We had a couple of ladies that we took dog and cat food to. They were advocates in their neighborhood for the animals and let us know when things were going on. One day we went there and the people next door had gotten a pit bull puppy. It was white with brindle spots and his name was Max. At first, they kept him in the house but soon, as so often happens, he was chained outside. He was about 6 mo. old now and this is where he lived. We never saw anyone from that house pay any attention to him at all.
We talked to the owner about getting him neutered and vaccinated. She said she wanted to, but never responded when we tried to set it up. The ladies that we helped that lived next door to Max were taking care of him thank goodness. The neighbors on the other side of Max helped care for him, too. He wouldn’t have made it without them. His owners did not feed him or water him. Sometimes, he’d be tangled and just have to sit there. He was out in thunderstorms, terrible heat-they just didn’t care. We had been going through the wonderful ladies that we had been helping for a long time trying to resolve this. They had had several conversations with the owner about the care of their dog. They finally decided that they were just going to tell the owner that they were taking Max and there was no arguing-they weren’t taking care of him and he needed help. They were going to get him out of there and give him to us.
Well, it never came to that because another neighbor ended up calling animal control and lo and behold, they impounded Max and took him to the shelter! We were so glad that he was out of there. The owner had no intention of getting him out of the shelter because that involved having to spend money on Max and they were not going to do that. Chain of Hope contacted the shelter and told them that we would like to pull Max out of there the day he became available. We didn’t want this baby who had already been through so much to end up in the wrong hands again. We sprung Max from the shelter, took him to Chain of Hope and helped him settle in. He was skinny, confused and bewildered. He’d gone from being chained in a horrible situation to the chaos of the shelter for several days, and now was at Chain of Hope. Poor guy didn’t know what to think! We told him it was all going to be ok-he was at a great place now!
Although Max had been a little timid in his yard on his chain, he really was a total love bug! Everyone instantly fell in love with this dog!
We changed Max’s name to Kramer. If you know anything about us, it’s that we almost always change their names when they come into our program. They lose their old name with their old life. We put Kramer into a play group and he had a ball! He loves nothing more than rolling on the ground and getting absolutely filthy! As long as he was having fun, we didn’t care! This boy needed to finally have a happy life.
Kramer made us laugh everyday and he could make us pull our hair out! We have kennel trained hundreds of dogs over the years, except Kramer : ) He would not kennel for the life of him! He would lay on the floor and make you slide him across the floor to his kennel. Or we had to get a slip lead, get it on him and walk him into his kennel. Or some of the volunteers just said, “forget it” and picked him up and put him in his kennel. We could be so exasperated with him one minute and laughing out loud at him the next. He was a pistol!
Kramer was at Chain of Hope for about 7 months! He was an adolescent pit bull with lots of energy, but basically he was a goof ball!
Kramer got to go on a few slumber parties with volunteers! Zac, Lacey and Willow took Kramer home a couple of weekends to give him a break. He gets obsessed with cats, though, so that prevented them from taking him more often. Kramer was quite the social butterfly!
We had a good application come in for one of our other young pit bulls, so Chris and his daughter Isabella came down to meet the dogs. Guess who they fell in love with? That’s right! Kramer!!!
We talked about lots of things-kenneling him, obedience classes, exercise, etc. When Chris and Isabella finally took Kramer home, they were all so happy! Kramer jumped up into their truck just like he knew exactly where he was going and he did-he was going home!
Chris brought Kramer down to Chain of Hope not long ago for a visit. His new name is Arlo-we love it! Let me tell you that Chris and Arlo are best buds in the whole world! They go for lots of walks, Arlo goes to the dog park, they chill on the couch and watch TV. Arlo’s life is the best now-all thanks to Chain of Hope supporters who keep us out there and to Chris and Isabella who opened their home and their heart to this wonderful boy!
Nothing but good things from now on for Arlo! Have a great life buddy!
