Recently, when my brain has a free second, I tell myself I have to write about all the lessons I have learned from doing dog rescue, some are more meaningful than others but there are many. But that is the kind of project that requires some uninterrupted time and that is one of those things that is tough to come by when you do rescue.

But something happened last week that perfectly illustrates a couple of those lessons, one of which I have sort of “forgotten” lately. So I figured since I have today “off,” I would at least write Lady’s story. Up until about a week ago, Lady lived up the street from me, she and her people moved in maybe 4 or 5 years ago. From the very beginning, Lady became a concern for all the neighbors who are dog lovers. Lady was an outside dog, Lady was never allowed to go in the house, no matter what the weather, which these days is not something most people find acceptable. Her people claimed Lady “didn’t like” being inside and would carry on and cry to go back outside. When they first moved in, Lady didn’t even have any shelter or a way to get any shade when it got hot outside. Being in NE Philadelphia, the yard is all concrete, there is no shade and there was no dog house … and Lady is a husky. To make matters worse, the owners were not always particularly diligent about making sure Lady had water or food on a regular basis. So the calls to the SPCA to report Lady’s situation started pretty much from the time she moved in. If nothing else, those calls did get her a dog house but it has been the neighbors who for the most part have made sure she has fresh water and food. One of the neighbors has offered to “buy” Lady from her owners a few times but has been turned down each time. Luckily I don’t live so close to where Lady used to live to see her as I go about my daily routine but of course I knew she was there, I knew her situation and it killed me that there wasn’t much I could do about it. A couple of years ago, I took a couple of pictures of Lady in her yard and sent it out with a plea to a few of my trusted contacts hoping that someone might be able to help foster her or adopt her. I figured if I had some place safe for her to go, I might be able to talk the owners into letting me have her, but no one offered to take Lady.

Every so often I would get a call from a neighbor or I would run into another who lives close to Lady. They always asked me if there was anything I could do to help Lady. And I always told them that sadly there wasn’t much I could do, especially if her owners were not willing to let her go.

Last week was not a particularly good week, I have not been feeling so great, I have a bad cold and about the last thing I wanted to deal with was yet another rescue situation. But one of the lessons I have learned time and again from doing dog rescue is that things don’t always happen when they are convenient for me. Late Tuesday afternoon, I got a message from one of my neighbors, she said it was “important” and to call her asap. When I called her back, she tells me that there is something really wrong with Lady.

Lady had been crying and whimpering non stop all day long. It had been pouring rain all day long too, my neighbor said she had been laying in the yard, in the rain, just crying and whimpering. Another neighbor had gone out to check on her and said it looked like Lady was in pain. I walked up the alley to check on Lady. But when I got to her yard, Lady wasn’t there and I couldn’t see if she was in her dog house. If she was, she was quiet, not crying then and when I called her, she didn’t come out so I thought that maybe, just maybe, her people had brought her in the house.

I called my neighbor to let her know and she said it would be a “miracle” if they had brought her in the house as they never do that. I called the SPCA hotline to ask if someone could come out to check in on Lady to make sure she was OK, they told me I had to call ACCT (the other city shelter) if the dog needed “immediate rescue.” That was news to me as the SPCA has always been the one that had the responsibility to come out to check on sick or injured animals and what good is having a “cruelty hotline” if they are not going to do anything about a situation where a dog might be seriously ill or injured?

I tried calling ACCT, had trouble getting through so I called one of my rescue contacts, someone who used to work at the SPCA, hoping he still had some contacts there and could get someone who would help. I layed down for a few minutes and promptly fell asleep, waking up at around 10:30 at night. As I was letting my dogs out in the yard, I could hear Lady crying and whimpering and there was no doubt in my mind she was in pain. So I once again walked up to her yard, this time she was out and I could see her. She was hunched over, she looked like she was trying to defecate but nothing was coming out.

My first thought was that she was obstructed. The owners don’t worry about putting the trash where Lady can’t get to it so she routinely gets into the trash and I could see a few chicken bones laying on the ground so I figured she might have eaten a bunch of chicken bones. I called her and she came over, let me pet her, the whole time she is crying. I went back home and got on the phone again. This time I did get through to someone at ACCT who tells me I have to call the SPCA “hotline.” I explained that I had already done that a few hours earlier and they had told me to call ACCT. This person insisted they “couldn’t” just come and get Lady, they “could get in trouble.” Really? So who the hell is responsible for helping an animal that is in such obvious distress? We went round and round and finally he agreed to take the information and “run it by his boss.”

