12/30/2024
We'll take this week in silence out of respect for the passing of a kind soul.
We first heard about Sugar last summer when a neighbor let us know that another dog had been dumped on our street. I immediately dropped what I was doing and went looking for her. She was staggering down the street trying to keep to herself and not upset anyone. I still remember the first time she saw me. I saw two things in those eyes:
1. A sweet and kind soul who wanted to love and be loved so bad she couldn't help herself.
2. A dog that had been mistreated so much that she thought the best thing for her to do was to keep out of people's way and shuffle off when they approach. As if the way they treated her was her fault.
My heart was broken and I was furious. How could anyone do this? How could anyone driving by leave her out here? It was the middle of summer out in the middle of nowhere, Texas at 8 am. She'd be dead by noon and I have to assume whoever did it knew that and didn't care. Those who drove by and didn't stop didn't seem to be bothered by it either.
Sure. I too had excuses I could have made. "I have small kids and this is a strange dog. I have pets, even two pregnant females, what diseases might she carry?" and so on. I could have made some great excuses, they just never crossed my mind. It wasn't about me.
It was about her and what she needed. What she deserved. She deserved better. So much better. I decided we would try our best to give her that.
We took her in and cleaned her up. Eliminated all the parasites on and in her, and she smiled. We gave her real food and she was overwhelmed with joy. She began to receive an education. She made doggy friends and got to play with kids, whom she adored. She was sweet and kind. She would naturally follow in a perfect heel without a lead. She would never hurt a fly, even to defend herself. There was nothing at all that could be found lacking in that dog. No living creature deserves what she got prior to getting here, but no dog could have deserved it less. She was thriving and made friends that would confront the devil himself if he tried her. Then her health started to decline.
After fighting for the last couple of weeks to hang on as long as possible, she passed on this morning.
She was a soul.
She was loved and will be missed.
On Pitbulls and fighting breeds.
There are far too many people who think that they love dogs, or even animals, but have no problem expressing how much they hate certain breeds. Something has to change. Pretending like Pits are anything more than a small/medium dog only sets up a permission structure to abuse them. Pretending like they are monsters only gives a free pass to drive by when you see one in need. If you can look a starving, dehydrated, and unloved animal in the face and condemn them for their breed, you are the one with the problem. It's not in their "genes" anymore than that loutish behavior is in yours. Do better.
No dog deserves abuse or mistreatment. I don't care what some Pit did some time in your past. Don't add to a wrong with more wrongs. If we make it ok for apartments, kennel clubs, insurance providers, HOAs, and even entire countries to discriminate against any breed, then we can expect owners to continue to be put in circumstances where they abandon these dogs out in the middle of nowhere to die. I know someone who almost hit an abandoned dog at night because it was running down the highway chasing the truck it was dumped from. The truck blew past and the dog was almost hit because the person I knew wasn't expecting to see a German Shepherd appear in his headlights running next to a truck on 84. It almost died trying to get back home. The only family it ever knew. It was oblivious to oncoming traffic.
I can give you a thousand stories like that. That was a GSD. It gets worse for breeds that aren't so beloved. Like Sugar. We, as a society, must do better.
On breeders
In this season of "Adopt don't shop." it is becoming increasingly popular to discriminate against and hate on kennels/breeders.
In fact, as I was picking this dog up off the street that day I had someone on social media trying to convince others that I am all about money and unethical. I have been kicked out of rescue groups while offering help and support and training advice because it was "discovered" that I breed dogs also.
Here's something that ticks me off:
We couldn't find a home for Sugar because adoption and rehoming groups on Facebook didn't want us sharing on their pages. There are people who have Tosas in the USA that have no idea what to do with them or even what they are. When they reach out for help, we try to answer them and without exception we are banished because despite that we are the only breed rescue in the us, we breed them so we must be Satan.
That is to say these people would rather watch owners struggle and dogs die than to get help from people who happen to breed. Stop acting like you ever cared about dogs.
Most breeders are too terrified to pick up a dog like this on the side of the road for fear that it might make them seem unethical or like a backyard breeder. Got folks so scared of being labled they have lost their darn minds. Turning on each other and patting themselves on the back for not being like the people they should be mentoring.
It is easier to broadcast adopt don't shop than it is to get out into the real world and do the work. It's easier to blame people you don't know for things you don't understand than it is to get into a shelter and realize that there are just people there too and they are NOT all the same.
If society ever wanted to get serious about the pet population problem they would stop villifying breeders, swallow their pride and ask for help from them. You want an empty shelter? Employ a breeder. I can guarantee you, the shelter will stop bleeding money. You will not find a more dedicated fund raiser, a more knowledgeable marketer, or a better salesperson. And they won't have to pretend like that Pit you just adopted is actually a "Lab mix" to get it out of their kennels. If you want to turn shelters around overnight, stop hiring people who love animals but don't really know anything about them and hire breeders who love animals so much they made it their life. Half the breeders out there don't even need a vet, let alone extra healthcare services. They know how to deal with anything from a cough to cancer. They know how to vet a family better than the shelter and they keep better records of who went where. Plus, if you hurt their dogs in any way, they WILL make sure you feel it too.
That is just one idea from someone who actually cares and is serious about doing something to resolve a problem rather than just get credit for talking about it. I'm sure there are even better ideas out there, people just need to get serious in order to find them.
Allow me to say there are some absolute angels working their behinds off every day in Shelters. (Shoutout to Ms. Cat.) I'm not condemning them so much as saying we should get serious about helping them. There are also angels in breeding. We cannot afford to lose them because we can't see the forest for the trees. If you want to make sure what happened to Sugar doesn't happen to anyone else, then you have to set aside your prejudices and get help where you can find it. What is at stake is far too precious.
As for what we do here or how we operate...
Get this straight: The general public will never know everything we do. Surfing our pages tells you nothing more than what is put out, and we try to make sure we speak more about the dogs than we do ourselves anyway. You will never know the money we spend on those in need, be it giving a stray dog food and healthcare or giving a homeless man a bicycle. You will never know how many hours I spend in local shelters or how many people I send to do the same or how many shelter workers I have trained. You will never know how many children I have worked with and taught, how many have met and been reached by my dogs.
I don't talk about these things publicly. Never have. Never will.
I will say this much to those so desperate to keep us accountable:
If you ever came by my yard and found that there were no dogs that didn't seem to fit. Not the right breed, scrawny/emaciated, poorly tempered, "vicious," destitute, abused, etc. and only see show dogs that are happy, healthy, perfectly shaped, all the same breed, etc..
If you see me out on the street and I walk past anyone in need.
If you see me make an excuse for not doing what I can, whenever I can...
You have my permission, even my bidding, to call me out to my face. Remind me of Sugar, my mind and heart will remember all the rest.
In the meantime, this grown man was crying his eyes out last night and this morning. I'm gonna get back to dealing with things here. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. I am sorry to be a wet blanket. I just felt like something needed to be said about her and the people who loved her. We'll be back next week.
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