It has been a week since I first met the "Missouri Rescue Dogs" up at the kennel in the Garden State.....Having seen rescue dogs before I pretty much thought I as prepared in my mind and in my heart to visit with them........boy I could not be more wrong. Seeing this dogs cut right to my very soul......sort of a primal connection between them and myself that I still have not been able to figure out. My close friend Susan was kind enough to drive us up there last Sunday morning...the conversation in the SUV driving to the kennel was mostly spent on the history and condition of these dogs.......from what we had been told already.. Once we arrived and spent the first 5 minutes with them it was clear that nothing in our conversation driving there was accurate enough......it was much worse. Camille who is in charge of the rescue has been spending every waking hour outside of her own life (which is not much these days) with these dogs......She tries to visit each day but still needs others to volunteer to spend time with these sad little angels..........As of last Sunday there were a hand full of the original 18 dogs that have been already placed in foster care.........but the remaining 10 or 11 were the worse of the lot........some were extremely feral and others were shut down.......all were in desperate need of love and kindness..........The question I kept asking myself is how could anyone in their right mind keep these dogs in a 4x4 pen outside year round? How could they be so neglected and unloved...........How could the owner of these Tibetan Terriers put information on his website stating that these dogs were so well taking care of? How could he show pictures of cute little puppies that seemed to look happy at first glance.........the more time I spent on his website it was very clear that the eyes of these puppies in those pictures were mostly blank.........should have given some future puppy buyer a clue......but based on how long he was in business I guess it did not.
After our first hour at the kennel spending time with the dogs outside in a fenced in area I started to notice this one little boy who kept coming back to me over and over again.......he would stand up on his back legs and place his front paws on my legs and look up at me..........His eyes were what I like to call "old eyes" not the eyes of a 17 month old puppy! which would normally be bright and shiny and full of life...........no these eyes were dead cold.........lifeless...........and burned a hole in your heart......after this game of coming back to me and placing his paws on my legs continued for awhile I decided to pick him up and hold him.......Since I was already covered with mud just like him it did not matter one bit to me.........he was receptive to me reaching down and bringing him up to my chest..........He even placed his muddy face right into my shoulder and rested his head there for more then a few minutes.........I cannot explain what this feeling was like.....I am still trying to figure this out as well........I do know however that my little boy was melting into my body the more I held him........I knew at this moment that I needed to bring him home with me to foster........but more than fostering I needed to start the rehabilitation process for him so that if he was to be placed in a forever home someday he would go there as a happy and healthy dog.........Since this day would not work out for me to bring him back home with me, I agreed to return in a few days to pick him up and bring him home.............."Home" a word we take for granted but this little sweet soul has never really known a "home".....I had my work cut out for me............On Wednesday, I brought Maroo home and into my life...........This is his story...........a daily, weekly, monthly update of his life and how it is changing.......
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