July 30, 2010
 
FURRY FRIENDS: A Happy Tail
 
By Jo Ann Jones
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
 
(Editor's Note: With this issue we begin a new column in which pet owners write about their furry friends. They are reprinted from Petwarmers by permission of the author.)
 
It was around 9:30 Sunday night early in December, 2008, when my cell phone rang.
 
I answered it, and a woman's voice asked, "Is this Sheltie Rescue?" I told her it was, and asked how I could help her.
 
She told me that her mother had a 10 month old Sheltie puppy that she had obtained when the owners moved and left him chained outside. Her mother had the dog one week when he got hit by a delivery truck. It was now two weeks after the puppy had been hit, and her mother had not taken the puppy to a vet. She told her mother that the dog had to be turned into rescue so he could get the proper medical attention. That's when she called me. She told me that the dog would probably have to have his leg amputated.
 
I assured her that Sheltie Rescue would take him, and made arrangements to meet her the next morning, and hung up the phone. I sat there in shock. The motto of National Sheltie Rescue is "Get the Dog!"
 
And as I had been doing for over 25 years, I was going to "Get the Dog," But I had spent all my money on rescues. And an amputation surgery would cost big bucks.
 
I bowed my head and said, "Dear Lord, what am I going to do now?" Suddenly, it was clear. I picked up the phone and called the director of National Sheltie Rescue (with whom I had worked for years) Dorothy K. Christiansen.
 
I shall never forget that call. It went like this:
 
"Hello."
 
"Dorothy, this is Jo Ann Jones, from Sheltie Rescue of West Virginia, and I have a problem and I don't know what to do." "What's the problem?" she ask.
 
I told her about the puppy I was picking up the next morning and about the surgery that was needed, and that I did not have the money for an amputation.
 
In a very firm voice, Dorothy stated. "What do you mean, you don't know what to do? You get the dog. You take him to your vet. You have the surgery and have him neutered at the same time -- and you send the bill to me."
 
After I hung up, I sat there and cried. Thank you Lord, and Dorothy, and National Sheltie Rescue.
 
Early Monday morning on the way to pick up the puppy, I called my vet, explained to him what I was doing, and told him I could not pay him, but National Sheltie Rescue would, but they would have to be billed after the surgery. Bless him. He said, "You get that puppy in here now. We'll take care of him and worry about the bill later." Thank you Lord! It was an hour and a half drive over a narrow curvy country road, but I got there right at 10 am to met her at "A** Hole Lounge" (honest) in a small Northern West Virginia community. Thank the Lord, I did not have to go inside! The woman opened the back door of the car and I saw him. Oh that poor sweet puppy. I know he was in pain, but he still had a wide Sheltie smile for me. I got the mother to sign the release paper. I put the puppy in the crate in my Jeep and got out of there as quickly as I could!
 
He was a very small boy with the sweetest face. Of course I talked to him on the way to the vet's. I told him he was safe now, and we were going to see a very kind man who would take away his pain and make him good as new.
 
Then I discussed his name with him. Since it was almost Christmas, and he had a bum leg, I decided to call him Tiny Tim. I think he liked it.
 
Dr. Kendrick at Middletown Animal Clinic in Fairmont, WV, met us at the door. I filled out the papers while they examined Timmy. The good news was the leg did not have to be amputated. They would do the surgery the next morning, put in a pin to set the leg, and I could take him home the next day.
 
When I got back in the Jeep, I sat there and I cried again. I'm not really a person who cries very often. Life is good! Timmy is now in his forever home. A happy normal little Sheltie. And that, my friends, is what Sheltie Rescue is all about!