My First Rescue

Bright and early this morning Carina and I drove to Pacific, WA to pick up a dog named Precious (who's name has now been changed to Honey). There had been complaints about her barking and someone contacted Pasado's Safe Haven and in a whirlwind of emails, Carina contacted me to help. When Carina first went to see Honey she began barking and her owner came out to quiet her by beating the crap out of her. Carina got serious about rescuing this poor girl. It took Carina several trips down to Pacific (including one with me at night trying to free Honey...on our own...long story) and finally today the owner surrendered her and signed her over. We had to get her out of the yard, off her chain (which is where she spent most of her time) and into my truck safely. The owner, Angela, put the muzzle on Honey but Honey hated it and immediately removed it. We had to wing it. Angela got Honey on a leash and she then pulled Angela to the ground. Not much control of the strong puller and not safe for us if she totally lost control. Once we got through the house, I took the leash and everything seemed just fine. She is a strong girl and pulled me as hard as she could and ended up wrapping her leash around my leg. She was reluctant to get into the truck so Angela lifted her and we were on our way to Rainier Vet where she would be examined and spayed and live for a few days. She did great in the truck but once we got to the vet she didn't want to get out of the truck. All the city noises and new people were freaking her out. She wouldn't let me get close enough to hook the leash to her collar so I made a "lasso" and tossed it around her neck. It took us about two hours to get her out of the truck (we eventually had to pull her out by the leash)and into the vets office. She hated the smooth linoleum floors and backed out with all her might several times. Once we finally got her to her kennel she was not too excited about getting in so we petted her and she laid her head on my lap and adored having some positive attention from humans. We finally had to push her into the kennel and she only growled a little (PHEW!). She seemed happy to be in the quiet and to be surrounded by bits of food and treats.
Things could have been so much worse. We knew nothing about this dog when we offered to help her. She turned out to be pretty sweet once she started to relax and let us give her some lovin'.