Rescue Stories

A Brand New Life for Pepper

We adopted our little schnauzer who we renamed ‘Pepper’ back in February from the SPCA serving Erie County. She was rescued from a puppy mill by Furever Friends Dog Rescue of WNY and then brought to the SPCA. She has grown so much, and her personality continues to come out more and more. When she came home to us, she stood for 7 hours straight and eventually started to fall asleep standing up. She didn’t know how to sit or go lay down. I realized she needed more guidance on how to relax so I carried her to her bed and made her lay down. The moment I did that she nearly fell asleep and eventually rolled over and gave me her belly to pet. She was overweight, had unusual hair growth on her back (possibly from a previous skin issue), and had elongated nipples from a recent litter. In adjusting to pet life, she had to learn how to be a dog. Our other dog Shiloh has been an amazing teacher to her. Initially Pepper was confused and frightened when we would play with Shiloh, it just didn’t make any sense to her. She was not keen on listening to us because she distrusted people, but when Shiloh led the way it would make her set her caution aside and follow. She had nervous habits like chewing her paws, she would get behind couches and dig at the wall, and at any chance she would try escaping from the yard. With understanding and patience Pepper has now become a model student and my little shadow. She hasn’t had an accident for over half a year now, she LOVES playing fetch and tug-o-war, she stopped her nervous habits, she lets me walk her on a leash and can go off leash and knows to stay near. She’s lost a bit of weight, her hair looks great, and her nipples even receded a bit! She is so sweet and spunky and gets so excited to meet people and dogs. I had heard that miniature schnauzers were loud and we’re just finally seeing that voice come out when she’s so excited when we come home. We couldn’t imagine our life without her, she’s truly been a gift in all our lives. We’re so grateful for the wonderful people at Furever Friends Dog Rescue of WNY and the SPCA for saving her and making her available to us and for all their hard work and dedication. Thank you!!!

Sincerely,

Wroblewski Family

Allie’s Journey

We adopted Allie on August 31st.  We met a sweet, shy, scared, mild tempered dog. Today, she is a lovable, spunky, protective little diva! It hasn’t been an easy road. Allie is easily trained, and was leash trained within days. House training to start was going very well, but in a couple of weeks she started having chronic diarrhea. We made many trips to the vet only for the symptoms to return.  It even got to the point of bleeding.  I was distraught, thinking I wasn’t equipped to care for her. She was physically sick and I couldn’t help her. Then one quiet evening, I noticed she wasn’t pooping. I decided to test a theory. 

Come to find out, Allie doesn’t like closed doors. We were limiting her space as recommended for house training, and that worked well in the beginning, but once she Loved us she needed to be able to check on us at all times.  When home alone or even relaxing she is always looking out a window.  During the night she does multiple bed checks. Doors are left open or she will bark at the door just to walk away once she sees you. 

She spends as much time outside as possible.  The front yard is her favorite- she can protect her home.  The whole neighborhood knows her.  She is notorious for her spunk and personality.   She adores the mailman and loves to watch the kids walk to and from school.    

Although much more complex than I anticipated she was meant to be here with us.  

Kelly

A New Life for Luna

Nellie’s Story

Nellie is an 8 year old Pomeranian. She spent her 8 years as a puppy mill breeder confined to a cage with sub-par food and only drinking from a rodent bottle. In the mill, her puppies are taken away too early. When she was rescued from one of the Ohio puppy mills by Furever Friends, she had only 2 teeth left in her mouth, a hernia that needed repair and she was very thin. Being a volunteer for Furever Friends for over a year, I had been taken with many of these sad dogs that were rescued by our group. Blossom, as she was named by our group, was in need of a foster home until her medical problems could be resolved. One of our members fostered her but then Blossom needed another person to step up for her care.
I am also a volunteer at the SPCA Serving Erie County. When I saw Blossom in a kennel again, I knew I needed to bring her home. She received the surgeries she needed – one of her two teeth was removed, her hernia was repaired, and she was spayed. After 3 weeks, my family and I knew that she needed to stay with us. She is being house trained, starting to master stairs and loving our two dogs and cat. She is walking on a leash and running in our backyard with legs and feet that have only known the floors of a wire cage. After careful consideration and care, we decided to name her Nellie. With continued love and patience, we know that even after 8 years in a puppy mill, she will continue to thrive as every dog should. Nellie is a sweet little delight and we can’t imagine our lives without her.

A Letter from Nala’s Mom

Dear Furever Friends Dog Rescue of WNY,

On January 30th, 2019, my chocolate lab, Riley, passed away at only 6 years old.  It was hard to lose such a great boy so soon and I was devastated.  Throughout my life, I always had a companion, but I didn’t think that I could ever replace Riley.  In May, I started looking at many different websites, including our local SPCA of Erie County.

