Today I learned what "rescue" means in many senses of the word - I know Erica and Neely have seen worse, but this was pretty darn ugly and extremely sad. Last Sunday, Erica asked me if I could pick up a surrender in my area and I immediately told her I would be happy to....it didn't happen last week, the owner hadn't gotten around to filling out the paperwork. Time kept passing and I thought, oh well, they probably changed their minds. As the weekend got closer I get the call....the paperwork is here, let's set a time and place to meet. The owner was getting her hair done yesterday and when I offered to pick the dog up from their home she said, "it's really messy because we are moving". So we agreed to meet the next morning.

I asked a few questions just be sure I had all the information I needed for Erica since this was my first "surrender" where I felt responsible. I asked about shots...her "boyfriend gives them to the dogs and she knows she had them recently, but I'm not sure what they were". Ok, have you ever taken her to the vet? "no, I don't think so" The paperwork says she doesn't get along with other animals but that you have a dog and two cats, can you explain...."well, she is ok once she knows them but she does still go after my cats sometimes". Alrighty then.

Moving on to the get together...I knew I was getting a "female, approximately 6 years old who is great with people but not so great with other dogs and or other animals...until she gets to know them because she likes to dominate, be the alpha...she is not spayed and supposedly had a litter a few years ago." There were no listed medical issues but a mention of "nail clipping is a two person job". The reason for surrender: A friend of a friend left her with us a few months ago to travel and now we can't reach him to take her back. We don't have time to care for her.

When I arrived at the location to the meetup location we agreed upon, I saw a pretty bully girl watching the world go by and then I immediately noticed her nails...long....like Guinness book record holder long. Ick. I didn't comment. I talked with the owner - who was very nice, by the way - and found out she had tracked down the prior owner and confirmed he definitely didn't want her back. And, P.S. - she is about 8 or 9 YEARS OLD. About this time I noticed the yucky mass on Zana's leg that was oozing. The owner gave me a bag with some treats and some Otomax in it...explaining that Zana had an ear problem a while back and the doctor gave it to her. I asked about her food..."she gets Beneful and green beans. She has been on a diet" The owner didn't bring any for me to take with me, however. Finally to her credit, she gave me a $100 donation to contribute to the rescue for her spaying and future care. As we started leaving she told me how difficult it is to walk Zana....I noticed. She is a butt plopper downer and not moving bully. Being the pack leader I am, I coaxed her along but said goodbye to the surrendering Mommy. She stopped to pee at least three or four times on the way back to the car...gotta remember to tell Erica about that.

We finally made it back to the car but in the meantime I got to see how uncomfortable she looked walking. She reminded me a bit of Spencer in that the older they get, the slower they move unless they REALLY want something! I loaded her up and away we went.
Got her home broke out all the bully cleaning stuff - let the scrubbing begin. I started with a general looking over: fleas - check, mass under skin by right shoulder, check, mass on right leg oozing puss, check, nasty ears that probably haven't been cleaned in months, check, nails long enough to scratch the neighbor's dogs back, check, discharge coming from both eyes, check, polyps sticking out of her butt, check, Icky breath, check. Teeth...wait, am I really seeing what I'm seeing? Nasty brown teeth rotting at the base so much that they are black??? Check.
My heart breaks. I realize this dog has been neglected, ignored; only God knows what. Left outside? Left alone....or just... left.

I take pictures. I clean her up and keep telling her I love her and she is in a better place and we are going to get her comfortable again as soon as possible. She seems to know it's ok. She lets me cut her nails in the back without wincing, moving to bite or anything. She hasn't shown any aggression towards me at all, thank goodness. I accidentally hit the quick on one of her toenails and NOW she is paranoid a little. Luckily, most are cut by this time and I feel terrible that I added to this poor baby's misery. Ugh! She lets me gently wash each paw and between her toes.

