Want to help?
APAL is Amador Countie's local humane society. They need volunteers to help with animals. Click here for maore information about APAL.
Amador County Anuimal Control is also looking for volunteers to help the animals. It is the best job you will evey have!.
Ellie
Ellie's Story
August, 2006
Little Ellie Mae has spnt the last two months in the Amador County Animal Control shelter where the good folks there nursed her back to health. She needed to learn to trust people again and how to behave in order to get the love and attention she so wanted.
Ellie is about a year old and is a cross between a German Shepherd and Border Collie. Her temperament is very sweet, and although she has all the energy to be expected from a year old puppy, she really just craves attention and love. She is also bursting with curiosity, and can't wait to explore her surroundings and see what a good life has to offer.
But, life has not always been so pleasant for this little girl. She came into the world full of wonder and potential, as all puppies should. But somewhere along the way she fell into cruel hands. That happiness, joy and wonder at her new world was quickly replaced with pain, neglect and abuse. She couldn't understand why this was happening to her. All she wanted was to play and romp, but she was confined and unable to investigate or explore anywhere. The collar around her neck kept digging in and the pain was excruciating. As she grew, all she could feel was that metal biting deeper and deeper into her thin neck. Time went on and the days became a blur of pain, hunger and thirst. Then, the fleas came. She was covered, from nose to tail with thousands of the insects biting her skin. She surely felt as if she were on fire, much of her hair fell out and every time she moved to scratch, that damn collar bit further into her neck. She must have wished for the peace of death rather than continue to endure the hell her short life had become.
Someone must have been listening to her soul crying out because the good folks at the shelter rescued her. They took her from this horrible situation and whisked her off to the vet hospital. This is how she looked when she was first rescued:
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After her hospital visit, Ellie began her recovery. The staff at the shelter all came together to help Ellie survive, which is amazing in itself. But survive she did. Under their loving care she began to gain weight from the 29 lbs she was left with when she arrived. Ellie started to look less like a skeleton and more like a dog. The flea infestation was treated and they looked like handfuls of ground pepper as they fell off. Through it all, she somehow started showing the happy personality that she was born with. She began to solicit attention and quickly learned how to get the staff and volunteers to come for a visit. But she was almost too smart and learned all the bad habits the other shelter dogs had to teach her.
Her neck healed and time came for her get ready for a new life. She had become very rambunctious in the shelter and with her jumping and carrying on she was making the staff crazy. For the first time in a very long while, she was feeling good and could not understand why she had to stay in her kennel. So off she went to foster and obedience training.
It didn't take long, and with lots of exercise and a little training her tail was back up and all those early days began to blur in the darks reaches of her memory.
It is a testament to the resiliency of dogs that she came back from such a bad situation and she now is living a great life in a loving home. She still shows the scars of the abuse, both physically and a little mentally, but she loves her new owner and is loved.
There are many other dogs in this situation suffering different degrees of neglect, but they have one thing in common; they need our help. Both the Amador County Animal Control department and APAL, stand ready to help. Both agencies need volunteer help. Together we can change many lives and have many more stories like Ellie's to celebrate and provide motivation to keep fighting for the least among us.
Want to help? For more information please see www.Amador-APAL.org and www.co.amador.ca.us/depts/animal.