7.14.13 NOVEL/UPDATES: Dear Friends: As many of you now know, our trip out of state was cut short. With all that was transpiring back home, Ron and I couldn’t rest anyway. It was fruitless - so we packed up and headed home, arriving here late Friday evening. Since that time, the madness has continued with more heartache, panic and desperate situations than we had realized that we’d be facing. Our first day back yesterday (Saturday) resulted in us waking up to take delivery of the Mom and 8 puppies that were owner-surrendered to La Porte on Friday. Despite the shelter staff’s efforts to keep Mom and pups off the concrete floor, that’s exactly where they ended up. No other rescue groups were coming forward so we made arrangements for another one of our foster dogs to go to Paula’s home (Oreo) so that we could bring Mom and pups here for the time being. I heard today from the shelter that another rescue group is willing to take this family as of the 26th of this month which will help us out immensely. We just have to keep the family here until that time. We picked up both Gatlin and Oreo from Angel Animal Hospital yesterday morning after getting Mom and pups settled in. Oreo has numerous drainage tubes coming out of his swollen, badly bruised shoulders/legs but is doing better than expected under the circumstances. He remains on pain meds and antibiotics. We are hopeful that the drainage tubes can come out in about 2 weeks. At some point, Oreo will be ready to find his very special forever home. Please continue to keep Oreo in your prayers. He’s had a very difficult start in this world but we remain certain that better days are ahead of him. For those of you who are just tuning in, GATLIN is a beautiful blue Pitt Bull male (approx. 8-9 months old) that we sent for out of Galveston County Animal Resource Center this past Thursday. His testicles had become displaced and the poor dog was sitting at GCARC in a crate of his own urine and feces. He, like so many others, was on the list to be euthanized. We had him picked up and taken immediately to Angel where he underwent surgery the next morning (Friday). Gatlin’s entire scrotum was removed (more than just the typical neuter). Despite all that he’s gone through, that goofy dog runs around here like nothing ever even happened. He’s all puppy, happy and full of life. Despite the “cone of shame” he’s sportin’, it doesn’t seem to slow him down. He runs around our home slamming into anything that gets in his way without missing a beat -- terrorizing our dogs in the process. They can’t figure out, for the life of them, what this plastic-headed thing is that is tearing through our home at warp speed. I’ve witnessed Delta take flying leaps over our furniture to escape him, and poor Solitaire runs for her life. All Gatlin really wants to do is to play with them :). After getting Oreo to Paula, and Gatlin settled in here, Ron and I set out to drive seven puppies to our dear friends with LA Baby Mommas out of Shreveport. I had received a text message Saturday morning with a plea for help from a dear friend of ours who works at a local emergency vet care clinic. At 4 a.m. Saturday morning, a young gal arrived with her dog who had given birth to seven puppies a week ago. Momma dog was very ill with what they discovered was mastitis which is a painful, and potentially dangerous, bacterial infection that develops in the teats. They also suspected that Momma dog may have had an 8th puppy lodged inside of her that had never been born. However, the young owner could not afford to have x-rays and other tests run so the vet clinic did what they could for Momma dog by way of antibiotics and sub-q fluids. Unfortunately, Momma dog passed away yesterday afternoon leaving her 7 orphan puppies behind. I called the only person I have on speed dial for situations such as this – Jean – who, although inundated with puppies already, agreed to take on these newborn bottle babies. Once again, she was our instantaneous hero and a real life saver for the entire litter. Ron and I picked the puppies up at 4 p.m. yesterday and drove about 250 miles north of Houston to meet up with LA Baby Mommas to hand the little “meepers” over to them. I named them our little meepers because that’s the sound they were making as we made the drive – sounding a lot like little guinea pigs: “meep” “meep”. They were too cute and, despite a very long day without being able to nurse from their Momma, they were all strong and healthy. Their outcome is a very promising one thanks to Jean and her fabulous crew! We returned home around 11:30 last night with another 500 miles to add to the more than 3,000 miles we’ve put on in the past week. Thank God for our beloved Outback (great gas mileage). We finally got to bed around 1 a.m. At 7:00 a.m. this morning, we awoke to my Bullmastiff, Lord Bentley, pawing at our bedroom door. I opened the door to find him, Delta and Solitaire staring at me. Okay, guys. I get it. It’s time to go out. As I made my way through the living room, I discovered a large mess of diarrhea and urine at our back door. My dogs haven’t had an accident in the house in so long I can’t even remember the last time it’s happened! I put them outdoors and proceeded to grab the cleaning supplies. It was then that I noticed two more piles of diarrhea, another puddle of urine, and garbage strewn throughout our