UPDATE - 8/9/08 - Sweetie’s SAFE!!! She’s out of the shelter and in the hands of a rescue!

This is Sweetie and she’s had a rough time and unless she gets some help fast, it’s going to get a lot rougher!

Right now Sweetie is at an animal shelter in Baytown, TX and how she got there is just sad and pathetic!!

She was originally adopted as a pet for an 11 year old girl. No doubt the little girl loved her new dog, a beautiful shepherd mix girl. One day she thought she would make the dog look pretty so she put bows on her ears. Unfortunately the bows were attached by rubber bands and even more unfortunately, no adult in the family ever used any common sense to remove the banded bows from the dog’s ears.

Day after day the rubber bands cut the circulation off to the dog’s ears until they rotted and fell off. The parents, rather then educate the child, decided to just get rid of the ‘problem’, so the poor, innocent and neglect dog was just whisked off to the nearest shelter and dumped!

And now Sweetie has not only lost her ears due to ignorance, negligence and stupidity, she’s also lost her home and the shelter she is at is a high-kill shelter so she may also lose her life!

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In June I did a story about a tiny puppy that was rescued literally from the brink of death. Stitch as he was name was one of a litter of 14 English Mastiff born to a 9 month old mother dog. For some reason, she killed four of her puppies and Stitch barely survived.

He was severely bitten in the head and the attack ripped his ear, requiring stitches, which earned him his name, Stitch. But more complicated injuries came with it… impaired vision and brain damage.

Well, I got an update on Stitch and how the little guy’s been doing. He’s been through some rough times and there were questions if he could be rehabilitated at times but people didn’t give up on him.

Here’s some of his story from Lorraine Smith of Heel to Heal who kindly contacted me to help get his story out;

After arriving at Tri-County H.S., Stitch was interviewed by our local NBC Channel 5 station and even made it onto CNN! Donna Carrigan, Assistant Director, of Tri-County kindly offered to care for Stitch while he was recovering. Donna, and her husband Glen, tried very hard to work with Stitch for a number of weeks, but unfortunately he seemed to be becoming more of a handful every day, and it was becoming more likely that Stitch had received a permanent brain injury during his attack. He was circling constantly, not eating properly, had an insatiable thirst, didn’t enjoy being touched and was becoming more aggressive every day. He was also said to have been always a little “grumpy”, however that was an understatement, then add to that his other health issues… well, let’s just say Donna & Glen had a time bomb on their hands.

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See Update - 8/28/08 - No Charges to be Filed!

I read this disturbing story last week about this puppy found almost cut in half. He was supposedly found last Tuesday wandering near Edinburgh in Johnson County, Indiana. Police began their investigation to find out who did this to the puppy. The search eventually led right back to the woman who brought the dog to the Johnson County Animal Shelter claiming she found him, Dana Jones, 35.

Jones told police she put a harness on the puppy but it shrunk when she left the dog out in the rain. The shrinking caused the harness to cut into Benjamin’s skin. When Jones noticed the injury she said she panicked, removed the embedded harness from the dog and drove him into Johnson County to be picked up by animal care and control.

Police believe the embedded harness caused the puppy to suffer for some time.

“The harness was put on the dog as a pup. It’s about 7 months old now and it hasn’t been loosened. So it grew into the dogs skin, causing the lacerations,” said Officer Doyne Little Jr. with the Edinburgh Police Department.

The gaping wound that ran around the puppy’s body required dozens and dozens of stitches to close.

Jones said she lied because she just wanted to get the puppy help be couldn’t afford to. She also seems to have backpeddaled on the story of the harness.

“I was just trying to get the dog help,” Jones said. “That’s the only thing I wanted was to get him help.”

Speculation about who could be responsible for the dog’s injuries led to Jones’ admission, police said.

“She broke down crying and said she couldn’t go any further. She had to tell the truth. She was very remorseful,” said Doyne Little Jr., of Edinburgh police.

“It was an accident. The dog got tangled up and she was scared,” said Jones’ cousin, Cindi Campbell. “Yeah, she should have told the truth, but so many times you tell the truth and nobody believes you anyway.”

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Now, we all know the reputation pitbulls have as vicious and dangerous dogs, prone to attack and turn on anyone or anything at the drop of a hat. Scary, isn’t it? But for those of us who are educated beyond the media hype, we do know better. Just as with any breed of dog, between nature and nurture, you have good and bad.

Now here’s one you just have to see!! I hope you do realize that the title is just tongue in cheek Anyone who knows me and has read my writing for any time knows exactly how I feel about pitbulls!

Are you afraid??

When police went to serve and eviction notice on Terrance Lee Vanepps, Jr,32, of Gaston, they found a lot more than they bargained for. Outside the apartment the found a dog that had been dead for at least a week and 9 more dogs that were malnourished. Inside the apartment there were yet more dogs, 2 adults and 2 puppies, along with quantity of reptiles.

“I don’t know what it died from,” said Jack Kerley, director of animal services. “I think it died from neglect,” he said referring to the decomposing dog found outside.

The rest of the outside dog, which were all pit mixes, were in “poor condition” and did not have adequate food or water. The inside animal all seemed to be in better shape.

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