The Lost Dogs (36 page)

Mel barked when people approached, and he was making a racket in hopes of backing people off because he was afraid. But Mel loved being with other dogs, so his handlers thought they could use that to warm him up to people. They let Mel have time with other dogs only in people-heavy places, such as the offices at Best Friends. Mel’s people fears did begin to ease, but there was another problem. Mel liked to chew on stuff, including wires. So Mel’s office time had to be limited. Still, the trainers found other ways to socialize him and one staffer eventually took him home as a foster dog. He loved playing with the three dogs who lived in his new foster home and continued to get friendlier with people, but he also continued to chew, laying waste to many items in his foster home, including a brand-new couch. In time, Mel became so people-friendly that he was adopted and now lives happily in a full-time home.

One of the surprising things about the Vick dogs has been how few of them are pure American pit bull terriers. A number were Staffordshire bull terriers and screenings have found some to include genetic imprints of everything from Italian greyhounds to whippets. Oliver looked like something else altogether. “Who snuck the Boston terrier in there?” staffers joked about Oliver, because that’s what he looked like. He had no manners when he arrived, but he learned them quickly, and caregivers helped him overcome the slight discomfort he showed around people by hand-feeding him. One of the caregivers fostered Oliver at home to provide him with an even more settled environment. In November 2009 he became the fifth of the Best Friends dogs to be adopted.

It’s been one thing at a time for Squeaker. She was so stressed out by and attuned to external stimuli when she first came to Best Friends that she would spend her entire day racing along the fence line of her run. She was at this so constantly that the staff was having a hard time keeping weight on her. To decrease her energetic reactivity to the world around her, she was moved into the laundry room, a place that’s constantly occupied by only one person and filled with fresh towels and blankets. Squeaker was able to bond with the person she shared the room with, and she picked out a cozy corner of the room to call her own. With far less stimulation, she relaxed. She was always friendly to people, but soon became even friendlier, to the point that she likes to rise up on her rear legs, throw her front paws over a visitor’s shoulders, and give a hug. She plays calmly now when given time in her outdoor run and has maintained a healthy weight. She’s even become more comfortable with other dogs, regularly giving play bows through the fence and showing a desire to be with them.

Claimed by the Richmond Animal League, she was sent to a rescue organization in New York that had a foster arrangement in place. The foster situation fell through and Jhumpa lingered in a crate in a veterinarian’s office for months with limited interaction and enrichment. Her condition deteriorated and some members of the original evaluation team wondered if she should be put down because she was beginning to suffer. Finally, rescuer Kathleen Pierce stepped forward and took in Jhumpa. After so many months in a shelter, Jhumpa was in bad shape, but with training and steady care, she recovered. Today, she lives in Pierce’s house with a whole pack of dogs and cats and is being trained for therapy work.

Uba was the dog pictured in the New York
Daily News
and the
New York Times
under the headline PIT BULLS FROM THE VICK DOGFIGHTING CASE AWAIT FATES. He proved to be anything but a killer. Graded as ready for a foster home, he was part of the original group of thirteen dogs that took the cross-country RV trip to northern California. He was fostered there by Letti De Little, a BAD RAP volunteer who had another pit bull and a cat. Uba became great friends with De Little’s other pets and she eventually adopted him. He regularly gets together with other Vick dogs in the San Francisco area for walks and playtime. He has his Canine Good Citizen certification and now helps De Little with new foster dogs by setting a good, calm example.

With a tawny coat and attractive features, Handsome Dan is as good-looking as they come. Like many of the other dogs he was shy and fearful of people, but he was not a barker. He tended to simply retreat and hide when approached. When left on his own he would pace or circle. Once he settled down he became one of the best overall specimens in the group, as he got along well with people, dogs, and cats. As his confidence rose he enjoyed nothing more than going for walks, during which he would almost prance like a show horse, a move that earned him a second name: Dancing Dan. He was adopted in December 2009 by a family that included a young child, and Dan bonded with the child immediately. The adjustment to his new home set off a phase in which he seemed to be reliving the puppyhood he never had—getting into things, jumping on the couch, etc.—but he has since settled into a comfortable new life.

A very shy and shut-down dog, Iggy lives with Nicole Rattay in Southern California. Within his little world—Rattay’s house and yard—and his regular circle of friends, he’s very happy and comfortable. But the larger world remains a little too much for him, and he turns shy and fearful when he ventures out.

Brandon Bond placed this dog, a female originally named Aretha, in the foster home of a longtime friend, Daron James, who had worked with numerous pit bulls before. Despite her deep scars and signs that she’d been bred multiple times (she was pregnant when confiscated but lost the pups when she was spayed), she was a fearless and curious dog who responded very well to the training she received at an obedience school. James renamed the dog Seven, the number Michael Vick wears on his football jersey, as a nod to where she’d come from and an acknowledgment that he’d been lucky to come across her. “They had a great connection,” Bond said. “He saved her life, and she was a very happy dog.”

A short time later a good friend of James’s committed suicide, sending him into a state of depression that worried his friends. “The only thing that pulled him out was that dog,” says Bond. “He took all the pain in his heart and poured it into Seven. The tables turned. She saved his life.”

James eventually pulled out of his funk and committed to adopting Seven as soon as the six-month waiting period was up. He moved to Florida, where both man and dog continued to recover and rebuild. But on July 1, 2008, Seven slipped out of a fenced yard for an instant, bolted across the street, and was struck by a car. The driver stopped, helped James pick up Seven and rush her to the animal hospital. She died on the way.

