the pup grew, she began to climb over the fence at the front and wander the neighboruhood. After being picked up by the SPCA, she was chained to a tree in her yard. I guess her owners weren't impressed at having to pay to get her out of the SPCA. So at about 5 months old, there she rotted, on a chain. She would cry pitifully all the time, and my friend began to phone the SPCA, but their answer was always the same: "As long as she's being fed and has water we can't do anything. No law is being broken." And the tree she was chained to was her shelter.

Even when the pup was able to claw garbage bags toward her and tear them open and strew garbage all about her, because she had nothing else to do and was lonely and bored, the SPCA would not come and look. She sat in that pile of strewn garbage for days before her owner finally cleaned it up.

And she lived in her own feces daily.

My friend kept asking me to help this dog, but I was afraid of what the people might do if I got caught trying to take her. Drug dealers don't go to the police when someone crosses them.

But winter was coming, she was getting bigger, and was starting to become fearful and aggressive toward anyone who walked by her fence. And she would be going into heat soon, and the thought of her having puppies, outside, in the cold, was more than I could bear.

So I started to try to make friends with this dog, who was no longer a happy little pup, but a desocialized rottweiler, barking and growling at strangers, but whining and wagging at my friend, who she knew as the familiar person who had talked to her over the fence since she was a pup. After a few weeks of visiting with my friend by the fence, and throwing pieces of cheese and weiners over when no one was looking, I too was perceived as a familiar person, and not a threat.

And so she made not a sound, not a bark, not a growl, when I climbed her fence in the middle of the night. And though she was nervous, she made no effort to resist when I lifted her as best I could up to the fence. She put her paws on the top, I boosted, and over she went to freedom. She raced around and jumped on me in sheer delight in the middle of the night. And she, who had spent her long boring days barking at anything that went by, never made so much as a peep. I think she knew exactly what was going on that night.

She went to a home that all dogs deserve- one with lots of love, and walks, and good food, and a warm cosy bed to sleep in inside the house with her family.

Would I do it all over again? Absolutely. And I may have to do it again for another dog, as long as the SPCA continues to ignore the thousands of yard dogs, rotting away in loneliness and misery, thousands of dying souls begging for more than food, water, and shelter. Their suffering is profound. When will the SPCA realize this and do something to stop people from abusing dogs in this way?