Inspirational Rags to Riches Story; A Three-Legged Surf Hero

Onyx learns to surf in a pool at his upscale doggy daycare

The black Lab who stars in this story was found five months ago tied to a wooden post. He had a bloody severed leg. “It looked like it had literally been chopped off by garden shears,” says Daniel Slayton, the Los Angeles-area veterinarian and orthopedic specialist who amputated the dog’s leg, and would end up adopting Onyx. He didn’t know if the dog would survive until surgery because he was so septic and shocky, but this amazing fighter pulled through, and has become an inspiration for so many people.

Onyx is living the good life now, but he’s giving back in spades. He’s training to become a therapy dog, where he will help others — particularly children who have lost limbs — realize that life’s difficulties can be overcome. The video below tells the whole story.

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Share Your Pit Bull Story: Saturday Is Pittie Awareness Day

Tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 22, is National Pit Bull Awareness Day, and we thought the best way to celebrate these gorgeous, goofy, and often misunderstood dogs would be to encourage everyone reading who has ever had a positive experience with these pupsters to share their story in the comments section below.

To kick things off, we’ve invited our friend Laura Petrolino of StubbyDog to tell us what National Pit Bull Day means to her.

StubbyDog is a nonprofit that is working to change public perception and improve the lives of Pits everywhere. (You can read more about them on their Facebook page.)

Here’s Laura! — Janine K.

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Because I grew up with dogs, there have only been a handful of sad times when I was forced to lead a dogless life. During one of them, while I was in graduate school, a good friend, knowing of my extreme dog withdrawal, connected me with a colleague who was looking for a dog sitter. And so Ruby entered my life.

Ruby was a medium-sized, beautiful brown Pit Bull who bounced when she walked and tended to steal all the blankets at night. I was able to overlook this slight annoyance (and my cold toes) because Ruby won me over with her ridiculously goofy and loving personality. She was just what I needed, and I secretly waited for her guardian to go out of town again so I could have my Ruby vacations.

Several years later I discovered StubbyDog, a nonprofit whose mission was to change the public perception of Pit Bulls and help people rediscover them as lifelong friends. Although I’d read shocking media stories about “dangerous” and “vicious” Pit Bulls, sweet, bed-hogging Ruby was what I saw when I thought of the breed. I knew very little about the prejudice and hateful responses the dogs and their guardians are forced to deal with every day.

Because of dogs like Ruby, almost anyone who has ever known and loved a Pit Bull becomes an advocate for them, which is why events like National Pit Bull Awareness Day, on Saturday, Oct. 22, rally people to support these wonderful dogs.

Pit Bull Awareness Day shines a spotlight on brave, loyal, and loving Pit Bulls you don’t often read about in the media, such as:

Shaka

Shaka, the star K-9 cop who keeps her community safe. Spackle

Spackle, the constant companion who helped heal her mom’s PTSD. Sarge

Sarge, the survivor who taught us to respect our elders. Sal

Sal, the therapy dog with the power to soothe hospital patients. Jagger

And Jagger, the victim of dog fighting, who teaches us all the power of forgiveness.

There are so many heroes — canine and human — working to change public perception and improve the lives of Pit Bulls everywhere. Every day I’m inspired by a new story of hope, courage, and love! We know there’s a lot to do before more people begin to think positively about Pit Bulls, the way I did with Ruby. But the more stories we can share like those above, the better chance we have.

Dogsters, let’s make this Pit Bull Awareness Day really meaningful. How has a Pit Bull affected your life? What would you tell others about your Pittie? Please share your pawsitive stories below!

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The Riveting Real Story of Toto (aka Terry)

Dogsters, last week I teased an upcoming story about a mystery celebrity dog by showing a few pictures of the dog. Of course, you all guessed who it was. I also promised to tell you the rest of the story. And here I am, with a most fascinating story of one of Hollywood’s most memorable dogs: Terry, aka Toto. It comes to us courtesy of Allan R. Ellenberger, who wrote for his very interesting and entertaining blog, Hollywoodland. Thank you, Allan!

Toto the Story of a Dog

By Allan Ellenberger

The most indulged of all the spoiled lovelies of Hollywood during the Golden Age were the canine actors who worked in films. They had their own hotel—The Hollywood Dog Training School—where at one time, seventy-five of the best known dogs of the screen lived in tranquil comfort.

