Gertie the Dear Old Rescued Dog

Gertie's expenses were over $1500
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. She shook her old head because of painful infected ears, but never was she taken to a vet.
But when the neighbour found out that Gertie was going to be put down, she finally acted.  She told Gertie's owner that she wanted to adopt Gertie and was gladly given her to save the $150 that a vet would charge for humane destruction. When the neighbour gave Gertie to AAS, her owner never even asked where she had gone.

As well as being thin almost to emaciation, vet exams and x-rays revealed a painfully fused spine and a mass on her spleen, as well as the infected ears. 

But there was that indefinable something about Gertie that said that she only needed the right palliative care to be happy. Maybe it was her eyes; those calm, accepting, old-dog-eyes; the eyes we can't resist.


Gertie waits expectantly for a treat

Gertie is in a palliative care home where she will stay until her life is over.  She has been many times to the vet and now is on the right pain medication, at the right dosage, and the right food to tempt her appetite (home-made stewed chicken is one favourite).  Trips around the large fenced property, down to the creek and back, delight  even an old dog's nose. 

Gertie is getting such loving and experienced care that we are hopeful that there is still a lot of life in the old dear yet.

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

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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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