Bring Home Long Lost Pets

08/16/2024

LITTLE CHEEPIE MEMORIES...
03/01/2021 - 08/15/2022
CHEEPIE THE ROBIN
God let me have the privilege of loving a little robin.
Just when I think I am over being so heartbroken, this comes up in my memories and once again my heart is broken, and I am left feeling guilt over Cheepie's death, but God has you now, Cheepie and I know you are flying high and singing with the best of them now...
Why didn't I look out in the front and how in the world did he get out .....
Cheepie was never able to fly, but he could sure eat good....
I will forever feel guilty that I did not look for him around the front of the house....

May 1, 2021
I called EVERY rehabilitation place that there was and none of them would help us out other than one lady who gave me advice on how to raise him. I was so thankful for her.
Bob brought him home to me, and we raised him up, but he was never able to fly.
He had ''personality'' plus and looked like he had ''old man'' sideburns on his little head 🙂
And most of his little poos look like marshmallows .. lol

August 16, 2021
ok, I am checking out baby bird pics and he might be a robin...but not sure since I really don't know what baby birds look like other than my barn swallows.....anyhoo, he is cute!
I did read that I should not try to raise him but find a rehabilitator and if course I have no clue who does that for birds.
I just knew that those coffee cans would come in handy - they make great little birdie nests.
I have no clue what kind of a little guy he is but he does have ''personality'' plus !! It looks like he has ''old man'' sideburns on his little head 🙂
And most of his little poos look like marshmallows ..

August 26, 2021
I talked to the rehab lady and told her about his top beak, but she said that his beak will grow back out. Whewww!!! I was so relieved about that.
Cheepie was eating / pooing good and we were so, so hope that he/she would learn to fly down the road soon but Cheepie never did.
Cheepie LOVED worms that I got every morning for him and he really liked his canned dog food.

Sept 16, 2021
Little Cheepie is very spoiled.
I just got in from being out digging up worms for him.
The stink likes to be hand fed but considering he is ''special needs'' right now that is ok...
His right wing is still healing, and his little top beak is starting to grow just a tad so I have to clip the bottom one off a little every so often....
He does love his worms & dog food though...
And yes, I do know that you can not keep ''wildlife'' but I have contacted the rehabber to know what to do for little Cheepie and I also contacted a vet service who can take care of birds and they advised that they would most likely put him to sleep so hey, I am not doing that when he wants to try..
September 1, 2021
Has anyone else besides me just ever wanted a robin sit on your hand or have it come to you when it hears your voice ??

October 14, 2021
Got Cheepie more worms dug up and Bob & I got fences panels moved before the rain.

October 25, 2021
I hope Cheepie appreciates me out digging in the poopie mud to find him worms. It is kinda fun though.

October 30, 2021
I am so stoked! Found lots of worms & they were on top of the ground. Cheepie be loving it!!

November 9, 2021
We took Cheepie out to the woods for a trial run but did not pan out. Brought him home, clipped the good wing & will try again.

November 19, 2021
When down to check on Cheepie who is now in the Big Red Shed.

December 1, 2021
Cheepie update: he is in the big red shed now with plenty of space to learn to fly & water & food - will get a pic of him later.

December 16, 2021
It is earthworm mating season. Getting worms for Cheepie and loads of worms mating.

January 11, 2022
Since Cheepie's water keeps freezing I ordered him a ''birdbath deicer''.
But in my dream the other night the thought came to me, ''why not use a coffee cup/candle warmer''
Took one down yesterday and it worked!! Shut it off for the night but time to head back down there and turn it back on.
I love when God speaks to me in dreams....
Think I will use the little ''deicer'' in the baby fish pond now or at least see if it works.

July 4, 2022
Bob is gonna build Cheepie an enclosed pen up here. May need some help getting it done.

August 1, 2022
Where is Ashley Suzanne Hall when I need her!!!!!
I'm trying to catch Cheepie.