The school was set on a pleasant ten-acre site, covered with oaks and willows, near Laurel Canyon Boulevard five miles north of Hollywood. Three hundred feet back from the road stood a cream colored frame house and back of it were two kennels, each 150 feet long. It featured southern exposure, long runs to each kennel, a large grass playground, showers in each section, and several porcelain bathtubs with hot and cold water, an electric drier and a special kitchen where, every day, a tempting cauldron full of vegetable and beef bone soup was cooked for dinners of the distinguished boarders.

Carl Spitz and some canine friends

The dogs, like all other actors, employed a manager—the amiable Carl Spitz—who drove as hard a bargain for his clients as any other agent in Hollywood. The German-born Spitz first took up the work of schooling dogs in Heidelberg where his father and grandfather were dog trainers. Spitz trained dogs for military and police service in World War days. He saw Red Cross dogs search for dying men in no man’s land—and he devoted his life to educating man’s best friend.

Leaving Germany, Spitz arrived in New York in 1926, moved briefly to Chicago and soon found himself in Los Angeles, where, the following year he opened his first dog training school at 12239 Ventura Boulevard. Sometime around 1935 he moved the facilities one mile north to a ten-acre spot at 12350 Riverside Drive, where he remained for almost twenty years. “This is a school, where dogs go to classes just like children,” Spitz said. “We have grammar school, high school and college.

At first his services were for the public but soon the movies came calling. The transition to sound films required Spitz to drop his verbal commands and develop a series of soundless visual hand signals.

His first sound film was Big Boy (1930) starring Al Jolson in which he trained two Great Danes. This one was followed by the John Barrymore classic, Moby Dick (1930). It was too expensive for studios to create their own specially trained dogs so Spitz suddenly found himself in big demand.

Canine stars soon began to emerge such as Prince Carl, the Great Dane appearing in Wuthering Heights (1939). The first big dog star to appear from Spitz’s stable was Buck the Saint Bernard who co-starred with Clark Gable and Loretta Young in Call of the Wild (1935). Others included Musty (Swiss Family Robinson), Mr. Binkie (The Lights that Failed) and Promise (The Biscuit Eater). However, probably the best known dog star to emerge from the Spitz kennel that is known today is arguably Toto from The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Clark Gable with Buck in Call of the Wild (1935)

Toto, a purebred Cairn Terrier, was born in 1933 in Alta Dena, California. She soon was taken in by a married couple without children in nearby Pasadena—they named her Terry. It soon became apparent that Terry had a problem with wetting the rug, and her new owners had very little patience with her. It wasn’t long before they sought the services of Carl Spitz’s dog training school in the nearby San Fernando Valley. Spitz put her through the usual training and in a few weeks she was no longer watering the carpet.

However, by the time her training was completed, Terry’s owners were late on the kennel board. Spitz attempted to contact them but their telephone had been disconnected. With nothing else to do, Carl’s wife suggested that they keep her.

Terry sort of became the family pet until one day Clark Gable and Hedda Hopper stopped by the kennel for some publicity on Gable’s new film, Call of the Wild. One of Carl’s dogs, Buck the St. Bernard, had a large role in the film and Hedda wanted some photos of him with Gable. That day Terry made himself known to the Hollywood people and Carl took note and the next day took her to Fox Studios to audition for a part in the new Shirley Temple film, Bright Eyes (1934).

Jane Withers and Shirley Temple with Terry in Bright Eyes (1934)

Spitz put her through her paces—playing dead, leaping over a leash, barking on command—for the executives and was then presented to Shirley for the final say. Terry was placed next to a Pomeranian named Ching-Ching, who wasn’t part of the film but was Shirley’s own dog. Terry stood there for a moment, while Ching-Ching looked at her. Finally Terry rolled over, was sniffed and both dogs began running around Shirley’s dressing room. At last, Shirley picked up Terry and handed her to Spitz, grabbed her dog and skipped to the door. “She’s hired,” Shirley giggled as she left the room. Bright Eyes, which co-starred Jane Withers, would be Terry’s first film.

That same year Terry made another film, Ready for Love (1934) at Paramount. Next she appeared in The Dark Angel (1935) with Fredric March and Merle Oberon. Other films followed including Fury (1936) with Spencer Tracy; The Buccaneer (1938) for director Cecil B. DeMille and an uncredited part in Stablemates (1938) with Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney.

