I know this is a fashion jewelry website. But I’m sure many of my customers are animal lovers. I volunteer with an animal rescue group, and just wanted to share this story with you all. This is Sally’s story, as told by Sally herself.
The first thing I remember is a small wire cage outside. That was home for 12 years. It was cold and it was hot. I had 15 litters of beautiful little babies. One day I began to feel different; really sick. Something inside me shifted and I remained in agony. This was life as I knew it, until my captors took me out of the wire cage one day and brought me to another wire cage in a high kill animal shelter. They didn’t want me anymore because I couldn’t have puppies. The shelter named me granny, because I was old. As I was dropped at the shelter I heard my captors say I was spayed and well cared for. Of course, that was a lie, but I was too sick to say anything. My body was swollen twice its normal size in places, and I didn’t move for fear of the pain. I closed my eyes, tried not to think, and waited for it all to be over. There is no way to explain what happened next. A woman, who rescued dogs like me, walked down the long cold shelter corridor and stopped at my cage. The door opened, and I was picked up. Then another curious thing occurred. She put her hand on my fur very gently, kissed my head, and told me everything was going to be OK. I believed her. From there I went to see a doctor. She smiled at me and said, “My goodness girl, what on earth happened to you?” I didn’t know and I didn’t care, because I knew the doctor cared. I felt good when I looked in her eyes. I finally had someone I could trust. Later I found out that she was the only one of many vets that would even try to operate on me. Now I had people to love. It was remarkable.
Then I got really sleepy. The doctor operated on me for 5 hours. After 3 hours she was actually crying and almost gave up. But she said “If you can hang in there, so can I.” The doctor had never seen the inside of a dog’s body so torn up. Due to all the pups I had, my uterus had fallen through and pulled all my organs with it. Four pounds of waste was trapped and my bladder was ready to explode. My uterine tissue was dying rapidly. The doctor put my organs back in place, removed my uterus, and removed the waste. The fact that I lived through 5 hours of surgery was miraculous.
A couple of days later I met my foster parents. I learned that they were going to foster me through my recovery; just until I was well enough to be adopted. I started to feel that I finally was on my way to a life worth living. Their home was all inside! Wow! It was warm and cozy, and I even had my very own blanket to lie on. My foster parents looked after my every need. I thought I was dreaming. In the days to come they cooked different yummy things for me just to get me to eat, and keep up my strength. I had never tasted such good food. They took turns calling each other during the day to report on my latest accomplishment. They really seemed to love me. I was in heaven. After three weeks I got the courage and strength to walk to them and nudge their hands for affection. They were joyful and crying; all their friends heard about it.
As you have probably guessed by now, my foster parents adopted me, and renamed me Sally. They thought, like everyone else, that I would not live very much longer. And they wanted to spoil me during my last few months. That was three years ago. If you saw me now, you would never even guess what my first twelve years were like. I’m always asking for attention, and rolling over for belly rubs. My mom and dad say that I am the most mischievous dog they have ever had. My life is wonderful.