This is Maxx.
On Saturday we got a call from one of my friends that she had found a stray pit bull puppy and didn't know what to do with him, but didn't want to leave him out on the streets. She works two and half jobs or so and so she was in no place to own a dog. So we agreed to help her save him and find him a home. Little did we know what we were in for.
When we first went over, she had decided to call him Maxx. He was a completely loving little snuggle bug and we couldn't help but want to find him a good home, so we set out to doing so. We set our friend up with a crate, bowls, food, a leash, etc and made a plan to come and check on him while she was working on Sunday.
I sent out a email and we made some posts on various sites trying to find him a home that night. We soon found that the world is full of terrible people who were looking to exploit an un-neutered pit bull puppy (no matter how sweet his temperment) and use him to fight, or breed, or for worse. That said, we had to change our approach and started to realize that finding a home for a pit might be a lot harder than finding a home for a black lab or something else.
Sunday, when we went to take care of him, we found that he had somehow managed to escape from his crate and had eaten our friends blinds in two windows as well as chewed her door frames. The crate itself was still closed which made the situation all the more odd. Ultimately, we cleaned up, took him to see if he was micro-chipped (he was not) and warned our friend about the damage she'd find when she came home.
We continued on our quest to find him a home, contacting shelters (all of them put pit bulls down immediately more or less) and rescue groups (none seemed responsive about pit bulls save a few that were full).
Monday night we thought we might have found him a home and brought him to our house and gave him a bath. Turner and our neighbor took him to see if the guy was interested and alas, he was not. When Maxx came back, I cried as I was so stressed out that no one wanted him except for bad purposes. He sat in my lap and licked my tears which made it even worse (at least if he were a mean puppy it might be easier).
Tuesday when talking to one of the rescue groups that could take him if we came up with $300 for a 10 x 10 enclosure as they were out of space, I mentioned that he had a discharge from my eyes. They informed me that was a sign of distemper, so we wound up taking Maxx to the vet that night. Several dollars later, we found that Maxx didn't have distemper and instead had a respiratory infection. We also got him all of his shots, flea treated and wormed while we were at it.
I've neglected to mention that during all of this time, Turner was going to our friend's house every day at lunch and again after work to ensure Maxx go fed and walked, etc, since she had to go to work, etc. He was (and is) an absolute saint.
On Wednesday we finally got legitimate interest (well, Turner did) from one of Turner's co-workers. She went over to our friends after work to meet Maxx and decided she wanted to adopt him. However, she was going out of town until Sunday, so she couldn't get him until then. At that point, we thought he would probably be okay at our friend's until Sunday.
That is, until she called us last night to let us know that he had again broken out of his crate, eaten what was left of her blinds, her window sills, more door frame, his leash and several pairs of shoes. Worse even, when she tried to take him out to go to the bathroom (remember, he ate his leash), he got away. So Turner and I headed over around 10:30 to hunt for Maxx. We walked the streets and drove around, periodically taking breaks to pick up some of the mass destruction he'd unleashed. Finally, about 1 am we found him wondering several blocks over, hanging with some thugs and a little bitty dog. We scooped him up, took him back to our friends and re-secured his crate with padlocks and then headed home to bed. We had heard from a neighbor that a female dog was in heat nearby so that may have prompted his fervor to escape.
All that said, we realized that to make it through the weekend and ensure he was neutered so we could minimize further crazy behavior we had to change the plans. So we are now boarding Maxx at our vet for the weekend and then taking him to a different (more affordable) vet on Monday to get neutered. And since we have all kind of maxed out our funds, I put out a plea to my network of animal rescuers and lovers and was able to come up with the amount of money we'd need to cover the cost of his neutering, etc. I called my email "It takes a village to save a Maxx" and I have to say it is true.
As much as the last week has been frustrating, finding that very few people really care about this dog, especially because his breed is unpopular, and want to use him for horrible purposes, there are also lots of people who are willing to pitch in, help out and donate to make it possible for him to have the best start with his new owner possible. And I, lucky me, happen to know them all.
Thanks to everyone who helped out with Maxx. You can bet you'll (finally) get a happy ending email instead of another plea for help come Tuesday.
Love to all,
J
1 comment:
We have so been through that. We recently have gotten down to our two big, old dogs and five cats. But adopting out our great dane puppy was a nightmare and similar. She is finally doing well, but I thought we'd end up having to keep her which we so could not afford.
I just hope there is extra karma there for us at the end of the road.
Mindi - your wonderful cousin who is too lazy to sign in.
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