2012 – GRR’s Year
2012 – GRR’s Year
So says a GRR mom about her latest foster Golden,
#12-170 Ruger. Just 3 years old, he
came to us on December 4 from a small shelter hundreds of miles away from
Austin. He’s heartworm positive; he has low thyroid with the accompanying sparse
coat and flaky skin; he hasn’t had the best of care or even enough to eat in his
young life. He’s underweight and weak as a kitten. But: “He just wants to be by
your side and be petted. When I took him to the vet yesterday, Dr Winston sat on
the floor with him and Ruger just crawled into his lap and was perfectly happy.
He
loves everyone.”
Loving trust & faith; a positive attitude; adaptability; a whole-hearted
appreciation for the little things; the ability to soothe a sorrowing heart; a
cure for loneliness; wordless comfort & support: our rescue Goldens give us &
show us all that, and more besides (we could add “endless entertainment” and
“incentive to get up off the sofa and go for a walk” to the list!). It’s what
keeps GRR volunteers going.
Looking back at 2012, it seems like just yesterday that
we were bringing in our very first dog of the year – #12-001
Ally (now Bailey), found stray at a
truck stop outside the city limits. She was adopted within a month, and her mom
says, “It's a jolt to think Bailey has
been with us for less than a year—she’s become such an important member
of the family! She saw our only son go off to college, and helped me establish
new patterns in my daily life.
She
politely asks permission each morning to join me on the bed for a snuggle a
half-hour before the alarm.
When I
sit down to pull on my sneakers, she comes running to get her coat brushed.
When I'm sewing or working on the computer, she curls up on a dog bed
under the table.
After lying in the
sunshine in the backyard, her favorite pastime is barking at the UPS or FedEx
vans and trucks—so the holiday season makes her very happy! She loves daily
walks and car rides, and is well behaved on play dates.
While her previous life is a mystery, I'm so happy she found her way into
mine.”
At this
writing, we’ve just welcomed dogs #12-171
Noelle and #12-172
Harley into their foster homes.
Their backgrounds couldn’t be more different: Noelle is an undernourished
skinny-bones of a young mom who was found alone in the backyard of an abandoned
home, caring for her family of eight mixed-breed pups, while
Harley is a strapping, beautiful red-gold boy in tip-top condition,
surrendered by relatives of a wonderful owner who had passed away suddenly.
…but they’re both rescue Goldens, and they both need the
same thing: devoted care and a forever home. And whether the dog is what one
volunteer calls a “just add water” pup – healthy, young, ready to go – or facing
a few challenges, we’ve found that there’s always somebody out there who’s the
perfect match.
Take the unusual number of three-legged Goldens who have come our way this year!
First was #12-023 Tucker, a
distinguished senior gent who wound up stray at the pound one time too many. His
escape-artist activities were all the more impressive for being accomplished
despite a useless, dangling forelimb—the result of a car accident
5 or 6 years in the past. Not that lugging the bad leg around dampened
his sunny outlook, but: “That needs to come off,” said our vet after taking just
one look. It did—and was Tucker delighted! So was his foster family, who decided
to make the arrangement a permanent one just two weeks later. “As far as missing
a leg goes, Tucker doesn't know there's anything missing. People often comment
about his so-called disability and we have to laugh. His sister, Poppy, is
crippled with arthritis and slowly hobbles around while Tucker gallumphs happily
after tennis balls, but he is the one who elicits ‘ooh’ and ‘aww’ and ‘poor
dog’! All he has to do is quietly lean into someone and give his ‘angel boy’
look and he's made a new friend.”
Five-year-old Amber, #12-063, was
another frequent flyer to a different shelter. Matted, dirty, tubby, suffering
from an awful bladder infection – and on top of everything else, she too had
apparently had lost a duel with a motor vehicle a while back.
In her case, a non-functional hind limb stuck out stiffly and got in her
way. Did she let it dampen her spirits? No! She was bright & cheery, and beyond
thrilled to be in a real home again. “She almost fell asleep during her multiple
shampoos. She had her eyes closed and such a blissful look on her face.
