The Fluffsters' RESCUE PAGES

True stories of our members and their rescue kids

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If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in vain.
~Emily Dickinson
ca. 1864

Prayer of a Stray

Dear God, please send me somebody who'll care!
I'm tired of running, I'm sick with despair.
My body is aching, it's so racked with pain,
and Dear God I pray as I run in the rain
that someone with love me, and give me a home,
a warm cozy bed and a big juicy bone.

My last owner tied me all day in the yard,
sometimes with no water, and God, that was hard!
So I chewed through my leash and I ran away
to rummage in garbage and live as a stray.
But now, God, I'm tired, and hungry and cold,
and I'm so afraid that I'll never grow old.

They've chased me with sticks and hit me with stones
while I run in the streets just looking for bones!
I'm not really bad, God, please help if you can,
for I have become just a "victim of Man!"
I'm wormy, Dear God, and I'm ridden with fleas
and all that I want is an owner to please!
when they tell me to sit, to lie down or to stay!

I don't think I'll make it too long on my own,
'cause I'm getting so weak and I'm so all alone.
Each night as I sleep in the bushes I cry,
'cause I'm so afraid, God, that I'm gonna die!
And I've go so much love and devotion to give,
that I should be given a new chance to live.

So Dear God, please, please answer my prayer
and send me somebody who WILL really care.
That is, Dear God, if you're really there....

~Author Unknown

Keeper: An Open Letter to People Who Abandon Unwanted Pets

I saw you do it that Wednesday morning, right before the Independence holiday--guess you were going out of town and thought you would do the deed as one last "preparation" to free yourself for your weekend. You were driving a late-model red automobile on North Park, the west side of '59, toward Sorters Road. I saw you stop, saw the door open, saw the dog. And I saw you drive off; she watched you, too. I was running late to work; still I couldn't pass the sable and white sheltie you had left behind. Gradually, I won her trust and got her into my car: at least I could do that for her, rather than see her hit by the cars you didn't seem to care about. You had had her clipped for the hot spots on her back, and you had placed a red collar around her neck, I guess so you could lead her into the car, her real collar and tags left behind or discarded so she could not be traced. As I discovered during the two weeks I kept her, you had also fed her well, taught her to play ball, shake hands, stay off the furniture; you had even taught her a little obedience, and she was housebroken--a lady through and through. She was very grateful to me, giving me lots of kisses; but I saw the faraway look in her eyes, watched her pace, sometimes spinning the sheltie-spin in her agitation and confusion. She missed you, and, hoping I had been wrong about what I saw that morning, I tried from the first day to find you. I put up signs; I called vets, shelters, rescue agencies, sheltie clubs; I even posted her on the Internet dog web sites. But you never called.

I could not keep her: I already have five pets of my own, and, after all, she is your dog--isn't she? So this afternoon I had to take her to a shelter because you didn't call and because I couldn't place her in a new home. You dumped your "problem" on the rest of us and didn't have the guts to do what you forced me to do for you. I want you to know that she had her paw on my knee in the car, that she gazed imploringly into my face, that she didn't want to go when they put the leash on her, that I cried. Tonight she is in a shelter--confused, hurt, depressed--because you didn't care about her, because you didn't call.

What did you think would happen to her? What chance do you think she had where you abandoned her? There was no shelter, no water, no food; there were no houses, no yards, no rescue agencies--only the hot Texas sun and speeding cars. If you didn't want her any longer, why didn't you try to find her a home? Failing that, why didn't YOU have the guts to drive her to a shelter, her soft brown eyes staring into yours the whole trip? Why didn't you at least give her a chance to be adopted, rather than dump her? She didn't deserve that. So as I think of her in that shelter tonight, I remember the sad, old joke directed at people who abandon unwanted pets: when those folks get to heaven one day, they'll discover God is a dog.

Joan Samuelson

A Dog Sits Waiting

A Dog sits waiting in the cold autumn sun,

Too faithful to leave, too frightened to run.

He's been here for days now with nothing to do

But sit by the road, waiting for you.

He can't understand why you left him that day.

He thought you and he were stopping to play.

He's sure you'll come back, and that's why he stays.

How long will he suffer? How many more days?

His legs have grown weak, his throat's parched and dry.

He's sick now from hunger and falls, with a sigh.

He lays down his head and closes his eyes.

I wish you could see how a waiting dog dies.

