Judy came back from outreach one day and told me that there was a new dog behind a house that we had removed a dog from several years ago. That’s what Chain of Hope does, though, we constantly check houses when dogs have been removed. These people often get another dog-it’s a vicious cycle. So we watch and we check on locations. Judy told me that it was a pit mix, very shy and very, very hungry. She would not come up to the outreach volunteers and they didn’t push it. They hooked her up with food and fresh water and made a note on their outreach list to check back.
The next week, they stopped back by and things were the same. She was very hungry, had no water and her shelter was an opening that went under the house-like a crawl space. They came back and told me about her again. A couple of days later, I went over to see her. She was adorable. I went up to her and she immediately rolled over and gave me her belly to rub! She was very sweet and very beautiful. This was not a good situation, but we knew animal control wouldn’t do anything over here.
The next week, I went by to check on her and apparently the people had unchained this poor little thing and moved away! Their furniture was out on the curb and this dog was laying on the sofa next to the street. I did a double take looking because I hadn’t expected to see that! I went around the block, came back around and she was then laying on the porch. She looked so forlorn. She had a big, thick carabiner clip hanging off of her collar that they had unhooked the chain from. She had been discarded, just like a piece of furniture. Here’s where she was laying when I saw her.
Erica and Carol were on outreach in the van and they headed over. This sweet girl was very shy and scared. She wasn’t too sure about coming with us, but we coaxed her along. When we got to our vehicle, she was not about to get up in there! She was having no part of that. We sat with her for awhile and pet her and tried to get in the car a few times, but no go. Finally we took the crate out of the van, set it on the ground and got some canned food out for her. We coaxed her, she was hungry and she finally went in the crate and we closed the door! We had her and her entire life was about to change for the better.
We got this beautiful girl back to Chain of Hope. We named her Rayna. She was pretty scared and nervous. Paige was there and she worked with getting Rayna out of the car and into one the yards.
I’m sure Rayna didn’t know what to think, but we knew that soon she would be a happy girl and love being at our facility. She settled right in. We took her and had her spayed, vaccinated, de-wormed and heart worm tested-she was negative, thank goodness.
We kept Rayna in a separate room by herself as she acclimated to being at Chain of Hope. Every time we would approach her, she would roll on her belly-totally submissive. We slowly introduced Rayna to other dogs and she did great! She hasn’t met one dog she didn’t like. We integrated her into one of our rooms with other dogs and she loves being in her playgroup now. She and her friends run and play all day long.
Rayna is absolutely gorgeous! She has the coolest gold eyes! She is very obedient, crate-trained, and extremely affectionate! Rayna is the total package! She weighs about 50 lbs., is about 1 1/2 yrs. old, and could not be a sweeter girl.
Rayna could use a foster home or better yet-a forever home where she is loved and cherished. To fill out a foster app or an adoptive app for Rayna, go to www.chainofhopekc.org and go to our adoptable pets page to find the app.
You can see just from the progression of pictures that Rayna came in a scared and shy dog and she is now happy, confident, and much loved by all of the Chain of Hope volunteers. This is what keeps us going on difficult days. Watching the change in these dogs as they come off of their chains for the last time, scared and unsure about things. With the love and care at Chain of Hope, they transform into happy, healthy dogs-exactly the life they deserved all along. You have our sincere appreciation for keeping us going. It matters to dogs like Rayna!
