BRUNO AND BRANDY OUR RESCUED BABIES!

by Sharon
(Willard, MO, USA)

One night I was driving home on a dark Farm Road near my country home. In the dark I saw a loose dog running around, but not knowing if it was a stray or a neighbor's dog and being alone I continued on down the farm road to my house.

The next day in the daylight and traveling on the same Farm Road, I saw the dog resting in the grass by the road. I told my boyfriend to pull over and when he did and I rolled down the window I said "it's a Pit Bull." Not being afraid of any dogs or breeds with bad reputations, I got out of the car and said "come here baby" in my baby dog voice, lol. The dog immediately got up, wagged his tail and when he came to me he rolled over and let me pet his belly.

I knew this was not a vicious dog but by his ribs showing, knew he was starving. We took him home. Once we brought him into the house and the living room, he immediately jumped on to the sofa and got situated not even being one iota interested in my multiple cat family or my senior Pomeranian also in the Living Room.

Ezrah our Pom kept barking at him, but eventually quieted down and Bruno, as we ended up naming him, relaxed on my boyfriend's lap. This dog had definitely been an indoor dog. Who would dump such a loving pet?

Next day took him to our vet and he looked him over carefully. Kept him to neuter him, gave him his shots and checked for a chip. No chip, no collar, just another dog dumped out in the country to fend for himself.

I was so infuriated by the rise in the dogs being left off in our neighborhood, I wrote an email to the local TV station. They called me after receiving it and asked if I'd like to go on TV for a segment regarding this problem and I said YES!

Several days later the news crew came to my home and in my sunroom, I sat with Bruno and they interviewed me. He was so calm, gentle and well behaved I wanted others to see that too. They gave my name, email, etc. in case someone knew this dog or knew someone who this dog belonged to. They also asked if anyone would want to adopt him to call me or email me.

I got several inquiries and even followed up on one, but that person lived right across from a State Highway, with no fence at all. I was afraid he'd run in the road and get killed so we didn't give him away and after another person changed their mind, I decided that I would keep him and love and care for him. He has the sweetest face and saddest eyes one can imagine and he melted my heart.

One of the things I felt bad about was we had to go two days a week out of town for my business and couldn't take Bruno. We had an acre fenced with electric only on the barb wire, not on a collar for him and a locked gate and inside a large, large insulated wood dog house with regular roofing shingles that was warm and comfy.

Since I couldn't find a home and wouldn't take him to the shelter, this was the best we could do. When we were home, he got to come inside and slept in the sun room. At that time all my rescued cats lived inside and not in the sun room, so it was a good deal. Still I felt he was lonely on those two days.

About 8 or 10 months later in the local small town paper, there was a picture of a female Pit Bull who had been dumped at the local liquor store and kept in this chain link enclosure outside for 3 months. I thought it might be nice for Bruno to have a companion dog so that when we were gone, he wouldn't be lonely.

We named her Brandy and she had a close resemblance to Bruno in color and age. She could have even been his relative, mother or something. The first two days, he didn't want her near to him or jumping on him and I wondered if I had made the right decision, but once we fed them separately and let them have the full run of the yard, plus getting her fixed right away, they seemed to accept each other's presence.

When they first slept inside the sun room, one was on one sofa and the other on the love seat, close, but not too close. After a few days and it was cold season then, I found them next to each other on the love seat. It seemed they had finally attached to each other, but still after 3 years because she hogs the food, we put their food bowls a few feet apart and that works.

We took Brandy to obedience training and the trainer said this dog doesn't have a mean bone in her body and she's got a very good personality and asked if I wanted another home for her. Of course I said no.

So now we're down the road a few years and on my post about them escaping and an ensuing dog fight that ended up with the death of another neighbor's dog, a neighbor as all my neighbors out in the country who never keep their dogs in.

Turns out a neighbor's tree branch took out the electric wire and our branch (we had bad winds the day before)fell and pushed the rest of the welded wire ranch fence to the ground. This resulted in my dog also being injured in this confrontation, but as the Pit Bull owner, I am now the culprit and the neighbor threatened if the Sheriff didn't do something about it he would.

Talking to the Sheriff who unbelievably was SO nice said not much he can do since his dog wasn't in his yard either. If it wasn't for a fluke of a windstorm none of this would have happened. So we fixed the wire, fixed the fence (the dogs don't even go near the fence because they got lightly zapped once and that cured them) and are some what paranoid that this neighbor will poison or shoot our dogs, but he'll have to come down our private gravel lane and hopefully he's calmed down a little.

I called him crying when I found out, offered to pay the Vet bill even though I had one too and he refused saying the bottom line was he had a dead dog.

Now that it's been almost 4 years since I rescued these dogs, I'm not about to give them away and to whom since 99% of these dogs get put to sleep, but will have to be ever more vigilant and figure out some indoor options.

Trying to work with that because in addition to these two dogs, I have rescued or adopted unwanted kittens and now have 8 indoor cats and one very old, ailing Pomeranian.

I do my best and will continue to since I have loved and saved animals since I was 10 years old. Hate to be the bad guy in my neighborhood, but when one owns a Pit Bull, I guess it's to be expected.