Tag Archives: shelties

Shih Tzu Day 102: Day in the Life of an Animal Rescue

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shih tzu beforeanimal rescueSheltie Shack animal rescue

I shared “before” pictures of Dottie, Candy and Flower the other day, from when Linda at the Sheltie Shack animal rescue picked them up at the Kansas puppy mill. However, since then, Linda sent me pictures of how they looked after a groomer in Kansas cleaned them up shortly after their rescue.

Linda also shared pictures of the other three shih tzus that were rescued the day Dottie, Candy and Flower were rescued, two which came from the same kennel. I don’t know what happened to Little Daisey Flower and Danielle Marie, but I hope they went to good homes. I also hope the shelties — Tiny Minnie, Sassy Lucille, Christi Rose, Jennifer Leigh and Smokey Girl —found good homes.

Linda told me that her animal rescue actually took in six shih tzus that day. The story about Wendy shows that animal rescues serve different purposes. Wendy came from another breeder. This breeder, who had less than 20 breeder dogs, socialized and made pets out of all of her dogs. When she decided she was going to board pets and not breed them anymore, Linda helped her place her last shelties, and they became friends.

The woman was also a dog trainer. Wendy came to the Sheltie Shack house trained and ready for an adoptive family. Linda recalled that Wendy’s biggest vice was that she was a very good climber.

I thought I would share this stories and the pictures to portray an accurate picture of the day my girls started their journey to a new home. Although I have already posted the before pictures of Dottie, Candy and Flower, I’m posting them again to show the difference from before they were rescued and shortly after.

 

 

 

Shelties on the way to a new home.

Shih Tzu Day 91: Sheltie Shack

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Digging into the Past

When I first saw a picture of Candy online in June and called Delores at BFF Rescue to ask for details about her, she explained that her and her half-sisters Flower and Dottie, all in a foster home through her rescue, had been puppy mill mothers.

She told me that a Kansas organization named the Sheltie Shack had been the rescue that was initially involved. I have recently been thinking about their origin, and I decided to look up the shelter online. I found a number for the founder, Linda, and called her. I told her who I was and that I had a blog telling the story of three shih tzus I had adopted. I said I had heard her organization had rescued them and asked her if she would tell me what she recalled about that day.

Linda was very pleasant to talk to. She remembered the dogs instantly. She said she had heard that a local breeder was not going to breed shelties anymore. When she inquired about them, the breeder told her she could take them off their hands. The breeder also relayed in the conversation that they would no longer be breeding shih tzus, and that if she wanted to, she could take the ones they had. Concerned about what could happen to them if she didn’t take them, the rescuer said she would make arrangements with other rescues to place them in homes.

When she picked them up, six shih tzus were in an outside chicken coop-type dog kennel. They were in need of grooming and affection, having lived a life isolated from humans, but otherwise, the rescuer had seen fair worse cases among the hundreds of dogs she had rescued. I was relieved when she said that. I thought maybe their life hadn’t been as bad as I had imagined.

She told me a few of the shih tzus acted very frightened. The others simply acted confused, most likely because they were being moved from the only home they had ever known.

I thanked Linda for sharing the story with me and asked her if she might have some pictures of the girls from the day they were rescued. She said she would look into it and send me what she could find. I will share those pictures if she finds any.

Shih Tzu Prelude: Puppy Mill Life Aftereffects

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Puppy Mill Effects

My conversation with Delores at BFF Rescue was very eye-opening. She told me that the shih tzus I had seen online had all come from a puppy mill in Kansas early this year. Some would say they came from a “commercial kennel.” I had never given much thought to where those adorable puppies in store windows came from. Come to think of it, I realized I hadn’t seen any of those pet stores lately that I used to see in malls.

Delores told me the horrible conditions that many of these puppies’ mothers lived in, and how their entire purpose was breeding more puppies. Unlike the puppies that are sold, the puppy mill moms rarely receive love and often don’t get exercise. Sometimes, they are forced to eat, sleep and relieve themselves in the same small space. The deplorable conditions of many puppy mills caused both emotional and physical problems in many cases.

In the case of the shih tzus I was considering fostering/adopting, the owner of the Sheltie Shack Rescue, a Kansas-based rescue, had rescued six shih tzus when rescuing several shelties. She had got the word out to several animal rescues and two in Colorado had volunteered to each take three of the shih tzus. BFF Rescue was one of those organizations.

The shih tzus Delores took were three half-sisters, Dottie, 5; Flower, 2; and Candy, 2. The Sheltie Shack couldn’t give Delores much information. Someone had told the rescue that the commercial kennel using them for breeding no longer wanted them. When she had arrived to pick them up, the shih tzus were outside in a chicken coop type kennel.

Before turning the three shih tzus over to BFF Rescue, the original rescuer took them to a vet. The vet gave them needed vaccinations and checked them over for any problems. They noted that Candy had a small hernia.

The shih tzus came to Colorado in late February 2011. Once there, they made the trip to another vet, where they would all be sterilized. Before they could be adopted, they would need to be socialized. That meant they would need to be placed in foster homes.

Delores explained that many of the dogs that had come to BFF Rescue found homes within weeks. However, that wasn’t the case with these girls.