My friend Janice rescued two dogs Monday left behind at a foreclosed house. The dogs were outside with no food, water, or shelter, and the smaller one was chained. The skin on her ears and nose are sunburned and raw. Both dogs are emaciated and were very scared. Janice enlisted the help of a neighbor and they coerced the dogs into her car with food. The dogs are now safe at Janice’s house and we are determined to find good homes for them. Though still shy and frightened, the dogs have made big steps in three days. The dogs were so dehydrated that they threw up all the water she gave them the first day. These dogs are female, about two years old, and have not been spayed.
Foreclosures rarely just involve a family losing their home. They leave behind their shattered lives, often so angry that they destroy the home by ripping out counters, cabinets, hot water heaters, pipes, even filling toilets with cement. Some vile people leave their pets behind. There is no excuse for any of this, but if our government doesn’t stop sending billions and billions of our money overseas, our country and our people will wither and die. If you ever wonder why there are more and more homeless people, here’s a place to look for answers. Janice is ready to wall off her property and put gun turrets in, and I’m ready to join her.
If you know of a home being foreclosed on in your neighborhood, please try to find out if they left pets behind. We know it’s hard to find homes for them, believe us, we know. But even leaving pets in front of a shelter in the middle of the night is better than this fate.
If you live in Arizona, these dogs are up for adoption. I would take the beautiful red dog myself if I didn’t already have six dogs and a bunch of cats. We don’t know or care what breeds these dogs are. It doesn’t matter. They need love, care, a yard of their own, and to be part of a pack, even if that pack is just one person to share a life with.
Kona, beautiful dog up for adoption in southern Arizona
Kona, beautiful dog up for adoption in southern AZ. Look at how underweight she is. You can see her ribs and hip bones sticking out.
Kona, beautiful red dog up for adoption in southern AZ.
Kona, beautiful dog up for adoption in southern AZ. Just look at that face. And look at the sunburn inside her ears and on her nose.
Shotsie, some kind of hound mix, shy but loving. She is also very underweight.
Shotsie, beautiful hound mix up for adoption in southern AZ.
Shotsie, beautiful hound mix up for adoption in southern AZ.
Shotsie, beautiful and loving hound mix up for adoption in southern AZ.
Find an Outlet 
I wish I could say I was surprised. What is wrong with people? Make a commitment to care for an animal then leave it chained to die a horrible death. Yes, these people lost their home, but it’s hard for me to have compassion for them. Good luck. I hope the dogs find a home together. I wish I could help.
They probably won’t find a home together, that would be too much to ask, but it’s OK. It’s more important that they each find a good home. We understand the people who lived there “didn’t believe in spaying and neutering,” which I’m sorry to report is rather common here. Many people don’t think of pets as a lifetime commitment. And there is absolutely no education about this anywhere.
Guess we’ll just have to live forever so our pets don’t end up without us.
Hats off to Janice, firstly, for taking in these two canine forgotten souls and secondly, for giving of her time, sweat and tears.
Hats off to you as well, for the same reasons. I hope all works out well for Kona and Shotsie.
And if your trying to make me cry, well you succeeded. Still missing my side kick. Though the memories and picture remain, am finding I miss his presence now that the weather is becoming pleasant and the walks are getting longer. I have started to look into Pet Rescue Organization near me. So who knows. A Kona or a Shotsie may be in my future.
Thanks ‘D’ for this post.
I know how much you miss your boy. I’m so glad you’re looking into adopting, it’s the right thing to do. There’s a dog out there waiting to go for walks and devote all his love just to you.
And yes, Janice cries all the time but she’s still my hero, though she’ll tell you she’s just a sap who can’t say no. Thank goodness for Paxil.
Paxil…….is that better than a bag or two of M&M’s with a Scotch chaser. Thanks again.
No, that’s in addition to chocolate and Scotch…
Much classier than my bag of Doritos and vodka + Ocean Spray cranberry juice cocktail! š
D, your writing is beautiful and your stories heartrending.
B
Thanks Bill. Wish I had some happy sh*t to report. Guess it doesn’t matter if we write about politics, religion, or animals—it’s all just awful.