On Thursday, May 9th, I saw a beautiful 3 yr. old chocolate lab named Rumours.  I was able to walk her, and she was perfect.  After our walk, I broke down, since I wasn’t over Riley.  I reluctantly left Rumours at the SPCA and cried all the way home.

On Friday night, I went back on the SPCA website and saw that she was still there.  I couldn’t stop thinking about her and I showed up at the SPCA at 9am, one hour before they opened.

Nala, her new name, has settled in with our family and two long-time cats over the last 6 months.  She has enjoyed going on several vacations and enjoys greeting her doggie friends throughout the neighborhood.

She was a mommy at the puppy mill, and she is gorgeous!  Her past features compliment her every day and she brings her motherly instincts to anyone she meets.   I am so proud of how she has transitioned from the horrible conditions to a warm and loving home.  With the colder weather, she knows that when we snuggle on the couch, it allows her to dream happy thoughts.  

I can’t thank your organization enough for all the hard work and dedication to rescue these wonderful dogs from the horrible puppy farms.  

Thank You!

Sincerely,
Kelly O’connor
Williamsville, NY

Meet Sophie the Boxer puppy

Sophie came to Furever Friends Dog Rescue of WNY like so many other mill dogs or puppies. Injured! She was discarded by the breeder because of “money.” She is a purebred boxer pup with a broken leg and because this was going to cost the breeder time and money which would cut into his profit, he wanted her gone. The broken leg, more than likely, occurred when her leg slipped through the wires of the cages that they stand on and she moved, and her leg didn’t! Many mill dogs come with injuries such as broken bones, missing limbs, eye injuries, torn ears, and more, due to the wire cages they live in, and on.

She was brought to a vet for a diagnosis, which in itself is almost unheard of in the breeding community. The breeder agreed to pay for the x-ray alone but then when he was told what it would cost in time and money, he said to just euthanize her. The vet staff often calls rescue groups when this happens and hopefully, one will step up for the dog. We got that call and our Board of Directors agreed to accept her into our rescue. She was only 8 weeks old at the time.

She is in one of our foster homes at present and isn’t available for adoption until her leg heals and she is spayed. As you can see, she is a gorgeous pup and full of life. Any donations for her continuing care would be greatly appreciated, large or small. Help us to continue to help them, until all the cages are empty!

A Second Chance

According to his ear tattoos, this dog’s name was “OHO” in his right ear and either “47 or 41” in his left (it is faded over the years). He spent nine years in a cage in the barn, making money by way of producing puppies for his breeder. The breeder was going to “just put him down” but the rescuer asked him to be released to her so she could attempt to find a rescue willing to take on his medical issues.

His name is now Davey and, hopefully, he will learn it soon. He is a small Pomeranian, which made him very valuable to the breeder because society values tiny dogs, therefore, committing this one dog (of millions) to a life of imprisonment. His list of problems are a head tilt, very lax wrist and ankle joint on both front and rear of leg on one side of his body which cause him to stumble occasionally, his mid-section is smooth and hairless. He has no teeth. And since his bark is very raspy, he probably has been debarked. This is usually done using a pipe down his throat to break his vocal cords. On the plus side, he has the sweetest personality in the world and a zest for learning about his new life outside the cages.

After the foster mom bathed him, she noticed that he has a thickened neck and chest muscles on his one side opposite the way his head tilted. This is the same side that the front and rear leg have the loose joints in the wrist and ankle. We all know that mill dogs circle tightly in their cages for hours on end to relieve stress. This is called “cage crazy”. He could have circled constantly in the same direction, for all these years, causing the head tilt, the lax joints, and the hypertrophied muscles on the opposite side. The reason for his hair loss could be attributed to hypothyroidism which is easily corrected and he will be tested for this and started on inexpensive medicine. All of these conditions may improve once he adjusts to life outside the cage. Nothing can be done for the lack of teeth or the raspy bark.

Our group is committed to these dogs and to educating the public about the horrors of puppy mills. Please think about Davey the next time you walk into a pet store or look for a new puppy on the internet.

Farren’s Story

A group of us made a trip to attend a “swap meet” in Ohio, in an attempt to save more dogs from the breeding business, where they would be confined to cages in barns, bred cycle after cycle. On the way, we were contacted by another rescue group, who had made a contact with a woman who bred dogs, but also obtained dogs both from swap meets, and from Amish puppy millers who didn’t want the dogs anymore. She thinks of herself as not only a breeder, but also a “rescuer”. We weren’t  sure what to believe about her, or her story.

