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What's the story behind your Rescue / Shelter dog?

41K views 94 replies 66 participants last post by  Karen519 
#1 ·
I got Woody, an 18 month old Golden Toller mix, from a Rescue Center not far from where I live. I've had him about seven months now and I wouldn't trade him for the world.

He was scheduled to be put down the following day at the shelter he was rescued from. The High Sierra Rescue Center picked him up along with six other dogs who were also going to be put down the following day.

I wonder how this beautiful dog ended up at the Shelter? If only dogs could talk - I'd sure love to hear his story.

He was very people oriented - when I first met him he crawled right into my lap and looked up at me with those deep brown eyes and that was all it took - I'd been adopted.

From what I've read most strays tend to be very shy initially when first captured. Woody must of been raised by a loving family as it showed so much in his personality. He was house broken and careful when inside - no attempt to jump up on the counters and he stayed out of the garbage can on the floor.

Don't get me wrong he was a ball of fire outside but he did settle down once inside. He slept up on my bed his first night and was right at home there.

I think someone breed him purposely for duck hunting. The area he was found was definitely a duck hunting area. He's very likely a cross between a Golden and a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Because there just aren't many Toller's in the area - I myself have never seen one - it would seem someone did some research to locate one and breed it.

My feeling is Woody took off after something - he is a chaser - got lost and ended up at the shelter. And thankfully from there to my home. Why his family didn't search the shelters in the area is beyond me???

How much of the story behind your rescued dog do you know?

Pete

 
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#2 ·
Chris my golden rescue was owned by an elderly gentleman that used to take him everywhere. He even hunted with him. His owner passed away and the family kept Chris's at his original owners house for a year in the backyard by himself. (Chris used to be a much loved house dog.) They would come by once or twice a day to feed him and pay a little attn to him but that was it. He contracted HW's and the family paid to have him treated before turning over to rescue. He actually went thru HW treatment loose in the backyard... He got turned over to rescue because he would run up and down the fence line barking at the neighbors dogs trying to get somebody to play with him..The family decided to let Chris go to rescue so could find a new family that would spend more time with him....

I fostered him for a couple of months and decided he wasn't going anywhere and adopted him shortly there after.
 
#4 ·
Not a golden, but our springer (Cody) came from ESRA 3 years ago. He was an owner turn in when he was 17 months old. He had been a pet store impulse purchase ( HATE you Petland). When he started growing from a little cute pup to an active, goofy springer, he was thrown in the back yard and forgotten about. The only good thing his first owners did was turn him over to ESRA. At that time, he was on death's door with what was found out to be AIHA. He was covered with fleas and ticks... his skin one huge infection. I found him on their website about a month later and immediately knew he belonged with us. I later found out that there was serious talk of euth'ing him because of all his medical problems.... and who would want to take that on???? The first time they came to meet us and bring him here to see how he'd get along the first thing he did was jump in the kiddy pool. HA He had DH right then. When they got ready to leave, we said our goodbyes and told them we would pick him up in a few days ( we had to go out of town for the weekend.... the longest few days ever!!!). While trying to load him in the car, he got loose and ran back up and was pawing on the front door...... yep, he knew right where he belonged. After about 6 months of some pretty intense medical treatment, he has been off all meds for 2 1/2 years, with a CBC every 5-6 months just to see where he is. To us, he's been a super special gift..... our baby boy.



Who wouldn't love that face???
 
#6 ·
Holiday's owners decided to get rid of her because of allergies. They advertised her as a two year old intact Golden. I didn't want some miller to get her, so I went and got her. I knew the minute I laid eyes on her she was staying. DH and I decided we wanted a Golden anyway since his Golden, Francine, was NOT suited to living with a child (she is very unstable).

Starlite I bought to rescue him from a puppy miller in Topeka, Kansas. He was later stolen from me (to make a long story short) and I got him just recently. Obviously, he's never going anywhere.

Ivy (not mine- foster) was turned over to me because her owner had a stroke. He was an elderly man who fed her to the point of neglectful abuse. His daughter couldn't keep her, so I offered to take her in and find the perfect home, which is what I am doing.
 
