Country Kennel Bully Rescue

This is a story about a little Chihuahua who is now named Opossum.  I went to a Bird and Animal Swap meet in northern Indiana. There I encountered many animals that were crowded in wire cages all day in the scorching heat.  Many were toy breed dogs that would no longer produce offspring, but could still bring in an easy buck at pet stores!  I only had $100 with me and I was trying to use it to rescue as many as I possibly could.  I found a little Chihuahua that was being sold for $50.  I managed to talk the seller down to $25.  When I got him out of his chicken wire prison, he was soooo happy.  When I took him back to the van and put him in a crate with some blankets, toys, and a solid floor, he was the happiest little dog in the world.  Little Opossum had some of the longest toenails I have ever seen.  His white feet were reddish brown from standing in his own feces and his breath smelled terrible from his rotten teeth.  The owner told me he was 3, but I knew from the first glimpse at him that he was an elder.  When taken to the vet, we found out that little Opossum was actually between 8-10 years old. The vet agreed that it was hard to tell since Opossum has had such a hard life.  Opossum now spends his days tagging along with me in a little sidekick purse and goes to work were he lounges on his dog bed all day.  At night, he has made his own nest out of one of my favorite and softest blankets at the top of our bed.  So, if you know of anyone thinking about buying one of those cute puppies in the store window, let them know what that dog's parents are going through.

This is the story about Amor and Angel.  This is a local cruelty case that involved a young man that bred his Pitbulls to try to make a "new breed" of miniature pit bulls.  After they were no longer nursing from their mother, the pitties' owner became a addicted to meth.  He didn't care whether or not they had food.  Sadly, most of the pups starved to death.  Fortunately, this is when we started to receive numerous phone calls about the situation.  Some nice people rescued Angel before she became a victim of starvation.  She was thin, but with some good food she became a chunky little girl.  We then found out that another pup had survived and that we might be getting him as well.  About a week later, we recieved little Amor, which means "Love" in Spanish.  I was astonished by his size.  While his sister now weighed 20lbs, Little Amor only weighed 5lbs!!!!!!!  He is 1/4 the size of Angel.  We think that due to such terrible neglect, poor Little Amor's growth will always be severely stunted.  While his sister packs on the pounds every day, Little Amor stays the same.  He is very healthy and active, but doesn't grow at the same rate as a normal puppy.  Little Amor and Angel are looking for their forever homes.  We would love to see them stay together.  Please help Angel and Little Amor.

Update 12/01/08 Little Amor has been adopted by a wonderful family.  They changed his name to Deacon and says he is a big fat piggy.  He loves his best friend Anna the black Lab.  Deacon also has a sweater that he loves to wear and gets upset when his mommy takes if off to wash it.  He sits and waits till it is done:)

I received a call on a Friday night about a pit bull puppy that had been found lying in the bushes.  When the nice people went to get him out they found out that he could not use his back leg and he had gashes all over him.  They thought he had been fought and quickly called Country Kennel.  I picked the pittie up on Saturday morning to discover that he had in fact not been fought, but hit by car.  He was such a sweetheart and only about 1 year old!  We went straight to the vet's office and found out that his leg was shattered.  The poor dog had to get a steel rod placed in his leg, which he didn't much care for, and had to be observed very carefully to make sure everything was healing properly. Tater, as we have named him, is great with all the other dogs and has had a great attitude through the whole process. 

While doing one of my monthly puppy mill runs my contact reached into her crate and pulled out the tiniest chihuahua I had ever seen.  "Hobbs" was bright orange, had his tongue hanging out, and smelled of urine and feces.  Hobbs did not even weigh 3 lb!  While back at our facility we discovered that Hobbs was in need of a dental.  This is pretty common with puppy mill dogs.  When little Hobbs went in for his neuter it was discovered that his was a cryptochid.  This is where one of the testicles never descend and the vet has to go in and locate the testicle the have it removed.  This is also VERY common in male puppy mill dogs.  When they went to do his dental his teeth were so bad that EVERYONE of his teeth had to be removed.  Despite being so small, raised in a puppy mill, being a cyptochid, and having NO TEETH.  Little Hobbs made a full recovery and even found a home!

I was forwarded an email in regards to dogs that needed rescued from a high kill shelter in KY.  Once on the webiste I saw many senior dogs in need.  I have a soft spot for the older dogs, so I pulled two.  I then saw Bernard and contacted the shelter about this old guy.  They said he was sweet, but they did not think he had much life left in him.  He could barley walk and seemed liked he was on deaths door step.  I then decided not to pull him in fear of him not even being able to make the trip and wasting a precious space that can help another dog in need.  I went home that night and could not stop thinking about poor Bernard dying in a shelter alone.  I called the first thing the next morning and said I would take him.  Once he arrived I was almost in tears after seeing his condition.  The fact that someone could do this to a dog that is a sweet natured at Bernard made me so mad.  Bernard has many scars all over his body, his foot has been ran over or something, he is missing part of his ear possibly from frost bite, and he has not one tooth left.  Not to mention how skinny he was.  Bernard is now doing great.  He has been gaining weight and gets lots of TLC.  He does not move like a pup, but can gimp around.  He LOVES to be loved on by my daughter and howls when she leaves.  He is such a great guy!