Jessie’s story continues

Jessie’s journey is well under way. Yesterday she was transferred from Steve, from Miami, who picked her up at the shelter, overnighted her in his home to comfort her and save VEBR money, to Mary in Orlando. Steve is well known in the rescue world and dedicates his life to saving dogs. Mary then drove to Lake City…after falling in love with Jessie. Mary transports dogs 3-5 days a week, has no affiliation with VEBR and did this from the kindness of her heart. Mary met Jacque in Lake City. Jacque is a close friend of Lynitt, our friend and Georgia foster. Again, no affiliation with VEBR, no investment in this dog. Simply an act of kindness for a dog in need.
Jessie spent the night with Jacque and her son who gave her an amazing bed to sleep in and I’m sure plenty of love. Today Jacque will meet Lynit who lives in Bowman, GA. Lynit will keep Jessie until she can be flown to Vermont. Lynit was a gift to VEBR directly from God as was her husband. Lynit has fostered so many VEBR dogs that I have lost count. Three that were treated positive for heart worm have been with her since last fall. Hopefully Jessie will come North this week. There are not words to speak that really express what we are feeling toward all these selfless folks.
Jessie has gone from breeding machine for profit to having her body torn to bits by dogs who are just as much a victim as she is. They are fighting dogs. Used for the perverse entertainment pleasure of incredibly sick individuals. They are taught, even encouraged to rip another dog to shreds for sport and the smell and taste of blood fuels them. Lest we not forget the Michael Vicks of the world. They are under every rock in every state. Jessie was lucky. She did not die an agonizing death. She suffered for sure, but through a series of miraculous connections, she is saved.
It is like a giant “join the dots” page where nothing was missed, no dot unconnected. Jessie was held, and kissed, and walked and fed and slept in safety for two days. She will never know the pain or the terror of being thrown into a dog fight. She will never wake in the unstoppable noise and uncertainty of a shelter again. If this story moves you, help us because to pull a dog from this far away is huge. There is cost and risk.
We need for people to do what these folks did: transport, foster, offer to pay for boarding or vet care, foster, foster, foster. We have a maximum capacity of 11 dogs here. Two people with lives to balance and 11 dogs. Imagine that. We have one foster who will take most any dog we hand her….one foster. Every day I am tagged on posts for dogs but never does the person tagging tell me that they will take the dog.
Recently Amanda, who tagged me on Winston Churchill, followed his rescue and transport and adopted him. Once….Thank you Amanda and family. I think to myself; “How am I to save all these dogs without help?” Last night I went to bed late….wakeful, as someone had tagged me about two dogs in NY. They will die tonight because I can not take them and that person did not offer to help. Don’t tag me unless you are willing to share the sleeplessness, the financial burden, the work, the inconvenience and the despair when we do not act fast enough and the the next post of the dog is headed with RIP. We do not like drama. We do not need drama. There is too much of both in this world of rescue. We need help.
Jessie’s story is deeply disturbing and endlessly joyful as was Peaches and Preston and Penelope and, and, and….. The happy endings come at a cost. The happy endings take sacrifice and a willingness to get hair in your car and have a crate in your bathroom and make three trips to the dump because puppy papers add up. They take being sleepless for days on end because a dog is stressed in a kennel. They take using your brand new washer and dryer 50 times a day for dog laundry. Then staying up at night to wash human clothes. They take time away from my family and meals and friends. When taking a hot shower feels like the best vacation ever and grabbing a fish sandwich at McDonald’s at 8:00 on Friday night, (after taking a dog for a photo shoot to thank the pilot who flew him), feels gourmet, that is the reality of rescue.
Successful adoptions are the icing on the cake. If this story has moved you, please consider making a donation at www.VermontEngishBuldlogRescue.com Without you, we cannot continue to save innocent dogs like Jessie.