Franciska Gaal with Terry in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Buccaneer (1938)

One day it was announced that MGM was going to produce L. Frank Baum’s children classic, “The Wizard of Oz.” Spitz knew that Terry was a mirror-image for Dorothy’s dog, Toto based on sketches throughout the book. So he began teaching her all the tricks from the book, and sure enough, in two months, he received a call from MGM for an audition.

Spitz and Terry met with the producer, Mervyn LeRoy who had been inspecting an average of 100 dogs daily for the past week. “Here’s your dog, all up in the part,” Spitz said to LeRoy when he submitted Terry for scrutiny. Terry could already fight, chase a witch, sit up, speak, catch an apple thrown from a tree, and took an immediate liking to Judy Garland. Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley and the rest of the cast were accepted on first acquaintance with the dog. On November 1, 1938, Terry won the role of Toto without a test.

Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” to Toto in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Terry received a weekly salary of $125, which was more than the studio paid the Munchkins. Before filming began, Terry spent two weeks living with Judy Garland, who fell in love with her and tried to buy her from Spitz. Of course he refused. Judy’s daughter, Lorna Luft, once said that her mother told them that the dog had the worst breath in the world. “It all made us laugh,” Luft said, “because the dog was constantly put in her face [with its] silly panting, and she did everything but wince because poor little Toto needed an Altoid.”

Terry did everything required of her, although she hesitated at being put in a basket and standing in front of the giant wind fans, simulating a tornado. One day they were filming on the Witches Castle set with dozens of costumed “Winkies” when one of them stepped on Terry’s paw. When she squealed everyone came running including Judy who called the front office and told them that Terry needed a rest. Until Terry returned a few days later, they utilized a stand-in for her.

The remainder of filming went smoothly for Terry and even though she appeared in approximately fifteen films, The Wizard of Oz was ultimately her best known. When the film was released, Terry appeared along with the cast at the premiere held at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. She became so famous that her paw print brought top prices among autograph seekers. Soon she began making public appearances and became so popular, that Spitz officially changed her name to Toto.

Terry, now billed as Toto with Virginia Weidler in Bad Little Angel (1939)

That year was a busy one for Toto. Besides The Wizard of Oz, Toto also made a cameo appearance in MGM’s The Women (1939) starring Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford and had a larger role in Bad Little Angel with Virginia Weidler. The next few years had her appearing in Calling Philo Vance (1940), Twin Beds (1942), and Tortilla Flat (1942), again with Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield. Her final film was George Washington Slept Here (1942) starring Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan. That year Toto retired to Spitz’s huge facility on Riverside Drive until she died sometime in 1944. Even though several of Spitz’s dogs were interred at the Camarillo Pet Cemetery in Ventura, he chose to bury Toto on the school property.

Carl Spitz continued to train dogs. In 1938, he wrote a handbook, “Training your Dog,” which contained a foreword by Clark Gable. As far back as 1930 Spitz tried to get the Army to let him train dogs for war use. But nothing came of it. Finally in the summer of 1941 they took him up, in a limited way. Spitz agreed to furnish the Army fifty trained sentry dogs—at no cost. He delivered six, had twelve more under training, and already spent $1500 of his own money in the process.

Spitz trained the first platoon of war dogs installed in the continental United States just prior to World War II. He was an expert advisor to the War Department in Washington DC and helped formulate the now famous K-9 Corps for both the US Army and Marine Corps. He became prominent nationally as a dog obedience judge at dog shows. Carl Spitz died on September 15, 1976 and is buried at Forest Lawn in Glendale.

Around 1958, the Ventura Freeway was being built through the San Fernando Valley and the route went through Spitz’s school, forcing him to relocate. Today the Hollywood Dog Training School is still in existence at 10805 Van Owen Street.

Sadly, not only did the freeway erase the school, but it also obliterated Toto’s grave.

It’s appropriate that Toto’s Memorial Marker is being installed at Hollywood Forever Cemetery this Saturday, June 18 at 11 a.m. Many of the people that worked with Toto are interred there including Victor Fleming, Harold Rosson (The Wizard of Oz, Tortilla Flat); Cecil B DeMille, Maude Fealy (The Buccaneer); Erville Anderson, Carl Stockdale, Franz Waxman (Fury); Arthur C. Miller (Bright Eyes); Sidney Franklin, Gregg Toldand (The Dark Angel); Ann Sheridan (George Washington Slept Here). She is in good company.