Horrible, sickening and a day-spoiler. Janice is a saint and if she walls off the property and puts in turrets and you join her, I would join you in spirit from across the miles. Those dogs are gorgeous and the photos show that they have much love to give, which is a miracle considering how they were treated. The first thing someone should do in a foreclosure is make arrangements for their animal companions. I have already provided for mine in my will, a good friend and client will take them. I think your suggestion about looking into the pet situation when there’s a foreclosure sign is spot-on. Bravo to you and your wonderful friend.
Thanks Ann. Janice did the hard part, my job in this is easy, all I have to do is make and distribute posters and help her socialize the dogs. I just don’t have the set-up here to foster any more dogs, and even though she does, it’s hard on her because all these pitbulls she rescues often don’t get along and have to be separated. And it’s expensive. She’s always coming up with ways to make money to help with the costs but never has time to follow through.
Janice doesn’t even consider the problems she’ll face when she rescues a dog, she just does it. It’s her calling and her reason to live.
Glad you have your cats provided for.
We used to be able to put “courtesy postings” on local shelters’ PetFinder pages (it was good exposure but you’re only allowed to post an animal on PetFinder if you’re a legitimate shelter or pound), but they don’t let us do that anymore. Does anybody know if I could set up a Facebook page for just these dogs, and how I would do that?
You should be able to set up a Facebook page for dogs you have rescued, looking for homes, etc. When you set up a new account, set it up as a “business” rather than individual than there are different choices such as non-profit, famous person, band, artist, stuff like that. It’s been a while since I’ve been on FB (deleted my account) but I’m sure I could help figure it out. If you need help just drop me a line.
As for the people who leave their animals behind, I just don’t get it. When I had to evacuate due to hurricane (Andrew in ’95 that devastated S.Florida), they said we couldn’t take the animals with us to the shelters so I took my cats in the car and drove to a safe zone. Luckily, friends lived on the West coast of Florida that I could stay with but I was prepared to sleep in my car with them if I had to. A cat colony that I help take care of here in CT has cats that have been “tossed out” and abandoned, never neutered/spayed, and now there is a feral colony. It makes me so damn mad! The colony finally became stable after trap/spay/release over 14 months but now again, there are two new cats that have been tossed out, neither neutered, and it can make the colony larger again so we are trying to capture them to spay/neuter. One older cat, who was obviously not feral like the others, we discovered was originally part of a home but after 15 years living with family she developed a bladder problem so they just tossed her out to fend for herself and ignored her! We took her in, gave her some medications that helped her and she was adopted by an elderly woman who said she understood what it was like to be old, alone and tossed aside.
OK, I’ll stop now, didn’t mean to hijack your comments! It just angers me so much how people treat animals that come to depend on us. I know you understand. Beautiful dogs, I hope they find a forever home soon.
Thanks for the info, I’m going to try the Facebook thing. Maybe something good can come out of that stupid platform of nothingness after all.
We have a lot of feral cat colonies here too.
No way would I leave my home without my animals, no way, no how. Never.
I always wonder why people who would do this to animals had those pets in the first place? They obviously didn’t care about them. What’s next, people in foreclosure just leaving kids behind?
I’m sure these people were scumbags to begin with. A lot of people here don’t take good care of their pets. I don’t know why they have them, a toy to play with for a couple days, then neglect?
Also, here in AZ pitbulls are a kind of status symbol, I think. Then when the owners find out they actually have to feed and care for them, they dump them in the desert. It happens every single day.
I’ve read about the foreclosure situation in your country; we have nothing like it here thank goodness; Australia was largely sheltered from the worst effects of the GFC but I can understand the rage of people being forced out of their homes and losing large amounts of money BUT it is still no excuse to let animals suffer; at the worst couldn’t they let them free, providing them with food and water? I mean why chain them?
Exactly. Worse than that I’ve read that people sometimes leave them in the house, then nobody even knows they’re there.
I cannot explain pure evil, nobody can, even though people think they have answers. Animal abuse is the cause of my atheism.
Am interested in adopting Shotsie. Janice, Please contact me via my email address. Thanks, Ann
Debra,
I have a friend interested in adopting one of those cute dogs. I think she wrote to you under the article. Sorry, my baddled directions. I hope it all works out.
I’m emailing both of you with information. Thank you!
Debra
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