I get Zana down and we have bonding time. I dry her off and make her comfy. She is shaking. I can't tell if she is cold or just...relieved. It reminded me of when an emotional release takes place inside us and we can't control it. I think she knew she was in a good place but still scared and maybe a little cold. I got her a big soft cushion and a blanket and wrapped her up in it. I called Erica with the news: we have a neglected baby who needs medical help right away. We agree on a plan. God willing, she will be at the SPCA tomorrow to see my favorite Doctor and find out how and where to start.

If you believe in God, would you please pray for Zana's comfort? I don't know how she has been eating. Her eyes are oozing so she is obviously ill. Finally, I made a HUGE mistake that you all should know - because she had fleas, I gave her my last dose of Revolution, thinking this was a good thing, right? WRONG. Erica tells me that if a dog has heartworms, giving them preventative can kill them. Oh my gosh. I feel so stupid. I never knew. So, would you pray this little ole lady doesn't have heartworms and my "helping" hasn't actually hurt her? Thank you. Finally, would you pray for all her issues to be treatable ones and that the doctors will be able to find and cure each item specifically and efficiently?

While it is a sad story, and I could be angry at the people who let her get like this...I prefer to be grateful that they were brave enough, or had enough humanity in them to at least call a rescue rather than let her keep suffering further. I don't know what Zana's journey looks like, but I do know that today she is better off than she was yesterday thanks to Adopt-a-bull Rescue and my love for bullies. If you would like to be a volunteer "rescuer", won't you please let Erica or Neely know? Times are tough for all of us and I sense they need all the help they can get not to be overwhelmed. You don't have to be perfect (obviously from my blunder) but you do need to be willing to learn, grow and love these babies while you have them in your care. It is so rewarding to know one less bully is suffering at the end of the day.

We'll keep you updated as we learn more about Princess Zana!

Well.... Wiggles is very prego with 2 darling little puppies! The vet estimates she'll have her pups in about 10-14 days. In the meantime, we are researching like crazy and speaking to mentors about how to properly plan for and care for these little bullie babies. We've left several messages over the past couple days for the original owner in attempts to find out if these may be pure or mixes. We have yet to receive a phone call back so at this point we still do not know. Unfortunately, we get a lot of female bullies in our program with sagging nipples and tons of extra "stuff" where it doesn't belong.... this is why just assumed Wiggles was used as a breeding dog rather than actually being pregnant at this moment. There are still many un-answered questions, many things we can only speculate about... one thing we are absolutely sure of though: Wiggles has entered bullie rescue heaven and this WILL BE the last litter she ever will have!

There were some complications today during Wiggles' spay surgery. But don't worry, we think everyone is ok.... yes, everyone ... still not getting it? Ok we'll tell you-- WIGGLES IS PREGNANT! The female bullie you just helped us rescue by donating to her "re-homing fee" in order to save her from becoming a breeding dog (she was being sold with a voucher for $700 worth of sperm, remember), is already pregnant! Don't get too excited, (or disappointed, depending how you look at it,) we don't know any details yet. Are these purebred bullies? Or did she accidently get "friendly" with the last owner's nextdoor neighbor dog? We have no idea. We don't even know the health status yet. All we know is, when the vet team opened her up, there was a surprise inside! We're in the process of contacting the owner who we got her from to try to get more information. He explicitly stated that she had never been pregnant "while in his care", but based on the size of her nipples we had our suspicions he wasn't being fully honest. We had no idea she was currently pregnant! We're going to need lots of help with this one. A pregnant bullie is no easy situation. Prenatal care is top priority. And like we said, we don't know how far along she is, or how healthy these puppies are. Obviously she has had no prenatal care up to this point. It's going to take your help to get Wiggles and her new pups through this! Please click below to donate and help our newest additions!! This is our chance to give them a good life straight from the beginning...something we don't often get to do! In fact, this will be our very first experience with this. Info to come as we learn more.....stay tuned.

