Samantha, Angel and Sally

To celebrate the release of Everything But a Dog tomorrow,
I'm talking to people who work with, or have adopted, rescue animals!
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Holly: When Samantha Stafford sent me her animal rescue stories, I saw one of the dogs was named Angel.  As I worked on these stories this week, I realized I'd met a lot of angels!

Sally

Samantha had two special rescue stories:  First is Angel, and what happened was one day I was on my way to pick up my little brother from school and I saw a tiny dog in the middle of the road. I honked but the dog did not move. So I got out of the car and went over to see what was wrong. It was a toy Yorkie and when I looked closer I saw a pool of blood around her feet. 

I picked her up and found that she had sandspurs or pricks embedded in her little feet. I put her in the car and when we got home took the time to get them out. I felt so bad for her because it hurt her so bad. After that I looked over her and realized that she had spots shaved all over her and needle scars in the shaved spots. She also had a tumor on her chest. Looking at her I thought she was old, come to find out she was not even 10 months old. 

Everything about this dog brought tears to my eyes. She was so skinny I kept trying to feed her but she wouldnt eat. Turns out every one of her teeth had been pulled out individually. So I got her some mashed wet food and she scarfed it down. She was so scared she would not let me do anything without her, so I was always carrying her. She would wimper if I tried to set her down, unless she had to potty. I knew it would take a special person to take this poor little pup and it took a little while to find the perfect person. 

Jen was my aunt's neighbor and she had been battling cancer for a long time. She was at the point were she had given up, and she never went out. I brought her the dog and they were perfect for each other. She named the pup Angel, because she said the dog was sent to her from heaven to save her. They are both doing great, better than we could have hoped for.

Another is Sally, we got her when my brother wanted a dog. We went to the pound and he did not see any dog he wanted. As we were leaving we saw them taking a dog into the back room where they did euthinisation. My brother determined THAT was his dog. So after a long battle with the people working there, they agreed to let us have her after filling out many legal forms. 

He named her Sally and we brought her home. Since then we learned a lot about her past. She was a year old and had been adopted twice and abandoned twice. She had been beaten, as was evident from ribs healed wrong and a broken jaw. She had no fur left because she had a skin condition no one treated. The last home that had her had left her in an apartment with no air, windows closed, no food and no water for roughly two weeks. She was virtually dead when they found her. They were putting her down because they had deemed her "vicious". That is because when they brought her back, mind you she was starved, they gave her food and took it away, when they tried to move it she attacked them. Personally, i would have too. 

Anyway, she is now 15 years old, has a full and healthy coat and is spoiled beyond belief. I love that dog.

Samantha Stafford