Did You Ever Wonder Where Your Dog REALLY Came From???? I DID!!!!!! by Kim W., our own "Rescue Angel"
I had one Westie, Mattie, and I really wanted another Westie so a friend of mine was reading the paper scanning for a Westie to be a companion for my little Westie, Mattie. She found one listed in the paper needing a good home right away. She jumped on it and got him that night. This was a gift from her and a big surprise to me. Along with him came all the usual paper work, shots etc. and the so-called Breeder that he came from. The little Westie's name was Louie and he was a week away from his one year Birthday. Mattie was 6 months, so the age was perfect. I’m a very curious person by nature and always wondered where exactly Louie came from originally. I dug out his file and noticed that he had come from a place 7 minutes from my house. I was shocked!!! I noticed the handwriting to be very shaky and hard to read. So I figured that he must have came from an elderly couple that wanted to breed maybe one time and that was it. So I got my neighbor and we went for a ride. We found the house with no problem. I thought "what a nice house". He sold Christmas trees and antiques. We didn’t stop. We were just out joy riding. Then we found the house in which he was adopted from. Now you would have thought my curiosity would have been satisfied right? Nope…I had a nagging inside of me to call "B" who's name and address was on Louie’s registered papers… So Called registered papers. A fall and winter passed since driving by and still I couldn’t quit going on about wanting to call this man. I wanted to know if they still had the mother or father, so one day this past April I picked up the phone and gave "B" a call. Now, let me tell you, I was expecting a sweet man to tell me all about how much they loved their Westie or Westies and decided to breed him or her. This was not the case. I was in SHOCK when I got off the phone. I called my Mom and neighbor because I had to talk to someone. They both asked me what was wrong as they could hear in my voice that I was nearly sick. I told them about my conversation with "B". This man told me that if I were to come over I needed to realize that these dogs were not like normal indoor loving house pets.
I played along. I asked him if he ever let them play or get exercise. He said "NO". I asked "B" lots of questions about when he had puppies coming. I played like I was interested only in that. My next move was to gather all the information I could get on "B". That following week I called him when I was in the area. My friend and I had planned on stopping. So, we called on the car phone. "B" made an excuse that he was just getting ready to leave the house and that we couldn’t come by. So, we drove around and waited for him to leave. When "B" did leave, we drove up the neighbor's drive next to "B"s house to see if I could see anything…NO LUCK…. But, "B" had a side driveway that led to the back of the property where you would go to purchase your Christmas tree. To my horror there were the Westies . . . all jumping up and down for someone to please greet or save them. I couldn’t do anything but had to leave. I wanted to get out of the car but my friend said "No"; that we were trespassing. There were llamas walking all around the cages. At this time we were having some chain link fencing installed and the man that was doing it lived 3 doors down from this man and had even dated his daughter -- so I got the full scoop on him. Now, mind you, everyone lives on 10 acres so my fence guy knew "B" had Westies but didn’t know where. My fence guy said when he was having dinner at their house "B" would give the so called "puppy money" to his spoiled daughter that owned a Westie too. (In fact, she has it groomed were my dogs go. And all my groomers are rescue people. I don’t know how she could allow her father to do this. If it were my father he would be turned into the authorities. Okay back to the story…) so I had good information on what kind of a man I'm going to be dealing with... A greedy man!!! (He even asked my fence guy, when he was dating his daughter, if "B" could put cages in my fence guy's barn. "No" was the answer to that. This was 5 years prior to all of this.) Back to the rescue…I had to look up a place to take the dogs on my computer. I had to get my ducks in a row. I found Westie Rescue of Missouri. I kept it in my computer in favorite places. I hadn’t spoke to anyone either, because I didn’t know at the time where this was going to go -- if anywhere. I was glad there was a Westie rescue so close - 1 hour away to freedom for these kids. My whole week was restless nights and hardly any sleep. I thought of the weather they had endured this past winter and the hot summers. I knew summer was coming again and the conditions