Gladys is a very special girl, dear to many of our hearts. This is where she lived before her rescue. Read on for a wonderful story.
The owner of this dog called for dog food, so we headed over to mid-town and met Gladys for the first time. She was an old red pit bull, gray around the muzzle. The lady told us on the phone that the dog was 10 yrs. old and had been spayed several years ago. She had lived on a chain in the back yard all these years.
In all the times we went there, we never met the woman who owned this dog. She had health problems and was sickly-she never came out. This dog definitely needed our help. This old girl would not let us touch her, she was extremely wary of us. She was on a heavy chain, but stayed far away from us when we came to fix her up. We didn’t want to stress her out and approach her, because she clearly was afraid and didn’t trust us. She was not socialized at all. We really didn’t know if she was a fear biter or not. Believe me, we’ve learned to be careful out there.
It was in the summer and the flies were terrible back there where the dog stayed. We hung fly bags and left ear gel for the owner to put on her, which I don’t think she ever did. We couldn’t touch the dog to put the ear gel on her, so we would spray her from afar with our fly spray. She didn’t like that, but it was the only way to get her some relief from the flies.
We spent months going here and making sure this dog had food, water, fly control, etc. We still couldn’t touch her, but we were dedicated to making sure she had all the physical things she needed to be as comfortable as possible. We could not get her off of that chain because we couldn’t touch her and we knew the owner would not switch her out to a tie-out cable. We felt so bad that she was still on the heavy chain. Winter came and still this dog was out there, never coming inside. We still could not approach her. We knew animal control would do nothing. She was spayed and had a dog house. We took care of her all winter.
One day the owner called and let us know that she was going into the hospital. She said that her grandson was going to be stopping over and caring for her dog, but asked us if we could stop by as well and keep tabs on her, which of course we were doing anyway. This woman had no business with this dog.
Spring came and I just felt like this was ridiculous. We had made no progress with this dog and things were just going to keep on being the same back in this yard forever. It was very sad and it ripped our hearts out. What this woman has done to this dog is incredibly sad. Let me remind you all, however, that karma is a bitch.
I sat in the back yard with this old girl one day and I just thought, “I’m going to touch this dog”. I knew that we would never get her out of here if we didn’t start pushing the envelope a little bit. I reached for her chain and slowly starting walking up to her, talking to her and kind of pulling her towards me a little. I sat on the ground and had pulled her right up to me. Well, she hadn’t bitten me yet, but she was clearly very, very nervous. I reached out and touched her. She flinched and was very uncomfortable, but she let me touch her. Finally! She was shaking and she was scared, but she let me pet her little head. She had no expression, just almost like an empty shell of a dog.
From that point on, every volunteer that went over there started petting her and getting her used to us touching her. It was very sad to see how shut down she was. It was like she had no emotion at all.
We finally got her to the point where we could get a leash on her and we were able go over there and finally get her. Our volunteers walked her out of that yard for the last time. This poor dog’s long, isolated hell of 10 yrs. was finally over.
We got her to Chain of Hope and we put her in the back by our offices where it was quieter. We put her with a puppy named Daisy that we had at the time and Gladys loved her!
We moved into our new building and Gladys joined our geriatric room! She hangs out all day with Reggie and Abby, two of her best friends! Gladys is very reserved, she trembles at times, she really almost has no expression. Ten long years on a chain has broken her and how couldn’t she be broken? She does wag her tail and is always excited to see the regular volunteers in the morning. But most of the time you can look at Gladys and not really know what she’s feeling. She pretty much has the same look on her face all the time. She looks sad, although we know she’s happier than when she lived on her chain. We just feel that there has to be a home out there to give Gladys her spark! It’s in there inside of her, we know! She needs a quiet, non-chaotic household. She loves to go for walks and she loves her treats, pig ears and frozen cheese bones. She also happens to have the most fantastic set of ears in Kansas City!
We would love for Gladys to find a home where she can live out her life, unafraid, comfortable and much loved. If old pit bulls speak to your heart, please call us about Gladys. She needs a special home where someone is home a lot! Another dog would bring her comfort. Gladys needs work on house-training. She mostly likes to be by her person or lay on her dog bed. She deserves that and will stay right here with her geriatric friends at Chain of Hope until we can find the perfect home for this very special girl.
Thank you to all of you that enabled us to save Gladys!