Working with a dog like Precious, reminds me that every new dog needs time to adjust, get healthy and settle into our rescue before I make a judgment call about what each dog will be or not be. It’s been almost a year, coming up next month, that I rescued Precious from her chain in a back yard in South Central Los Angeles. We had received a call from her owner, asking for help getting his dog spayed. I went over to pick her up and what I found was poor Precious, with a huge pad lock chain around her neck, about 3 feet of heavy duty chain, attached to a tree trunk, no shelter, no water and apparently no food. She weighed about twenty pounds the day we walked into Dr. Shipps Animal Hospital run by the Amanda Foundation. Covered in fleas and ticks, she cowered in the corner of the vet’s office as we waited for Dr. Stein to come in and give her an exam. He was really mad, telling me that if I planned on taking the dog back he would definitely report the owner. I was supposed to take her back but of course, we did not.
Precious went to live with Dog Man for about a month. He treated all of her open sores, fed her well and won her trust until she was strong enough to come and live at our kennel. She had no connection to me or any of the dogs. Billy and I were extremely cautious about introducing her to dogs because she had a lot of scars, was missing one of her toes and had tears on her ears that sure looked like the result of a lot of fighting. We took things really slow with her and I estimated that she might be the type of dog that would do best in a home with no other dogs. She never showed any aggressions but also didn’t show any interest in playing. This went on until one day we put her in the yard with Clancy. It was love at first sight! If there ever were two dogs that loved each other in our rescue, this was the pair. Several months later, she is out with most all of our dogs every morning and every evening. There are some dogs that we do not put her out with, Freeway is the number one “bad match” but I get that. In fact, those two ladies hate each other so we just keep them separate.
Precious goes to work and home with me every day and loves to ride in the car. It does amaze me sometimes to see her laying on a dog bed, cuddled up to Edwina, a very tough little female who doesn’t always like to share her bed. She thrives on routine, sleeps in the same crate at the same time, even if I am traveling, Billy keeps her on the same routine. She is content with this very boring life.
A couple of weeks ago, Debbie came over and made this super video of Precious, “Our Star”. The one thing that Precious doesn’t have is a home, a real home. Sure, she loves my dogs and living temporarily at my house but she needs to be the Star in her own home. If you are considering adopting a dog, please consider Precious. It’s been a year next month, very few calls and really only a couple applications but no home. She has survived so much and has made so much progress in her year with us.
