All animals and their suffering profoundly moves AAS, but old dogs are especially dear to us. For many years, we have rescued and looked after them. But we can't bear to "rescue" a dog only to put it down before it's had all the happiness we can give it. Maybe it is those calm, accepting, old-dog-eyes; the eyes we can't resist. So it's time we told you a bit about some of them...
Chance
This dear old boy spent his life, possibly ten years, on a lonely chain in a dirty yard, below 40 in Winter and scorching in Summer. He howled at night for most of those years. Did anyone care? No one did anything until an AAS rescuer did.
Eddy
He was seen in the freezing rain, his tether was tangled and he stood there, his head down, drenched to the skin.
Ellie
Under heavy dark cedar boughs at the bottom of a cold backyard, a chained dog spent her life. The trees were her shelter, a hole in the dirt her bed. Sometimes she was given water, but mostly she drank muddy rainwater. Sometimes she was given food, but often she starved.
Gertie
Like so many dogs, Gertie was very sick and neglected when she came to AAS. Her neighbour, who had seen her outside, sometimes chained, sometimes loose, for many years, watched in the last few year as Gertie got more and more stiff and shaky. But still she was never allowed in the house.
Gypsy
The call was like so many calls. A very ill old dog was going to be surrendered to the pound/"shelter" where she would almost certainly spend her last days in a prison cell before being put down. She had been seen for many years plodding along farm roads, her coat soaked and matted, her ears, filled with lumps of hardened bloody puss...
Holly
Lucky Holly's life improved drastically under Lyn's care. She went from being largely sedentary and overweight with chronically painful infected ears, to being a lively, active, healthy, old girl.
Judith
10 years on a chain. No blanket, toy, or bone. Often no clean food or water. AAS first saw her at night, lying in the frozen mud, being snowed and sleeted on. Lying in her own feces, surrounded by her own excrement.
Mario
Poor old Mario had been through so much already as an abandoned dog, scrounging to survive. Before we knew of him, he stoically suffered with a broken leg for an entire week in the August heat.
Keiko and Donas
Two dear old dogs whose life-long happiness was only marred by the pain of broken and decayed teeth and how AAS made sure that they live out their lives, with their loved-ones, free of pain...
Sandy
We saw Sandy on an SPCA web site that said he was an old abandoned dog, with diarrhea that wouldn't stop and not doing well. We sent a supporter in to buy him...
Tippi
Tippi was sold by the SPCA for $110.00 to an AAS supporter with her teeth in this condition. We had her back x-rayed, we did a geriatric blood panel to determine her general state of health (good except she has a slight heart murmur that is not slowing her down at all, but may require medication in the future) and we had her plaque-covered teeth cleaned and two rotten teeth removed at a cost of $563.00.
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