I thought she was going to topple right over!” Toys, soft beds, a new dog
friend, visiting grandkids: Amber was in seventh heaven. But a few months down
the road, it was clear that the bad leg was a real problem. It
caused her pain and got in her way. Surgery was in late August, and
post-op: WOW! Not for nothing is
Amber’s nickname “The Amazing One.” She is clearly feeling better than she has
in years. She runs, jumps, plays, and enjoys all the socializing that comes her
way. (And there’s a lot of that, because everyone loves Amber!) In fact, Amber
will be staying right where she is, for good. “Remember how I asked you if
anyone would really want a three-legged dog?” said her foster mom. “Well, I do!
I can’t imagine letting her go.”
Eight-year-old
Dolly’s situation was a bit
different. Our 75th dog of 2012, she had been adopted from a local
humane society at the age of one, already missing a limb—and the owners were so
used to it, and Dolly did so well, that they literally forgot to mention it when
telling us all about her! You can imagine our intake volunteer’s surprise—but
when the car door opened, Dolly jumped (yes!) right in with no assistance.
The beautiful blonde with excellent people, dog, and cat skills soon
gained a devoted web following, and it was a real question as to who would win
the Dolly lottery. Ultimately, Dolly selected a UT grad student as her new
lifetime companion. “After all, everyone’s life should contain plenty of
continuing education!” she says.
Finally, there’s #12-167 Bones,
whisked out of the “euthanasia for health reasons” line-up by a fantastic
shelter director down south and hustled up to Austin a few days after that. Only
a year old, he’d been enduring life with a badly broken leg for some months.
X-rays showed so much damage to the bones of leg and pelvis, and there was so
much scar tissue already built up in his thigh muscles, that the specialists
decided to amputate. Bones hasn’t missed a beat and he hasn’t stopped smiling,
either! And there’s more good news: he tested heartworm positive, and we’d
planned to take him through injections and strict activity restriction – but the
vets now think that 5 or 6 months of Heartgard alone will solve the problem.
Needless to say, this youngster is having a super holiday season. New home, new
friends, lots of car rides, no pain – what more could a dog ask?
Then there was #12-116 Millie,
surrendered to GRR this summer when her military family could no longer keep
her. Typical Golden – auburn fur, pretty face, super sweet & friendly
personality. But… what about that big tummy? At age 7, could she really be
pregnant? Stranger things have happened… but an immediate trip to the vet
answered that question. “No pups in there,
but she does have an awful lot of fluid in her belly. The ultrasound
doesn’t really show us where it’s coming from; I thought it might be a cardiac
problem, but her heart looks fine. Hmm. We’ll have to do surgery. I need to look
at the tissue & see it up close & personal to figure this out,” said the vet,
and cautioned: “If it’s bad, we just won’t wake her up.” With a huge lump in his
throat, foster dad dropped Millie off at the clinic. A few hours later, the vet
called, almost speechless. “Well, I’ve never seen anything like this!
It was like a big sack containing a large amount of fat, plus nodules and
fluid. It was not attached to other body parts, so it lifted right out. It
weighed almost nine pounds! It was
like delivering a baby.” And more good news from histopathology: No cancer.
Excellent prognosis! Millie
recovered quickly, and was soon adopted by a wonderful lady who fell in love
with her at first sight. Today, Millie’s happy & healthy, and enjoying her first
winter with her new family.
The
most dramatic rescue of this and many another year has to be #12-109
Brady. On August 21, we received a
Hotline call from a clearly distressed owner, who sobbed as she begged for help.
Her 4-year-old Golden, a yard dog who hadn’t had much attention in recent months
as the family dealt with numerous problems and spent days away, was deathly ill.
