DogTown (11 page)

Then he pulled out one tooth with his fingers. This was a disquieting discovery. It appeared that the infection had spread to Parker’s jawbone. X-rays revealed that nearly all of the little dog’s teeth were rotten. Steve and Dr. Mike decided to remove all of Parker’s teeth. Only time would tell if this drastic surgery and a regimen of antibiotics would prevent the infection from spreading.

PARKER’S RECOVERY

After the surgery, Michelle could tell that Parker’s mouth was extremely sore. If before he had taken bites gingerly, now he barely took any bites at all. He seemed sluggish and dispirited, almost as if eating were too much effort to bear. He did not seem to be recovering as quickly as the staff had hoped.

Michelle decided to see if she could get him to eat a little bit. He looked up at her with his sorrowful, slightly hurt brown eyes, and despite his discomfort, gave her a no-longer-crooked grin. She noticed that there was some canned chicken and some kibble in his cage already, but that it was uneaten. When she tried to feed him, it became apparent that he was having a difficult time simply getting the food into his mouth. So she piled his food up into a little mound, to make it easier for him to grab with his toothless jaws. He began wolfing down his lunch hungrily, so Michelle made another chicken-kibble mound in a different spot in his cage. Parker loved it. He scurried back and forth between the two piles of food, ecstatic to have two meals to fill his hungry belly.

Dr. Mike kept checking on Parker regularly in the days after the surgery, to make sure his mouth was healing properly. Three weeks later, Parker was making a remarkable recovery, with the oral infection under control. He was also learning how to eat without teeth, and his flagging spirits seemed to have revived. He eagerly greeted visitors, padding up to the edge of his cage and looking up beseechingly, holding up his wet brown nose as if offering it to be petted. Parker was on the mend.

It was no surprise to Michelle. “Dogs are amazingly resilient when it comes to things like losing all their teeth,” she said. “I’ve always admired that in dogs…. My guess is he’s going to move on, figure out how to eat with no teeth, and he’ll be fine.

“People tend to hold onto things more, psychologically. If you lose all of your teeth, you’re going to think, Well, what’s my mouth going to look like? How will this change my self-image? and it can be quite traumatic. Dogs seem to be able to move forward more quickly than people.”

PARKER’S NEW HOME

Now that Parker was on the road to recovery, placing him in a loving home became Dogtown’s next goal. He needed to find a place with a family who would cherish his endearing oddities, including his total lack of teeth. His first move was into a foster home with Juliette Watt, a Volunteer Coordinator at Best Friends. Juliette knew that a dog like Parker could make huge strides in his recovery just by living in a home environment. The first night there, it was as if Parker could not believe his luck. He ran from room to room, exploring the vastness of Juliette’s house.

But when he took his first steps outside, the wide-open space was like heaven to the dachshund. Parker reveled in the myriad smells in his nose and the new textures under his paws. During his first week, Parker found a favorite place on the backyard deck. With his ears erect and his eyes alert, Parker perched up high and watched the world go by. Within weeks, Parker’s confidence grew and grew. He quite literally found his voice and began barking for the first time since he had left Whispering Oaks. His mouth was healing nicely from the surgery, making it easier for him to eat. He made friends with Juliette’s dogs, especially her dachshund Rosie. Things were looking up for Parker.

From the beginning, Parker’s story had been featured on Best Friends’ Guardian Angel website
(http://www.bestfriends.org/guardianangel),
a place dedicated to showcasing the stories of the shelter’s special-needs animals. Most of these animals have conditions requiring a lot of medical care, and these pages offer a place where viewers can monitor their progress. Best Friends’ staff update each animal’s progress journal with news and events. Through the Guardian Angel program, sponsors can donate money toward the care of these animals and people can apply to adopt them. It was through this amazing program that Parker found his forever home.

After the story of Parker’s rescue and surgery was featured on the Guardian Angel site, it only took a short time before a potential adopter appeared. Parker’s moving tale charmed a woman named Becky from St. Cloud, Florida. Becky had six rescue dogs at home, two of whom were dachshunds. It would be an ideal environment for Parker, one in which he could learn to socialize with other dogs as well as with his new people. Becky and her family were well aware of Parker’s background and felt up to the challenge of giving this boy a good life.

Becky traveled all the way to Dogtown from Florida to meet Parker personally and to bring him to his new home. When Michelle brought Parker out from behind the counter at the welcome desk, she said to Becky, “Would you like to hold him?”

“I’d love to!” she answered.

“OK, Parker, be a good boy,” Michelle said, handing him over. “I know you’re going to have a good life!”

Parker gave Michelle one of his sly—now toothless—old Parker grins. Then Becky took him and held him tight, and Parker didn’t seem to mind one bit.

Mei Mei’s big personality charmed the Dogtown managers who traveled to Los Angeles on a puppy mill rescue mission.

MEI MEI: BIG-EYED LITTLE SISTER

In puppy mills, the breeding dogs often have medical problems, but there is another huge, mathematical problem: Puppy mills produce an estimated four million dogs for sale each year in the United States. At the same time, there is an enormous overpopulation problem, with an estimated three to four million homeless dogs and cats killed annually, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

“It’s a national travesty that the puppy mill industry is allowed to flood the market every year with so many dogs being killed each year in animal shelters,” said Julie Castle, Best Friends’ Director of Community Programs and Services. For the average animal lover, the solution can be summed up by the slogan of one recent campaign: Puppies Aren’t Products. This campaign has a logo of a soulful, sad-eyed pug puppy with a bar code across its forehead.

