Our Dogs:   Foster Friends News

“Someone had to do this to her before we rescued her”, says Jodi Hangartner, Training Team Leader at Dogs For The Deaf in Central Point, Oregon. “She’s a hound dog, she would never have become emaciated if she could have gotten out to find food.” Hangartner is talking about Angel, a healthy 50 pound Walker Hound rescued by Dogs For The Deaf from Siskiyou County Animal Shelter in Yreka, California. Three days before Dogs For The Deaf adopted her, Angel had been carried through the shelter’s front door at 26 pounds by someone whose porch she had collapsed on.

“We needed her to walk across the street to the vet”, remembers Dee Starritt, who cared for Angel at the shelter, “but she only made it about 10 feet, we carried her the rest of the way. It’s hard to believe she survived to be rescued.”

Angel, a young dog, had been bred at least once. She was emaciated and her teats were raw and bleeding. Someone had bred her, intentionally starved her, and then she had either escaped or been dumped in the hills of Siskiyou County.

Even in her condition, and clearly the victim of abuse, Angel loved people. “When we first saw her,” says Lauren Wygant , Foster Friend Program Developer, “she greeted us and did the weakest play bow I’ve ever seen. She tried to play but just landed in a heap at our feet, too weak to wag her tail or even make a sound. We recognized a very special dog who was in very bad shape.”

The Dogs For The Deaf team had gone to find dogs for the Hearing Program, and this dog clearly did not meet the criteria. Small dogs ready to go into training was the plan of the day, but the dog soon to be known as Angel had made her impression and the plans were about to change.

“I couldn’t even sleep that night thinking about this wonderful dog who had been so maltreated, and yet who wanted so much to play and bond with people”, says Hangartner. Unsure of how much support she would find for taking a chance on this near death dog, Hangartner told the story to Robin Dickson, CEO of Dogs For The Deaf, and was given the green light. Hangartner recalls, “ I called first thing the next morning and told Dee I’d be back to pick up the dog. I had no idea whether or not she would live or what we were going to train her to do”. But you don’t pass on a dog like Angel just because you don’t know the ending to the story.

At Dogs For The Deaf Angel was given nutritious meals to help her gain weight, quiet time with staff and volunteers until she recovered her strength, and vet care to help avoid organ failure from the emaciation. Over time Angel revealed an exuberance that included long runs next to a golf cart, lots of play with other dogs, and a spectacular baying howl.

The ending to Angel’s story, or should we say the new beginning, is a happy, loving, and safe home with Lorette and David of Eugene, Oregon. No less than a healed dog deserves.