“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”   

Mahatma Gandhi

Most likely you own a dog or had one growing up. For those who haven’t, I’ll be honest, it’s hard for me to relate to you. Dogs are a common staple in the American family. If you know me personally, you know I love dogs. Lately, I have to coach myself to not relay my life experiences back to a dog. I can be annoying about it and I’m working on my social skills, just like my dog Brodie. See I did it again. Oy Ve….  I think of dogs like small children, completely dependent on you to feed them, give them shelter, and love. That’s exactly how dependent a dog is on its owner. I don’t see it any different. It’s really not and if you disagree then I hope you never own a dog.

I’m going to share a story of a street dog I named Wilson. (After the volleyball in the movie Castaway) After reading this, I hope you do these important things; spay or neuter your pet, donate to a shelter or rescue, and adopt your next pet. Oh and please share photos of your rescued pet. I love those stories! It’s the easiest way to say a life!

May 31, 2015

I woke up with a hangover. I had spent the night before on my patio listening to the rain and accidentally drinking a bottle of wine. There was so much rain in Houston that week. It had flooded in many areas especially downtown.  I woke up and got ready for church. No stopping me. I needed church, God, redemption. I was on a mission to get there. Then I saw it walking along the sidewalk, a sad, dirty, pitiful dog. He was wondering in my neighborhood with a tattered rope around his neck, dragging along the concrete, dehydrated and hungry. Forfeiting everything I was taught about walking up to a strange dog, I parked my car along the street and went towards him. He wouldn’t get in my car so I walked home and he followed me. He drank water from my hands and ate the food I offered. He got along with my current dogs but just to be safe I kept him outside. It was obvious he needed to see a vet ASAP. So the next morning I took him in. I tried to explain how I found him in hopes of not being charged. No luck, the bill came anyway. They did a thorough exam and gave him his vaccinations. They estimated his age to be around 5 or 6 years old.

So now what? What was I going to do with him? I couldn’t keep him. I had three dogs already. I also knew that I couldn’t abandoned him either. I found him at a time where rejection was not an option. I wanted to help him and I found that in helping him, I felt better.  I had been struggling with all sorts of emotions when I found him. So I wasn’t going to give up on him. I set out to find his owner or find him a home. For weeks, I posted on lost & found Facebook pages in my area. Eventually, I found out how he got in my neighborhood. So here it goes… Like I mentioned earlier, it had been raining for quite a while in Houston with lots of flooding. This poor dog was curled up in the valet area of The Four Seasons Hotel downtown Houston. (Nice taste) One of the employees there found him and took him home to Katy. He and his wife happened to live a couple subdivisions down from mine. They had him one night and then he busted his way out of their backyard. So five days later, that’s when I found him walking down the street in King Lakes. No wonder he was so skinny and dehydrated, he had wondered around Katy for about a week.

So my next step was to find a rescue group that would help. I thought this was going to be easy. Just call someone and they’d take him to a sanctuary of sorts for homeless dogs where they’d be adopted out or could live there forever. I had no clue about the rescue community or the problem Houston has with street dogs. All the rescues I contacted said they’d help but I would have to be his foster until he was adopted, which I was fine with. However, they all had the same thing to say. Since he resembled a pit bull it could take a while. Most people adopting a rescue aren’t looking for an older male pit bull mix. Oh and they did say he must be neutered in order to be adopted out. So I had to get that scheduled. I stayed positive. My plan was to train him and get him healthy and advertise him like crazy. I even reached out to Cesar Millan. Worth a shot right?

So I signed him up with Pet Rescue Team and they began I advertise him. I created his own Facebook page which was shared many times. Three weeks later his health was much better and he was ready to be neutered. So I made an appointment at a low cost clinic in town. This is where things began to change. I did everything they said to do but his incision still got infected. They gave him an antibiotic and still nothing changed. I watched him for a week slowly decline. I came home from work one day and saw that he never finished his food from that morning. He was barely moving around and his incision looked even worse. So I put him in the car and we went back to the vet.

As I waited in a room with Wilson to see the vet I noticed he was becoming more sluggish. The vet came in and began to check him. She noticed that his spermatic cord was exposed; which meant his internal stitching had come undone. She informed me that his infection had spread throughout his body. It was then that we decided to put Wilson to sleep. This is the crazy part… As they prepped his leg, I held him and cried and told him how sorry I was that I couldn’t save him, I heard the tech say he’s dying. They couldn’t believe it was happening so fast naturally. I was able to hold him and tell him how much I loved him as he drifted off to heaven. No euthanasia needed. He went on his own. I wondered how and why this happened? A necropsy was done and I was told that he had a chronic case of hookworms which compromised his immune system. The vet told me that hookworms are common in street dogs. Therefore, he was not a good candidate for surgery of any kind. Who knew? I was doing what I thought was right. At a low cost clinic they aren’t going to run those kinds of preliminary tests. I was so heartbroken that it ended this way. But I was happy knowing that Wilson had finally landed in a place where he was loved.

I’m thankful I found Wilson that Sunday on my way to church. I rescued him and he changed me. The experience, although difficult, was very rewarding. The truth is, dogs want exactly what we all want; unconditional love, acceptance, stability, commitment. Yet, some of them never find it. I guess just like some people never find it either. But the hope is still there. One day, to find that safe place. The place that feels like home. Wilson found it, even though it only lasted about a month.

My experience with Wilson sparked a passion inside of me that I didn’t know was there. I began to do some research on organizations that fight for changing the Houston homeless dog population. According to Unity for a Solution’s website, there are over 1 million street dogs in Houston, mostly around the lower income neighborhoods. All of our area shelters are full or near capacity causing many adoptable pets to be euthanized everyday. Adoption and fostering are important and are an immediate solution. However, establishing low cost or free spay & neuter programs is the long term answer. Unity for a Solution is the largest 501(c)3 organization in Houston that is actively fighting to establish laws and develop programs that will address this very issue. I have set up a monthly recurring donation to them in memory of Wilson.

I have also become an active volunteer for Pet Rescue Team and Rescued Pets Movement. Pet Rescue Team pulls dogs from Houston’s South Union, the Third Ward, Sunnyside, and South Park neighborhoods. They find a foster home for them and then adopts them out after they are rehabilitated. Rescued Pets Movement is an organization that pulls dogs and cats from BARC, Houston’s city shelter, and places them in short term foster homes for about a week or two. Then they are sent to shelters in Colorado and other northern states where they are adopted out much faster. I currently have 3 pups for RPM that will be transported to Colorado on Dec. 8, 2016.

If you’d like more information about any of these organization please visit their websites. We can change this if we all work together.

ADOPT, FOSTER, SPAY/NEUTER, or DONATE!

http://www.unityforasolution.org

http://www.rescuedpetsmovement.org

http://www.petrescueteam.com