05/07/2024
This is so sad but people need to see her picture and read the article.
Dear previous owners of a beautiful amazing dog....
Today was a hard day as an animal rescuer.
Today I had to euthanize a sweet, gentle, beautiful, amazing dog, who deserved so much better. They say animal rescue makes you hard and cold and they are right. I try not to get this way but every time I have a day like today it gets harder. It threatens to break me.
A few weeks ago you dumped your beautiful 7 year-old Great Dane named Maddie at a kill shelter in Mississippi. You lied about her incontinence and said she was potty trained and that you had had her since she was 8 weeks old.
You never gave a real reason for the surrender. I'm sure you didn't have the time, finances, got a new home where dogs weren't allowed, are having a baby etc. Either way you dumped her.
I am sure the real reason was because she had become incontinent and you didn't want to be bothered. So you sent her to animal control where she sat there terrified......surrounded by strangers and barking dogs, too scared to even come out of the corner.
Then, my sister rescue sent me her photo. They told me how terrified she was and I begged them to pull her for me. She was my perfect dog, a senior Great Dane, who even scared as she was, I wasn't afraid to rescue her. I begged my sister organization to go get her and they did. I had dreams of her coming to NJ and me finding her the best forever home.
When Maddie arrived at our sister organization she was so incredibly scared that they had to put her in boarding because she couldn't handle the shelter.
At that time they noticed the incontinence and did testing to find that she had one of the worst urinary track infections we have ever seen. She was not only terrified but your dog was in extreme pain. We started antibiotics & she made the long & terrifying trip to NJ.
When she got here, she was even more shell-shocked then when she left. We immediately took her to foster and it took her days to even approach her foster mom.
Terrified was an understatement. She would not eat and was very skinny. We went above and beyond to hand feed her only what we could get her to eat and made her 10lbs of satin balls to help her put weight on. We bought her 20 different types of dog food, chicken, baby food, treats, whatever we could get her to eat. We did everything you should have done for her.
The UTI finally cleared up but even on incontinence meds nothing was helping. We put her in diapers so she could still be out in the house and took her on long walks. She finally started to get comfortable with me and Casey and would come by for a head nudge or a kiss here and there.
Today, we went back to the vet for an ultrasound where they found a massive cancerous tumor in her bladder.
Maddie was in a lot of pain. I am sure you didn't know this or even care enough about her to figure our why she was incontinent.
She spent the last month of her life in perpetual pain and fear because you failed her. Maddie deserved better.
Just so you know, I euthanized your dog today.
I sat with her on the floor of the vet hospital and I kissed her and rubbed her head. I sang her lullabies and I told her all about the rainbow bridge. I told her how sorry I was that humans failed her and that I couldn't save or fix her.
I promised her that she wouldn't be in pain anymore and that she would be made whole again and that I would see her again at the bridge. I also had her cremated and when I get her ashes I will spread them in my favorite place so she can always find me.
Now that she is gone I will visit her often and tell her how much she is missed. I did all the things for your dog that you should have done and didn't.
I want you to know that it is people like you who make me hate people. That make me hate humanity. If you had just taken her to the vet for simple testing she would have never been put through the terrible trauma she endured in her final weeks.
She deserved so much better. She deserved a loving family who stuck with her and who knew her and who she was comfortable with. Not some random animal rescuer who did the best she could for her in her time of need.
I hope that one day you read this post. I hope you remember how you failed Maddie and I hope no one ever allows you to have another dog.
Sincerely,
The animal rescuer who loved your dog
Please share Maddie's story to help us spread awareness for the pain endured by rescuers everywhere. And for dogs like Maddie, who deserved so much better.
Please check our Southern Paws Inc animal rescue, who saves dogs like Maddie everyday.
Ashley Christine
February 21, 2020
