Chain of Hope received a call from a concerned citizen about a rottie chained up in the front of a house. He was on a heavy chain, had an igloo, and appeared to be pretty old. We went over to check on him and discovered that this owner also had 2 more dogs in the back yard. He had a huge but very skinny, black mastiff mix, tied to a tree. He had a shepherd mix in a small pen, far in the back yard. His yard was very trashy. He had old appliances and other junk scattered throughout his back yard.
The rottie was extremely aggressive-we could not get up to him at all. He was on a huge chain. The mastiff mix was also very aggressive and we couldn’t get up to him either. The dog in the pen was sweet, but of course, the pen was full of feces and there was no food or water.
We met with the owner and talked to him about the conditions of his dogs. He listened, but we could tell nothing was going to change. Things never got better even with all of our assistance, so we finally called this into animal control. They went over and it came back as “unable to make contact”. In other words, the guy didn’t answer his door or wasn’t home.
We continued to go over and try and help these dogs, but things just went from bad to worse. When we went back a couple of weeks later, the mastiff mix was even skinnier.
The pen that the shepherd mix was in was all wired shut with lots of wire. We couldn’t even open it to get food and water to this baby. Obviously the guy wasn’t opening it either and he sure as heck wasn’t cleaning up the feces.
We made the guy come out and get supplies up to the two dogs that we could not touch. He really hated to have to miss a little bit of his Chiefs game, but oh well. This place was sad and disgusting.
We called this into animal control again. We waited 5 days and they still hadn’t gotten over there! We called back again and complained and animal control went over that afternoon and removed all 3 of the dogs! They all were taken to the shelter. It took multiple phone calls and staying involved, but finally they were out of there.
We knew that we could not pull the rottie or mastiff mix out of there because of their aggression, but we went to the shelter to rescue the shepherd mix. He was a little nervous when they brought him out of the shelter, but little did he know that his entire life was about to change for the better!
We named this boy Rudy-we never even knew his original name. We got him back to Chain of Hope and settled him in. He got his own room so that he could have time to relax and figure out his new surroundings.
I checked back later that week and asked about the other 2 dogs. I was told that they were adopted. I hope to God they ended up in as good of a place as Rudy did. So often, some of these dogs end up being guard dogs again in someone’s yard. That is not the shelter’s fault because people lie all the time and say that they are going to make their new adoptee an inside dog and all of that. In reality, some of these dogs end up back out in not so good circumstances again and that is very sad. There is only so much screening a shelter can do when dealing with a high volume of animals, but we have encountered several dogs from various shelters back out on chains. Hopefully, the mastiff and the rottie landed in wonderful homes!
Rudy is coming out of his shell. We have done a few dog introductions and he’s doing pretty well. He is a GREAT ball chaser! He will fetch all day long! How good it must feel to stretch his legs and run after being kept in that dirty, small, smelly pen for so long.
I took Rudy out into the yard tonight, just him and me. It was dark out, but our flood lights lit up the play yards. I threw the ball for him over and over again. Then he just started racing around the yard as fast as he could and then he’d run into one of the extra dog houses that we have sitting in the yard! Then he’d run out of there and race around the yard again. He was having so much fun! It put a smile on my face and made all the hard work we do everyday seem so worthwhile.
He is soaking up the attention and love that he is getting at Chain of Hope. He will make someone a wonderful companion!
Thank you for funding our difficult work! We couldn’t do it without you!