On a separate note: One of our meetup members and current foster homes previously purchased a pup from this horrific woman. This is why we encourage everyone to do their research!!! YOU MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO, PLEASE SPREAD THIS LINK: http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-dog-breeder-investigation-110309,0,1475320.story

****Click Here**** Event pics from our Halloween event have been posted here! ****Click Here****

Tomorrow is a very busy day for our vet, we have 3 separate surgeries to be done. Wiggles will be spayed, Corona will be neutered, and Dexter will have entropion. Bones had cherry eye surgery today and it went very well. He's scheduled to be back home with us tomorrow. We are very very busy here lately with all the bullies, local foster homes are needed!

Click Here to see our current e-bay auctions that benefit our bullies!

Corona was one of the 4 bulldogs admitted to our rescue last week. He'll be neutered this Wednesday!

Bones is another one of the 4. He'll be having his cherry eye surgery tomorrow!

URGENT (as posted to our facebook yesterday afternoon at 12:37pm): $300 & foster home needed ASAP to rescue an unspayed 5 year old English Bulldog that owner needs to "Get rid of ASAP, first come first serve." He is sick of her and just wants her OUT! He is selling her with a prepaid voucher good for $700 worth of sperm and stud service he has already paid for. Dog was purchased from a ... pet store... He said I can pick her up today after 3pm.... $300... we don't normally do things like this, but she WILL be used for breeding by clueless people if she gets in the wrong hands....

UPDATE: By 3:00pm Auntie Beth was on her way down to Miami with $300 borrowed from Mommie Neely. We couldn't wait to raise the funds necessary and risk the safety of this precious bullie girl, so we decided the quickest way was to borrow the money and trust we'd be able to raise the funds from our awesome supporters to pay Mommie Neely back. Welcome to Rescue...... Wiggles!!!

Please look under "Avail-a-Bull's" for Wiggles bio and a list of her financial rescuers!

Paige Update: Paige is recovering from her spay and mammary tumor removals nicely. The good thing about Paige is that she's a very inactive bullie so keeping her on crate rest while she recovers is not a challange at all! Great news too - we sent the tumors out to the lab to be tested and they came back okay!! Non-cancerous, nothing to worry about! Whoo Hooo! Upon total recovery, Paige will start heartworm treatment. For more info in Paige, please look under "Avail-a-Bull's". Check our e-bay selling page for current auctions benefiting Paige and her friends: http://shop.ebay.com/adopt-a-bull/m.html

Dozer IV is still battling pneumonia. He's getting medicated baths every 7 days and his skin is looking absolutely fantastic! He's on quarantine at Mommie Erica's house still and can not have any interaction with others dogs yet. He sleeps mostly all day and only gets off his do bed to eat his special food 2x daily. He has not thrown up in over 5 days, and his eye infection/dry eye is improving so well with the drops we are administering. What a special boy! We are looking for a very low key foster home that is able to keep Dozer while he gets over his illness.

Just when we think we've set a new record, it get broken! As astonishing as is sounds, it sure is the shocking truth! We got 3 bulldogs in just 20 hours! Each of their stories will be posted to their profiles in the next few days. All need surgery of some sort. Skyler, our 6 month old puppy with a blue eye needs to be spayed, Corona, our 4 year old owner surrender that was living in a garage covered in grease with an embeded collar needs to be neutered, and Bones, our 23 month old boy saved as he was literally on his way to being dropped off at the shelter needs cherry eye surgery. Thankfully ALL 3 are dog friendly and get along with everyone. Well.... Corona is a bit too friendly at times, wanting to mount every dog that he sees. Snip, snip, snip is soon in order! Here they are, welcome guys!

We have no idea how long Paige has had heartworm disease. She's an older girl with a rough past so we can only assume no one took the time to put the poor girl on preventative and invest in her future. Noooooo... all they cared about was the puppies she pumped out litter after litter to add to their own pockets....selfish greed! Paige's bloodwork came back okay, and despite being heartworm positive we decided to spay her and remove her mammary tumors first before starting heartworm treatment. Paige is a strong girl, here she is: