One lovely day in May, in fact two days before Memorial Day weekend, my kind husband texted me from work and said he is bringing a dog home (and attached a picture of him and this dog). And just like that Pepper was coming to our house to be a temporary resident.
First of all I have to say, I am not a dog person. In fact, Robert is not either. We had the floors resurfaced in our new house and air ducts cleaned just so that there would be no remnant of the dog scratches or smells in the house. This is a very important detail because you know, normally people who don't like dogs don't just pick up dogs and bring them home.
So the way this rescue operation played out was unclear for days because Robert probably was too scared to tell me the full story. 😆Who knows? I guess for months Robert and his coworkers in Siler City had been hearing this dog cry outside, chained to her house with no grass or anything around it. It gets brutally hot and very cold in the winter to be outside too. So finally one morning, Robert had a guy in his patient chair who was the owner of the house where that dog lived and he was renting it out. He told him some details about the people living there and how he was probably going to evict them. That's when Robert and some of his staff decided it was time for action to rescue that dog that no one cared about. They walked over next door and asked the people if they would give them Pepper so they could find a better home for the dog. It turned out that the dog's mom is the actual house dog, but this one was too hard to train so she was kept outside. Her favorite food was pizza;) and the kids didn't really mind if she were taken.
That's when Robert texted me. I partly didn't believe him. Partly I thought he was crazy. Partly I thought that this is so unlike Robert to do something like this withoutmy permission discussing it first. But alas, Robert and Pepper showed up at our doorstep on Wednesday evening before we had to leave for Hilton Head on Friday.
Pepper is a lab/pit mix. She is two years old, super friendly (as we found out) and totally not house trained.
It's a blessing that we have a fenced in backyard so we could just leave her outside for now with food and water. Well, we actually didn't have any food right then, so I posted on our FB neighborhood page about what my husband brought home to see if anyone had any dog things that they could let us borrow/give since this was such a sudden development.
For the night, Pepper just slept outside on a towel. We tried to give her a foam bed that one of the neighbors had but she shredded it to pieces.
The following morning I had to walk her for the first time. I am sorry, but I was very-very scared of her. I don't know what my history with dogs is but I have always been very nervous around them and didn't want to be touched or sniffed or anything. Well, now I had to put a leash on her and touch her and walk her and feed her!
Somehow I survived! And it wasn't too bad! And yes, she is a very untrained dog who only knows "Sit" and is very food motivated, but I came home in one piece.
That Friday before we had to leave on our vacation, Robert took her to a vet and got her basic vaccinations and flea meds as she had fleas (that Robert later saw in his car!!!! ewww!). This was after two days of calling and researching about what we could possibly do with her and what agency could help us. It turns out it's not as easy as we thought to get someone to help us....
Our very kind friends helped us with her feeding and walking when we went away for the Memorial Day weekend. Although it got to low 90s during the day, she had plenty of shade and water and didn't mind this new free life of a grassy backyard.
On Tuesday after the Memorial Day, Robert learned that the people who owned Pepper beforehand were evicted from their house and everything was just thrown out of their house as it was just trashed. Who knows what would have happened to Pepper too?
A couple of weeks later I took her to the vet again to get some tests done. Last minute, I'd decided to get her tested for heart worm after I heard that mosquitos infect dogs with that when they are outside... And it immediately came back positive...We were presented with a treatment that was going to cost around $1000. We went home not knowing what to do... Now no rescue agency FOR SURE would take up a dog that is heart worm positive. We were so torn! Lots of our friends said there is no way they would ever bother and pay that much money for a dog, others said that dogs are like their family members and they would, some said to take her to an SPCA center but we all know she wasn't guaranteed a treatment there but most likely would have been put down as they don't even deal with public dogs.
The kids, although they knew that we were just fostering her before anyone could really adopt her, were not going to give up on Pepper and just let her die (and that's after just a few weeks of having her), so we kept searching. They even had plans to organize a charity concert to collect funds for her in our neighborhood.