I don’t know if his boss is the one that got the ball rolling or maybe another neighbor also called the SPCA but about 20 minutes or so later, while I was still letting some of the dogs out, I could hear some loud banging down the alley. I looked down and there was this large truck by Lady’s yard, so I went down to check it out. Sure enough, the SPCA had finally come and they had just put Lady into the truck. I told the driver about my fear that Lady might be obstructed and what I had seen earlier, then went back home.

Lady was out of her yard and on her way to the shelter but she sure as hell was not out of danger. Knowing what I know, I figured if she was indeed obstructed, the chances she would be euthanized were pretty much 100%. The shelter does not have the kind of resources needed to deal with an intestinal obstruction. That kind of surgery is extremely expensive and not every vet can do it. And if she was suffering (as she seemed to be), they would euthanize sooner rather than later to end her suffering. So I was more than a little worried that come morning, Lady would already be gone but I just didn’t know what I could do about that. I sent emails to my contacts at the shelter but got automated replies from both; both were out on vacation until after the New Year.

First thing in the morning I called my rescue contact and told him what happened, that Lady had been taken to the shelter, that Natalie and Jill were both on vacation and I feared Lady was already gone. Thank God, Ray offered to go down to the shelter to look for her. He found her and she was still alive but as he later told me, one of the shelter workers had a leash in her hand and was on her way to get her from her cage to take her to be euthanized. It was that close. Half an hour later and Lady would now be dead.

Ray found out that the vet had examined Lady. She was not obstructed, she had a pyometria: an infection of the uterus that is life threatening if a spay is not done immediately as the infection spreads throughout the body and the dog becomes septic. She also had mammary tumors and arthritis in her back legs — not surprising. According to the owners, Lady is 13 years old, so due to her age and her health issues, the shelter had decided to euthanize her as her chances of adoption at an overcrowded city shelter are slim and none.

I asked Ray to talk to the shelter vet, if they would spay her, I would take her into my rescue. They agreed to do that and later that evening I picked up Lady, who by then had had all her vaccines, had been spayed, heartworm tested and micro chipped. She was a little disoriented but other than that seemed fine.

When I told Ray that I would take Lady, I had NO idea what I was going to do with her when I picked her up. I needed a foster home and I needed it now! In my early years of rescue, I did that sort of thing more often than I do now, these days I usually have some kind of a plan before I offer to take a dog. But sometimes you simply don’t have the luxury of a plan.

One of the lessons I learned early in rescue — that I often forget these days — is that you (sometimes) must have faith, faith that things will work out, that you will find a solution to what at first seems like an impossible problem and that by some miracle, out of a bad situation, a good thing and a happy ending can come about. It doesn’t always work out that way but when it does, it is a wonderful thing. And luckily for Lady, it happened this time.

One of my wonderful friends, supporters and “emergency” foster moms came through for me yet again and said yes when I called her to let her know I needed a temporary foster home for Lady. Now I just needed to find a more permanent place for Lady, she could only stay with Debbie for a couple of days as she was going out of town right after New Year’s.

The next day as I was leaving for work, the neighbor who had called Tuesday afternoon to tell me about Lady crying comes out to tell me she has “good news.” Turns out that a very good friend of one of Lady’s next door neighbors wanted to adopt Lady! They had met Lady long ago when they were visiting and had wanted to help her since they met her. When they heard what happened and that Lady now needed a new home, they didn’t hesitate to offer her theirs. The only “catch” is that she had to pass the Sadie test. Sadie is a senior Lhasa this couple adopted about a year ago when her previous owner passed away. Sadie can be a little selective about what dogs she likes and doesn’t like so we needed to introduce her to Lady to get her approval. So on Friday, Sadie and her people came for a meet and greet at Debbie’s. To everyone’s relief, Sadie seemed to be just fine with Lady and Lady went to her new home. I got an update Saturday morning, so far, so good, things are going well.

We still need to get Lady’s mammary tumors dealt with which I am working on. The tumors are not very big and her overall health seems quite good so I am optimistic that once they are removed, she will have a few more healthy and happy years. My vet finds it hard to believe she is 13, she sure doesn’t look that old, her heart sounds great, her teeth are in good shape and she doesn’t seem to have much of a problem getting around.

It’s a shame it took something like a life threatening pyometria to finally be able to help Lady and to find a better life for her but words cannot express just how rewarding it is to know that Lady is finally in a home where she will be cared for and loved. She is the sweetest dog and loves and craves human attention. She loves to be petted and would push herself against the fence anytime anyone came near her yard.

It was a very stressful and hectic week, a week when the last thing I needed was extra stress and yet another dog to deal with but in hindsight, I am very happy for Lady and know it was all worth it.

Update: Lady was eventually accepted into the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School’s Canine Mammary Tumor Research Study. She recovered fully from the surgery to remove the tumors and received monitoring and follow up care for the remainder of her life.