August 4, 2022
Well, we finally got Cheepie moved to the corn crib here for the rest of summer/hot days so he/she can be out of the big red shed which was sooooo hot on these summer days.
Cheepie didn't seem to mind though and he will go back there for the winter months.
Bob & I got to thinking the other day and Cheep has never been outside since his first fledgling days when he got hurt and Bob brought him home for me to doctor up.
We doctored up the corn crib so that Cheep can not get out and nothing else can get in plus I have been keeping a close check on him. It is fun to watch him being outside.
I was out early this morning (4am) to make sure he came through the rain ok and he is dry as a bug in a rug.
Cheepie's wing never totally healed enough for him/her to fly but Cheep can jump up and flap around so he is a pretty happy little bird.
And for anyone who might question us on keeping him, YES, we did contact NUMEROUS bird rehabs but the only help they would give us was to put him down.
A few months ago, we thought we had finally found someone to help so Ashley and I spent a couple of hours getting Cheepie caught and ready to go only to have them back out the next morning when we called to get directions.
One of the other rehab ladies that I contacted did nothing but chew me out and threaten to turn in the only rehab person that did give me advice on how to feed Cheep when we first brought him home.
For the first few months, I kept in contact with the rehab lady that was super helpful just to make sure we were doing everything correctly but since his wing never healed totally, we just let Cheep have the run of the big shed. We really didn't know what else to do because we couldn't just turn him out for a predator to catch and eat.
Cheepie was super safe in the big red shed just like he is super safe in the corn crib now after we ''doctored it up to make sure nothing can get to him and he can not get out.
I don't know how long Robins live but so far he is about 1 1/2 years old. He loves his food !!! Fish pellets, berries, dog food, worms that I catch for him and I ordered him mealy worms the other day too plus have been cutting up apples which we have plenty of.

August 10, 2022
Cheepie had a friend today - a little sparrow !
I think it was helping eat his food, but hey, a friend is a friend.

August 14, 2022
Well Cheepie has ''flew the coup'' again !!!
I was out at different times during the night and have searched everywhere since 5:30am and he is no where to be found. NO feather anywhere either.
If he is over at Joe's or out in the field then I will be hard pressed to find him. I was hoping that he would come back to the crib this morning wanting to eat.
And how in the world he got out I will never know!

August 15, 2022
Bob found Cheepie and he was deceased.
He is buried in the front flower bed now...

08/12/2024

08/11/2024

This has become an epidemic !!
Daily I see post after post of pets being left for whatever reason and THEY WAIT for their owners to come back.....
It breaks my heart to think of how 'heartless' we humans have become....
SO PLEASE ..... if you have a pet that loves you, take care of them...

The pup looking at the door is from this post ...
~John Urbancik~
“On June 4, 2024, Chai, a brown and white ‘pitty-mix,’ was surrendered to Columbus Animal Care & Control in Georgia. The reason for surrender was listed as ‘no room.‘ After her family left, Chai watched the door, waiting for them to return. They didn’t.
“Still, she was one to two years old and had her whole life ahead of her. And through the agency that is supposed to give dogs like Chai a second chance when things go wrong, she could find a worthy family — one that would give her the life she deserved. This was especially true for a dog like Chai, described on her paperwork as ‘affectionate’ and ‘playful,’ and good with everyone: cats, dogs, men, women, kids, and strangers...
“Unfortunately, that didn’t protect her from being killed by pound staff — and killed in a manner that was unprofessional, uncaring, cruel, and potentially illegal...
“[S]taff botched what appears to be six attempts to inject her with a lethal dose of barbiturates… before resorting to intracardiac injection — heartsticking her — a process that involves plunging a syringe through the chest wall and several layers of muscle into a dog’s heart. An animal killed by a heartstick feels extreme, severe pain (due to the amount of nerves) and then suffers a heart attack.
“To get to the heart, the needle would have to pe*****te the skin, body wall with costal musculature, costal pleura, pleural cavity, pericardial pleura, fibrous pericardium, serous pericardium, pericardial cavity, epicardium, myocardium, endocardium, ventricular chamber, and if the lung is pe*****ted, the needle must pass through the pulmonary pleura and lung tissue itself. It is so painful that Georgia law only allows it to be done when the dog is unconscious. (GA Code § 4-11-5.1(a)(3).)"
https://news.nathanwinograd.org/p/the-short-life-and-tragic-death-of-b2c?fbclid=IwY2xjawElLlpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaCusm-ttmRzxCNuBjICp80e0it9j-fZ3eA5mg_FLYQU9oMsaDSfYPAOBA_aem_c8EaD1MRNI2YVA3HYX28sA

08/10/2024

This is NOT MY BIRD but please if you want to have a bird think about their lifespan.
They live about as long as we do.
This little one endured 36 YEARS of SADNESS & TERROR only to be in such a bad, bad shape that her current owner had to have her put to sleep.
She had 3 previous owners.
Birds are NOT solitary creatures, so think about that.
It just breaks my heart to think how we humans treat other living creatures.
I even think about that when rescuing animals.
I try to think of their lifespan and how many more years I will be able to care for them.
Guess that is why I mostly take in older animals like dogs or goats - my barn cats on the other hand can probably take care of themselves if they had to, but the ones I have now should be gone by the time I can no longer take care of them.
Sad to think like this, but I have to for their sake....
So Please, TEACH YOUR CHILDREN COMPASSION FOR OTHER LIVING CREATURES!!

FROM THE ORIGINAL POST...
Lauren Bailey Lewis
It’s taken me a few days to figure out how to put this into words.
On Monday, we had to say goodbye to Melissa.
Melissa had a sh*tty life. She is thought to be a wild caught parrot, taken from her nest. Her first owners wanted her as a decoration because she looked nice in their house. There was no interaction. She was just something to look at. Then she became messy, so she was rehomed to a gentleman who was very involved in theater. Theater kept him away a lot and Melissa was left alone. Greys are weird. Strangest parrots I’ve ever owned. Separation and lack of stimulation does sad things to them.
Melissa’s third owners, who I got her from, did their best with her, but the damage was already done. Her feather plucking, self mutilation, inability to be touched, fear of life. Fear of shadows, fear of sounds, fear of people, fear of hands and trash bags and blankets and absolutely any kind of foreign object. She was scared to live.
When Melissa fell ill, I would up consulting with two different vets. Due to the fact that Melissa was so badly mistreated and couldn’t be handled, treatment for anything that may be wrong with her would have been almost impossible. There was no way to medicate her without terrifying her.
No one really grasped what I meant when I said she can’t be handled. Handling her TERRIFIED her. She would throw herself off of a perch onto the hard bottom of her cage should a hand come near her, screaming and flailing around. She often injured herself this way. She would get bruises and scratches and marks on her fragile, tiny naked body from these falls. Even just changing her cage paper or trying to clean the bars sent her into complete hysterics.
So when Melissa started to decline, it wasn’t as clean cut of an issue for me as it would have been for any of my other parrots. It became an issue of her quality of life. Quality of life is difficult to provide captive parrots anyway. They need foraging, sleep, constant attention, interaction and stimulation. I could barely provide Melissa with that because she was so terrified of any new toy or object entering her cage. The thought of trying to catch her to even take her to the vet was scary because of the stress it would put on her and wondering what she could do to injure herself. Holding her - touching any part of her body other than her beak or top of her head - never even happened until the night before I took her to the vet. Her sheer terror of people horrified me for her. Her last memories of being handled by people she doesn’t know made me sad for her. Her mistreatment made me so, so incredibly sad for her. Because someone never took the time to show her people were ok, our options for treatment were slim to none.
Sunday evening I knew the end was near and Monday morning I made the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life and said goodbye to Melissa at the vet. Even though she was scared, I held her and told her how loved she was and how sorry I was that we couldn’t do anything else for her. My heart broke that day. Shattered.
Nothing about me is ok right now. Nothing feels right. Making the decision to end a life that is not mine doesn’t feel right. The pain from that is so overwhelming sometimes that it hurts to breathe. Thinking of her sadness and terror that she endured for 36 years, all for it to end like this, kills me.
So forgive me if I’m not me for a while. Working through this slowly while trying to still take care of my flock and family is all that I can do right now ❤️
Love your birds. Treat them right. Remember they aren’t just pretty things to look at and sit in cages all day. Remember when they are loud and messy, that’s what they do, and they should never be punished for that. Should never be abused. Because even if they aren’t with you, 30 something years down the road, the way they were treated at one time could be a matter of life or death.

08/08/2024

A list of Cruelty-Free companies....

https://ethicalelephant.com/cruelty-free-brand-list/

08/07/2024

PLEASE......Quit Breeding Your Pets.
It Is An Epidemic Right Now of Dumped, Unwanted, Once Owned Pets..

If nothing else, think of the 1,000s upon 1,000s that have to be put down each and every day in shelters daily because shelters are overwhelming full and have no more room.
Some shelters are even shutting down...

HEARTBREAKING....

08/07/2024

Absolutely ALL of God's Creation is Amazing...

