Emerald's sparkly new life

Today was a great day.

In September, I happened upon a 6-year-old Lab named Emerald on a shelter website. It said she had been there two months, which I thought must have been a typo. She was a beautiful black Lab, and she looked happy in her shelter picture, which is rare.

It turned out that Em was a cruelty case, having been kept in a crate as a breeder dog for virtually her entire life. When the authorities finally caught up with the owner, in July, she was pregnant again. She gave birth in the shelter and her puppies were adopted.

This shelter has the illogical and unkind policy of not adopting animals to rescue groups. The shelter people were rude and would barely talk to me. It pissed me off. What gave these public employees the right to ignore a citizen? Would county residents be in agreement with this effed-up policy? And who was thinking about the poor dog?

I sent a series of certified letters to those in authority in the county, aided by one of our volunteers who told me what statutes to cite and how to file Freedom of Information Act requests. They must have finally figured out that Lab Rescue wasn't going to let up, because on Nov. 16, I received a call from the shelter saying we could adopt Emerald. That same day, I was told the shelter had changed its policy and would now allow animals to be taken by rescue groups after 30 days in the adoption area. I'm guessing there had to be one or two animal lovers among the seven or eight county execs we bombarded with letters and e-mails.

But once the exhilaration of knowing we had prevailed had worn off, I began to worry. What if this dog's personality had been completely warped by a life of neglect, followed by her four months in the shelter? What if she was neurotic, unsocialized, fearful? I had had one of my volunteers take a look at her early on, but she wasn't able to interact with her. She just confirmed she was a purebred Lab.

But, amazingly, Em is the sweetest, most loving dog you could ever imagine. She's beautiful, with a gorgeous glossy black coat and kind eyes that look right at you. She comes up to you slowly, sits in front of you, and licks your face, then moves on to the next person. She loves other dogs, loves car rides, loves walks. Her only small issue is she howls when people leave. Not for hours, just when they first leave. But she's not destructive and she doesn't go nuts. She's just missing you. It's sweet and sad.

Anyway, this week we put her up on the website, and I sent a note out to all volunteers highlighting her story. I said I was looking for an active retired couple who could spend a lot of time with her. Yesterday, I got a call from a couple I thought would be perfect. They had just lost their dog, but they really loved Em's story and wanted to meet her. They are retired, love to travel, doted on their last dog (they sent me pictures of her) and were looking for an older dog to love.

Today I met this couple at the foster's house and I could tell they were taken with Em. She seemed to love them too. She looked a lot like the dog they had just lost. The husband thought they should take some time to think. The wife was crying when she left. I really wanted these people to adopt her. I had a great feeling about them. At around 2 p.m., I emailed them and said it was very nice meeting them, and that I thought they would be a great match with Em but of course it was totally up to them. About 15 minutes later they called and said they wanted to adopt her. The wife said she had cried because she didn't want to leave her.

This couple lives on the Florida coast in a home with a pool, spends summers in New Hampshire on a lake, and said they would never crate Em and that she could sleep wherever she wanted. They fed their last dog Innova food and have already asked when she is due for her next heartworm pill. Em will be free and loved for the rest of her life.

Like I said, a great day.

A surrendered Lab's fresh start

No one in rescue likes to see an owner surrender their Lab. It's hard not to be judgmental of those who give up their dogs for reasons other than death, illness, divorce or financial hardship when you're dealing with Labs who are about to be euthanized in shelters. But when people decide they want to give up their dogs, it's best to get them from them, before they end up with some Craigslist adopter or, worse, in a shelter.

Rescuing dogs is like being a reverse Robin Hood: You take dogs from the poor and give to the more well-off. "Poor" can mean finances, or it can mean people overwhelmed by life's circumstances. I've come to think it also means deficits in one's character and ability to empathize. "Well-off" doesn't have to be financial; it just means more capable of caring for and committing to a dog.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my owner surrender request for an 8-year-old chocolate Lab that his owners have had since puppyhood. Eight is a tough age to take a dog into rescue, and I told his owner that. hoping he would reconsider. Instead, he wrote back and elaborated on the reasons he wanted to give the dog up, namely that his flea medication "stopped working" and he was bringing ticks and fleas into the home, and that he was making a spot on the carpet and there was nowhere in the house he wanted to have a dog bed.

Our district is small, so I forwarded his information to all of our volunteers in rescue to see whether someone might foster him. I included details about the reasons for surrender. His story touched many. I immediately received an offer to foster him from one of our most dedicated volunteers, and people urged me to get him out of there asap.

In conversations with husband and wife before and during the surrender process, a story emerged. The husband got the dog as a puppy shortly after they were married. The wife never wanted the the dog, but the husband said he would be 100% responsible for care. However, the husband's job got too demanding, and they had two children, and now the husband was not home as much to care for the dog. Apparently they had fought about the dog for years, and the wife had finally won. At one point, the wife asked me, Would it be better to put him in the backyard for the rest of his life, or turn him in to rescue?

She also told me that one of the problems with the dog was that he tended to leave the front yard when they let him sit out there by himself, unsupervised, and run up to passersby, or visit neighbor's houses, or...whatever. Sometimes they would go after him, she said, sometimes not.

I drove to the home Thursday night. The neighborhood is gorgeous. The house looked like something out of HGTV, with wood plank floors, stainless steel appliances, designer lighting. And there was the dog. Eight years old or not, he was a wiggly, happy boy despite being 10 to 15 pounds overweight.

Only the husband was there. Sitting on the custom floors, I was struck by their dog's dirty, frayed collar and leash and his lackluster coat. The family fed their papered Lab inexpensive grocery store food. I asked for his vet records and received two stapled sheets from a recent visit, which I'm assuming happened because he needed to be boarded at the vet's over Thanksgiving and was required to be up-to-date on shots. The husband handed me his supply of heartworm and flea preventives, but not before noting how expensive they were.

He walked out to my car carrying his dog's food and bowls. I helped his dog into my car, and he went back into his house without saying goodbye.

I drove the dog directly to his new foster, and as we watched him wag his tail so hard that it nearly hit him in his face, we wondered how anyone could give up such a great dog, especially at this age.

Thankfully, this dog's former owners now can enjoy their lovely home without that pesky dog bothering them. At first, I thought the husband might have made the wrong decision about who to get rid of and who to keep. Now I think they deserve each other.

As for our newest rescue, we already have a ton of interest in him. He loves all the attention he's getting in his foster home. He will be better off living the rest of his life with people who appreciate him.