She told us that she and her husband, were sickly and she “had to get down”  the number of the dogs in her house. She was asking our two rescues to take a total of 10 dogs. This would leave her, supposedly, with 4 dogs in her house and 4 “outside” dogs. If  she was to be believed, she had a total of 18 dogs that she had to care for on a daily basis.

We arrived late afternoon, and it was 85 degrees, and very humid.  The woman pulled up in a rickety old van. When she opened the back doors, it was piled high with mostly junk, but when we looked inside we saw seven dogs in 3 median-sized crates. The dogs were panting loudly and appeared to be very hot. There wasn’t any way that air conditioning (if there was any) could have gotten to them with all the debris piled around them. We took out the three that we were taking from them and then I asked if she decided not to bring the other 3 dogs for us to look at. She said no, because they were in the van “somewhere” and that she hadn’t “packed the van” so we would have to remove some of the “stuff” to find them. This really scared us due to the extreme heat, being parked in the sun, and it was getting hotter by the minute. We started pulling folding chairs, large bags of dog food, and miscellaneous boxes of “stuff” out. We didn’t see any dog crates. Then, in the middle of the van, she exclaimed, “there they are”. There was this tiny aluminum flat covered cage – it was long, with three very narrow compartments in it. The only thing I could think of was, if you were transporting homing pigeons, this would be the container to use. Certainly, not dogs! We pulled it out and inside the middle slot, with no room to move at all, was this dog. There was something in the other two slots, but I was so shocked that I didn’t see what they were. I just reached in and removed the tiniest Pomeranian I have ever seen. She couldn’t move at all in this container which was in the center of a stuffed van, and this was a dog we were told had a history of having seizures! She explained to us that she had gotten the Pom from a breeder because the breeder had a hard time getting her to mate due to her crippled legs.

Because of her severely damaged knees, inability to stand upright, coupled with her extreme smallness, she was more trouble than she was worth to the puppy miller. She weighed a whopping 3 ½ lbs. We were also told that she was elderly, but at 8 years old, we only considered her middle aged. She had a mouthful of rotten teeth, very long nails, and smelled horrible!  All this is typical of breeder dogs that live in a mill, not a dog you have had in your home.

We expected this lady to tell us that she had this dog for six months but, to our dismay, found out that she actually had possession of her since she was 2 years old. Farren had not seen a vet, has had no vaccines, and certainly no effort was made to help correct her horribly crippled legs.

Well, since then, she has been all cleaned up, been spayed, and had her rotten teeth removed, as well as x-rays done on her legs and hips. She has gained strength in the muscles of her legs and gets along fairly well, although she will she will always be hunched over.

She has been adopted by one of our members, who named her Farren, and she is an absolute sweetheart!

Ellory’s Story

Ellory

Today was Ellory’s last day. Another puppy mill dog who didn’t get a chance. Furever Friend’s Dog Rescue was contacted about a Coton de Tulear, male, who the breeder thought was around six yrs. old. Right!! We agreed to take him. The vet in Ohio thought he was older by his many medical conditions and thought he might have to be euthanized. After looking at photos sent to us, we thought we would try. He came in last night along with other dogs that our group picked up in Ohio….

We couldn’t bath him last night due to extreme matting, and that he was in severe pain from untreated eye ulcers. He was fed, medicated for pain, and bedded down on a soft blanket, probably for the first time in his life. First thing this morning, one of the shelters wonderful employees, Joanie, groomed him. His skin was full of infection, sores, and scabs. She gave him an oatmeal bath and soaked him for awhile so he could get some relief. He certainly looked and smelled better after that.

I found a harness that wouldn’t cause him any discomfort and took him outside in the sunshine, probably for the first time in his life. We discovered he was both blind and deaf. He walked and enjoyed the fresh air for about an hour. He stayed with me and ate some soft yummy food, surveyed his surroundings, and was sweet with everyone he bumped into. Our vet examined him tonight. The diagnoses went on forever. He was thought to be much older than the new thought of age of 8, probably 12-14. Besides being blind, deaf, with severe eye ulcers, in severe pain from them, he also had a heart murmur, painful knees, infected skin, horrible dental problems, and infected ears. He had lived like this, being used as a stud in a cage, for his entire life.

From the puller, to the animal hospital in Ohio who cared for him until we could get him, to the transporters who made the road trip, to the vet techs at the shelter who vaccinated and medicated him last night and this morning, to the kennel staff that care and fed him soft food, to the group members who loved him up last night, to the groomer who lovingly and gently washed him today, to all the staff who gave him a pet and to the vet who examined him, we cared for him better in the last 48 hours then the miller did in his entire life. He was humanely euthanized tonight. And we loved him better, too. Rest now, Little Man, you will be remembered.