#7 ·
What wonderful stories. You really are hero's being able to see beyond what's in front of you and give these dogs homes or foster them. They're all such deserving dogs.

And Penny & Maggie's Mom that Springer of yours - what a gem. How could anybody possibly just forget about these dogs???

There was nothing wrong with Woody - he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and I got very, very lucky.

Pete

 
#9 ·
Bailey's first owner was an elderly gentleman who surrendered her due to heart problems. She had not been trained to do anything except be his companion. She went out to do her business on a small enclosed patio, which apparently did not translate to a yard to her. They told me she was not potty trained when I got her.

Bailey was adopted by people who I believe wanted a lay by the fire, calm, well behaved golden retriever. Instead they got an untrained dog with a lot of energy. Based on her actions when she came to me their preferred training method was physical abuse as she would cower and snarl when she was given a command. At times she would lash out if you tried to touch her after giving her a command. They returned her because she bit (imagine that).

I got a call one day from my grandmother who had heard about Bailey from my cousin (I come from a long line of animal lovers). She was very disappointed that my grandfather would not let her have the dog, and she was told they were only giving her one more day to find a home. She told me her history and begged me to "just go look at her." Well, of course she came home with me. She potty trained easily by following my other dog. It took me about a year to gain trust to train basic commands and walking on a leash. She is no longer even the least bit aggressive and has become a wonderful dog. I would not trade her for the world.
 

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#10 ·
I've had five rescues or "found" dogs in the last 8 - 9 years. I tend to get older dogs since most people want the younger ones.
1. Tramp - a beautiful very old red golen I found when I went fishing one day. He was the first dog I'd had in 15+ years. 8.5 months
2. Boomer- I got him from a little old lady. Her son left his dog there because his wife didn't like it.
 
#11 ·
Oops - I posted before I added the last three.
3. Chance - shelter rescue. Adult male beautiful and big boy! I los thim to liver cancer after 2 yrs 4 months.
4. Copper - my current love bug. He is a rescue from the same shelter Chance was at. I got them 3 months apart.
5. Jack - he is my silly little BassettX I found almost 3 years ago (02/07/2007). He as only 9 - 10 weeks old and so starved he had rickets and could barely stand up. He fell down when he tried running after me from the place he lived. I scooped him up and took him straight to the vet.

I'm sure my next one will be a rescue too.
 
#12 ·
At the end of 2005 I was looking into getting a second Golden for my house, and a companion for Lyndi. I thought about getting another pup and was going that route but I had remember all the work and time that I had to put in with Lyndi as a pup and I was not quite willing to start with all that again. So I decided to look at rescues and see what was involved there. I applied to 3 rescues that serviced my area. I also kept an almost daily eye out on Petfinders.com for Goldens as well.

I had been into this whole process for about 2 months when I saw a posting on Petfinders.com in the Philadelphia SPCA. At that time they had him named "Jackie". His picture was so cute that I decided to take time off work that afternoon and drive the hour into the city to look at him. Well the first time he had an ear infection and I was not able to really see him, or able to adopt him. So for the next couple of days I kept calling about him until about 3 days later they finally said he is fine now and up for adoption. However it was a first come first serve basis. So once again I took off from work in the afternoon to rush in there and see him. He was a very excitable, very skinny, boy that right away wanted to play as well as be petted and even cuddled. He was found wondering the streets of Philadelphia for who knows how many weeks and/or months. That was why he was so skinny!! The only real bad thing at that time was he would pee from so much excitement, even though he was completely housebroken. Well I decided that this little problem is one I can live with and probably solve. So I filled out the paper work for him and was granted adoption for him. However, he could not go home with me then. The SPCA policy was that he first had to be fixed before release. So off I go home again while they kept him to be fixed.

The next day I took off from work again and drove back in there when they had called to say he was done. He was a pitiful site being very underweight, he had that bad kennel smell, they had an E-Collar on him and he was still "groggy" from surgery.

Well to make a long story shorter, it has been since November 8, 2005 that I have had Liam. He is still a huge cuddler, he still plays ALOT, and is so very affectionate.