Allan R. Ellenberger is the author of several books on Hollywood, and is currently working on a biography of the stage and screen actress, Miriam Hopkins.

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Cody’s story continues: Getting healthy, getting a home

[Editor note: In January, we brought you the beginning of Cody's story.  Cody is the Flat Coated Retriever who needed the liver shunt surgery to have a chance at a normal life, before being adopted by his not-yet-determined forever home. Now that the ending is known, the second half the story can be told. Stephanie Green is the founder of Milbrose Retrievers in New Hampshire. In her words, this is the second part of Cody's saga.]

Thirty hours after my first call for help, we had raised $7,000.00 to cover the surgery that would keep Cody alive.

I didn’t even have the puppy yet but was honored that so many people had trusted me and answered the call for donations. We didn’t know much at this point, in the middle of January, other than that Cody, like my own puppy Bing, had a liver shunt. Without surgery a liver shunt is a sure death sentence.

Cody was bred by a woman in her twenties who lived with her parents. She was in over her head. I would like to think she had the best of intentions. She could have dumped him at the shelter or not disclosed his issue to his new family but she didn’t do either of those things. I had received an email a week earlier stating that her father was saying that he would be euthanized if they couldn’t find him a home. He was peeing in the house and they did not have the finances to provide him with the special food and medication that he needed.

I had previously had a golden puppy that I had bred with a shunt and we had found a wonderful vet by the name of Dr. Chick Weisse who had performed an interventional radiology procedure on my Bing and saved his life.   It didn’t seem fair that my Bing should have a chance at a normal life and Cody should not because of circumstances and money.

I had decided that I was going to get Cody no matter what. Even if he couldn’t get the surgery he needed, he would be safe.

But we did raise the money and the trip to get Cody was planned.

Victor, New York is about ten hours from my home in New Hampshire. It made for a long day, but I was able to pick him up and get him home on the same day. The plan was for him to spend the first few days at my home in New Hampshire, where we would start the process of getting him ready to go to the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan to have surgery.

The Holistic Vet Center in Concord was very kind to us and covered many of Cody’s expenses, including the same medications and herbs Bing was on. The blood work was sent to Dr. Weisse for analysis.

The plan was for him to stay at my home a couple of days, get the initial medical work done and then go to the home of another flat coat breeder.  I brought Cody home and introduced him to a few of my pack of eight retrievers. He did great. The older dogs thought he was a dopey kid but they were fine with him and the younger ones thought he was a great playmate.

By the end of the first day, Cody was a new member of the pack and it was as if he had been here his entire life. We scrapped our original plan and decided that he would stay in our home. As a university professor, I only taught a couple days a week and I had been through this process before, so it seemed to make sense for him to stay.

I had been putting out feelers for a new home for Cody, and my husband and I went back and forth about whether we could keep him. He fit so well into our pack and we just adored the boy. He was affectionate and easy going. He played well with the other dogs and while he came to my house un-housebroken, he was now trustworthy. Many shunt dogs are difficult to housebreak because the kidneys are performing double duty cleansing the blood for the liver. With his herbs and vet care, Cody was now mostly housebroken.

I had heard from the newsletter editor from the Northeast Flat Coated Retriever Club asking to reprint the original article about Cody that David wrote for Pet Connection back in January. They thought it would be a good story for the members. A few days after the story was printed in the newsletter I received an email from a family not far from my home. They had read about Cody in the NEFCRC newsletter, and were anxious to see if Cody might be a good fit for them.

The issue was that Cody had some health problems that were not only serious, but also we were not fully clear on the future ramifications of these issues.

Where there is one birth defect there may be others, and we already knew about one of them.  We learned that Cody has a serious heart murmur in addition to the liver shunt.  How bad was the murmur? We didn’t yet know.

I explained the health issues, but Jim and Ann did not seem fazed by the information. After several hours I fell absolutely in love with them as did Cody. They were perfect. They had previous flat coat experience, they had a fenced yard, used a vet I knew, and would continue taking Cody to my holistic vet. Ann planned on cooking for him. Even better, they owned a beach house and a boat. How can anyone deny a retriever a beach house and a boat? We agreed that I would keep them posted on Cody’s upcoming health evaluations and if all went well they could consider him theirs; or shall I say Cody would consider them his!

The appointment for Cody’s surgery was set for March 21, 2011, the week of my spring break.

