Anna

This little wire-haired terrier is Anna.  She is probably the sweetest dog I have ever met.  There almost wasn’t even a story to tell about her; she might have been a minor blip in the canine cosmos, but instead of dying, she went straight to heaven during her life.  This lucky doggie was rescued from a puppy mill in Missouri, where she was kept in a cage and bred over and over until she gave birth to a stillborn litter. She was scheduled to be “destroyed” but instead was removed by a rescue organization.

Anna’s ears were chopped off and infected; her paws were splayed from spending her life standing on the wire floor of a cage; she could barely move.  There are countless sad cases like this, of dogs being treated like livestock, and the ethics are hardly even debatable.  But that’s not what this post is about.  I just want to say how lucky little Anna is that my friend Donna, and her husband Tom, wanted her badly enough to get her the vet care she needed, to drive to another state to pick her up and bring her home, and make her part of their family.

Donna says “The saddest thing is that they broke her spirit.  She doesn’t even bark.  She had to be taught how to eat out of a bowl, live outside a cage, walk on a solid floor, how to play.  It took months to teach her what toys are for, or even what affection is.  If you hugged her, she froze up in fear. But now when she just sees us, her little tail thumps like crazy.”

Today, Anna still can’t walk very far, and is prone to anxiety attacks.  In thunderstorms, Donna has to hold her in her lap, but nothing makes the panic stop.  Who knows what she has been through that would make her so afraid.  I frankly do not want to know, because what Anna has endured is heart-breaking enough without the details.

What I do know is this:  she is one lucky and blessed little dog. Donna and Tom could have gone to a breeder for a healthy, happy puppy.  Instead, they took on the challenge of the dog that needed them the most.  In return, she gives them love every day.  If you look at her closely you can see it in her eyes.  It’s the most important lesson they’ve taught her: how to be happy.