Sorry, for those who actually read my blog. I'd have given up by now, but Doug has motivated me to actually get my rear in gear and write!
Where to start...
I love Vermont, but I gotta say, winter's WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long. It's Groundhog Day today (which, by the way, only means that it's the halfway point between the first day of winter and the first day of spring. Whether a rodent can see his shadow or not has absolutely no impact on the weather.) I'm glad we're on the downside of the Mountain of Shivering Misery. I can't wait to smell that mud!
Life is an adventure. I am now the mother of a preschooler! She's hilarious! We recently watched Kung Fu Panda as a family, and now Adara wants to take Kung Fu. I would gladly enroll her, but as with so many families right now, we have no money to do it. Dance or gymnastics would also be great options since she has such innate body awareness. The discipline would certainly do her good, even at 4!
So continuing on the stream of random thoughts...Simon, our big, beautiful, white German Shepard mix is going downhill. He's had digestive problems for a year now. He's gotten so thin that you can see his ribs and his leg bones. You'd think we were starving him, but NO, his condition is the result of some REALLY EVIL people who starved him as a puppy! Can you imagine starving any kind of animal, but especially a puppy, not once, but TWICE??? My amazing friend Sheila McGregor is a devoted dog rescuer. (And when I say devoted, I mean she's given her life to this - sacrificing human relationships, jobs, her own home, etc. for the well being of the dogs she has rescued.) I'll have to get her to verify the details, but this is the story as I recall it:
Sheila lived in West Virginia for a while several years ago. One day, on her way out, she noticed a large, white dog laying in the ditch at the side of the dirt road she lived on. A few hours later, she came back through and saw that the dog had pulled himself into the road. She pulled over and got out of her van. When she walked over, he cowered and submissive urinated there on the road. But the tip of his tail wagged just slightly. She said it was almost like he was asking for her to be kind to him, that he hadn't completely given up hope in the human race. He was so thin that you could see every bone. He had no strength to stand, and had maggot infestations inside and out.
She called her friend Hope and together they lifted the dog into Sheila's van. They then drove to the local veterinarian, who happened to be Hope's father. He recognized the (by this time) unconscious, 11 month-old dog that they brought in to him. White German Shepard/Wolf mixes are not very common. He had seen him before when neighbors of the family who owned him had brought the dog in for malnutrition. When confronted, the owners claimed that they had asked someone to feed him while they were on vacation and that person had failed to do so. They paid $100 of the $400 vet bill and took him home, only for Sheila to find him dumped in a ditch, almost dead, a couple of months later. He recommended that she have the dog put to sleep because he was in such bad condition, but Sheila couldn't do it. The trust he had shown her, and the hope, made her believe that he could make it.
For the next several weeks it was touch and go with Spirit (Sheila's name for the dog). After three weeks of recovery, they almost lost him again. But her patient devotion and love pulled him through. He stayed with Sheila for many months. Because the bouts of starvation had left his digestive system barely functional, he had a strict diet and frequent episodes of diarrhea and just wasn't ready to be placed with a family. Eventually, however, his body healed. His mind and spirit have never healed completely, but his body was achieving a level of normal operation.
Sheila ended up placing him with a Burlington family. She had returned to Vermont and had met Spirit's new family and thought they would be a good fit, as they already had another large dog and were looking for a companion for him. Unfortunately, at least for Simon (which the family renamed him), they also adopted twin girls. They were only able to keep Simon for several months before it got to be too much for them to care for twin toddlers and two large dogs in a city where they had virtually no yard. At the time I worked with Sheila and heard about the situation. We were able to work it out to adopt Simon and have had him since February of 2002.
I remember the first time he saw her after at least a year. We had gone to the Starr Farm dog park in Burlington to meet her. Because of what he had been through, Simon was terrified of people. Even when he first came to live with us he was very skittish. It took a couple of months before he would go near Rob. But he loved other dogs, and, therefore, the dog park. It was tough to catch him so that we could go home, so Rob, Sheila and I came at him from three sides. He
wouldn't come to me voluntarily, but if there was someone who frightened him, I was his refuge, so when Sheila approached, he hid behind me. Now mind you, this dog's head is at my waist when he sits, so he's no little dog, but he would do his best to hide behind me! I held him by the collar as she approached and held out her hand for him to catch her scent. I encouraged him, but he would still scarcely approach her. But once he caught a whiff of her scent, his face lit up and his tail started to wag like crazy! He recognized her immediately and was incredibly excited to see her. Since then it has always been the same. As much as Simon loves us, his true devotion is to Sheila.
Because of the bond that they have, and her desire to spend some more time with him before he dies, we let her take him home on January 24. We all miss him, especially Rob and Molly, our Australian Shepard. I've only seen my husband cry three or four times in the seven+ years that we've been married, and the day that Simon left was one of them. Molly is still moping around the house, even though she gets extra treats and alot more attention now. We'll miss our boy. We will still, hopefully, see him again over the next few months; and if anyone can extend his life, it is Sheila. But this relationship, this dog, has made me realize the impact of our actions, for good or ill. Sheila will never make it on the national news for her heroism, but her acts of kindness, her love and generosity, her sacrifice, made it possible for us to love and nurture these special kids of ours.
!
