You Gotta Have Faith

This week's guest post is by Landra Graf.

When you work in rescue you realize that you can’t save every animal that crosses your path. If you could save every single one, then there would eventually be no reason for shelters and pounds to exist. But every once in a while you come across a sweetheart with a story so profound that you can’t turn your back on them – even when the odds are against you and the animal.

For Pawsibilities, Faith, our resident pittie is that animal. She was brought in to the Windsor Pound after she was found emaciated and running loose at a local gas station. For those who are not aware, emaciated is just another word for a malnourished, starved dog. Faith had just delivered a litter of pups, but the pups were never found. To make matters worse she was passing balloons and trash in her stool, and it was several days for all the mess in her system to clear.

This is Faith in her emaciated state.

With a little help from Colorado Animal Rescue Express, who contributed a high-calorie dog food, we were able to nurse Faith back to health while she was in the pound. At the time there wasn’t a single open spot in our rescue, but regardless we wanted to help. Faith turned around nicely, but 2 enemies were lurking in the background, neither of which we could fight while she was still being held in the pound.

Happy Tail Syndrome

The first one was Happy Tail Syndrome, which is when a dog’s tail is traumatized then keeps breaking open because they’re smacking it against a kennel, simply by wagging away. This tends to happen to a lot of dogs in the pound, but especially pit bulls.

The second enemy was a relative of a breeder actively attempting to adopt Faith for breeding purposes. While our rescue understands that breeding is not illegal, Faith, in our opinion, wasn’t fit enough to return to a breeding lifestyle. This poor girl was lucky to survive her pre-pound life without suffering from anxieties or additional health issues. Also, without a detailed vet visit there was no way to tell if Faith suffered from any disorders or other potential problems. With much discussion between our rescue and others we were able to successfully pull Faith from the pound, get her spayed, her tail docked, and board her until we could find a suitable adopter or rescue.

One of our rescue directors spends at least 4 days a week with Faith and since her original arrival Faith has made leaps and bounds towards recovery. She loves car rides, knows basic commands like ‘sit’ and ‘enter’, does extremely well with children, and has excellent leash skills. Her favorite thing to do is allow our rescue director’s son to pet her while she lies in his lap.  

We continue to search for Faith’s forever home, hoping there will come a day soon when this pittie can find a family that will love and care for her. If this girl’s journey has taught us anything it’s that you gotta have faith that things will work out, that you can make a difference, and that sometimes you’ll succeed.

For those interested in learning more about, fostering, or adopting Faith email Pawsibilities@ymail.com.

Pawsibilities…Are Endless is a tiny rescue located in Central-West Missouri not far from Warrensburg, Sedalia and Whiteman AFB. We specialize in helping animals in need find their forever homes. To assist in these efforts, not only do we provide local adoptions, but we work with other rescues to find homes for our furry packages across the United States. In Pawsibilities' mind, nothing compares to helping an animal find their happy-ever-after.