Home » Plants & Animals » Dog Rescue » Her Name Should Be Hope

Her Name Should Be Hope

© Joan C. Fremo

It is Saturday evening when I receive the email with the subjectline “Pyr to Die”. A fellow Rescuer has only gotten a glimpse, but there is a young injured Great Pyrenees in the small shelter near his home. Saturday evening, and it is the start of a long holiday weekend. There is no one at the shelter to call, no one to contact, and the shelter will not open its’ doors to the public again until Tuesday.

A web-search yields a woefully out of date Chamber of Commerce page, and I am unable to locate any City Official to assist this animal. The weekend crawls by as rescuers email plans, try to locate a foster home, try to plan for a dog—sex and extent of injuries as yet unknown. One email, “Have you heard anything, Joan?” Another, “You can count on me for transport!” And, “There’s an emergency vet 30 minutes away—I’ll help transport.”

Rescuers with prayers on their lips, and HOPE in their hearts… Please, let us be in time. An injured animal lies suffering in a shelter, receiving no vet care, while outside folks picnic, barbecue and party. Will this Holiday weekend never end?

A local Rescuer waits for the shelter to open, waits for word, waits to offer care to this injured Dog. We wait for news, and we HOPE…

The news is very bad. This is a young female Great Pyrenees, maybe one to one and a half years old. She has been hit by a car. The bone juts out of her hind leg, flesh and muscle are all torn away, and she is in dreadful pain. The Rescuer takes her immediately to the Vets, but the prognosis is not good. Open bone, exposure to bacteria, serious infection, 3 days left untreated…

Three vets discuss what is best for this dog, and all concur. The local Rescuer calls me, his heart already heavy with grief. I agreed. She should be released from her suffering. The Rescuer stays to ease her on her journey.

Her name should be Hope.
Rescuers are filled with HOPE. We are in contact with many shelters, and the majority are staffed by loving caring people trying hard to cope with the misery of Pet Overpopulation. We HOPE that this death can serve to educate this shelter, that in the future a severely injured animal receives vet care, is released or offered to Rescue, or humanely released from its suffering---without delay. We HOPE to be contacted in time to make a difference for the next poor soul.

The copyright of the article Her Name Should Be Hope in Dog Rescue is owned by . Permission to republish Her Name Should Be Hope in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.