We received the following heartwarming tale from Cai Palmer of Wine at Five. Lucky Kodi!
We received the following heartwarming tale from Cai Palmer of Wine at Five. Lucky Kodi!
I have had two dogs in my home my entire married life (25+ years). The only downside of sharing your life with a dog is that he or she will, inevitably, leave you before you leave them. It’s so unfair. But whilst they are with you, you receive total and unrequited love every day.
Sadly, that moment of leaving arrived for our Welsh Cairn Terrier after 19 years (more than we could have ever asked for), and though my wife and I had both thought maybe now we could just have the one dog in our life (along with the two obligatory cats), we also knew that our remaining Golden Retriever would probably like to have a rag doll in the house just to torment. And so, departing from our not-so-mutually-agreed DNR (do not replace) agreement, my wife started looking for another dog. This was last summer and Kaleigh (our Golden) was closing in on 13 years of a wonderful life.
We have been a part of ROAR (Ridgefield Operation for Animal Rescue) in Ridgefield, Connecticut, for a number of years and we have always supported shelters like theirs that protect animals and try to fend off the inevitable meeting with the Grim Reaper. So when my wife started looking for a purebred pedigree, I suggested that this time we should talk to the staff at ROAR and see what they thought. Through them we were put in touch with a group down in Tennessee that runs a ‘14 day shelter’. It’s the last resting place for strays and abandoned and rescued animals. If, at the end of 14 days an animal hasn’t been taken or adopted, they are put to sleep. It’s not a job I could do and how the volunteers down there manage I do not know.
We spent a few days reviewing the animals they had and one morning we received a photo of a tiny, malnourished rag with a little pink polka-dotted scarf wrapped around her neck. She looked so lost and so cute and all that day I remember just logging back on to the site to see if she was still there. And she was – just staring over the Internet begging for someone to save her life. So we did. We contacted the shelter and agreed to take ‘Doris’.
Ten days later she arrived via truck to a drop-off point in Danbury and along with a dozen other rescued dogs, Doris was brought out, a ‘charitable donation’ was given, and all of a sudden Kaleigh had a tiny little rag doll to toss in the air and generally tease.
Doris was obviously a name that wasn’t going to stick and she morphed into Kodi quickly. Upon arriving at our house, it became clear how badly treated she had been. I suspect that she’d lived her entire life (possibly 16 weeks) in a cage. She didn’t know how to walk and she couldn’t arch her back. She had incredibly long legs but weighed 30% less than normal. She had never walked on grass. It took us over an hour to walk across the garden. The little grass blades hurt her paws – paws that had never walked and were therefore completely raw. She wasn’t sure how to eat – she would sit in front of her bowl for 30 minutes, not moving, eyeing anyone or anything with utter suspicion. She would sleep curled in a tight fetal position with her eyes opening every few minutes. She had never experienced a hug.
I am always amazed at man’s inhumanity to man, but to animals? I have never understood that. And Kaleigh, our ‘old’ lovable Golden, sensed the inhumanity too. She would lie down next to Kodi and keep her warm. She never threw her up in the air like a rag doll. She shared her biscuits with her and taught her how to walk, and showed her the best places to dig in the garden and the best spots for stalking the squirrels and the chipmunks. She taught her how to lean over the rocks and lap water up from the pond. She taught her that there are people who would love her. And we do, totally, absolutely, and completely.
After Kaleigh sadly departed for a higher ground, we adopted another little rescue puppy, a Golden Retriever. Zoey is in turn is learning where all the best spots are both in and outside of the house. Zoey doesn’t share her food and she does try to throw Kodi up in the air, but she’s only a 45-pound rag doll now and has a long way to go!
If you have a rescue story to share, email RyeRescues@gmail.com.
