Hey there rescue Fam, this is our story, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
*Warning: not everything is happy tails and happy trails.
Included in this blog will be before, and after photos of dogs that have been rescued from pretty horrific scenes and situations. *Viewer discretion is advised.*
October 24, 2022:
I had been living in my current residence next to my same neighbors for roughly 4 years by this time. For the last 3 1/2 years, my neighbors had a small white dog chained up to the side of their house. My neighbor's children (all 12 of them) came to my house to ask me to meet their new dog, Sparkles. Although I didn’t like that the dog was chained up, it had water and food and seemed in good spirits and good health.
As the years went by, I visited each week to spend time with Sparkles and the kids. Although these kids liked the dog and wanted one, they were unsure how to interact with her, and at times, they seemed afraid of her. I thought this would be a good teaching opportunity. I could teach the kids how to interact with their dog and help them learn to properly care for it at the same time. Each time I visited, I went over a list of Do's and Don’ts dog etiquette with the kids, and I quizzed them to see what they remembered from my last visit. Each time, I was sad to see that none of them had remembered anything, and upon speaking to their parents and family members, it seemed the adults in the environment didn’t care about any of it. This frustrated me. Here is a family with a perfectly nice and healthy dog and children who are willing to love and care for the dog, but no adult figure to teach them how to do so properly - except me.
So I continued every week, teaching and talking and helping. I brought a dog house, food, and water, and when it was cold, I brought hay to fill the dog house with. At this time, it was approaching the four-year mark of Sparkles being with her home, and I was beginning to worry that this family would never truly care or put forth any effort, and I would be the one caring for this dog that isn’t even mine.
This was before I created the Valhalla Rescue Center. I was simply trying to help my neighbors do right by their dog.
I could hear Sparkles barking every night for almost 4 years. She barked until one day she stopped. On a cold October late afternoon, one of the kids from next door came and knocked on my door.
“Mr. Curt, Mom said please come here. Something is wrong with sparkles.”
I went over to the little white dog and knelt beside her. She wasn’t moving and couldn’t stand up or even lift her head from the weight of the heavy chain around her neck!
There was a bowl nearby with a few leftover scraps of food from the family's previous meal. The mother of the children approached as I stood up to greet her and told me she wouldn’t eat and we were not sure what was wrong! I looked at the dog for a long time, and I looked at the family. I asked the kids to please go get a bucket of water so that I could speak to their mom alone. I spoke calmly and firmly to the woman and told her what was wrong is she was dying. She’s dying because I’m the only one who provides her with food or water or care, and I can only do so much for a dog that isn’t mine. She’s dying because the few times you fed her the food was always out of reach and her water bowl is constantly empty unless I fill it. She’s dying because she’s skin and bones. She’s too weak to stand or raise her head to eat or drink. She’s going to die. At this point, I informed the woman it is a crime in the state of Florida for a dog to die in this condition because of this type of treatment please allow me to take her and take care of her, and I will not involve the authorities!
The woman told me she just wanted the dog to be OK and that I should do whatever I needed to. I unchained Sparkles and took her to the vet where she spent two weeks in the ICU! Severely emaciated, dehydrated, and filled with internal parasites with Heartworms and intestinal, and covered with more fleas than any human could imagine seeing on one animal. All of this combined with the lack of food and water, I could easily see how she was in the condition she was in.
Once Sparkles started to make a recovery the vet informed me that she could go home. When I arrived to pick her up, the vet told me that if she had stayed at that house on that chain for one more day she would not have made it. She would’ve died there just one more day...
When Sparkles and I left the vet's office, although still skinny, she had spirit and life in her, and she was so excited to see me. As the vet tech rounded the corner with her, I knelt and called her.
"Come here, Freya! Come on girl!"
The vet tech looked at me with confusion and asked, "Freya? I thought her name was sparkles?"
I looked at the dog and looked back at the vet tech. "Were you here when I brought her in?" I asked.
"Yes, I was," the vet tech replied.
"When she arrived did you see any sparkle left in her?" I asked. "I renamed her Freya, because I believe that with new life comes a new name, and because Sparkles was not a fitting name for this dog, as there was no sparkle left in her. She was a dark shell with no sparkle left. But now she was a fighter, and a warrior like the goddess Freya, a Viking goddess, ready to fight for her life fight for a better life!"
I’m happy to report that Freya has been with us for over a year now and she is the reason we started the Valhalla Rescue Center. She was my first official rescue and she is now happy, healthy, and ready for adoption.
Below are before and after photos of Freya to show her whole story, from start to finish, not just the happy part. Remember not everything is happy tails and happy trails!
Thank you for reading Freya's story. If you would like to read more about our rescues, tune in regularly as we continue to update our blogs.
Thank you for supporting Valhalla Rescue Center. If you want to donate to VRC or find other ways to help our cause, please email us at valhallarescuecenter@gmail.com.
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