A Very Sad Situation

#102

This is not a good photo.  What this is, is a very sad situation that is all too common in the area I live in.  About a week ago I noticed 2 dogs on the side of a country road with no houses anywhere nearby.  I stopped of course and tried to get the dogs to come to me but they were extremely skittish and wouldn't come near me.  I decided I'd come back the next day to see if they were still there.  And of course they were and they still wouldn't come to me.  This road is one that I drive a few times a week and the next time I stopped, I noticed some food dishes in the trees and a kitty litter box filled with fresh clean water.  I wondered if another good samaritan was feeding them.  Today when I was going that way, I noticed a car stopped up by the dogs.  I got out and talked to the woman, and she, along with another unknown good samaritan are both feeding these dogs.  Well, it turns out there aren't 2 adult dogs, there are 3 and one of them just had puppies.  

This poor mama is so terrified and won't let anyone get near her puppies.  One of her puppies has already died and now she has 2 left.  She'll accept food that's tossed to her but she actually bit the other woman who was feeding her recently when she was trying to get close enough to remove the dead puppy.  The woman feared a coyote or a wild pig would smell the dead puppy and come attack the whole pack.  We talked for a while and decided that we would try to save the puppies as soon as they were big enough to start moving around and exploring.  In the mean time, we'll keep feeding and watering them and hopefully the adult dogs will get used to us and allow us to rescue them.  They need to get proper nourishment and they need to be spayed and neutered so this doesn't happen again.

I absolutely can't stand it when people dump their dogs on a country road and think that someone will take them in.  The truth is, someone WILL take them in.  Someone with a big heart who already has 5 dogs because people keep dumping them and she just can't turn a dog away to wander the streets and get killed by a car.  And someone will take time out of their day to go visit these stray dogs day after day after day just trying to earn their trust so she can save them.  I've worked in dog rescue in the past and I never ceased to be amazed by the people who were so willing to say they didn't have time for their dogs anymore and it just wasn't fair to the dog or to their family to keep the dog.  But apparently they think it's fair to ask a good hearted stranger to spend their time, money and energy caring for a precious animal that they cast off.   Here's an idea, if you only want a dog for a little while, only while it's convenient for you, don't buy a dog!  Try fostering for a rescue.  That way you'll only have the dog for a little while and if it's inconvenient for you to have a dog during a certain time in your life, then you don't have to accept a foster during that time.  And for the people out there who love their dogs and give them a good home but don't spay or neuter them, please, please, please spay or neuter your dog.  There are too many dogs out there that are abandoned and without a good home to bring any more into this world simply because you want to have puppies.  I do realize that sometimes in life it IS necessary to rehome a beloved pet.  But rehoming is different than abandoning.

I apologize for the long winded post tonight.  But this situation just breaks my heart.  If these dogs don't get killed by a coyote or a wild pig before I can rescue them, then I, along with the other woman I met tonight, will rescue them and find good homes for them.