All in all, I could not now image not having him around and he has turned out to be one of the better decisions I have made in life. I do not regret for one minute getting him.


Here are 2 pictures of what he looked like when I brought him home......
 

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#14 ·
Neither of my rescues are Goldens, but I hope you don't mind my sharing :)

We went to Petsmart to get Gus a birthday present for his 5 month birthday, and we came home with Charlie Brown! The local animal shelter was there that day with their available dogs, and Charlie Brown and another older dog were the only ones still there. I was petting Charlie Brown and talking to the lady from the shelter, and she said we could foster Charlie for a week to find out if we wanted to keep him. Really, I wasn't planning on keeping him, but just fostering for a week and giving him back. Well...after that week was up, I knew I couldn't give him back! The lady from the shelter said that Charlie had been taken from his old owners because he was basically being starved because they were neglecting him. They just kept him in a crate and rarely fed him. He had bald spots mostly on his feet, where he would just bite the fur off the bottom of his feet when he got anxious. He was 6 months old and weighed 24 pounds :( He was a skinny rascal! We've had him for two years now and bulked him up to a healthy 50 pounds. He's my family's favorite dog because he's such a little lover :) (Oh yeah, and they said they thought he was a Chocolate Lab/Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix). First picture is a recent one, the other is the very first day we had him.

As for Ace, the black lab, I've told this story a bunch on here. I could probably make a timeline of the whole ordeal from my all my old posts. But to make a long story short, Ace's old owner (a guy who lived a couple miles down the road from me), had Ace's mom Daisy, who got pregnant. They were able to sell all the other puppies, but the owner's sons wanted to keep one. Ace was always escaping and running free, and Daisy would always follow him. We would pick ticks off them, feed them, give them water, and wait for their owner to come pick them up. We finally called the police after about the billionth time this happened, so they put Ace out on one of those zip lines where he "barked for a whole week" according to the owner. The wife said that he had to get rid of Ace. So the guy showed up at my house one morning and asked if I wanted the male dog (he never called him by his name--I had to ask what his name was--that still makes me mad). He said if I didn't want him, he was taking him to the shelter. I took him, thinking I could find a rescue or someone to adopt him. I took him to the vet in town, (where thank goodness they had Daisy spayed) where I found out he'd never even been seen. He was a year old and had never been to the vet ever! :mad: Well, I finally gave up looking for a rescue after about 4 months (last Christmas), and he has been ours for a little over a year. He's definitely still got some wild dog in him, but he is a hoot--never still for even a second, and now that he's learned to fetch, he's a fetching machine!
 

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#19 ·
Buddy

We got Buddy (his name was Brutus)from the Humane Society almost two years ago. He was given up partially because they couldn't afford to feed him and partial because he suffered separation anxiety. They said if you leave him in a crate for more than three hours he would find a way out and get into the trash.
He weighed 58lbs and the shelter said it was a perfect weight. :no: Took him to vet and her first response was he was severely underweight.
His goal is to be petted

Lady we have had since 12/08. She came from a lab rescue who got her from shelter. Not sure of her past life, she has had pups I think shortly before we got her. The family had a fire and ask the neighbors to watch her and then never came back. She is quite and reserved.
 

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#20 ·
I adopted my black lab mix just last Friday. I found him through Petfinder at a rescue shelter on the AL coast, about 2.5 hours from me. He and his sister were originally adopted by a family at 8 weeks of age but due to hard times, the family had to turn them back in. So a good opportunity for me to gain a new friend after having to put down my beloved golden retriever just a short time ago.

Micah is a great dog too. His previous family taught him a few commands, but does need some work with walking on leash. Pulls some but he is only 13 months old. He loves to be petted and is lying at my feet right at this moment. I think his sister was adopted this weekend as she is no longer on the rescue groups website. I know they were having adoptions at the local Petsmart store over the weekend.