were horrible. I didn’t know how these poor dogs could survive. So I made my move after praying a lot that week. It was Good Friday!!!! I got my neighbor and we went unannounced. I drove right in like I owned the place. . Knocked on the door. . . and there was this gorgeous Westie. His daughter's. "B" and his wife were watching the Westie while the daughter was out of town. I made very small polite conversation with the wife and she said "B" was in the field somewhere… Well "somewhere" didn’t deter me! So, off we went and I drove right up as close as I could get to the Westies. My heart broke all over with urgency to get them out. "B" drove up on a lawn mower.. . HUGE man . . ."B" told me he had suffered 3 heart attacks and had bad knees. He was so humble (shamed) I about fell over. "B" acted like a child that just got caught. I thought he was going to give me the fight of his life. He knew he had been caught and was thinking he was going to be in legal trouble. I talked to him about how wrong it was to treat the dogs this way. (I was so nice it scared even me.) "B" started telling me he was going to give it another year and then get out. I said it was time now! "B" then told me I could take Minnie right then and there. Her teats were so swollen he said that she is worthless. They were as big as my thumb and black. They looked huge and awful. (We later found out that this condition was an allergic reaction from nursing puppies.) I asked if there was anyone else he would part right now with, as I was pointing to the different dogs, he said "NO". I told "B" I would be back tomorrow to pick Minnie up at 1:00, as I didn’t have a crate in the car. But the real reason was I didn’t know what I was going to do. I went home and got on the web and pulled up Westie Rescue of Missouri's webpage. NO PHONE NUMBER. . .GEEZ! what am I going to do? I made tons of calls. People were calling me from out of state to help. My groomer got the word out and man did it fly. I emailed an emergency email to Westie Rescue and pointed out that they had no phone number on their website. (They have fixed that now!) Westie Rescue got me online right away and responded to me and I called one of their people. She said, "Bring them. Whatever you can get." So I hopped in the car, got my neighbor, and went right back. Only 2 hours had lapsed. We passed a man as I turned on the road. He had a Westie in the car. We both looked at each other. Was this to weird or what? I went to the door and "B" came to the door. He didn’t want to meet me again out back and said he just getting ready to leave. I heard his wife in the background say "you have time". So "B" met me out back. I talked him out of 2 more Westies, so we left with 3. (Mac, Minnie and Cassie). I asked about the Westie we had just seen in that car. He said he let a male go. To who I don’t know. But they must have had a stud service thing going on. I was thrilled to have 3 but not thrilled enough. THE SMELL!!!! You can’t believe the smell. And the dogs had enough hair on them to make a rug . . . it was matted tight. They have never been groomed and never been on the ground. Their paws were fanned out from being on wire. Their collars were WIRED on their necks and the twisted wire sticking up. We had to use wire cutters to get the collars off. The dogs were frozen stiff and scared. They were so terrified. ("B" put one in a carrier grabbing it by its legs and throwing it on his noisy lawnmower to bring to my car.) We had to drive with the windows down on the way to the foster home. The smell was indescribable. I couldn’t sleep. I prayed to God to please help me!!! I woke up - like a shot went thru me - at 2 am and God gave me plan #2. We went over that next day at 1:00 because "B" said he would be home because that was when I was originally suppose to come back and get Minnie. Believe me there was NO greeting from "B"s wife this time! She was in the yard walking around with this gorgeous Westie - while the others were in total suffering. She totally ignored us. They have some kid mowing the lawn. He was shooting us looks. I just waved and smiled. He went driving the mower as fast as he could to find "B", and here "B" came on a tractor. "B" stopped and shut it off. I said, "B, I have a deal for you". He said "what’s that". I told him I would give him a check for the unborn puppies that were to be born soon if I could have all the dogs today. He agreed. And . . .with his greediness . . . he told me the puppy in the cage would be another $400. (Well, I wasn’t leaving her behind!) She was 6 months old. And then "B" said 2 of the others might be pregnant too. In the process of getting the dogs out I had to drive my SUV thru a gate that gave me 1 inch clearance on each side. We drove thru dead catfish and mud and then thru another gate. I