TENNESSEE TRIO - NCAR

Debbie Butler of North Carolina Airedale Rescue (NCAR) wrote: On a cold rainy day in April, NCAR volunteers began a 3-hour one-way drive to rural TN to rescue a group of 9-month old puppies. They were the last of a litter that a breeder had been unable to sell. We’ve been familiar with this breeder for some time, but until now he had been unwilling to let us rehome any of his dogs. It seems that his interest has recently changed or he has realized that there isn’t very good money in selling dogs in this economy.

Upon our volunteers’ arrival, they are directed to “The Airedale Lot”. They had to pass several dilapidated outbuildings, old cars and multiple other dogs who were allowed to run free. In the lot they saw five Airedales. The breeding pair was there with their three puppies. One of the pups was tethered. The man explained that the tethered puppy was the most skittish of the three. Apparently at some point the breeder decided to put a goat in the lot with the dogs. As you can imagine that didn’t go very well and the owner decided to use some type of a stick or a rod to beat the dogs off of the goat. The tethered dog, later named Freedom, is suspected to have taken the brunt of that beating obvious by the scars on his head and face. When the owner of the dogs walked into the lot for us to visit the puppies, Freedom immediately cowered and got as low to the ground as he could get. When asked the names of the dogs, the man replied that he had never named them. What a sad existence for these puppies - no one to love them, not enough food and no names on top of that. As a rescue we like to get as much information as we can so we asked about what food they were eating (Old Roy), how often they were fed and how much per feeding. It was explained to us that the family traveled extensively so a 50 LB bag of food was dumped onto the bare earth and the dogs ate when they wanted.

We had leashes and collars for all of them and slipped martingales over their heads very gently, hooked up their leashes and thought we would be off. That would have been great except that these three puppies turned to concrete. They had no idea what sort of torture devices had just been placed on them and they wouldn’t budge. It was wet and muddy. Thank goodness one of our volunteers is a big strong guy who scooped up those puppies one at a time into his arms and carried them to the safety of his suburban.

Our volunteer was heartbroken to leave mom and dad behind and tried to talk the man into at least letting her have the mama do, but he just wouldn’t do it that day. (More on Mom and Dad in a different story)

All three puppies were vetted, spayed and neutered and brought current on their preventatives. They all had their very first spa day where their nails were dealt with. They had soothing medicated baths and received beautiful haircuts.

Thanks to the generosity of people who support Airedale Rescue we were able to see Barley, Gracie and Freedom get the homes they deserved.

AND HERE THEY ARE!

The winners of Incentive #6 are:

Delia Hardie, New Orleans, LA won the Counted Cross Stitch Kit and Kah Lin Wormell of Pyrmont, New South Wales, Australia won the Embroidered Tote Bag. Congratulations! Thank you for supporting Airedale Rescue with your donations.