Finally, as a complete blessing, we found one clinic very close to us that had a Samaritan Fund for cases just like that. They were willing to treat Pepper with a fast-kill method (that's injections a month apart and includes about 3 months of bed rest) if we were willing to take care of her and pay for extra things like meds and tests. We agreed!!!
And so Pepper started her medications (antibiotics) and later steroids and injections and all July-September or so she was kept off exercising and excitement. The Peak Lab Rescue let us borrow their large kennel so she could be contained and we taught her how to be in that cage for the night! She goes in at bedtime, sleeps on towels and then has NO accidents, just waits for us till 7-8 am to let her outside to do her business. This was the easiest part ever!
This is the last walk on American Tobacco Trail with Pepper before her "non-walking" period started.
She is a very active dog but somehow we managed to keep her contained and healthy and in October she was finally allowed to go on walks. She was done with her treatment!
And she is still here (as I am writing this, it's end of December!). Her profile is posted on PetFinder and no one has contacted us about her. She lives outside. She comes inside when it's cold and at night. She is still quite untrained in terms of walking and other dogs. I am always hesitant to let her play with other dogs, but that's what she would love the most. Mark is the one who has the most loving feelings towards her. During summer he would grab a book and would just go and read down on the patio next to Pepper. He always wants her to come inside but when she does she goes a bit crazy even if she just stays in the basement.
She is a very good dog and is very happy, active and grateful. One thing, if nothing else, she has done for me is to teach me be much more comfortable with dogs. I still hate the smells, shedding and clean up dogs need. And our kids hate picking up after her in the yard (which is a shame;)). We don't like that we don't feel like we have a nice clean yard to hang out in or have people over unless Pepper is in her kennel inside. Robert is actually allergic to dogs according to his tests but he's been ok with Pepper, probably because she is outside most of the time. We are hesitant to spend any extra money on her training which would definitely benefit her but this is just taking too long to adopt her out.... Heart worm and fleas medications don't come for free either. But at least she is healthy!
So for now Pepper is here. And we hope to find a better home for her with people who actually know what they are doing, can train her and kids who have more time to spend with her (she loves kids).
And that is a story of Pepper and the Watsons.
Lyana.
First of all I have to say, I am not a dog person. In fact, Robert is not either. We had the floors resurfaced in our new house and air ducts cleaned just so that there would be no remnant of the dog scratches or smells in the house. This is a very important detail because you know, normally people who don't like dogs don't just pick up dogs and bring them home.
So the way this rescue operation played out was unclear for days because Robert probably was too scared to tell me the full story. 😆Who knows? I guess for months Robert and his coworkers in Siler City had been hearing this dog cry outside, chained to her house with no grass or anything around it. It gets brutally hot and very cold in the winter to be outside too. So finally one morning, Robert had a guy in his patient chair who was the owner of the house where that dog lived and he was renting it out. He told him some details about the people living there and how he was probably going to evict them. That's when Robert and some of his staff decided it was time for action to rescue that dog that no one cared about. They walked over next door and asked the people if they would give them Pepper so they could find a better home for the dog. It turned out that the dog's mom is the actual house dog, but this one was too hard to train so she was kept outside. Her favorite food was pizza;) and the kids didn't really mind if she were taken.
That's when Robert texted me. I partly didn't believe him. Partly I thought he was crazy. Partly I thought that this is so unlike Robert to do something like this without
Pepper is a lab/pit mix. She is two years old, super friendly (as we found out) and totally not house trained.
It's a blessing that we have a fenced in backyard so we could just leave her outside for now with food and water. Well, we actually didn't have any food right then, so I posted on our FB neighborhood page about what my husband brought home to see if anyone had any dog things that they could let us borrow/give since this was such a sudden development.
For the night, Pepper just slept outside on a towel. We tried to give her a foam bed that one of the neighbors had but she shredded it to pieces.
The following morning I had to walk her for the first time. I am sorry, but I was very-very scared of her. I don't know what my history with dogs is but I have always been very nervous around them and didn't want to be touched or sniffed or anything. Well, now I had to put a leash on her and touch her and walk her and feed her!
