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Tally - A Dog in Need!
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 Tally has been in hospice care since February 2008. As a 2 year old red dobie girl, Tally was one of ten dogs which were seized by authorities from a backyard breeder in West Virginia for neglect and cruelty. The wife, having grown tired of all the dogs moved into an apartment; the husband, divided his time between the two homes. This left the dogs alone and unattended for long periods of time. The conditions for the dogs were harsh. Some were crated, some were chained and others roamed free in the backyard. The dogs lived outdoors in feces and filth without adequate food and water. None of them had ever been socialized. After the neighbor's continuous complaints about the dogs fighting and several dogs being picked up more than once for having escaped the yard, authorities finally removed the dogs in September 2007. The dogs were so fearful of people, they had to be captured. None of them had any training, not even to be walked on a leash. Most of the dogs had skin issues of some kind and some were very thin with rib and hip bones protruding. Based upon their condition and circumstances, the authorities would only release the dogs to a rescue group for rehabilitation. One of the dogs was a pregnant female which was conditionally released to another rescue for immediate care. The others spent almost six months in a shelter while the case made its way through the court system. Several of DAR&E's volunteers made routine trips to the shelter over that time to get the dogs out of their kennels to evaluate them, give them a bit of exercise, toys and treats along with some much needed human contact. Upon the courts terminating ownership, DAR&E was there on the day of the verdict, ready with vans and crates to bring the nine remaining dogs to DAR&E in February 2008. All of the dogs needed rehabilitation to be eligible for adoption.
The worst of the group was Tally. Poor Tally was so frightened she mentally just shut down to cope. She cowered in her run during the Dobes stay at the shelter while we waited for the the cruelty case to go to court. She froze whenever anyone approached her and no amount of coaxing could get her to go on any of the walks the other dogs enjoyed when DAR&E volunteers visited them. When the time finally came to get the Dobes out of the shelter, little Tally's fear was so great it took several folks to safely get her loaded into the crate for her journey to a new life in foster care. Tally was fostered with her sister, Freya, in hopes that this would help her handle the changes in her life. Freya was also very frightened, but had already shown a willingness to trust and she obviously wanted to be friends with the folks who rescued her. But for many days, when she first came into foster care, Tally stayed glued to the back of her crate, unwilling to acknowledge her foster Mom, or even any of the other dogs in the home. Finally, following the lead of her sister Freya, she began to venture out and started interacting with the other dogs. It would be quite a bit longer before she'd be able to bring herself to accept her Foster Mom's presence. UPDATE: November 2008 After 9 months in foster care, little Tally has blossomed into a loving, goofy, happy and smiling young Dobe..... as long as the only person in the house is her foster Mom. After all this time Tally still cannot handle anyone else near her. Even family members who come to the house regularly are still cause for Tally to run to her crate and stay there until they leave. People she doesn't know are worse. She barks wildly and hides in her crate in fear. UPDATE: December 2009 Although over time, Tally has settled into her foster home and loves her foster mom, she is still so fearful of new people she will run and hide. The foster parent's extended family frequently visits. Just recently, Tally hit a new milestone and acutally came out of hiding and allowed herself to be petted by one of the family members How You Can Help Me!
***Please do not split your donation among several dogs. Paypal deducts a fee for each transaction which means less monies going to help our dogs. While we do track the donations to the different dog funds, the donations still all wind up in the same place. |
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DIN Dog #06 Tally |
