Animals have always been something I’m drawn to. I grew up around all sorts of animals: farm and pets. As an adult, I made it my mission to rescue most of my dogs. I have done that, and I couldn’t be any happier.
My first rescue as an adult was my long-haired chihuahua mix Taffy, and boy did we have huge obstacles to overcome. She trusted no one and loved tearing my clothes apart. It took a long time of pretty much wrapping her in a blanket and forcing her to love me to get her to finally trust me. She had been through a lot of homes and every single one of them gave up on her, but I was determined to make her feel at home.
She actually went through A LOT with me. I was in a really bad motorcycle accident in 2011 and that dog never left my side once I was able to come home. I couldn’t be more thankful for an animal than I am for her.
Nine years ago I rescued Chrome, my first rescue with my husband. Chrome had a lot of behavioral issues we had to correct after we drove about 4.5 hours to get him. We made sure to get him fixed ASAP as he was too amped up in that part of his behavior. Once we were able to neuter him, we found a dog trainer and started working really hard on correcting the horrible behaviors he had learned in his previous 5 years of life.
Let me tell you: breaking years of bad behavior is not an easy thing to do. It takes so much time, energy, and emotions from both the dog/owner to correct. A few years went by and both Taffy and Chrome were doing amazing, so we decided to get Rogue. She was not rescued, but from a really good friend of ours. She has to be one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever had and absolutely adores children. Rogue is seriously my son’s best friend; those two are inseparable. She has been an interesting one to train, as she only listens to my husband. Completely his dog, even though she was supposed to be mine.
The next dog we rescued was Minnie Mouse, although she was definitely not mini. She was a very sweet, playful dog and grew into a mini horse as I called her. Our next rescue was Spartan; he was deaf and severely abused/malnourished. He was by far our hardest, yet most rewarding dog to rescue/train. As Spartan got older, he developed severe separation anxiety and would tear himself apart if we left him in his kennel, so we had to start just leaving him in our room when we left. Even then, he has scratched up our bedroom door so bad, we have tried everything to help him with the separation anxiety but nothing seems to truly help him.
Then there’s Miss Pherrah; she was the product of Rogue and Spartan. This was a very, very oopsy litter, I had literally dropped Spartans leash to do something for 30 seconds, and bam! they were hooked. Spartan had already had an appointment to be neutered, and unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to undo this oopsy. The pups that came from this litter all went to our friends and turned into great dogs. Pherrah was the only one we kept as she and I had an instant bond. We have put a lot of time into training, and she knows how to help me up and fetch a few items for me if I need her too. It was a fun experience training her how to do these things, although it could also be frustrating at times.
Spartan and Pherrah are inseparable. They play together, nap together, and bug Rogue together. Typical dad and daughter, right? Pherrah and Taffy are definitely my dogs, Spartan and Chrome are family dogs, Rogue is all about my son, and Minnie was definitely my husband’s dog. We lost Minnie about 3 years ago, and just recently lost my first rescue, Taffy. Taffy was my hardest one to lose so far, as she had gone through so many major life events with me. Unfortunately, Chrome is getting older too, he’s about 15 now. Rogue is only 8, but she has cancer and is starting to move a lot slower. I wouldn’t trade any of the time I’ve had with any of my dogs, they all have a piece of my heart.
I will always advocate for rescuing if I can. There are so many loving dogs in need of homes in the shelters. Yes, some of them may be older, or even have some behavioral issues. Let’s face it though, dogs raised up from puppies can have all those things as well. Rescuing has definitely been one of the most rewarding things for me, and I’ll keep doing it!