08/07/2024

Pleaseeeee......if you are in a flood / storm area, DON'T LEAVE your pets or livestock locked up in barns or tied up to a tree or in kennels/crates where they can not get to higher ground.

08/05/2024

It is an epidemic!!

08/03/2024

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Do NOT give away or advertise ''FOR FREE'' any unwanted pet you might have or little one that might have been dumped.
Just over in Vigo county a few weeks back, kittens & puppies were being taken by persons with snakes and that adorable little pet ended up being ''LIVE FOOD'' for those unscrupulous reptile owners.

Normally, I would say ''TAKE THEM TO YOUR LOCAL SHELTER'' but right now our county shelter [ https://www.mypvchs.org/ - Parke-Vermillion Humane Society] is refusing to take in orphan or dumped kittens & puppies or even adult cats & dogs.
And the RESCUES are overwhelmed with the amount of dumped animals. It is like an epidemic!!!

NEVER EVER post on websites like craigslist because more often than not that adorable puppy or kitten will end up being ''BAIT'' for dogfighters to train their dogs with.

We live in times where ''BAD STUFF'' happens to these little ones when you post & just give away your pets for free to someone you do not personally know.
At the very least, DO A HOME CHECK!

PLEASE SPAY - NEUTER - FOSTER - ADOPT !!!

08/02/2024

My 3 bottle baby kittens are thankfully on the same feeding schedule as TinyTimmy. Timmy is now taking 3 1/2oz of milk each feeding! YAY!!

08/01/2024

PLEASE, Do NOT give away or advertise your pet or any pet that you may have found for ''free''.
There are people out there who ''prey'' on trusting folks because they want FREE PETS
*** to sell to research
*** to use as bait dog for training fighting dogs
*** to USE SEXUALLY - yeah, sick isn't it
*** to use as food for their reptile pets
*** to use in PRACTICING TORTURE - another sicko practice
Craigslist is one place where pets have been posted as free and then those pets have suffered horrible treatment and even to the point of death.

How can we call ourselves a ''humane'' or ''civilized'' nation of people when we tolerate so much abuse & evil of not only animals BUT OF OUR CHILDREN TOO.

We need to not only be caring & kind to the animals in our care, but we need to be RESPONSIBLE with & for their lives, since CHILDREN & ANIMALS can not defend their selves against adult humans.

There have been so many horrible things happen to animals that have been advertised or posted for ''free''. If you do not personally know the person(s) that you are giving your pet too, then at least do a home check.
And do NOT trust just anyone who gives you ''a song & dance'' about how nice they are and how great of a home & life they will give your pet.
CHECK THEM OUT!!!! DO A HOME CHECK !!
You can find out a lot about a person just by checking them out on Facebook if nothing else.

07/30/2024

Just a Reminder....
IT IS HOT OUTSIDE!!!
Please .....
*** make sure your pets and livestock have access to clean water
*** leave your pets at home if you go to town
*** make sure your pets and livestock have access to some shade
A BIG FYI: a plastic dog house is NOT shade - it is a bake oven!

07/30/2024

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ~Mahatma Gandhi~
The US is sure falling short..

07/29/2024

It is supposed to get super duper hot & humid this week, so make sure your pets/livestock have water & shade!!!

07/26/2024

Michelle brought over 3 teeny tiny little ones to see if one of my mommy cats would take them.
The Tinkies were interested, but it was a ''no go'' for them.
So one of BettyJean's ((Tia's cat)) from last year's litter also has babies in our barn, and they are small so we put them with her.

Yesterday she proceeded to move her kittens all over the barn!
When I went in to check on them all, she chased me all over the barn....really!!! she did !!! she got me good a couple of times.

Anyhoo, she finally moved all of her babies, except 2 of her grey ones, and 2 of the little ones that Michelle brought here to the other side of the barn but UNDER THE WOOD FLOOR where I can not get to them. Rob Michelle Farley and I both could not see them but could only hear them.
So this morning she moved 1 of the other grey ones and I thought she had both of them, but she left the little teeny tiny one that Michelle brought over.
I scooped it up and took it to the shop/shelter where I can keep an eye on it and feed it.
Then I saw one of my cats stalking something laying over by Miss GoldieHawn.
Went to check thinking it was bird or mole but NOT!!! It was the other grey baby of the barn cat!! So now both of those kittens are in the shop/shelter on a heating pad and covered up since Miss GoldieHawn got the baby all wet. She must have heard it crying and saw it laying on the floor where it's mom left it and decided to adopt it ....lol
She loves cats.....if it had been anything else other than a cat/kitten or one of the goats, it would have been deceased.

