I have spoken about this before, but not very often. One of the services that Chain of Hope provides is assisting pets and their owners at the end of the pet’s life. There are a lot of lower income people that dearly love their pets. When their pets are old and suffering, these people often have no money to humanely end their life or any transportation to even get them anywhere. We also have old dogs that have lived chained their entire lives and are suffering at the end. Those are the real heart breakers. This is one of those stories.
We received a message from a very nice, concerned man in KCK. Chain of Hope does not service the KCK area (we have our hands full in KCMO). However, as I listened to this message, I really felt for this guy and the dog that he was calling about. I returned his call and he was greatly relieved to hear from me. I was going to tell him that we do not service the KCK area, but as he started telling me his story about an old, abandoned dog in his neighborhood, I knew we had to help him. He told me that the owners had gone off and left this dog a couple of months before. The dog had been chained to this tree for the last 6 years, although the dog was probably around 12 yrs. old or so. He told me that the dog was in pretty rough shape, that he had a lot of trouble getting his back end up off the ground. He told me that he had been providing food and water and straw for the last 2 months, but the dog was going down hill and needed rescued. He told me that the dog was extremely matted and was very uncomfortable. He went on to tell me that he had called every group, including groups who say they work in KCK, but no one had even called him back except Chain of Hope. He told me, “nobody cares about this dog”. I told him that we cared and I made arrangements to meet him later that afternoon to get this poor dog.
I arrived at the house. I saw a very old, matted dog with one of the sweetest faces I’ve ever seen. He had lots of straw all around that Wes had provided. Thank God for this man that made multiple phone calls all morning. He didn’t give up, he kept trying to find help. He is an angel. Not everyone would do that.
You can see how weak this dog was in his back end. He could barely get to a standing position. Wes unhooked his cable for the last time and walked this old boy over to my car and lifted him in. Wes was extremely grateful and thanked me over and over again.
We decided to name this boy Wesley, after Wes-his angel that had the compassion to keep looking for help. We got Wesley back to Chain of Hope. He was weak, partially blind, and his coat was a mess. He was matted and stinky. We knew he was failing, but I called Tanner and he came over and shaved Wesley and bathed him. We gave Wesley some dignity and comfort. He was so tired with the grooming, he just laid in the floor.
Wesley was now all cleaned up. We set him up in one of our rooms, fed him and gave him a comfy bed. I told him good night that night, not really knowing how much longer he would be with us. He was so comfortable and peaceful as I turned his light off and told him how much I loved him.
When I came in the next morning, Wesley had had diarrhea all over and hadn’t been able to get up and was laying in it. Poor, poor boy. We got him up, got him back into the tub and cleaned him up. Wesley no doubt had pretty bad arthritis. We had him on pain medication and we gave him loads of love. He liked to go out into the yard, but he would stumble and fall on just the two steps. We knew we were probably only giving him a good few days, but he was clean, medicated and loved. He had none of these things before because the only person in the world that gave a damn about this poor old boy was Wes and he was doing all he could.
Wesley was at the end of his life. He could barely get up anymore and he had no control over his bowels. We had given him the best weekend of his life ever. Yes, it was only a weekend, but we had doted on him, loved him, cleaned him, gave him special food, kept him comfortable with pain medication and let him wander ever so slowly in the yard with no chain attached!
We realized it was time to let him go, so I took him in for euthanasia. It is never easy. Although other volunteers have done this, I probably hold 95% of our euthanasias. I try to spare the volunteers from having to do this. These poor animals need to be comforted at the end of their life and they are by Chain of Hope. I don’t care how dirty and stinky they are, I hold them all and tell them that lots of people at Chain of Hope love them. I want to be the last person they see and hear talking softly to them and that they feel stroking them with much love. These decisions are hard to make and they tear my heart out, but I have to have the strength to make these difficult calls. As hard as it is, I always thank God that we were able to get that animal out of a hell hole, not matter how long they had left-these are the animals that made it out before they passed. Thank you for continuing to send us to find the ones that are still waiting to be found. We march on in Wesley’s memory.
