Fritz explains dog people

No one in rescue is what you could call a "normal" person.  But Fritz's story will at least explain why we do what we do.

Back in July, 2011, I was contacted by Almost Home about a long haired GSD at the Nelson County shelter, Fritz.  I drove down there to meet the dog.  They had told me he was a big dog, and he was, sort of.  He was certainly a big hairy beast.  He was going crazy in the shelter, would run around frantically in the small space throwing himself against the sides of the run.  He ran through urine and feces and was coated in both.  He looked like hell and he smelled worse.  I drove home with the windows open. 

I found a foster home for him and didn't have him at home for more than a few days.  I gave him a bath before delivering him to her, in an effort to remove some of the funk.  That's when it became apparent and this was actually a very thin dog wearing a very heavy coat. 

I met the foster at my meeting place up in Culpeper and that's where my involvement ends, although it was just the beginning of this dog's transformation.  I have followed his progress and have stolen most of these pictures shamelessly from the foster's Facebook page.  I don't think she will mind.


Fritz on the ride to his new foster home.
No one in rescue has a car that smells good.



The dog needed to be shaved down,
and this is what they found underneath.



 

Top view of an emaciated dog.
Barely 60 pounds and full of worms.



You can never tell me that a dog doesn't
understand when you are trying to help.



Still pathetic, but already improving.



Fritz laying next to the foster's dog, Echo.
Any foster will tell you that their own dogs are
very much a part of the rescue process.

 

Still a long way to go, but already a completely new dog.



That's the look of a happy dog, the defeated look is gone.



It wasn't long before Fritz got adopted.



He continued to fill out and
his coat continued to grow out.



He was once again becoming a big hairy beast,
but a beautiful one, healthy and happy.

 

This is a dog's life, the way it should be.



It is hard to believe that all these pictures are of the same dog.
What an incredible tail!



The way he was meant to be.

 

 

A lot of people in rescue squabble with one another, bitch and fight.  We also deal with a lot of BS from dog dumpers who want to tell us how to do our "job" and from applicants who feel they were treated badly because no one kissed their ass that day.  Some of it may be valid criticism, some of it is just people being assholes, people being childish when they don't get their way.  Admittedly, many of us don't have good people skills.  That shouldn't come as a big surprise.  That's not why we got into rescue and we are not in this to help people, we are in it for the dogs.  We are not "people persons," we are "dog people." 

 

Some folks burn out, or get fed up and go away.  That's a shame.  For me, and probably for most of us who do this more than once, all of the bullshit melts away and amounts to nothing compared to the look on Fritz's face.