Meet Bailey!
About two months ago my co-worker told me of a stray that wandered into the salon where her daughter works. No collar, nobody looking for her. One of the customers took her home and kept her for about six weeks. My co-worker went on and on about how sweet and how pretty this little girl was. I talked to Bill about it briefly, but with all that was going on in our lives at that moment, we decided we couldn’t take on another dog.
Fast forward to this past Tuesday. I just happened to ask my co-worker about the dog’s well-being, and she told me that the dog had been taken to the Humane Society just the weekend before. Having talked to Bill again about it (while we were Jeepin’, and how great would it be to have a Jeepin’ dog!), I asked which facility she’d been taken to. My co-worker checked, and was horrified to find out that instead of being taken to the Humane Society, she’d instead been taken to the county animal shelter.
I said right then and there, “Well, let’s go bust her out, then!”
We drove there on our lunch break – it was the same facility that we rescued Zoe from. As soon as I went through the doors into the isles of dog pens I started tearing up. GOD I HATE THAT PLACE. All those hopeful little faces… or scared little faces. We walked each isle, and finally located the dog. She was terrified, and hiding in the very back of the pen. She would not come to us, she just sat there looking at us and shaking. God, it was heartbreaking.
We went back up to the counter and asked what we needed to do to claim her. Since she was a stray she wasn’t up for adoption until after three business days had passed… which was that day. But it was noon and they wouldn’t hear of even talking about getting her out of there until 2:30. So. We went back to work.
My co-worker called at 2:30 on the button, and found out that the dog hadn’t passed her behavioral evaluation because she was so scared. So they immediately put her on the list to be euthanized, THE VERY NEXT MORNING. Just like that. She wouldn’t act all happy and waggy for them, so they decided she was unfit for adoption.
As you can imagine, we were having NONE OF THAT. We called all over the place until we could find someone who would listen to us. The lady who had kept her for all those weeks and turned her in came BACK to the shelter, bullied someone into getting the dog out of the cage, and demonstrated how happy the dog was when she saw someone she knew. She was like a different dog, wagging and panting and wiggly.
My co-worker paid the adoption fee right then and there. We had to wait an extra day for her to be spayed, and she finally came home to our house last night. So, another sweet animal we saved from certain death, and I gotta tell ya, it feels just as good as it did the first time with Zoe. Who was ALSO mere hours away from being euthanized.
Bailey is pretty traumatized still, and is very afraid of Bill. We figure she was abused by a man before, and the male handler at the shelter was a COMPLETE DICKHEAD. So we’re taking it calm and slow, though I can tell Bill feels bad that she’s afraid of him. She follows me around like a little shadow (which is making it hard to take her picture!), and shows her belly to be rubbed whenever she lays down. Zoe is indifferent to her, and so Bailey doesn’t show a lot of interest in her. Oz, on the other hand, has his tail in a knot about this. We don’t think Bailey has been exposed to cats before, because Oz fascinates her. We can’t tell if it’s in a “let’s play” kind of way, or an “I want to snack on you” kind of way yet. So they’re always supervised.
She’s also growled at Gadget a couple of times, and even snapped at him once, but we figure she’s still in pain from the surgery she had just yesterday. We do know she gets along fine with other dogs, because the lady that kept her before had two others. Gadget, true to his nature, is baffled that someone doesn’t immediately love him. He’s not helping his case by constantly having his nose buried in her butt.
She has spent most of today sleeping, and was completely dopey last night, so we’ve yet to see her actual TRUE personality. I’m pretty sure she’s just going to be MORE of a lover, not less. She loves to cuddle, and even made so bold as to jump up on the couch to sit next to me. Which is not allowed in our household, and when I sternly told her to get down she submitted so hard it just broke my heart. Poor little girl.
Her pictures make her look bigger than she actually is. I have to lean down slightly to pat her head when she stands next to me, and I figure she only weighs maybe 35 pounds. She’s about two years old, so she’s fully grown. We just have to beef her up a bit. She’s having her first visit with our vet next Friday – I wanted to give her time to relax before she had her examination.
So, a new addition to our family! We just love her.
