DOG Rescue Stories | purdy the pit bull

Dear, dear Purdy.  I will never forget how the look on her wee puppy face changed as it dawned on her that the someone who was coming into her pitch-dark scary yard might be kindly.  My friend had told me that the dog in this yard before Purdy, also a pit bull, had hung itself on the fence by its chain.  She had complained to the SPCA over and over about its cruel neglect but when they came they always said that there was nothing wrong as long as the dog didn't get off its chain and out of the yard.  That's because the SPCA was the paid dog control, the dog catcher, in this place.

At first I walked very slowly because she was so afraid and cowering and I didn't want to frighten her into howling and barking.  I crept a few steps at a time, quietly saying her name and calling her sweetie-pie and a dear girl. By the time I reached her, she was jumping on her loudly-rattling chain and starting to whimper with happiness, so I had to move fast.  As Purdy leapt all over me, I found I couldn't unfasten the chain from her collar, so I put a noose around her neck made of the leash I had brought, took her collar with chain off, and we sort of ran out of the yard.  At this point there had been quite a lot of noise and Purdy's owner was a biker who the neighbour, who had told me about Purdy, was afraid of, so I started to feel anxious.  Dear puppy Purdy wanted to race around her yard, smelling every corner of it.  Purdy wasn't a big dog, but being mostly pit bull she was more powerful than many larger dogs, so our progress was pretty halting and circular, with me doing a lot of hissing to "come on Purdy, come on Purdy, let's go" and pushing her off me as she tried to leap up to lick my face. Finally I had to drag her, but once in the lane and she realized we were going "out" she bounced joyfully beside me... until we got to my car when she dug her solid little body in and refused to get in.  She was afraid to go into a space that she wasn't familiar with, that she couldn't see a way out of, and she struggled to run back "home".  That is most chained dogs' reaction to cars, and though Purdy twisted and backed and twirled she couldn't escape because she was noosed.  I wasted no time trying to talk her into something that she was never going to do willingly; I just heaved her into the car, jumped into the driver's seat, and drove away to freedom. First stop was an all-night convenience store where I bought some smelly treats which we shared all the way home.

I remember taking Purdy to her new family so clearly, taking her for a walk behind their house with their son, introducing her to his friends, and hoping with all my heart that they would love her and keep her through all her puppy mistakes.  I thought they would, but so often in this work we are disappointed and some poor wee trusting being is rejected and has to try again.