Protective Animal Welfare Society: Senior Pet Adoption Assistance Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The Senior Pet Adoption Grant helped us support a hard-to-place dog with a wonderful family.

We got Blackie a year of heartworm preventative and a big bottle of Rimadyl for his arthritis; we also prepaid for a number of laser-therapy visits (he was going to the vet every other week for laser therapy with us).

How many pets did this grant help?

1

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Blackie was brought into our facility initially as a grooming dog. He was in very poor condition: matted down to his skin and in quite a bit of pain.

Through talking with the owner, we learned that Blackie had lived his entire life outside on the end of a chain. We did what we could for him and it took several days to shave Blackie to the skin.

We would not let things go with this dog and continued to have a line of communication with the owner, who loved Blackie but was not able to provide proper ongoing care for him. We spent three years checking in on Blackie, calling his owner to remind him to bring Blackie to us for grooming so his fur would not become matted, reminding the owner when his vaccinations were due, and offering to provide support for Blackie if the owner decided he could no longer care for him.

The owner ultimately decided to release Blackie to us and give him a chance at a new life, so after three years, he was finally ours and free forever from his confinement and chains.

Medically, Blackie was not in great condition. His hair had been so matted and torn from his skin in the past that it was patchy and ultimately would never grow back properly. Blackie had issues walking at times and, through x-rays, it was determined he had a previously-torn ACL which was never treated and which was causing him pain through inflammation and arthritis.

He was not considered a good candidate for surgery due to his age and the amount of past trauma. While in our care he started a daily medication schedule to help with his pain and inflammation and had weekly laser therapy sessions on his leg, which worked wonders!

All of these issues, as well as the fact that he was 11-plus years old and a bit of a cranky old man at times, made Blackie a difficult dog to find a new home for. We had come to the conclusion that he might end up as a sanctuary dog and spend the rest of his life with us without really ever knowing what living in a home meant.

We still held out hope, though, that someone would see past his shortcomings, age, and medical problems and give this sweet boy a soft place to land for that final chapter in his life.

About 10 years ago we adopted another difficult-to-place dog to a wonderful man who had a lot of patience, and who understood the limitations of his dog. We kept in touch over the years and had several visits from our once-naughty dog so we could see his progress.

We were quite surprised, however, when this kind man walked into our facility to let us know that our prior adopted dog had passed away and that he specifically wanted to meet Blackie. We were beyond thrilled, as we knew he understood what having an occasionally difficult dog entailed and had the patience to work through those issues.

It was a match! Blackie, who had a history of distrusting men, took to the potential adopter immediately, just as our previous dog had so many years ago. It was really one of those goosebump moments we sometimes see in the rescue world where it appears the stars align just right and something is just meant to be. Blackie had a home!

To make things even better, we will be able to remain in Blackie’s life into the future, as he only lives two blocks from our facility and is already meeting up with us several times a week for walks on the trail between our facility and his house, so he can see his dog and human friends from the shelter while getting a little exercise.

We could not have dreamed of a better outcome for this amazing senior boy! Sometimes the last chapter is the best chapter!