So that is my morning so far but I did get the overnight water drained in the pond and now onward to the liner today....after I get all of the pavers & the huge rocks moved.....
Ohhhhh, the life on the farm is always unexpected....lol

07/24/2024

In order to know me as a friend, you must first understand that I am an animal lover - always have been & always will be.
And friends, I also feel the same way for children & the elderly.
As far as I'm concerned, ALL LIFE IS PRECIOUS!

My heart is broken just about every single morning for the people who are not loved, who suffer rejection & abuse at the hands of others AND for the animals & pets that are not loved or treated with kindness & respect.

My heart breaks for the animals that I see daily being dumped out like trash, that are neglected, abused, unloved and do not know kind words & gentle hands or even have a stable environment, food, water, affection & humane care.

My heart also breaks with grief & sadness over how children & the elderly are treated, and at how babies just seem to be ''throwaways''.
Every single living being is worthy of Life !!
ALL LIFE IS PRECIOUS

07/18/2024

PART 2
THE RESURRECTION OF BETTY WHITE
ok, I can only cry reading this part .... this little dog suffered for 14 years at the hands of those who adopted her....14 YEARS !!
I HOPE that everyone reads this TRUE story of this one little dog and that it touches something in you.
And I also HOPE that everyone will at least try to be kinder to every living thing.

THE STORY....
THE RESURRECTION OF BETTY WHITE
~Thayne Hamilton~
As for the little brown shepherd mix, She WAS adopted that day and you may think, "oooh, aaahh" that is such a relief.
That someone would love this dog, with no pedigree or good looks.
But it was only the beginning, of a life that was EVEN MORE CRUEL for this poor little brown shepherd mix.
We don't know very much about the man and woman, (that's probably better) or why they wanted the dog in the first place.
But they took this little frightened dog home to where they lived just outside of town and then chained her to the back of their house on a six foot chain, with no shelter of any kind FOR 14 LONG YEARS....
14 YEARS!!!!
During this time, neighbors had slowly moved in closer and closer, as the city expanded.
Finally, at some point, a conscientious neighbor finally called the authorities and turned the couple in for animal abuse.
This was during the winter, so it became a priority call for the next day.
We know the year she was adopted and they had estimated her age at 2 years old then but when seeing the adoption records, they thought, how could this be?
As the records of her adoption were 14 years old!
THIS MADE HER 16 YEARS OLD!
The people that had called, had complained that for years she was always in their fenced backyard, chained to the house, often with no food or water for days and that there had never been any kind of a shelter for her.
When the Local Humane Society officer arrived and spoke with the people, the owners said that she had died of old age.
THANKFULLY, the Animal Control officer demanded to see where she was kept and went around the back of the house, to the fenced backyard where they found a scene of horror.
The nearly starved little shepherd mix had dug a hole next to the foundation wall of the house.
It was about 3 feet around and one and a half feet deep.
She was BURIED UNDER THE SNOW, in the hole, STILL CHAINED to the house, FROZEN.
When they tried to pry her out of her frozen tomb, to their sudden amazement they found that she was still alive, but just barely!
They rushed her back to the shelter, where she was given fluids and warmed up and, to everyone's amazement, she came around and seemed to be OK.
Within a day or so, her story got out and a Foster agreed to help this miracle dog, that so deserved another chance.
A chance that had been denied, for her whole life.
When we first saw the little dog they had named "Ethel", we only saw her picture without her story, and so we passed her by as a rescue that we were "called" to take on.
BUT....when we finally got her tragic backstory, well that was the end of that. We adopted her within 3 days, and the little shepherd mix, finally had a Real Forever Home!
Her foster mom, who had worked with her for a few months, told me of her fear of everything - doors, noise, brooms hoses, being in the house, even carpet was a total fear for her to walk on.
Her list of fears, I came to find, was endless.
She shook constantly all the time and her tail was almost invisible under her.
The poor old girl had cataracts in both eyes and was almost totally deaf.
She had no people skills of any kind.
House-trained, forget it!!
Food issues would always be a problem, as she was starved for years.
Even our touch was hard for her to accept, and she would cower on her back and p*e on herself she was so afraid.
She was just as apt to walk onto, or over anything, rather than go around it.
Obviously, she had been an only dog.
She had no communication skills with our pack.
It was like trying to train a Helen Keller, with post-traumatic stress disorder!
Where do you start?
The first thing I did when she got home was to discard her collar.
I vowed, she would never have anything around her neck again but our loving arms.
The last thing this dog needed was any leash training.
We really didn't feel like Ethel was an appropriate name for her either, so we started to call her "our golden girl" till she named herself which turned out to be Betty White!!
One of the golden girls. Betty White, the actress has had a real comeback in late life, and she's been a real dog advocate for years and a real pistol to boot, so the name seemed to fit.
The resurrected, Betty White has been with us now for 3 years now and is 19 1/2 years old.
She is full of joy and loving every day with us and our pack.
She has never tried to run from us, so I have no idea why she was ever chained.
However, she can't run!!
Betty only knows how to hop double front and double back legged, kind of like a rocking horse.
This is, I believe, from being chained for so long that I think she just forgot how, or never learned.
To this day, the only time Betty doesn't shake, is when she is on the couch between Chris and myself, or when she is being petted with two hands.
It has only taken good food, twice a day, lots of walks around our property, and her own warm bed right beside Chris at night.
Oh ya, a great pack of dogs that have been very patient, kind and forgiving.
There is one more thing, and this I never forget, especially for Betty.
At least a couple of times a day, I let her rest her oh so greying muzzle, in the palms of my warm hands as I caress, and talk to her, low, slow, and soft.
There together, face to face, we both feel safe and good and warm inside.
We Love you Betty!!
It's a terrible thing when as a people, we choose to let this scene play out day after day, year after year, in shelters all over the U.S.
"We" as a nation, choose to buy puppy's on line and in stores with cute features or even because they have an irresistible coat or a breed name, like a labradoodle, a jack-a-p*ek-a-wa wa, or a bull-sh*tz, or something of the sort. All the time somehow believing that it came from a reputable owner/breeder, who pampered it with love and good care.
Statistics show, however that most of these dogs were bred and held in horrendous conditions, until just days before the dog was sold.
Many, sadly will have liver, kidney, eye, or heart problems that will inevitably be fatal OR deep behavioral issues that are almost impossible to cure.
Most of these dogs,(50%) sadly will end up in a kill shelter themselves, facing death, as they are now..."unadoptable".

