PLEASE CROSS POST TO ANY ONE YOU THINK CAN HELP THIS DOG - ALL THAT TRAINING & DEVOTION THROWN AWAY!! HER OWNER DIES AND OWNER'S FAMILY DUMPS HER. SHAME ON THEM.
IT HAS GONE OUT ON SHAR-PEI RESCUE; SHARE IT WITH YOUR RESCUE. ONE OF OUR RESCUE MEMBERS IS CONTACTING THE LION'S CLUB.
From: nasprswregion@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:nasprswregion@yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Patti Medina
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:08 PM
To: nasprswregion@ yahoogroups. com; 'Dawn Green'
Cc: 'diane gaul'; CampLoneStarRescue@ yahoogroups com; CairnRescueMentorin g@yahoogroups. com; 'Debbie Lowery'; VersatilityRanch@ aol.com (http://aol.com/)
Subject: [nasprswregion] OT: Trained Guide Dog (LAB) for Blind-High Kill Shelter, Kaplan, LA
Importance: High
Please, if you have ANY contacts for Lab Rescue, Guide Dogs for the Blind, forward this to them. A trained Lab, Guide Dog for the Blind has found herself in a high-kill shelter in Kaplan, LA (near Lafayette). Someone spent a LOT of money training this girl, and when her owner died, she was taken to the pound. She is housebroken and hw negative. Surely someone can use her special skills.
If you can help, or have questions, contact karen Cros at klcmyths @yahoo.com (remove space) or (337) 523-4015.
Patti Medina
Mom to Ping, Tiger and Princess
"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your Dog! You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart! You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

Any pictures?

someone ought to let the guide dog foundation in that area know this.
unreal

I've sent this to several people in the area to see if they can pull her for me while we find a good home or rescue for her.

One contact thinks she's safe--waiting for confirmation.

It seems like there must surely be a blind person somewhere in need of a dog. I agree with contacting the Guide Dog Foundation. Such a shame to think her special skills might go to waste.

HERE IS THE REAL STORY This is written by Patty at Lafayette Animal Aid

First, and most important, Susie, the 6 year old Lab that I posted about a couple of days ago, the one who lived with and assisted a blind woman, is being adopted. By a family with a visually impaired little girl. A very happy ending.

The not-so-good news is that someone decided to send the story of this dog all over creation, which is normally great, BUT they also chose to embellish the story by saying that the dog’s owner had died and her family dumped the dog at the shelter. NOT TRUE! Not even close. I have no idea how anyone got this idea from my original post (this is my verbatim post “These lovely labs are at Vermillion Parish AC (Kaplan, LA, just outside of Lafayette) and are in desperate need of rescue. One (the yellow one) is even trained to assist the blind (she had been living with and assisting a blind woman). She is housebroken and hw negative. All of them are extremely friendly dogs, very very adoptable. Good with kids, too. If you can help, or have questions, contact….”). The dog is not even a trained Guide Dog, as I said – she just assisted the lady.

The real story is that the owner can no longer care for Susie because of health issues, and she contacted Karen at the shelter. The lady is heartbroken that she has had to give Susie up. Karen told her she would do everything in her power to find Susie a good home, and Karen is VERY true to her word and totally dedicated to the animals. Then Karen emailed me, told me about Susie, and I posted the email of Susie and the other labs.

Someone then, as I said, decided to add their own fiction to the story, along with their opinion of the lady’s family. And apparently crossposted far and wide, and so on, and so on….. Many other people joined in this “crusade”……

The result is that Karen (and I) have spent the entire day fielding very hateful emails and phone calls from people, who use lovely language like “pathetic” and “rot in hell”….. Nice. From people all over the country….

The day ended with poor Karen getting a call from a reporter from a Houston radio station! Good grief. But, true to her spirit, she told me that, after setting the record straight, she did get the word out on the radio about spaying and neutering your pets. And she has reminded everyone that there are more labs there who need homes as well. You go, girl!

(sure wish we had this number of people responding about all the other animals in need here.)

Karen’s cell phone is now turned OFF. The staff at the shelter is totally worn out. Please, if you have seen this “story” being passed around, please do what you can to stop it. Refer them to me, tell them the truth of the situation. But it has got to stop. This is the kind of thing that really hurts true rescue work, you know?

Lesson learned: 1) get facts before you decide to share information, and 2) not all dogs and cats at shelters are there because some uncaring person dumped them there. Sometimes it is truly a good person in a bad situation who is trying to do the right thing…..

Thank you to all who responded in a positive manner, to help Susie. She is going to a great home.

But there are other dogs there who still need home…… call the shelter for more info, if you can help. (337) 643-3160.

Patty

Thanks for clearing this up, Shaqpuppy!
I just read an email from Patty and was going to post. Glad you beat me to it.
And if even 1 person follows the S/N advice, the end result was good!
And it's great to hear Susie will continue her assistance with a little girl:thumb4:

Thank you Kim.

Susan

Thank you for setting it straight, Kim. I guess someone just had to take a good story and make it better.
I was reading this to my husband, and he said, "If only people got this outraged about every dog who ended up in a shelter."

It's too bad that the story issue here had to happen. People seem to think that unless there's a sensational story behind each case, no one will pay attention. The sad part is someone can get hurt by embellishing the truth this way.

There are so many sides to each story - we only get to hear one generally. It leaves a rather lopsided picture. So many of the shelter and rescue dog cases stem from someone's negligence but there are also cases that are "just too bad". My Missy is blind and ended up in Spaulding. Luckily someone saw her picture and I had the chance to have her for my own. My instinct tells me however that no one put her there. She's gentle and soft, loving and trustful and I truly believe she wandered off - just wandered too far and got hopelessly lost. Some poor family probably spent many hours looking and worrying.