We first ran across Casey in Dec. of 2014. We were helping people in midtown and this cute little dog wandered up. The woman we help a lot, Ruth, told us that it was a stray. Oh no! We were so full of dogs in our program, we really could not take on another one right then. Ruth then told us that one of the neighbors down the street was going to take her. Ruth thought they were pretty good people. We were relieved because we had absolutely no where to put her.
These are difficult situations and why foster homes and adoptions are so important to us. If we don’t create another spot, we can’t take another one in. Chain of Hope will not take on more dogs than we can give the best possible care to. Most of the animals that Chain of Hope rescues haven’t been treated very well. They sometimes need time and patience as we help them transition to an adoptable dog. Our spots our coveted spots and a dog is lucky to be able to be brought into our program, but space is limited and that breaks our hearts. If you’ve ever considered fostering, it’s a great thing to do to create room for a dog that we must decide right then and there if we can take or not. Of course, we always want to take whatever we can get out of bad situations, but the truth is-there’s only so much room at our facility.
Ruth said that she would give the neighbor our info., she showed us which house it was and we told her we’d be back to hook them up another day. We would get her spayed for sure. We had a long outreach list to get to that day and we needed to get going. We’ve known Ruth a long time, she’s a good woman and we knew she’d take care of this little girl and get her situated with the neighbor.
We came back to the house where this dog now lived a few days later. The guy was a pretty nice guy and “Diamond” as they had named her was in the house! We made arrangement to pick her up and get her spayed, vaccinated and de-wormed (thank you donors!), and left him some good dog food and raw hides.
We picked up Diamond and had her spayed. We continued to monitor her, but started seeing some red flags. One day when I arrived, Diamond was tied up to the fence with a leash.
Now, instead of finding her in the house, she would be outside. They had every excuse and reason-none of it made sense. We took her a dog house and put her on a tie-out cable instead of the leash. We took them a crate to have her inside. We did everything we could to help these people step up. After awhile, she was put in the back yard, away from everyone. Now she was just another lonely dog banished to the back yard. By now it was spring, the flies were starting up again and although we left fly gel for her ears, this is what we found in early June:
We, of course, got onto these people about her ears all the time. This was nothing but pure laziness-not wanting to go out to the backyard and put the ear gel on her everyday. They were some of the worst ears we’d end up seeing all summer. Poor Diamond.
This was disgusting, we knew we had to get her out of there and we did.
Of course she had to go to McDonald’s and have a couple of cheeseburgers!
We got Diamond back to Chain of Hope. She definitely had to lose her old name with her old life, so she became Casey. She had some healing to do, but she was a super dog! She received a lot of love and attention at Chain of Hope.
After a short time, Beth and Chris came forward to foster Casey! We were thrilled both for Casey, but as I said earlier, we now had an open spot to get another dog out of a critical situation. Many, many thanks to all of our fosters! You save another dog’s life by fostering!
Casey settled in at her foster home. She has done really well. She has even learned to ring a bell at the back door when she needs to go out and potty! She is one smart girl! She is also pretty active and needs a 6 ft. fence. She is so agile that she can go over a 4 ft. fence. Casey would make a great partner for an active person. She would also make a great playmate for a dog needing a friend. She is absolutely gorgeous! She weighs about 60 lbs., loves kids and is a very affectionate girl! Call 816-221-8080 if interested in adopting Casey.
Her foster family has taught her commands such as sit, down, shake, High 5 and no jump. Beth and Chris take Casey to the dog park and she does great. Casey has thrived in her foster home and they love her very much, but Casey needs to find her forever home! She has been with us since last summer and we would love to see her get a new family soon! Please share Casey’s story-that is how she will most likely find a home!
Casey’s story is a perfect example of how important it is that Chain of Hope stays involved in situations and monitors these animals out here. This is only possible because our wonderful supporters keep us going! Chain of Hope, Casey and hundreds of other dogs say thank you!!!