~ Kathy Flood

[Follow the links to learn more about the folks behind the stories]

Here's my new rescue boy!!! He is so sweet and loving!!! He has a few battle scars (from where???) and his hips and legs are a mess...but I think it hurts me more than it does him!! This is the poem that I wrote.

What is your story, little one?
What terrors did you see?
Your life came so close to ending. . .
Instead. . .you found me.

Promises are hard to keep,
But some things are certain.
I'll be here for you, always.
You will NEVER be a burden.

And if at times, you should see
My eyes wet with tears,
It's only because I love you,
And want to keep you near.

Here's to your new life
Filled with love and trust. . .
And always remember. . .
There IS a Sheltie Angel watching over us.

Cindy Buckner

Joan,

I just mailed Teddy's picture. Here is a copy of a thank you note from his new owner. I don't know if you want to use it, but it kinda says it all about rescue.

Dear Ann ,

Teddy has brought so much joy into our lives. When I'm at work, I just think of him to lighten my mood. He's too big, too hairy, too rambunctious, and male--all wrong--then one look into those loving, happy, beautiful, big brown eyes and my heart melts. Thank you for allowing us the privilege of sharing this wonderful "Heaven sent" creature's life.

Love,

Scott and Gina

HEATHER

Heather was a nine-pound mahogany sable who was left tied up to the fence at the Pomona Animal Shelter. There was a note attached saying, "Can't keep her. Her name is Heather." When I first saw her, my friends Carroll and Don had come down from San Francisco to see a blue merle that was rescued a week before (another story). Heather came walking out into the living room with this scared look on her face. She was nothing but skin and bones. She screamed when she was picked up. The foster parent handed her to me, and I began talking to her; she just looked at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and listened to every word I said. I didn't say a word about wanting her; I just looked at John, and he said, "Oh, all right you can have her." Heather was spayed that week, and we picked her up on a Saturday. She had lost three pounds. We had made an appointment with our vet for that afternoon, and we were shocked that she had lost so much weight. When she was put up on the table, she screamed like she was being beaten. When the vet went to examine her, she screamed and screamed. He decided that he should take x-rays, and we found that there was some calcification from her neck area down. He gave her a shot that he said would help her and also some pills. I decided that I was going to talk to Lydia Hibby, a very well known animal psychic. We were also having trouble getting Heather to eat some new things. Our kids get vegetables as treats, and Heather just wouldn't eat them. Lydia told me that Heather had been badly neglected and that she had stomach problems. She told us to give her some asadolphus (?) and in a few days her tummy would be okay. We did and sure enough Heathers tummy was back to normal.

Lydia also told us that Heather did not know how to play. She told us that Heather's greatest joy was to go for a walk on the leash. Once in a great while her former owners would take her out on the leash, and she really enjoyed it. When we would take her out for her walk, she just became overjoyed. Lydia also told us that she enjoyed riding in a car, but she had only been for a car ride once when she was very young and she went on vacation with her former owners. The big thing that Heather wanted was a teddy bear all her own. She didn't know what it was, but the other dogs at the foster home had told her about teddy bears and she wanted one. We immediately took her to Petco and went to the teddies. It was the cutest thing to watch this little cutie look over the teddies, but she had no idea that she could pick one out for herself, so I did it for her. We brought her home and put the teddy in her bed, and she sure got the idea immediately. When Brittany would go to her bed and sniff the teddy, Heather let her know that it was hers and Brittany was to leave it alone. We have always taken our furkids with us on vacations, etc. Our first vacation after we got Heather was something to really see. She was petrified that she was going to be left in one of the motel rooms. By the end of the trip she knew she wasn't going to be left.

It took two whole years for Heather to finally realize that we loved her, we belonged to her, she belonged to us, and that she would be with us until the end of time. Now she is beginning to play a little in her own little way, but it is play. She knows that where ever we are she will be there and that is her home. Heather does nothing special and expects nothing special. All she wants is to be loved, and she wants to give love. She now knows that she is loved very much, and she showers me with all the love in her wonderful heart.

She is my little Princess Girl Heather.

Julie Fuenfhausen (Click here to see Julie's Heather and the other furkids)

Toby, age 8-10yo--rescued and adopted by Joan, March 1997 in Houston. Probably stolen and sold to abusive home from which he escaped. He's now healthy and happy living with his new family and getting lots of love!