Thanksgiving - What it means to Rescue Last Friday MRF received several emails regarding 2 Mastiff brothers age 11 years who were in IMMINENT DANGER. They had been abandoned because the owner was jailed after a raid on their home. These dogs due to no fault of their own were destined for euthanasia. A friend had paid the neighbor to feed and let the dogs out until Tuesday after which animal control would take the dogs. As most of you know, shelters are not prepared for large breed dogs and with the age of 11 they were certain for immediate death. MRF has been once again inundated with surrenders, most of which are “older dogs”. At 7pm on Friday night a volunteer was called with a plea. Once the dog’s situation was relayed, the foster immediately contacted the neighbor and on Saturday morning they headed out for the 3 hour drive to pick up these boys. The dogs were in terrible condition; one of them had a huge tumor on the right shoulder with an abscess on the left shoulder and could barely walk. They both were dirty, thin and very happy to see the volunteers. We were told the one boy had progressively gotten worse over the last year as the growth got larger. Once at home, these boys were given a good bath, a good meal and lots of TLC. The initial assessment of the boy with the growth was not good. He was placed on pain medications and antibiotics once the abscess was cleaned and drained. The family provided a clean bed, great food and all the attention these two dogs could handle but they watched the one boy attempt to get up, go out to relieve himself and then return to his bed. The night of Sunday into Monday was difficult; the pain meds were not providing enough relief so that he could rest. On Monday when the vet came out, his prognoses was very poor, the mass on the shoulder was bone cancer that had spread across to the other shoulder where there was a second tumor. There was no quality of life for him so the difficult decision was made to allow this dog to cross the rainbow bridge with dignity and pain free as possible. The foster family laid this boy to rest because he “was a special family member” at home on their farm. Now this is a foster that only had these 2 dogs for less than 3 days. They left on short notice to drive a long distance, giving up their time to rescue two dogs they really knew nothing about other than the dogs would be put to death. They took these dogs in and provided care, love and attention and suffered emotionally watching as this stoic dog painfully suffered. This family just happened to be one of the applications MRF received from the “Mastiff Club of Florida‘s” event where the public was exposed to what a “good bred Mastiff” looked like but was educated on the needs of the “surrendered Mastiff” who very seldom look like an “Old English”. Rescue is not for the faint of heart, so many times MRF and its volunteers are the ones who have to watch these dogs suffer only because of the poor care or lack of compassion caused by a human. We are the ones that must make the arrangements with the veterinarians and hold them while sending them to the RAINBOW BRIDGE…it is NEVER EASY. It always takes its toll on us but this is a special time of the year which makes it even harder. As the holidays approach please remember that MRF depends on your contributions to make these things happen, without your financial help, we could not help as many dogs as we do. Please consider a donation of any amount, all of which goes directly for the dogs. A special thanks this Thanksgiving from Mastiff Rescue of Florida to the Stokes family who provided a home for these two abandoned boys and to Mastiff Club of Florida for their effort to educate and help find homes for the abandoned, surrendered Mastiffs.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 23:43:26 +0000
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