We drove to the Animal Medical Center on Monday morning and met with Dr. Weisse and his team. They commented about how I was a glutton for punishment after having been through this once already (I think the word actually used was “sucker”). One of the team members was a resident who was already a board certified cardiologist and was in the process of getting her certification in internal medicine as well; she was also from the Boston area, so a lucky break for us as she is a relatively local vet that we could follow up with.

The plan for the week was for Cody to have his CT scan on Monday to establish exactly where the shunt was located, and to be neutered. Then on Tuesday he would have the interventional radiology procedure and spend until Thursday in intensive care.

I was staying with a friend and our plan was to drop Cody off at the vet in the morning and then spend the day eating and shopping in New York City. On Monday afternoon while we were shopping I got a call from Dr. Weisse; the CT Scan was done and the shunt was not inside Cody’s liver.

Cody was one of the few large dogs with a shunt outside of his liver. The surgery was in some ways easier with a higher long term success rate, but considerably more invasive. He had been doing very well with just medical management and his blood work was not normal but it wasn’t terrible either. The heart murmur which hadn’t been a concern all of a sudden became a big issue.

Do we do the surgery? Do we not? Do we pick him up and have the surgery done closer to home in Boston? Is it worth the risk considering the heart murmur? What does this do with regard to our money issue? Would his potential new family still want him if he did not have the surgery? What would all the folks who donated the money want me to do? The more I talked to Dr. Weisse, the more unsure I became.

We agreed to talk the following morning and make a decision. We would both sleep on it and come to a decision in the morning. I spent the night talking to my husband, talking to friends, and talking to donor, and by 3 am I was no closer to making a decision.

The majority I talked to told me to go ahead and have the surgery done. But I was the one that would be directly responsible if he did not survive surgery.

What was going to be a two-stitch incision in his jugular would be a full abdominal incision and major procedure. Dr. Weisse was concerned that he was doing so well now and what could happen with surgery, as any surgery is a risk and with the heart murmur did we want to risk surgery?

Not to mention spend all the money that this surgery would cost, considering how well he was doing, how invasive the surgery was and the inherent risks of a big abdominal surgery.

Chick wasn’t pushing me in either direction; he said we could go home and have it done in Boston, but that if I wanted him to do it that he would be happy to perform the surgery. He had no strong feelings either way. It was then that I realized that here we were, with a world reknowned vet/researcher, and Cody was in the care of the best; why would I want him to be anywhere else? I bit the bullet and told him to go ahead.

While Cody was under anesthesia they opted to check his heart again. The earlier cardiologist had diagnosed him with a mitral valve dysplasia, a condition that if it progressed would surely shorten Cody’s life. This knowledge only added to the angst about whether or not to do the surgery.

But when they tested Cody on a newer piece of equipment at the Animal Medical Center, the cardiologist found the same noisy mitral valve but her conclusion was very different. On their equipment she was able to conclude that the likelihood of this heart murmur ever being a problem was very low, and thus it became clear that we had made the right decision in going ahead with surgery.

The surgery went well. You really don’t know if it succeeds in closing the shunt until about a month after the surgery. Cody was neutered and we picked him up on Thursday morning and brought him home. Keeping a young flat coat quiet for two weeks can be quite a challenge, but we succeeded and two weeks later Cody had his first bloodwork. It was still slightly abnormal but more normal than it had been. Two weeks later he had another set of bloodwork and that was absolutely normal. Since that time we have succeeded in taking Cody off all medications and his special food and his bloodwork has stayed normal.

Cody had gone for short weekend visits to his new family’s home, and we watched him stand at the door and watch them leave when they dropped him off after the weekend was over. He knew they were his family.

Two weeks ago, once he was weaned off his meds and special food, they came to pick him up and he went to live with them. He has a fenced yard, wonderful experienced owners who adore him, he is the center of attention and he has a beach house and a boat. They are looking for another rescue dog who needs them so Cody will have a friend. They are thrilled to have him, and all it took was one look at Cody to know that he is thrilled to have them and hopefully will have the good, long, healthy life with a family that loves him that every dog deserves.

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The story of Gus – a new leash on life

Now and again I have the opportunity to make a huge difference for patients and their humans.

A single case like this can really carry me and my team through a whole series of tough and tragic cases. These are the “silver linings” we all crave.

