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I wanted to share with you all the story of my Anabelle. It's inspiring to me and I hope it might do the same to some other basset and dog rescue lovers.
Anabelle appeared one day in a small town outside of Dallas of less than 1,000 people in the middle of nowhere. No one knew who she belonged to or where she came from. Several families tried to take her in, but as soon as they would let her outside to potty, she'd take off. This is what earned her her original name, Gypsy Rose. She was a free spirit.
She became pregnant at some point along the way. She wandered up to an older woman's house and went into labor. Three days later, she was still in labor. At this point, the woman's son called a rescue in a town nearby. The rescuer immediately came to pick her up but when she arrived, she and the son could not find Gypsy Rose. They searched every shack and shed in the small town but gave up and assumed she had wandered into the woods to die.
Later on, Gypsy Rose appeared again and the son spotted her and took her to a vet. The vet determined that a puppy had gotten stuck in the birth canal and all puppies had died. He removed the puppies and spayed her.
The rescuer came to pick her up and she was placed in a foster home. Here is a picture of her in her foster home:
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As you can see, she was skinny and her belly was extremely stressed. She eventually reached a point where her insides were exposed and they weren't sure she would make it. It became clear to the rescue that they couldn't afford her treatment anymore so she was transferred to the no-kill shelter that I volunteer for.
There, she underwent surgery to fix her belly and around that same time they discovered that she'd been shot with a shotgun in her belly and had since healed without treatment. They removed the birdshot in her. They also found out she was heartworm positive and she started treatment.
Here is a video of her while she is recovering from her surgery. They used the band on her belly to help it heal properly.
Once she was placed in the general population of dogs at the shelter, this is when I met her. I didn't really take note of her for the first 2-3 months I was there. I went in to work with a timid dog that was sharing a run with her and she wouldn't let me ignore her anymore and held her head in my lap.
I promised myself I wouldn't adopt another dog but I eventually gave in and convinced my husband to come meet her on a Saturday. He instantly fell in love so we came back Sunday to do a meet and greet with our current dog.
As we were adopting her, her foster mom from the rescue came to meet us. She said that she was going to take her back that day had we not adopted her for her to stay in foster indefinitely.
By the way, a puppy mill that produced red basset hounds that was raided a short while ago was located very close to the town she was found in. We suspect that's where she came from, though we can only hope she got out as a puppy.
And well as they say the rest is history
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Anabelle appeared one day in a small town outside of Dallas of less than 1,000 people in the middle of nowhere. No one knew who she belonged to or where she came from. Several families tried to take her in, but as soon as they would let her outside to potty, she'd take off. This is what earned her her original name, Gypsy Rose. She was a free spirit.
She became pregnant at some point along the way. She wandered up to an older woman's house and went into labor. Three days later, she was still in labor. At this point, the woman's son called a rescue in a town nearby. The rescuer immediately came to pick her up but when she arrived, she and the son could not find Gypsy Rose. They searched every shack and shed in the small town but gave up and assumed she had wandered into the woods to die.
Later on, Gypsy Rose appeared again and the son spotted her and took her to a vet. The vet determined that a puppy had gotten stuck in the birth canal and all puppies had died. He removed the puppies and spayed her.
The rescuer came to pick her up and she was placed in a foster home. Here is a picture of her in her foster home:
As you can see, she was skinny and her belly was extremely stressed. She eventually reached a point where her insides were exposed and they weren't sure she would make it. It became clear to the rescue that they couldn't afford her treatment anymore so she was transferred to the no-kill shelter that I volunteer for.
There, she underwent surgery to fix her belly and around that same time they discovered that she'd been shot with a shotgun in her belly and had since healed without treatment. They removed the birdshot in her. They also found out she was heartworm positive and she started treatment.
Here is a video of her while she is recovering from her surgery. They used the band on her belly to help it heal properly.
Once she was placed in the general population of dogs at the shelter, this is when I met her. I didn't really take note of her for the first 2-3 months I was there. I went in to work with a timid dog that was sharing a run with her and she wouldn't let me ignore her anymore and held her head in my lap.
I promised myself I wouldn't adopt another dog but I eventually gave in and convinced my husband to come meet her on a Saturday. He instantly fell in love so we came back Sunday to do a meet and greet with our current dog.
As we were adopting her, her foster mom from the rescue came to meet us. She said that she was going to take her back that day had we not adopted her for her to stay in foster indefinitely.
By the way, a puppy mill that produced red basset hounds that was raided a short while ago was located very close to the town she was found in. We suspect that's where she came from, though we can only hope she got out as a puppy.
And well as they say the rest is history
