ELLIE THE DEAR OLD RESCUED DOG

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.

Please donate here to help us pay Ellie's ongoing vet and care bills ($1279.60 to date).

Ellie: A dear old dog’s passage from lonely darkness to love and light

Scroll down to see Ellie's update.

Believe it of not, Ellie's grooming had started before these photo were taken. The grooming had to be done slowly and lovingly because her skin was so sore and sensitive from many years of hair-matts that pulled on her skin.

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. Sometimes children came out to play in the yard; she would watch them and wag her tail, but they had been told to stay away from her and so they never even looked at her. She was reported to an SPCA many times, but her tether was long enough; she had food, water, and some shelter; and so her life went on, unchanging, day after day, year after year. Until a band of rescue angels came for her; a band of socially-responsible people; the breed of people who won't look away from the vacant eyes that have stopped expecting a kind look. A band of people who believe with St Augustine (354 - 430) that "Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it", and with Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” 1963, that "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." The band of rescue angels came for Ellie one night. They guided her the way to freedom and happiness with the light of their love for her.

A family was waiting for Ellie, one which never shut her out, one that found it so rewarding to watch her go from a tattered, filthy, stinking, starving, timid, hand-shy, almost emaciated dog who could barely walk because the mats that bound her legs together, to a playful member of her pack. That rebirth took almost a year and AAS paid for every step. And we will keep paying for as long as Ellie needs us.


September 2012 update from her family Ellie has been enjoying our daily trips to the river...

This is a shallow, slow-moving river that is very safe. It takes us about 45 minutes one way to get there.


Ellie gets excited when she sees the leashes and can't wait to to get going. I keep them all on a leash until we reach the trail — about 10 minutes from my house. We have run into a sow black bear with four cubs twice now — but the bears always run up the trees. I have seen this bear many times in the past five years — she always runs away.

Ellie's personality is refreshing and delightful. She is just a wonderful dog. Thanks for everything.




Please donate here to help us pay Ellie's ongoing vet and care bills ($1279.60 to date).

There has been such a flood of appeals for help this year that we may not be able to reply very quickly or at all to more appeals. AAS is now so well-known for its experience in all animal welfare and rescue matters that we are asked for advice and help from all over BC, Canada, the U.S. and the world. For years I have answered each and every appeal with detailed advice that I have learned from 20 years of rescue, advocacy and animal law. Our high standards are well-known to the public, that is why we are so often asked for help and advice.

We are currently working on so many projects that I am sorry to have to say that we may not be able to respond to all the cries for help we hear as quickly as we want to.

AAS ethical standards are simple and straightforward, but a lot of work: Every rescued dog is given the exact same love and care that I give my own dogs. Anything less can't be morally justified. To weigh the costs, to kill, or to rehome without paying to make the dog well in body and spirit is not true animal welfare: it's moving as much product as fast as possible and to demand money for unwell product is a business, not a calling.

Judy Stone

Please donate if you want to help us help more needy animals.
Restore your faith in humanity. Heart warming stories of brave people and how they have rescued abused and neglected dogs. Many happy ending stories and video too, right here.

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