" This is our baby girl... Sally. She is a rescue. We found in an ad and gave $150 for her release. We had no idea the extent of her grief until we began putting the pieces together as best we could. She was undoubtedly part of a puppy mill, as she had had who knows how many litters of pups before we got her. Somewhere down the line she was then spayed, hopefully by a vet that didn't want her to go through anymore. She is so small, she may have had to have surgery for the birth and the vet may have decided to fix things then. From the looks of her teats, she was at least used as a nurse maid for other puppies as well. When we found her ad in the paper, we did not want a breeder, a show dog, or anything like that. We simply wanted a love muffin. We went to pick her up from the filthiest property around and she was definitely a love muffin. But, her nutrition was bad, she needed care, and she really needed to be loved in return. We are not sure if the man that sold her had any affiliation with what had happened to her, or if he just picks up strays then sells them. He had a multitude of dogs of all different breeds on his property and he lives in an area where pets are dumped frequently. He played the part though and acted as if he was the caring owner, but she got in the car with us without looking back and would not even answer to the name he kept calling her, "Chiquita", which simply means "very small" in Spanish. He also told us that she had never been spayed when in fact she was. We took her for her first checkup at the vet and found that she had advanced heartworms which could be another reason why she may have been dumped. We had her treated and she has been fine. All of this took place before she was a year old. Now, she has also had a bout with cancer and is in remission, but still remains on chemo-therapy. However, she has energy to spare, she has gained weight, the vet tells us she is healthy, and when we got her (for my wife) I had absolutely no idea how attached I would become. She is a love and I could not imagine life without her. My only regret is that I would like to have saved her sooner. But, she has been with us for 3 years now, she will never have to look back, she can have a quality life with people that love her, and she is never going anywhere else" |