07/18/2024

THE STORY....
THE RESURRECTION OF BETTY WHITE
~Thayne Hamilton~

PART 1
She was just a Mutt, even for a dog. Barely 2 years old, she wasn't even listed with a name.
Her breed and s*x was all that was listed in the kill shelter records. German Shepherd/mix.
But who knows, most often times you just don't know for sure and with my experience I have found that a kill shelter will call them just about anything that will give 'em a better chance than what's in store for them.
That is, if someone, anyone, doesn't adopt them... in just 3 days.
THREE DAYS !!!
That's the only kind of break that this kind of mutt gets as they are always either too big, too small, too loud, too excited, too regular, or just plain too "mutt-ish" to get a second chance, at life.
THREE DAYS... in a cage, lost and really, really, afraid.
Not understanding, Why am I here?
Where is my family?
Why am I locked in this cage and how do I get home again?
And why are all of these other dogs so afraid too?
I can only try to imagine what it would be like that first night abandoned in a kill shelter.
Darkness...
And the sound of whimpering of little lap dogs who have given up because they were too old, or blind and deaf, or worse....just thrown out like trash when their owners were done with them.
Little dogs that had never seen anything but love, pampering and soft beds full of kids from the time they were born.
There in the cage next to them, just inches away and just as afraid are the big aggressive dogs with their constant loud howls and barking, echoing off of the cold urine stained concrete floor and painted cinder block walls.
Calling and crying, till their voices were hoarse. Over and over again they cried, as if some long lost master might hear them and care. Care enough at least to come and rescue them from this fear.
A fear that was unknown to them... at least before now.
Then there was the smell......
The smell of old urine is a smell that is only partially masked to the dogs, by the toxic cleaners that burn like fire in their sensitive noses.
A nose that is over a thousand times more sensitive than that of our own.
It made them sneeze and cough as it's poisonous invisible cloud hovered next to the floor, as chemicals are almost always heavier than air.
And lastly... the smell of death.
"We" guess they don't know about that, but I have tried to imagine, the fear during the Holocaust, as they were held and readied for slaughter in the gas chambers.
The smell, the wailing and crying, the fear.
But even they had Hope for a future in heaven.
Hope is something these dogs were fresh out of as most of them would be slaughtered, never understanding why... within 3 days.
THREE DAYS......
The new day arrives with the loud clanking and clattering of steel doors and gate latches.
Hoses and spraying water and more cleaner to make there noses burn and there sensitive eyes tear in pain.
Their caretakers, overwhelmed by the many once loved, but now abandoned pets haven't even got the time to give them more than bowl of dry food and a clean bowl of water.
More less a badly needed pet or scratch, or even just a little reassuring look that some human still cares.
The workers know that many of the dogs will be given the "DEATH STICK" this morning so they start to remove those from the pens first.
With a zombie like, absence of emotion, they remove them slowly, as it's the only way they can manage the needless slaughter of these once loved, but now abandoned "guardians and friends" of man.
The little shepherd mix (Betty White) was stuffed into into a cage with 2 or3 (or more) other dogs.
Adults and laughing children paraded in and out that day.
Some to stop and look, or maybe even stick their fingers through the 2 inch mesh gate.
But mostly they would see a cuter, or prettier, or happier dog that would catch their eye.
At least more than this little brown mutt with nothing fancy in her bloodline, or even especially good looks.
If she just had something, anything, that might give her even half a chance at freedom again, instead of a life doomed... in just 2 more days.
TWO MORE DAYS.....
Her hopes were quickly fading, as she slunk with fear to the back corner of her cage.
Dogs were walked and Dogs were adopted that day and even out of her cage, but not her.
After a day filled with parades of people and noise, she found herself alone, in a cold urine soaked cage for the next long night of whimpering, howling and loneliness.
A loneliness she had never known before.
A feeling that would haunt her dreams forever and make her tremble with fear, all through the night... and for the rest of her life.
It was even a longer night then the last.
A night filled with restless sleep.
Another long night of trembling and nightmares, only interrupted by the endless whimpering and howling, that only seemed to stop with the clattering and clanking of another mornings hustle and bustle.
There were hurried feedings and hoses spraying everything down and the burning nose again.
She hated that especially this morning, as she couldn't see at all when the chemicals splashed in her eyes due to the rush of the silent workers.
Today, more dogs were moved in and out of cages and many more of them than yesterday.
Most of them today however were disappearing out the back doors to a place that they all seemed to fear and yet not know why.
She just knew inside her that it was not a good thing if you went through those doors.
The little Shepperd could soon smell, sense and taste the death in the air.
She was alone now in her cage and fear engulfed her completely. She shivered as she watched the back doors as many of the cages were emptied.
She watched shivering, as one by one her cell mates were led away. Out through the door from which she knew now......they would never... ever... return.
She cowered down in the back corner of her cage as small as she could get on the cold and now wet floor and tucked her head under her tail trying to hide from her burning nose and her fear.
A fear that told her somehow, that the people would file in and out again and if she didn't get to go out those front doors, she knew somehow, she would have to go through the other doors.
The other doors, that no dog, had ever returned from.
The people came in and went out again and there were children that coaxed her up to the gate a few times.
They smelled so good and she felt the kindness in them as they giggled when she licked their tiny hands.
But the parents would always pull them aside to look at a cute little dog, or a pure bred, that they would eventually decide was best for their children, or more accurately for the parents, and their pride.
Later that day a man and woman actually wanted to take her for a walk.
They put a rope leash on her and walked her outside.
It was the first breath of fresh air she had smelled for days and the cool clean air rushed through her senses and lifted her spirits.
The woman smelled of a dog, a child and two cats.
The little shepherd suddenly remembered her old home and the smell of cats that lived in the house where she slept at night.
The woman petted her and scratched behind her ears, but never once did the man or woman ever look in her eyes as her old master had done.
She remembered so clearly how good it felt, when her master had cupped his warm hands around her face so softly.
How warm and soft his eyes looked as he gazed into her eyes.
She also remembered how she felt, as he talked to her so soft and slowly.
How it made her feel safe and good and warm inside.
Perhaps this kind woman could help her find her master, or her master's home.
She missed him so much, but it felt good to be with the woman and it was so much better to be outside walking, then in that cage that smelled so bad.
The thought of the cage and those doors made her shiver again. She tucked her tail under her as the man and woman, and the little shepherd mix, walked back to the shelter...and this little shepherd mix's fate.