She’d noticed he hadn’t been getting up, and put it down to the heat and his
obesity—but on that afternoon, she’d finally taken a good look, and found that
he COULDN’T move, and that he had a monstrous wound on his back and haunch, raw,
malodorous, festering & crawling with maggots. Half-conscious, his eyes sunken,
the dog was moaning and crying. Four hours later, a GRR team stretchered Brady
out of the yard and delivered him to the ER. Everyone heaved a huge sigh of
relief as he received enough morphine to send him into a comfortable doze – and
then an intensive exam and thorough cleaning of his wounds. The diagnostics took
a few days, but the vets put their heads together and figured out why Brady
couldn’t move, which had led to those horrific pressure sores: he turned out to
have zero thyroid function. When the thyroid just doesn’t work, the dog
eventually suffers nerve damage, hence Brady’s inability to get up, stand up,
walk, wag his tail, control his bladder and bowels.
Since that day four months ago, the milestones have been too many to count! With
thyroid supplementation, Brady has regained his ability to stand and walk. More
than that, he actually trots and goes up and down stairs! He wags his tail like
a helicopter, his eyes shine, his coat is growing back, and he adores attention
and will bump up for head rubs and pets. He does have some lingering cardiac
effects, and he’s under the care of heart doctor right now & wearing a monitor
as we try to sort that out; and he still doesn’t have complete control of his
bladder and bowels, though he’s vastly improved on that score as well. Brady and
GRR have been blessed by the very best foster family anyone could ask for, and
by the prayers, good wishes, donations and support of hundreds of caring
people—many of whom have followed his progress on our Facebook and web pages.
We’re so grateful to everyone!
Brady’s case illustrates one of GRR’s guiding principles: no matter how bad things look at the start, we have to try. We might have a happy ending, and we might not, and that’s part of rescue, too. Sometimes, all we can do is make sure that a dog passes away in a clean, comfy place, surrounded by caring thoughts and gentle hands.
#12-083 Autumn, just about three years old, came to us as an emergency early release from a shelter right after the July 4th weekend. “She was picked up as a stray but needs immediate medical care. She is lame and painful in the hind quarters, possible back and /or pelvic trauma.” Sadly, Autumn had a broken back, and the vets recommended immediate euthanasia to end her suffering.
The same was true for #12-137 Jenny, an elderly, emaciated stray found wandering in the Houston area early in the fall. She was clearly in bad shape: infected eyes and ears, a swollen leg, a large mammary tumor. We hoped to give her at least a few good months, but our vet wasn’t able to give us good news: “Due to the size of the tumor & its location, the significant swelling of the leg indicating lymphatic involvement, her emaciation, and her difficult breathing, he feels the cancer has spread & is quite advanced. He was concerned that she was in pain & strongly advised euthanasia today. He’ll stay with her until the end.”
For #12-159
Spinner, we all so hoped for the
best, even though the first e-mail was very worrisome: “When they took him off
the AC truck, he was circling endlessly to the left . He will stop and lean his
head against the kennel gate to drink water and took kibble from my hand. I
covered him in a blanket and hugged him to stop moving. He stopped for a while
then got back up to keep moving. I haven't seen this before. It's so very sad.
I'm already tearing up writing this.” But by the next day, he was better!
He wasn’t circling any more and seemed more engaged. That was exciting news, and
he seemed OK when he arrived in Austin: “A poised, dignified gentleman,” said
the transport team. “Actually walked in a straight line, no turning! He has a
wonderful demeanor about him.” But 24 hours after that, Spinner took an abrupt
turn for the worse. He began circling again, then collapsed and slipped into a
coma. “All the symptoms point toward a central nervous system disease,” said the
ER vet. “There really isn’t anything we can do to help him.” We said
good-bye—grateful to have tried, and to have seen, if only for a day, the dog
dear Spinner was at heart.
