Paws Up!! to the New Leash On Life

For a young pup, who wasn’t quite 5 months old, that late October day in 2007 was a really scary time. There were people everywhere, with food too. That in itself was a novelty but I’m getting ahead of myself, perhaps I should start at the beginning.
Two years earlier a fire had consumed the home on the property where I was born. The owner, financially over-whelmed, had vacated the home, opened all of the cage doors, secured the fence gate and driven away. Her hobby had been to breed Border Collies, now they ran free in an abandoned field with no food or fresh water. No one to care for them, to love them, to protect them. This was the world that I was born into.
But now my life was about to change; for the first time I felt the touch of a human hand. I was given food, placed in a cage and experienced my first car ride. I was examined, poked, prodded and awoke one day to find a zipper on my belly. Sore and still some what groggy, I was placed with 3 littermates in an enclosure to await adoption. The kind rescuers named me Tess; they gave me lots of food and fresh water. My fur mom had done her job, of keeping us alive for our first months, well but now her obligation had been fulfilled and we were separated. I hope that my fur mom was adopted, I hope she’s living a good life.
Well, back to my story. One fine November Saturday morning the 4 of us played in the warm sunlight, tumbled with each other on the freshly mowed grass and watched, with puppy curiosity, as people leaned over the wire enclosure occasionally stroking us gently. My sister was the first to be lifted from the enclosure leaving me with my two brothers but shortly after that a woman and her grand daughter walked over to our compound. I’ll never know why the woman picked me up, I certainly wasn’t a fine looking specimen of a puppy. I weighed just a mere 18 pounds. More matted, mange riddled fur hanging in loose folds than a puppy ought to have; parasites internally and externally but the woman held on to me tightly and a rescue woman invited us to have a seat.
That’s when the friendly lecture began. Was this new woman physically able to keep pace with a highly anxious and fearful pup? Yes, the woman said. Do you have a fenced yard, a place for the pup to run? Yes, and yes again. Are you prepared to deal with any physical or emotional problems which might arise? Oh, yes, the woman replied and her hold tightened on me. I could feel that this was one determined woman, maybe she was as strong as my fur mom had been, maybe, just maybe, we could find a way to bond. And then I took another car ride.
That was almost 3 years ago; I was re-named Shiloh and neither Mum nor I have regretted the decision made that day. Sure, we’ve had some days that have been tougher than others; puppy classes, intermediate classes, learning lots of rules and all there is to know about felines but all in all it’s been a fine life and I consider myself one fortunate pup. So, here’s my Paws Up!! to the fine people associated with the Lebanon, TN New Leash On Life, to the Wilson County Sheriff’s Dept for taking swift action when our (30 plus dogs) plight became known and to many others (unknown and unseen) who care about helpless critters.
Please visit http://www.newleashonline.org/homepage.aspx if you’re able to adopt a pet and give it a loving, forever home. Wags!!