ET dogs

I spent most of my day Saturday driving to Mesquite, TX to go pick up eight puppy mill dogs. If you don't know what a puppy mill is, consider yourself lucky. I wrote a nice little description for our rescue website, but in simpler terms: it's usually a Backwoods Shithole where some Cruel to Animals Asshat with no basic soul or sense of compassion keeps multiple dogs caged for years on end, breeding them til basically they fall apart and/or die. The dogs are almost never socialized or given even basic vet care. Honestly, I can't imagine a hell that is bad enough for the people who operate these things. It makes me so angry, I have a hard time even writing about it. You're better off being educated about it here, here or here.



ANYWAY, so I go pick up these 8 dogs. They range in age from 4-5 months to about 7 or 8 years old. All of them are unbelievably stinky and matted. I thought I was going to gag from the smell on the drive back. After spending 7 hours in the car, I then spent the rest of the night just shaving everyone down so we could see what we're working with. Seven girls and one boy. Incredibly, all of these little ones are so sweet. They're not too sure about people--they tend to scurry around and flinch a lot if you speak to them, but the little looks on their faces when you pet them is just priceless. Total confusion, and then it dawns on them that they're getting their ears scratched. I think a couple of them are warming up to me. I will admit: not the cutest dogs I've ever seen.. but I am SO happy we have them. These pictures you're seeing are 3 of the dogs: Kramer (the buff one), Wicket and Gertie (she's a cocker/scottie mix).




so, in case you are keeping up with the math, that makes 14 dogs I had at my house Saturday night. Yeah. I know.