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Wonder
Dog
Wonder Dog spent a decade of his life being tortured by the people who should
have been caring for him. He was chained outside his entire life. He had to live
in both the scorching heat of the summer and the freezing cold of the winter. He
was regularly beaten, burned and starved. When the brothers that owned him got
drunk, they would throw stones at him to make him scream. It wasn’t until new
neighbors witnessed the abuse that animal control was called, Wonder Dog was
rescued and the owners were prosecuted. Wonder Dog spent six months in the animal shelter while the case
against his prior owners was ongoing. He was then released to rescue. I,
personally, had both the pleasure and the pain of trying to foster and
rehabilitate Wonder Dog. The pleasure came from seeing him running free in my
backyard, playing with toys for the first time in his life and getting thank you
kisses from him after a good bellyrub. Those are memories that I will treasure
forever. The pain came from finding out that he bore mental scars from his years
of abuse that I could not erase. Wonder Dog had a very aggressive side to him.
He would attack both people and dogs without warning and once on the attack, it
was very difficult to calm him down. Sometimes his fear aggression was directed
at me or a member of my family and sometimes it was directed at my own dogs.
Although we only had him in our home for a short time, I quickly realized that
the monsters that owned him before had turned him into a dangerous dog. As much
as I wanted to help him, I could not put my family and my dogs at risk and I
could not risk someone else being injured if we tried to adopt him out. I tried contacting several animal sanctuaries such as one in
Utah and other well known sanctuaries. In each case, I received a response
within the hour that the sanctuaries were either full or they could not take in
a dog with Wonder Dog’s level of aggressiveness due to concern over their own
employees and volunteers and the liability issues. At that point, I had to face
the fact that there was nothing else that OBG could do and a decision was made
that Wonder Dog needed to be euthanized. This was by far one of the most
difficult and painful decisions that I have ever had to make in my years of
working rescue because I saw glimpses of the dog that Wonder Dog would have
been, if he had not been victimized by the monsters that owned him. OBG is starting a fund in memory of Wonder Dog. I know that
from this point forward, when I help to save the life of a dog, a part of me
will be doing this in honor of Wonder Dog. I do not want Wonder Dog to have died
in vain. OBG will continue to save the lives of hundreds of dogs a year, and the
money donated to the Wonder Dog Fund will help us to do so. I can’t think of a
better way to keep his memory alive. Lastly, I want to make a plea to everyone
reading this message. If you ever see any animal being abused or neglected,
please call animal control as quickly as possible. Don’t assume that someone
else will make the call. If animal control does not respond to your first call,
try again and again and again until something is done. Perhaps Wonder Dog’s
story would have had a happy ending if someone had reported the abuse when it
first started. If you would like to donate to the Wonder Dog Fund, please
click on the PayPal button below: I will never forget Wonder Dog, and I find some comfort knowing that I was able to show him kindness and love for at least a short time. All dogs should know what it is like to be loved. Sincerely, Teresa Butler OBG President
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