Ace's HiStory

Hey, ya'll;

I received this comment:

Comment from: jiffyjml
"Hi! Glad to see you're doing your part to give a new home to a doggie left behind by Katrina's wake! What a lucky doggie Ace is! I have a Boston myself and know how wonderful they are.

I'm a little concerned though -- how do you know his owner isn't looking for him? There are at least 30 reports of "missing" Boston Terriers related to Katrina. Mostly on petfinder.com, but that's not the only place. Owners are hoping to be reunited and I'm heartbroken thinking about people dearly missing their pets. Just curious as to how you acquired him. Do you mind blogging it? Or you could even e-mail me at jmleong at usa dot net. Thanks in advance! "

Sure, no problem.

How I find out about Ace and his history....when I arrived at CARA in Jackson, I spoke with 2 of the women who work there, at length.  I told them how I came to hear of the animal rescue efforts, and how at first I had just wanted to foster, but then....well, the gist of it is this, they only had less than 10 rescued pets.

The rest were pets they'd been taking care of anyway.  The two women were very angry at the other women who misrepresented CARA and claimed that all animals were rescued from N'O in Katrina's wake.  They also are extremely upset with a person whom I shall not name who took it upon herself to arrange for mass adoptions and again misrepresented CARA.

The thing is, with CARA, you adopt an animal and s/he becomes part of your family.  You sign a contract that says that if you cannot or do not want to provide a GOOD home for this adoptee, then you must return said pet to CARA.  And let me tell ya, the adoption application, honey, I've seen children adopted with less paper work.  So Ace had an entirely different history, he was not a rescuee from the N'O/Katrina mess.

Ace's REAL history is this...he was owned by an elderly couple.  When the man died, the lady moved into a retirement home which didn't allow pets.  So she gave him to a younger couple, who divorced.  The woman moved to an apartment and found that since she worked all day, Ace could not hold his water and other waste for that long of a time period.  He would do his duty by the door.  But from holding it for so long, he (like a person) developed spastic colon.  So she gave him to CARA.  A couple came and adopted him, but only had him for a few days before they brought him back because the spastic colon was too much for them to handle.

SO that was why the lady who is the general manager of the shelter spoke with me for so long, because she wanted to make sure that I was aware of what all I was getting into.  Now, I have a small dog, Ziggee, who ate table food at his old place of residence.  This did dastardly things to his system.  So after about a month of eating dry kibble, his stomach was fine and no more accidents.

I expect with Ace that all of us will adjust to each other and find our own niches.  Why, just this morning, Ziggee was attacking a chew toy and growling much in the same manner as Ace does.  Ziggee never used to show much interest in toys, chew bones, etc.  But now, he's see Ace gobble his, so I think Ziggee is reconsidering that angle.

Thank you to jiffjml for the comment and question.  It reminded me that I told the ladies at CARA that I would post a corrected version so that I can do SOME damage control, not much I'm sure, but some.  CARA also is a NO KILL shelter.  So, rumors of them shooting dogs are just that, rumors.