The
loss of puppy Roxie, #12-150, was a
rough one. She came to us from the Lubbock area, where a determined rescuer had
spotted her in a shelter kennel: “I asked what was wrong with her and they said
she couldn’t move her back legs. She is as cute and happy as can be and doesn’t
seem to be in pain, though.” There was always hope, so Roxie made a many-hour
car trip with volunteer Pat, tucked into a large basket and happily chewing on
the “chauffeur’s” fingers, looking out the windows, and having a good time. She
was a sweetheart! But our vet took X-rays, and “the little darling’s lower back
was broken resulting in severe nerve damage. The injury appears to have happened
2 weeks or more ago. Roxie was not a surgical candidate, as the bones had
already fused. Her prognosis was poor, so she was euthanized late this
afternoon. She was a beautiful little pup & we wish her a fond good-bye.”
Our sadness at losing Roxie was tempered by the happy outcome for her traveling
companion: #12-149 Snyder, a
3-year-old stray from the same shelter who arrived on the same day, October 20.
He was adopted about 3 weeks later, and his new dad says: “Snyder is now named
Jake. What a sweet dog! He is my
88-pound puppy and a little rough around the edges. I am working on that. After
having him for about a week, I took him on a road trip, with my other GR, to
Nashville. Long drive. He did great. He is settling into our routine and is
beginning to know my body language and movements...always anticipating. I knew
the moment I met him that he was the right dog for me. Then I brought my Golden
in to meet him and they bonded immediately, which confirmed my feelings. I took
him canoeing instead of paddle boarding, which I do with my other dog, thinking
that might be safer but he capsized the canoe. That was fun.
(: Bottom line: He is a lovely dog and I am thankful that I am able to
give him a good home.”
Looking back at our records, we’re seeing a typical intake of around 15 dogs per
month, sometimes a few more. But in March: 26 dogs! What? The answer to that one
is: Puppy Madness, or, Nine Dogs for the Price of One. That’s right, young
Daizy, #12-021, was left at a
shelter when she got pregnant “again” by the family’s border collie mix, “and we
don’t want another litter.” Daizy settled into her foster home just in the nick
of time: arrival day was March 8, and eight healthy pups made their debut on
March 9! We were expecting a mix of redheads (like mom) and black & whites (like
Dad), but every last one of the pups looked to be almost solid black, through a
few do have white & gold splashes here and there.
Seamus,
O’Reilly, Galway Girl, Shamrock, Emerald, Jig, Cork,
and Shandy
have all found their forever homes (and so has Miss Daizy). Here you see
Seamus (now Draco) and Shandy (now Gibbs) at age 8 months; the boys both live in
Houston and are busy doing flyball & other fun performance activities. “Draco
has the big white patch. Gibbs is starting to get some red and has a long Golden
coat. They really look alike in the face, though. They are so handsome!”
Speaking
of Puppy Madness, our President, Margo, and her hubby Gary were afflicted with a
bad case just a couple of months ago. Answering an emergency weekend call to
scoop up baby Bijou, #12-138, from
the (always overcrowded) shelter, they were immediately bowled over by her
long-eared, long-legged puppy charm. Soon the ink was dry on the adoption
contract—and the fun began! Now
about 6 months old, Bijou is “more work than the other 8 dogs over here,
combined!” groans Mom. “Totally age-appropriate. Grabbing things, shredding
things, jumping on the other dogs’ backs, barking, flying through the air, etc.”
Nothing like a puppy to keep you on your toes! Tiny
Dasher’s mom is having the
quintessential puppy experience, too: “I’d forgotten just how sharp those tiny
puppy teeth are.” Here you see puppy #12-168, who came to us almost from the
Mexico border, checking out a novel “drinking fountain” in his new home.
And let’s not forget Calvin the
Great, abandoned at a vet clinic at age 3 months back in April! #12-053 is
“everything a Golden should be,” says mom. And a great ambassador for GRR, as he
has represented our group at several events around town!
At the other end of the age range is Miss
Sunny, #12-091, now about 15 1/2
years old. Her owner mentioned her almost in passing as she was making
arrangements to surrender her 4-year-old male; she figured that Sunny was likely
so old we wouldn’t want her, and besides, “she was attacked by another dog a
year or so ago and just hasn’t been the same since. She is deaf and overweight
and has skin troubles & can hardly get around.” Needless to say, Sunny soon had
her GRR number and a foster home!