didn’t care if I wrecked my car -- the Westies were getting out!!!! My car could be fixed. I had my car prepared full of carriers. We got them all. (Zoey, Chloe, Princess, Molly and Gracie). AND TALK ABOUT SMELL. (The old man told me to watch out for the llama as it was going to spit on me. I thought to myself that llama better look out for me cause I was in no mood for anything to get in my way. I would have taken on the whole herd. NO kidding…) We got everyone loaded; momma Zoey was last she was terrified and trying to hide. This was a time I had to shove back all feelings until we got all the dogs out of there. "B" was being mean about getting them out.. . pulling and grabbing at their necks, legs and sides. We drove to the WR foster mom. She had everything ready and waiting for us. If it hadn’t been for Westie Rescue this would not have been the success that it has been. They were completely prepared for what needed to be done. After the foster mom got them cleaned up and shaven, the dogs were so underfed you could see every bone and joint in their bodies. The one pregnant Momma, Zoey, lost all her 7 babies. She had nothing to give -- not even milk. To our joy 2 others were pregnant. The second momma, Princess, lost 3 of her 6 puppies, and the last Momma, Chloe, had 6 puppies and lost 1. Chloe had more time to try to catch up, weight-wise, than the first 2 mommies. I am now a proud owner of the first Mommie -- Zoey. Zoey is in heaven in her new home. She runs FREE with my other 2 Westies, Mattie and Louie.
I went back a month later thru a cow pasture feed lot. Praise the Lord, no dogs to be seen. So I think "B" will keep his promise because (1) he has bad health and (2) his wife doesn’t want him doing this anymore. I asked "B" what he fed the dogs. He said "I feed them the best". Well, "B" must have been the one eating their food because he was well over 300 pounds and the dogs were starved. "B" asked me my religion in the process of me doing all of this, he also asked me for my card. I said I had none. It was just me. He hugged me. I think it was out of relief that he wasn’t going to be prosecuted. If you're asking yourself "how could she hug that man?", I want you to know I would have done ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING to get those dogs out!!!!!! They were all that mattered. "B"s time will come.
Sincerely, Editor's Note: Gracie and Molly have been placed in Kentucky. Mac was placed in Tennessee. Minnie was placed in Alabama. Cassie was placed in Kansas. Zoey stayed here in Missouri. Princess has found a home in Iowa and one of her pups has found a home in California. Chloe and all of here babies were adopted. We are forever grateful to Kim for her hard work that made this rescue possible. She is truly a "Rescue Angel"! |
I told him I’d let him know on those two when they get vet care. (Talk about greedy). He wasn’t getting another dime out of me! The minute we loaded those dogs in my car "B" was history. I told him I would be checking on him too. And I have.
She was the last one to get out of the awful place. I had NO IDEA she was in my life’s plan. I told Westie Rescue that I would foster Zoey and her puppies. When she lost the puppies, I still wanted to foster Zoey till we found her a home. When I saw her for the first time all cleaned up and put her in my car, I looked at my friend and said. "I'M KEEPING HER, LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!"
They are all 6 months apart. So I have a 1 year old, and 1 ½ and a 2 year old. They have a completely fenced 7-acre yard to run free from any harm. It’s a joy to my heart and my soul. They all chase squirrels all day and play in the pool. Louie and Zoey are great swimmers, Mattie stays in the baby pool. All credit to the Lord. He played a HUGE hand in putting it all together and in the timing. Had I done this last year, well Westie Rescue wasn’t set up yet. There is so much in the timing that I can’t tell you how God worked this miracle. If there ever was a tiny doubt in my mind about the things God can do. There never will be again. God is great and good. I pray every night that he sends lightning to this man’s house in the area in which the dogs were kept I would feel better if it were totally destroyed!!!
So please . . .to help us stop these puppy millers. . . Don’t even consider buying from a pet store or a puppy miller. Research and be smart about making your next decision on were your going to get your next dog. There are Shelters and Rescue groups for every breed, another great resource to consider in your area. I have seen so many great dogs that come from Shelters and many others that are still in there waiting for great homes and their time is very short.Be smart on picking your next pet. There are some really great Breeders out there too.