Micah
 
#21 ·
Tess (at the bridge) was a permanent foster. She was turned into the rescue because the wife had two small children and I suspect that Tess' thunderphobia was too much for her to handle. She was mostly blind, had hypothyroidism, was covered in fatty tumors and had severe arthritis. She was 10 years old. The rescue deemed her unadoptable because of all of her health issues, so we were given the option to move her to another foster home or have her as our permanent foster. We opted for her to stay with us. She became my heart dog and lived with us for another 2 1/2 years before cancer took her.

That's Jasper in the background. This picture of Tess was taken the night I was told she had a week to live.


Jasper and his littermates were dumped at a high kill shelter by a BYB who said he was "tired of taking care of dogs". A male dog was dumped with them. The boy puppies were on the brink of death due to starvation and anemia so we sent the whole litter to our "puppy pro" who nursed them back to almost living. The two males were sent back up to our rescue. I almost turned down fostering him, I had had a bad experience with an adopter lying to me with my previous foster and had gone through a burned out period, but I told the dog coordinator that I would take him if nobody else could. Well, needless to say, I took him. I picked him up at the vet, he laid his head on my shoulder and heaved a big sigh. I was pretty much hooked at that point. Then I spent the next week fighting for his life. When we won that fight, I decided I couldn't let him go. Tess brought him to me, I am certain of it.


Danny came in and was the same dog coordinator's dog. I should have known I would be in trouble. He was in congestive heart failure. He had PDA and a level 4/5 SAS. He was only 5 months old. From the first time I laid eyes on him, I kept saying over and over again what a nice boy he is. His tail has wagged from day one. We took him to each and every adoptathon for 6 months. We got him through his heart surgery and neutering and kept taking him to adoptathons. We would have people who fell totally in love with him and would talk about how they wanted to adopt him, then nothing. No phone calls. Nada. He went on an overnight with a potential adopter, but that person's dog didn't like him, so he came home. And that's what it was, home. Jasmine and Jasper were so happy to see him come home after his overnight away. So I signed the papers. He obviously was already our dog, we were just the last to know.

Jasper and Danny getting ready to pounce on their big sissy, Jasmine:
 
#22 ·
We found Robbie at a city shelter, he glued to our legs when we took him out for a walk. He had some health problems, some aggression problems, and we spent a lot of money on him the first two years. I'd do it all again, he's a joy, and the love of my life.

Lilah was an owner surrender to the rescue group. My husband and I picked her up from the owner, five minutes down the road he said, "can we keep her?". Lilah is our princess, I didn't know you could love two dogs this much!
 
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#23 ·
I wanted a dog, but Dave was making us wait. He had just lost his last dog about 9 months before and didn't think he was ready yet. Then, our wedding was coming up and we agreed to wait until after we got back from the honeymoon. I was still impatient - we got married May 20th, did a week & 1/2 vaca, but still brought Faith home June 18th.

It all started with her petfinder page



Originally I had picked out 5 or 6 dogs that met the criteria we were looking for. Dave liked her face right away.

Then we got this photo from her foster parents and that was it for him - she was the one!




What little we know of her background -

She was an owner surrender in Alabama. Her previous owner wrote "not working out as a hunting dog" on the turn in form as the reason he was dumping her at the pound. She was fostered in Tennesse, and that's where her transport came up from.

She was def. abused somewhere along the way. Took her forever to be willing to be within 20 feet of most men. Happily, she was fine with Dave from day 1.

And, even thought she was picked by him, she's def. my girl. I think she'd live in my skin if she could.

We're both thrilled with her, even when she's driving us nuts. She's the sweetest thing. I just wish she would sleep past 5 am each day!
 
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#24 ·
We adopted Tundra July '08. He was being turned in to a high kill shelter in a nearby town when our local adoption center was there looking for dogs to bring back. They knew we had been looking (our other 2 goldens had passed away the year before) so they brought him back. He was 11 months old and a family was turning him in because they had 2 other goldens (they were trying to talk the kids into turning one of them in also) and 4 kids. Guess they just didn't have time for him. He was already crate trained and potty trained. I brought him home a few days later (they had a two week period where you could return them)....I knew as soon as I let him in the back yard and he started rolling on his back on a tennis ball (which is what one of our other goldens did) he was home. And he's never rolled on a tennis ball since! I emailed my dh at work and told him what he did (like Sunny used to)...he said I was a sucker. But as soon as he got home, he knew too!LOL He's a very laid back two year old now...handled our move across country a few months ago very well....and is thoroughly enjoying chasing lizards by day and stalking toads by night.
 
