Restore your faith in humanity. Read our heart warming stories of brave people and their rescues of chained and abused and neglected dogs from extreme suffering and cruelty. We have many happy ending stories too.
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.
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Purdy in old-age, happy and loved for many
years.
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