Because the problem is so widespread, Best Friends has developed several programs within its Puppies Aren’t Products campaign to address the whole issue at several different levels, from the facilities themselves to the pet stores that are knowingly buying and then reselling these dogs. The campaign also seeks to educate buyers about the problems. The goals are to help shut down more puppy mills and to encourage people to adopt homeless dogs from shelters.

In 2008, Best Friends brought its Puppies Aren’t Products campaign to Los Angeles to fight breeding in and sale from puppy mills and their importation in the Los Angeles area. After an undercover investigation by a Los Angeles–based animal rights group, Last Chance for Animals (LCA), in conjunction with the local CBS-TV news station, a Los Angeles County puppy mill was found to be keeping 402 dogs in inhumane conditions. Among other outlets, the operation had been supplying puppies to a pet store in Beverly Hills called Posh Puppy, where they were selling for as much as $4,000 apiece.

Since the kennel was only licensed to keep 100 dogs, it was ordered to release the remaining 300. Approximately 200 were sold or passed along to other breeders; 50 were dropped off at the Lancaster Shelter, where they were quickly placed by local rescue groups; and another 40 were rescued by a joint LCA/Best Friends operation. Michelle traveled 450 miles from Utah to L.A. to see which of the dogs most needed the special care that Best Friends specializes in providing.

When she arrived, Michelle found the caged dogs had been numbered for identification purposes, but they had no names. She was looking primarily for elderly dogs that might have medical problems or might be unattractive in other ways that made them difficult to adopt. It was as if she were answering a reverse personals ad: “Seeking someone old, sick, and ugly.”

Michelle and her assistants chose six small dogs and were about to call it a day when she sat down with a Chihuahua who was not old, or sick, or ugly. The little short-haired dog, with fur the color of banana pudding, had large, round, expressive eyes, with a black muzzle and a pronounced underbite. Her upper lip kept getting snagged on her teeth, exposing a single, comical fang, as if she were attempting to look fierce and failing. She was wearing a pink collar bearing the number 15.

The little dog started prancing daintily around the enclosed side yard at the foster facility where the dogs were being kept. Her upturned, curlicue tail, almost like a little pig’s, bounced and jiggled as she frolicked and played with a plush toy dog. Unlike many dogs from puppy mills, who can be traumatized and unapproachable, this little lady seemed hungry for affection, bounding into Michelle’s lap and trying to lick her face.

“This little dog started running around and just being very silly, and playful, and very charming, and we decided”—here Michelle broke into a huge, irrepressible grin—“that we might just want to bring her back.” The little pudding-colored dog became known as Mei Mei, which is Chinese for “little sister.” The youngest of the rescued dogs, Mei Mei had a name that suited her sweet, high-energy nature very well.

At the time, space at Dogtown was at a premium. The only space available for small dogs was for those that were elderly. Mei Mei was too high-energy for them, so Michelle decided to foster Mei Mei herself until a permanent adoptive home could be found. “I don’t really consider myself a small-dog person, but every time I say that, I wind up falling in love with a Chihuahua!” she said, laughing. Mei Mei would live with Michelle at her house, provided she could get along with Michelle’s cat and three dogs.

After a physical exam gave Mei Mei a clean bill of health, the Chihuahua traveled to Michelle’s house for introductions. Upon arrival, Michelle brought Mei Mei into the backyard to meet her dogs: Citra, a large, 50-pound black-and-tan mix; Mona, an older dog of about 40 pounds; and Espresso, a long-haired, 20-pound mixed breed. Michelle looked on as her dogs sized up the new arrival and then sniffed her all over, even following her around the yard as she investigated her new surroundings. A little hesitant and slightly intimidated at first, Mei Mei soon realized these larger dogs meant her no harm. She relaxed and began to return their greetings, smelling her new housemates with gusto.

When deemed ready for adoption, Mei Mei and other dogs like her often travel to off-site adoption events like this one to find forever homes.

The introductions were going well: Citra and Espresso were relaxing alongside Michelle as Mei Mei continued to explore the yard. Then they heard a sharp little bark. And then another. Mei Mei had spotted Wesley, the cat.

Ears up and alert, Mei Mei trotted over toward the large black-and-white cat, who was sitting calmly alongside the garage. When she came within five yards of Wesley, Mei Mei froze in her tracks and stared at this strange creature, who sat motionless except for the flicking of his fluffy tail. It was most likely the first time that Mei Mei had ever encountered a feline, and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. The cat coolly stared back at the dog. Wesley was bigger than the Chihuahua, and, according to Michelle, could be aggressive with dogs if they came too close. Mei Mei smartly seemed to sense that the cat was something best left alone and turned away. “Good choice, Mei Mei! Good choice!” cheered Michelle. The introductions were deemed a success, so Mei Mei could officially move in with Michelle and begin to learn the real-life skills she would need for an adoptive home.