by Nancy Vanover
Around the end of February this year, 2000, a pitiful little dog showed up at our barn. She was nearly starved to death for food & attention. Sometimes I feel we should have a sign in our front yard reading "Holiday Inn for Pets". We get so many drop offs & always try to take care of everyone of them as they arrive. Lady showed up at a time in our lives when my husband had become disabled & had not had any source of income for a year other than what I make at my work. We were having a hard time feeding ourselves & the animals we already had but we didn't turn her away. We welcomed her into our family. Soon she fattened up & was my husbands shadow. She followed him everywhere he walked to in the neighborhood. They had become very good friends. Then came her time to "need to breed" & we didn't have the money to take & have her spayed. So, we tied her up, much to her disliking, thinking she would be "safe" but some of the BIG neighborhood dogs still got to her. When it came time to deliver the pups she had a very hard time. It took from around 9:00 PM on a Thursday night until Sunday afternoon to have them, even with the local vets help. We saw she was in distress on Friday morning & took her to the vet. We knew my husband had been approved for disability & a check would be coming any time so made arrangements with the vet to hold a check from us for payment for helping her. Out of 10 puppies only one survived. And on that Monday morning we had to have her put to sleep because the 10th puppy came apart inside her & the only way to remove the parts was with surgery & she was so bad with infection & dehydration that the vet did not think she would make it through the surgery & couldn't make it without it. So with a no win situation we had to let them put her to sleep. She was so sick but was also so scared. We stayed with her the whole time, as we always have all the others. It broke our hearts to do that but knew it was the only thing to do & not make her suffer through all the pain & sickness as the infection would worsen.
We brought the little survivor inside & have nursed it with "puppy milk". We are proud to announce that at only 3 and a half weeks old "Little Lady" is doing great!!!!! So, we will always have a part of Lady as long as Little Lady is with us. It has been a long hard haul with trying to help her stay alive but it has been worth every minute of it!!! We wouldn't trade the love Lady showed us for anything.