#25 ·
I've had rescues and fosters with about every story you could name.

Tasha, my first golden was picked up from a "free to good home" ad about 24 years ago. She was about a year old and living in the small backyard of a lady who lived alone and worked about 12 hours a day. I was told that Tasha hated cars and would need help getting in. She leapt in and wormed her way into my heart in about 5 seconds. Tasha lived to about 15 years old and came to work everyday with me and was my heart dog.

About four years after I got Tasha, I was known as an easy mark. A young couple came by my store and asked if I could take a dog. Mocha was a chocolate lat mix with a huge chain around her neck and a rope tied to the chain. She was terrified and had obviously recently had a litter. The couple told me they "found" her in a barn and the puppies were frozen to death. I never asked too many questions - she was scrawny, mangey and scared to death of men. She never got over her fear of men, but was a very sweet dog and her last years were as happy as I could make them.

Desi was a blue heeler mix who came out of the county shelter. Probably the smartest, and most loyal dog I ever had. She didn't like other dogs too well, but her people were everything. She waited 24 hours for me to get home when she was crossing the bridge. She was at my mother's house and I had to go to a business meeting out of town. Really horrific to come to pick up your dog and find your 85 year old mother trying to crawl under the deck to drag out your sick and dieing dog. A nightmare.

Chance is my rottie mix from the local shelter. He sat in a cage at the shelter for 3 months because he was a black, male rottie! I adopted him at nine months and he is an absolute sweetheart. He's now seven years old and has helped with fosters, customers and me. He looks intimidating, but he's a mush.

My two current goldens (Chance's buddies) I've posted before. Failed fosters. They are a bonded senior pair pulled from the pound two hours before scheduled euthenization. "Owner turn ins". Thank God for rescues because these guys are absolutely great and nowhere ready cross an;y bridges yet!
 
#26 ·
My first golden was Ben. We got him from the shelter. On his tag on the cage it said he was $20 neutered already and someone had cut his voice box. He was covered in sores but knew every command that I told him. So I begged hubby and we brought him home. His voicebox was not cut per the vet but he never barked. Until one day hubby had tied him to the back of the truck while he got his guns out. Ben started barking like crazy. So we knew he was probably punished when he barked. Unfortunately we did not have him long as he had diabetes and by the time it was found he was in kidney failure. He died about 4 days before my hubby left on deployment. I treasure every day I had with him and miss him to this day.

Daisy my first foster with the rescue that I work with came from an abused home. She was with a woman with a mentally handicapped daughter that abused Daisy. After years of being hit, kicked the girl bit Daisy and that is when someone stepped in. She drew blood on Daisy and the lady turned her into the rescue. I took her and found she was heartworm positive. So she stayed with me for 4 months during her treatment and at the end of her last treatment it was really hard on her so I slept on the couch next to her for several nights, I knew I couldnt let her go. She does have some quirks but not anything we cant deal with and she is ok with kids now, just ignores them. And I love her to death.

My Pawley came to me as a foster a couple of weeks before my Beau passed away. He was dumped at the shelter stinky and skinny. His ears were badly infected, the worst the vet had ever seen. Black gunk just poured out of them. We got him all fixed up and during this time, my Beau passed away. All my dogs were really good and helped me but Pawley attached himself to me. Following me and always leaning on me when I stopped. He always knew when I started feeling sad or start crying and would be right there putting his head on my lap or leaning on me. So I knew Beau sent him to help me heal. So he is here to stay. We dont know his history but besides his ears and skinny, he walks great, doesnt bark and is good with everyone. So I dont think his home was bad.

But doing foster I see some dogs that are just starved for love or so scared it just really shows me their past and it wasnt good.
 
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