8 State Hurricane Kate

On January 2nd, Melissa sent me a message about ANOTHER ACD on death row in Georgia, along with this photo:

“He” was at the same horrible gassing shelter that Kenna and Bonnie had been rescued from. Melissa has contacts in that area who can pull and care for the dogs while a plan is made. I posted his info on the ACD rescue lists and received a reply from Sally. She was looking for a young male cattle dog as a companion for her young female. She was wintering in Georgia, not far from Griffin, the high-kill place that Vixen was being held. Sally sounded like the perfect home. She is a dog trainer and her dogs do obedience and agility. She had very good references and had a few questions about the dog. We asked Angel, the local contact if she could answer the questions. We had hoped to get her out of Griffin before the weekend, but she would not be available until Monday. Her time was up on Tuesday. So, on Friday Angel and Sally agreed to meet at Griffin on Monday morning to rescue the dog.
HOWEVER, we then hit a bump in the road. On Saturday, Sally e-mailed me to tell me that an ACD that she had earlier tried to adopt in Indiana had just become available. For three weeks or more they tried to work something out with the shelter to no avail and more or less gave up on him. But they had finally been able to save him and were arranging to ship him to Sally. Since she had spoken for him first, she felt that she should take him instead of Vixen. She felt bad about Vixen, but felt that Vixen would be able to find a home if we could still get him pulled.
I contacted Melissa and I really didn’t know what to do at this point. With no other options coming up on such short notice, I did something that I wouldn’t ordinarily do. I contacted Sally and asked her if she would consider fostering Vixen until we could figure something else out. I knew it was a lot to ask, but I didn’t know what else to do at that point. Thankfully, Sally agreed to Meet Angel as originally planned and to take Vixen under the auspices of ACD rescue.
As it turns out, transport for the other dog didn’t work out (although he DID get rescued). Sally decided to keep Vixen, even though “he” turned out to be a “she”!
Here is the rest of the story, as told by Sally:
On January 8th, I went to a high-kill shelter in Georgia to pull an adult “male” ACD. “He” was due to be euthanized the next day. It was a horrible place and I just knew I had to get the dog out of there. Well, “He” turned out to be “She”. We call her Vixen. I figure she is about 7 months old – small and skinny but just the sweetest thing. Well, she bugs the heck out of my older ACD and gets told off regularly, but in the last week I have noticed a big change in the older dog. She plays so gently with her and they sleep together – sort of – one on each side of me! She is exceptionally smart and already has learned basic stuff like sit, down, come and stay. She is noticeably filling out and will be spayed at the end of February. I wanted to give her a chance to gain a bit of weight and be on a good diet before proceeding with surgery.
Will keep you posted as she matures, but I don’t foresee any problems. One of the good things is that we are with the dogs 24/7 – my hubby and I are both retired so the dogs don’t have much chance of getting too rowdy. I have never allowed the dogs to act like hooligans in the house and especially in my bed! I taught Vixen the word “settle” which means to lay down and calm down. She gets to run off her energy outside when we go on hikes and usually comes home pretty knackered. I am already able to let her loose on hikes and she comes back to me immediately when I call her. She is really fast and agile so this summer she is going to Agility Classes!
Here is Vixen after being rescued. Doesn’t she look happy now?