Wonder Dog

Wonder Dog

Came to OBG: October 2008
Passed over: November 2008

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.

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