And four months down the road, she is doing great.
“When Sunny first came, I really thought she had 2 or 3 days of life left
in her. She could barely move. I couldn't get her to eat more than 1 or 2 bites
of canned food. She just lay on a soft bed by the front door and I would help
her up and walk her 2 ft. out the front door for potty breaks. But … a week
passed and she actually began socializing with the other dogs. Then I started
adding chopped veggies, crunchy kibble and broth to her food. This she gobbled
up with gusto! After two weeks, she
started going into the backyard with everyone else—which includes mastering a
step down from the patio. She loves it when you cup her little face in your
hands. I don't know how long she
will be here, but I and the other
dogs are blessed to have her with us!!”
Honey
Belle,
#12-129, is 12 1/2 years young and has just motored off to her forever home.
What a sweetheart she is! With her curls and waves and bright eyes, she’s as
pretty as a picture, and her energy and interest in life belie her age. This
dear girl grew up with a loving family who was forced to part with her due to
life changes, and now she’s found another home who will treasure her just as
much. Happy Holidays to Honey!
Then there are
Kalvin and Hailey,
#118 and #119, two 7-year-old summer intakes from way down south: “We have a
couple of owner-surrender senior kids. They
were turned in due to a divorce.
Both are sweet as can be. We took them out
for pics and they begged us
not to
be put back in the kennels; it took a couple of people to get them back in.
Bless their hearts! Poor kids.” The
two dogs didn’t have to stay kenneled for much longer; they soon arrived in
foster care. We had to laugh: it was just like Jack Sprat and his wife! Kalvin
was a lean 62 pounds, while tubby Hailey tipped the scales at a whopping 92.
“She is friendly and joyful and silly,” says her foster mom. “He is beautiful
and very loving, and so solicitous of Hailey: when they first arrived, he’d give
her kisses of comfort and look over his shoulder when going outside to be sure
she was right behind him. They’ve both had some tough years. They need a home
where they can be loved and feel secure—like mine!” That’s right, these two are
getting the best Christmas present of all: a new family of their very own.
As
we look through our list, there are so many more stories we could tell! There’s
senior #12-062 Zephyr, whose person
passed away, leaving four dogs in need of new homes. “They were very scared and
hungry at first; they’d been alone in the house for about four days before
anyone realized what had happened,” said the neighbors. It took numerous calls
to find the next of kin, then
clearance through animal control, then a coordinated effort by several groups of
rescuers—but at last the good-looking Golden came to GRR. He was adopted after
just 17 days in care!
There are Luca
and Rocco, our tenth and eleventh
dogs of the year, beautiful young brothers who were being attacked by another
dog in the family; stunning blonde
Lauren, #12-148, found roaming
loose in a field one morning and never reclaimed; 3-year-old #12-054
April, rescued from a hoarding
situation where she had been living with thirty or forty other dogs; 2-year-old
#12-134 Freeway, who started out
high-speed and out of control, but learned fast and is making his new family
proud: "It's been one month since we adopted Freeway and we are completely in
love with him. Our daughter Sofia calls him her little brother.” Another
2-year-old, Denali, was neglected in
a backyard and finally dropped off, fifteen pounds underweight, at a local
shelter; when nobody wanted to take him home, the skinny auburn-haired boy came
into rescue. "It must have been fate," says his foster mom, who soon decided to
adopt. "I had lost my older two Goldens and I guess I didn't realize how lonely
I had been until he came into my life. He is wonderful. I do trauma counselling
and he is the perfect assistant. He offers my clients such calming, loving
support. He radiates love. He’s a therapist just by being there.”
As another rescue year draws
to a close, and we gear up for new adventures in 2013, we would like to wish all
of you the very warmest of holidays and many good wishes for experiencing the
special joy of unconditional Golden love in the New Year.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!