A big brown dog with scars on his chest and legs, Hector was taken in by BAD RAP and, thanks to his sterling demeanor, he was ticketed for an organization that trains law dogs. Unfortunately, he proved to be too old to undergo the training and returned to BAD RAP. He moved among a few foster homes before landing on Cris Cohen’s doorstep. Eventually, Hector was adopted by Roo Yori, who is well-known in the pit bull world as the keeper of Wallace, a national flying disc champion.

At Yori’s home in Minnesota, Hector not only made friends with Wallace, he became part of a pack of six dogs that included Scooby, a rat terrier, and Mindy Lou, a fifteen-pound toy Aussie who ran the entire house with an iron paw. From the beginning, Hector fit right in. He romped around the house and the yard with other dogs, and in the late mornings he napped on the Yoris’ bed with Mindy Lou and Scooby snuggled up next to him. Like many of his fellow Bad Newz refugees, he proved to be a klutz—running into doors, tripping on steps, and generally flopping around—which only made him more endearing. He also showed off his mischievous streak. Hide and go seek seemed to be his favorite game, and Roo and his wife, Clara, were never sure where a missing shoe or sock would turn up.

Under the Yoris’ tutelage Hector aced his Canine Good Citizen test for a second time, passed the American Temperament Test Society exam, and received his therapy dog certification. Hector and Clara now make regular visits to hospitals, nursing homes, and schools to provide comfort to the ailing and to educate people about pit bulls and dogfighting.

A small male dog with a reddish coat and big ears who was initially very shy around people, Alf was adopted by a woman in Oklahoma who worked extensively to bring him around. After more than a year he had adjusted well and the pair started visiting schools as part of an at-risk youth program she was involved with. From the start the vets who worked with Alf knew that he had a lot of old scar tissue in his intestinal tract, which could have been the result of anything from a traumatic injury to eating rocks. In October 2009, Alf swallowed part of a rawhide, and though he was immediately taken to the vet and kept overnight for observation, a piece of the hide tore open the old wounds, and he died in his sleep.

She started off as Sherry, but after she was adopted by Sharon Cornett of the Richmond Animal League, she was renamed Gracie and she’s become a local celebrity. She attends conferences and meetings about animal welfare, goes into schools to help educate kids about dogs, and does anything she can to show people that they have nothing to fear from pit bulls. She’s happiest around other dogs, but has always been comfortable around people, too, and the first time she saw a couch she jumped right on it. Since then she’s spent a lot of well-earned time on the sofa.

Like Curly, Ray came in bouncing off the walls. He jumped all over and grabbed at clothes. But he was very people-focused and eager to please, so his handlers corrected the behavior by leaving as soon as he started doing anything they didn’t like. Ray soon realized that he couldn’t behave this way if he wanted company—which he did—and he settled down and did well with training. A smaller dog (forty pounds or so), he has earned his Canine Good Citizen certificate and is always a favorite of people who come to visit. He almost certainly would have been adopted already, but he doesn’t get along well with other dogs and that severely limits his options.

Oscar came in with medical issues but once he recovered physically he made up ground quickly. He had a willingness to learn and in December 2008, after a period of intense one-on-one training, he became the first of the Vick dogs at Best Friends to pass his Canine Good Citizen test. Oscar’s advance in skills was part of an increase in confidence that also helped him come out of his shell around people. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do as well around other dogs. He tolerates those he encounters in the course of his day, but he can’t live with them.

Lance arrived as one the most fearful of the Vick dogs. It took him months and months to even learn how to walk on a leash or get in a car, but he has made steady progress. Now he spends his days hanging around the Best Friends adoption office with three to five other dogs and even a few cats. He comes and goes through a doggie door that leads to a large outdoor run. He’s still cautious around strangers, but he loves to play with the people around the office and he sleeps with a group of dogs at night.

Like Jhumpa Jones, Mabel was fostered out to a rescue group in New York. She moved through a number of foster homes for the first year and a half before finally settling in with one woman who plans to adopt her.

A dog with multiple scars and an affinity for Sweet Jasmine, Sweet Pea also went from WARL to Recycled Love. She was fostered with one of the group’s experienced rescuers, a man who has successfully worked with half a dozen other pit bulls. Sweet Pea, who continued to struggle with fear issues, shared her foster home with two other dogs, a pit bull mix named Bull and a terrier named Sadie. And although she always enjoyed her get-togethers with Sweet Jasmine and never had a problem with any of the other dogs at Catalina Stirling’s house or with Bull, she once bit Sadie. As a result, she’s no longer allowed to interact with other dogs, other than Bull, but her foster caregiver continues to help Sweet Pea work through her troubles—and she’s made progress.

Frodo was one of the shyest dogs that made the RV trip to Oakland, and it has been a slow climb for him. But step by step he’s becoming more confident and coming out of his shell. He gets along well with other dogs, and Kim Ramirez, who adopted him, says that in 2009 he wasn’t even afraid of the Christmas tree, a sight that terrified him a year earlier.

Georgia came in angry and suspicious. She closely guarded anything she was given and made sure to let anyone who came near know that they shouldn’t mess with her or her stuff. She didn’t have any teeth (the last of them had fallen out at Washington Animal Rescue League), but there was still little doubt that she meant business. She didn’t trust anyone and wouldn’t even look anyone in the eye.

Georgia had learned to defend her turf, but she was smart. Before long she figured out that things worked differently at Best Friends, where people were kind and no one tried to take her stuff away. If fact, when people came around they usually brought food or special treats for her. Very quickly, Georgia got with the program and her personality flourished.