"Gypsy"
(Cont. from the story of "Mutt & Jeff")

Three mixed breed puppies arrived at our shelter in the beginning of May. Two were so much smaller than the other - stunted at growth, most likely from severe malnutrition. We told the owner who brought them to us, to take them out of the car one by one, so they could be thoroughly examined and evaluated.

Already we could see that the two little tikes were so scared of people, that our touch, even our voices, horrified them so. They looked extremely dehydrated, malnourished, loaded with internal parasites. But what was new? So many of them come in similar condition. What set these apart from some of the others, was their sadness, their fear, their faces old beyond their time.

I noticed that the third puppy (little black female) who looked even more horrified than the previous two, was hanging out of the owner's wide open car window, ready to jump. I immediately begged this person to shut the window, but she refused. Then it happened. The petrified puppy jumped out of the car and ran through the fenced pasture into the deep forest. We desperately tried to find her with the help of several people, combing the woods. Hours later and no sight of the pup, we returned to the shelter with many mixed emotions: fear for her future, feelings of helplessness and anger toward the owner who took such poor care of these pups, let this one get away and then left without caring what will happen to her. We were hoping that the pup would find its way back to the shelter when she got hungry or started missing her two brothers. Otherwise we knew she would have little chance to survive or fend for herself in the deep woods with so many predators. Pictured here is Gypsy's Brother Jeff.

Then, four and half months later, a miracle happened. The owner of a campground about five miles from us, (on the other side of the woods), arrived at our shelter with a "stray" dog. According to him, this dog started to hang around his campground and stayed for several weeks. Dog would come out mostly at night to look for food, but never close enough to be touched. The campers were leaving leftovers out for the dog. The dog developed funny habit of always stealing just one shoe from them and then hiding it somewhere. But the season was almost over and people were starting to leave. The campground was soon to be closed for winter. A humane trap was set to catch the dog. It worked and the campground owner arrived here with a trap in the back of his truck.

To our surprise, in the trap was a black medium size dog (Jeff's look alike) only bigger, looking at us with these same fearful eyes like the dog that jumped out of the car window more than four month ago. Lora and myself looked at each other and screamed out both at the same time, "This is the pup!" We looked her over, only to agree on what we already knew. You can imagine how happy we were! It was a miracle that she made it, in the deep forest with no food, predator's etc. We named her Gypsy. Lora had to foster Gypsy for several weeks to observe her for the possibility of rabies. It was difficult at first because Gypsy was not used to any confinement or human touch. She was scared even more now and acted like a wild animal. We realized how much patience and love she would need.

In the end, with all the loving care, Gypsy's fear of people started to go away and the emotional wounds began to heal. All that hard work and not giving up on any animals paid off again.

Gypsy was now ready to be adopted. We were looking for the right person (who would understand such a dog), who would come soon. We wanted Gypsy's ordeal to be over as soon as possible. The right person did come who was very kind and loving. She liked Gypsy and Gypsy liked her. It was a match made in heaven! Now thanks to the Lancaster Humane Society a no kill animal shelter, all its workers, volunteers and our donors Gypsy, Mutt
and Jeff live "Happily Ever After."

Gypsy loves her new owner, Mary Jo,
and finally has a great home!

Happy girl, no longer alone.

 

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