Gus came to us first as a pain patient. He was losing function, and we were faced with a conundrum:
“Is Gus weak because he is painful?,” or “Is Gus weak AND painful?”

In the early stages of these cases it is impossible to know the difference. So, we began with the obvious first step. We worked to control the pain and re-evaluate the weakness. One of my early blogs was about Critter, a dog who was weak because of his pain.

Gus, though, was a different matter. Once his pain was managed, he remained weak, and in fact his weakness continued to progress. Unfortunately, we were left with the reality that he was dealing with degenerative myelopathy – - such a devastating yet common issue for German Shepherds. Because Gus had enjoyed an active, athletic, outdoor lifestyle with his owner, we measured him for a K-9 Cart, and ordered him his “candy-apple red” set of wheels. He was like a teen-ager in his first muscle car! We fitted his chair to him, strapped it on, and he raced down the hall at the clinic. Within a short time he was running alongside his owner again – - an activity he dearly loved before losing so much function.

As his disease has progressed, so has the muscle-wasting that is the hallmark of this disorder. Just a couple of weeks ago, he developed a decubitus ulcer – - a pressure sore – - over the boney prominence at the top of his thigh bone. Decubitus ulcers can be devastating for these patients because any time they are not in the wheelchair, their body weight alone puts incredible pressure on shrinking tissues. Whole areas of the body can become devitalized, lose their blood supply, and simply peel off. It can be pretty ghastly, and if the tissue can’t heal, euthanasia can be the outcome.

Fortunately for Gus, we were able to apply common sense principles of good hygiene (cleaning and closing the open wound), good wound care (by removing dead and dying tissues), and the latest in technology in the form of therapeutic LASER to create a “perfect storm” of healing.

After just three treatments, we have a bed of very happy, healthy, healing tissue, and our conversation has turned from discussing euthanasia to laughing together as Gus reminds us his time on this earth is not yet over. Gus is happy, his human is happy, and once again I and my team are reminded why we do what we do for a living!

Photo credits:  Dr. Robin Downing

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A shelter dog’s story: Before the happy ending

Are you getting sick of hearing me talk about my Gracie yet?

Today, the great folks at Second Chance Animal Adoption in Bonners Ferry sent me some more information on Gracie’s life before we adopted her on Christmas Day. And while I worry and care about all pets in sub-standard shelters and pounds, knowing that my own dog suffered in a particularly terrible one is hard to think about.

But I think it’s important, so this is Gracie’s story.

She was found by a sheriff’s deputy near a trailer park when she was a puppy. She came into the city pound during a time when it was being investigated for neglect of the animals, while volunteers from SCAA were working hard to help the pets in the old pound and get a new shelter built.

The old pound was a small concrete building with seven kennels, and inside/outside “runs” that were only 3 feet by 4 feet in size. The building was old, with inadequate ventilation and no drainage. It was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

Eventually someone new was hired to care for the animals, and SCAA volunteers were able to make many improvements over the years, but it was still known locally as a “hell hole.”

All that finally changed when SCAA opened a brand new shelter for our community’s animals last July, and brought all the animals, including Gracie, over there. This is how Kate Turner from SCAA described that day:

When Gracie moved to the shelter (she rode on the float in the parade from the pound to the shelter) and crawled into her Kuranda bed, I cried. It was the first time in her life she didn’t have to lay on filthy concrete ( in her own waste). She laid on that soft bed constantly unless Kim or Dawn was walking her or putting her in an outside pen for fresh air.

I look at my beloved Gracie now, and see her lounging on her special orthopedic beds and wrestling with best friend Shakira, our Golden Retriever, and like Kate, I find myself crying.

Friends, I’ll be honest with you: This dog is such a special gift to me. I love all my pets, but with her it’s, like the coach used to say on Mad TV, “a whole ‘nother level!”

My gratitude to the people who do the hard work for the animals in our community, and all over the country, is endless. And I’ve never been so glad of anything in my life as to know that Teresa and I helped get the new shelter built through our donations and sponsorships, and continue to sponsor adoption and other programs there, too. Talk about a warm feeling!

If you have a pound like this in your area, lend a hand, or donate some money, to the animals there. They need you.

Excuse me, I have to go see if Gracie needs anything!

Photo: One of the runs at the old city pound, before Second Chance Animal Adoption volunteers were allowed to step in, and a new animal care employee hired. There are much worse photos, but I thought this one was bad enough.

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