Rescue Tuesdays

By Janie and Jen.

You Don't Have to Volunteer at a Shelter to Rescue a Pet

We had to euthanize my sweet 16 year old Border Collie, Josie, a few weeks ago. As I think back on her life with us, I was remembering how she became a part of our family. My husband and I were living in Atlanta and part of his job was to pick up his company's mail on Saturdays. We went to the post office on Saturday, but I stayed in the car while he ran into get the mail. In the car next to me was a boy with a beautiful young Border Collie. He had the door open and was petting the dog so, of course, I had to go see the dog. I commented to the boy what a beautiful and sweet dog she was. He proceeded to tell me that a college student had gotten Josie and when she went home for the summer she left the dog at her roommate's house, but never returned. The boy's family was looking for a home for Josie because they couldn't keep her.

When my husband returned from the post office, he came over to see what I was doing. I explained the situation to him and asked (okay, I pleaded) him if we could keep the dog. He was very reluctant because we already had a one year old Border Collie. We were leaving the next day to come to Orlando for Christmas and he said that we could revisit adopting the dog when we returned from Florida. Of course, he was hoping that she was gone by then and I was praying that she wasn't.

We returned from Florida on New Year's Eve day and I promptly called the owners. She was still available so on New Year's Day, we met the owner in a baseball field on a rainy, cold, ugly day. We wanted to make sure that Josie and our other BC would get along. We were there for about 5 minutes, when the owner made a comment like 'This Border Collie is not trainable. I tried beating her like I do my Golden Retrievers, but she doesn't respond.' My husband looked at him and said, 'We'll take the dog'. Me, my husband, Lacy and Josie loaded ourselves into the front cab of our pickup truck for the ride home.

We got her home and it was clear she had never lived in a home before, had not been socialized at all, and had been beaten. If I looked at her the wrong way, she would give me a submissive smile, roll over on her back and pee. She was covered in red clay and fleas. We gave her a several baths, took her to the vet, and began building up her confidence. She turned in to a wonderful dog who lived a long and happy life of 15 years with us. It was very sad to have her euthanized, but I know that I saved a life by rescuing her that day. Not all rescues happen at a shelter.

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