Pictures of the Day: My Sweet Sophie

For those of you who have not been lucky enough to meet her, allow me to introduce my sweet Sophie. She is an Australian Shepherd that I rescued in 2001. In Sophie’s case, it really was a rescue. It is hard to imagine the kind of people who must exist on this planet who could mistreat any animal so much.

Sophie was approximately one year old when I adopted her. She had been in isolation at a vet for three months for the various illnesses she had (Bordatella, or kennel cough, sarcoptic mange, URI, the list goes on and on). The isolation basically meant that she had not had any human contact, except for vet techs coming in completely gowned and masked (like surgeons) to feed her and make sure she had water and clean out all the waste in her cage. Sophie had absolutely no contact with other animals, and certainly didn’t get any tummy rubs.

She had been tied up in a backyard in the Dallas area with no shade, a rope tied around her neck so tightly you can still feel where it was five years later. She is a dark red and white Australian Shepherd, but her back had been bleached pure white from being in the hot Texas sun with no shade.

She had also been physically abused. I still don’t know the specifics of exactly what they did to her, but I have learned from my five years with her that they did some unimaginable things to her. To this day, I have to hide empty hangers under my shirt when I am doing laundry because the sight of a hanger sends her into a doggie panic attack. I don’t mean to make that sound in any way cute. A doggie panic attack involves a lot of really horrible things including vomiting and severe diarrhea. Any kind of loud noise causes her to try to crouch as low to the ground and hide as she can. When we go for walks, which she loves, if she sees someone she perceives as a threat, she crouches on the ground and crawls back to me to hide. It is one of the saddest things I have ever seen

Despite all of this, she has been the most loving and trusting dog you can imagine, from day one. Every morning when she wakes up, she “chats” to me and James. It is not exactly a whine, definitely not a bark, but indescribable and very urgent sounding. It sounds almost like she is surprised to see that she is still at our house with us and not tied up in a backyard getting beaten.

Sophie’s cousin, Nelly, has a similarly sad story, but her mistreatment lasted much longer than Sophie’s and involved Nelly being trapped in a very cramped cage where all she could do was run around in tiny circles. She was kept there by a breeder who was unsuccessful in breeding Nelly, but still kept trying and, thus, prolonged Nelly’s abuse to a stunning five years. That was five years with no love, no other dogs to frolic with, and certainly no loving human contact. However, Nelly’s entire story is for Eddy and Christine to tell.

My point in all of this is to say to all of you out there, PLEASE, stop the mass breeding of pure-bred dogs and go to your local shelter and adopt a homeless dog, or cat. Sophie and Nelly are both pure-bred dogs. If you are that intent on having a pure-bred dog, than do your research. Find out what breed will fit into your lifestyle and then get on the internet and find the rescue group for that breed. I promise you one exists.

Unlike disease and other like things that are beyond our control, the overpopulation of cats and dogs is 100% totally our fault and 100% avoidable. There is no excuse for it.

This topic came up while a co-worker was explaining that she was going to breed her dog after she came into “season” one time and then have her spayed. I asked her one simple question, why? Why do we need more puppies born when the ones that are out there in the shelters and the pounds are so desperately in need of homes?

Here is where I am going to get angry; don’t ever say you weren’t warned. Who the hell are you people that think you need the latest “designer dog” or feel the need to match your animal to your couch? I am not kidding about that last one, you would be surprised at how many people came into Operation Kindness when I worked there and would choose not to adopt a dog or cat for that exact reason. One woman was looking for a dog that would match her purse. I wondered which would last longer in her life; the purse or the dog.

You make me sick, literally. In fact, I don’t want to know you, I don’t want to be your friend, and I choose not to associate with people like you. If you are so shallow that it is imperative to you that your dog or cat be a pure-bred animal, then shame on you. I would like for you to think of all the dogs and cats that will die tomorrow because shelters cannot keep them and must put them to sleep. When you dump a dog or cat in the country, do you really think that someone wanders across it and gives it a loving home? No. It gets devoured by the real wild animals out there, gets hit by a car, or gets taken to a pound, and, way more often than not is put to sleep.

Wake up, people. This problem is not going to go away if we don’t all do our part. It is totally avoidable. Please think before you enter a pet store that sells animals or contact a breeder. Please visit your local shelter and see the conditions the animals live in, and God knows it is not because the shelter employees are not working their asses off. Please go to one of these shelters and ask yourself if it is worth it. It’s not.

Oh, and your pure-bred dog that cost you hundreds, or thousands of dollars is not cuter than ANY of my five rescue dogs. Trust me. Notice in the picture below that Sophie is sticking her tongue out at all of you who buy pure-bred dogs or cats.