Somehow I survived! And it wasn't too bad! And yes, she is a very untrained dog who only knows "Sit" and is very food motivated, but I came home in one piece.
That Friday before we had to leave on our vacation, Robert took her to a vet and got her basic vaccinations and flea meds as she had fleas (that Robert later saw in his car!!!! ewww!). This was after two days of calling and researching about what we could possibly do with her and what agency could help us. It turns out it's not as easy as we thought to get someone to help us....
Our very kind friends helped us with her feeding and walking when we went away for the Memorial Day weekend. Although it got to low 90s during the day, she had plenty of shade and water and didn't mind this new free life of a grassy backyard.
On Tuesday after the Memorial Day, Robert learned that the people who owned Pepper beforehand were evicted from their house and everything was just thrown out of their house as it was just trashed. Who knows what would have happened to Pepper too?
A couple of weeks later I took her to the vet again to get some tests done. Last minute, I'd decided to get her tested for heart worm after I heard that mosquitos infect dogs with that when they are outside... And it immediately came back positive...We were presented with a treatment that was going to cost around $1000. We went home not knowing what to do... Now no rescue agency FOR SURE would take up a dog that is heart worm positive. We were so torn! Lots of our friends said there is no way they would ever bother and pay that much money for a dog, others said that dogs are like their family members and they would, some said to take her to an SPCA center but we all know she wasn't guaranteed a treatment there but most likely would have been put down as they don't even deal with public dogs.
The kids, although they knew that we were just fostering her before anyone could really adopt her, were not going to give up on Pepper and just let her die (and that's after just a few weeks of having her), so we kept searching. They even had plans to organize a charity concert to collect funds for her in our neighborhood.
Finally, as a complete blessing, we found one clinic very close to us that had a Samaritan Fund for cases just like that. They were willing to treat Pepper with a fast-kill method (that's injections a month apart and includes about 3 months of bed rest) if we were willing to take care of her and pay for extra things like meds and tests. We agreed!!!
And so Pepper started her medications (antibiotics) and later steroids and injections and all July-September or so she was kept off exercising and excitement. The Peak Lab Rescue let us borrow their large kennel so she could be contained and we taught her how to be in that cage for the night! She goes in at bedtime, sleeps on towels and then has NO accidents, just waits for us till 7-8 am to let her outside to do her business. This was the easiest part ever!
This is the last walk on American Tobacco Trail with Pepper before her "non-walking" period started.
She is a very active dog but somehow we managed to keep her contained and healthy and in October she was finally allowed to go on walks. She was done with her treatment!
And she is still here (as I am writing this, it's end of December!). Her profile is posted on PetFinder and no one has contacted us about her. She lives outside. She comes inside when it's cold and at night. She is still quite untrained in terms of walking and other dogs. I am always hesitant to let her play with other dogs, but that's what she would love the most. Mark is the one who has the most loving feelings towards her. During summer he would grab a book and would just go and read down on the patio next to Pepper. He always wants her to come inside but when she does she goes a bit crazy even if she just stays in the basement.
She is a very good dog and is very happy, active and grateful. One thing, if nothing else, she has done for me is to teach me be much more comfortable with dogs. I still hate the smells, shedding and clean up dogs need. And our kids hate picking up after her in the yard (which is a shame;)). We don't like that we don't feel like we have a nice clean yard to hang out in or have people over unless Pepper is in her kennel inside. Robert is actually allergic to dogs according to his tests but he's been ok with Pepper, probably because she is outside most of the time. We are hesitant to spend any extra money on her training which would definitely benefit her but this is just taking too long to adopt her out.... Heart worm and fleas medications don't come for free either. But at least she is healthy!
So for now Pepper is here. And we hope to find a better home for her with people who actually know what they are doing, can train her and kids who have more time to spend with her (she loves kids).
And that is a story of Pepper and the Watsons.
Lyana.
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