kitchen and hallway. Ron discovered a fourth mess of diarrhea under the kitchen table when he put his foot in it (LOL). WTH were my dogs doing all night long – and why didn’t any of them wake me up BEFORE turning our home upside down?! Ron joined me in the clean-up work that greeted us in our half-awake state. He worked on the living room and I cleaned the hallway and started on the kitchen. All of a sudden Ron yells out, “Momma Dog just stuck her head in the doorway from the garage”. Well now. That explains a lot. I went to the garage (which is attached to our home – and the door is always open) to discover Momma dog sitting outside of her kennel, wanting to get back in with her pups. She had climbed out of her 5 foot kennel/suite and apparently had a hay day last night but couldn’t figure out how to get back to her babies. As soon as I opened the kennel door, she rushed back in and her babies scrambled to get breakfast. She’s a very good Momma and a loving dog overall but definitely not housetrained by any means. Amidst all the clean-up we were tackling, I was receiving messages that the La Porte Animal Shelter had reached full capacity. They were forced to euthanize due to lack of kennel space. The adoption event put on by many of our wonderful volunteers Saturday resulted in two adoptions which is definitely reason to celebrate – but a far cry from the number of dogs that needed to leave the facility in order to free up kennel space to save lives. As of closing time today, only three kennels are open. GYPSY (pictured elsewhere on our page, black Pitt Bull female) remains at the La Porte Animal Shelter on the CODE RED list. I am told that she has one more day (Monday) to get out to rescue or to be adopted or she, too, will be put down. She is one of their longest term residents and has had no interest shown in her whatsoever thus far. PLEASE share her with all of your Pitt Bull loving friends and rescue groups and BEG them to help! We will assist with transport out of the Houston area if there is a confirmed rescue group elsewhere willing to take her. There are many other great dogs at LP needing to find their forever homes, too. Please stop by the shelter located at 1201 S. 4th Streeet, La Porte, Texas to take a new family member home and to save a life in the process. I will be working on a project concerning the Galveston County Animal Resource Center which I hope to have completed and posted on Monday. I have a lot of dogs here to care for, and numerous other tasks to tend to as well, so bear with me – and be ready. When the story hits our FB page, I will be asking for all of you (and all of your friends, and all of their friends, too) to spread the word in the hopes of garnering nationwide support to get desperately-needed changes underway at that facility. The nightmare of it all is shocking. Suffice it to say, they know that the heat is on and have been killing animals left and right to try to hide their horrific conditions. I am praying that God helps me to find the right words to accurately portray the reality of the neglect and callousness that exists at GCARC in such a way that, at long last, the people who run that place are held accountable and, at the very least, replaced by people who truly care. Stay tuned. Please continue to share the two Pitt Bull puppies out of GCARC with every rescue group you can think of. We will assist with nationwide transport to any confirmed rescue group willing to take them in. They have been kept in deplorable conditions at the shelter and were minutes away from being euthanized. They are in a safe place for now but they only have 48 hours to find a rescue group to go to or they may have to be returned to the House of Horrors they were taken from. The person caring for the pups to give us this time to network them is not affiliated with TT, Inc. in any way – he’s just a kind-hearted citizen that couldn’t bear the thought of these puppies losing their lives as so many others did yesterday. He went out on a limb and took these puppies home but we need your help now in getting them to their next, safe destination. Their picture is posted elsewhere on our main FB page. Due to the situation at GCARC and at La Porte, I am asking that everyone please give me the day on Monday to tend to these matters. Do not email, call or text me unless it’s an emergency. I need to remain focused so that more lives can be spared and do not have time for much else at the present time. On a final note, I want to thank all of the volunteers who stepped up while we were out of town to photograph the LP shelter dogs, foster some of our dogs temporarily, assist with transport, help out with emergencies that arose, and who held an adoption event on our behalf to try to move free up kennel space at the La Porte Animal Shelter. Being so far away this past week left us feeling quite helpless but y’all did an AMAZING job and were crucial to numerous lives being saved in our absence! God Bless each and every one of you for putting your own lives on hold to give “life” new meaning to the animals in need. We love you guys and are so very blessed to have such a wonderful network of volunteers and rescue partners willing to help us every step of the way. – Kym Ann & Ron
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:56:18 +0000
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