First and foremost – SHE (now called BITSY) IS SAFE! Here’s the whole story:
Bitsy came into the shelter as a stray and was put on a 7 day hold before anyone could pull or adopt her. Even though she was injured, the law still requires this period of time for an owner to claim her. I once watched a Yorkie sit in a shelter for 7 days with a broken jaw, untreated, waiting to be claimed before I could have him. It’s very unfortunate, but the law. This is why she was on petfinder for the week even though there was a two page list of people (per Dina) who wanted her.
While on hold, a well-to-do woman named Ann saw her on petfinder and asked her friend from All Breed Rescue & Referral in Gaithersburg, MD to pull the little girl, committed to paying for all of her surgery. Knowing this was a good home, Robin told Dina who then cleared her to be pulled. Bitsy had her surgery at a Vet in MD that I spoke with this morning to confirm she is recovering well. She is sleeping next to her mom in bed every night and even has a God mother! This is where this little girl was meant to be!
Rescue Me is listed at PG County as a contact should any Yorkie be at risk. This shelter gets many Yorkies and unfortunately, they seek rescue assistance as a last resort wanting to instead, adopt the dogs out themselves. Being that they are right outside of DC, they have no trouble adopting out the small breed dogs. While I would absolutely prefer that all Yorkies go to a Yorkie rescue, it’s not my decision. This is the way that this and most shelters are – they adopt out what they can and only ask for help with the older, sick or problem dogs. Right now, I have two Yorkies from PG County that we were asked to take because of biting issues. Naturally, we said yes and would have done the same for Bitsy. We would have never, ever said “no – we won’t take her”, we’re just not that kind of rescue. We have the money to take care of her and with only 7 foster dogs right now, I could have easily fostered her and found her a home. We don’t ever see dogs as “unadoptable” and have rescued and placed almost 600 dogs in just over 3 years – even an 18 year old from a shelter who was adopted and is now 19.5 years old. We just don’t discriminate against the dogs. We do however, have to limit ourselves to the areas we cover because we are a small group and don’t have the capacity to take in dogs from all over the country.
For those of you who emailed me about her, thank you and I’m sorry if I did not respond to you. Please don’t ever take this as a REFUSAL to help a dog, I get the emails and help if I can but can’t respond with an update to everyone. For PG County, Dina would call me if I could have had her (I even confirmed this again with her when getting the update) and Carole from our group left a message reminding them that we are here if they need help. Our volunteers work so hard for this group and it is disheartening to read that we refused to take her – this is simply not true.
Another reason I did not have time to reply to the almost two dozen emails I got about Bitsy is because … the OTHER Yorkie at PG County who was returned to the owner needed my help and that was a bigger priority for me. Chloe’s is a very sad story.
Ten days ago Chloe became ill and her owner took her to the vet. Bloodwork showed that she was having a severe bout of pancreatitis. It was advised that she be admitted to the hospital but the owner’s fiancé said that they would not pay for it so Chloe went home with meds for her diarrhea. She got a little better and then took a turn for the worse and was having uncontrollable diarrhea in the house – so the fiancé dropped her at PG County! When the owner found out, she went the next day and picked Chloe up. A few more days passed and on Monday morning, I was then contacted by the owner who was at the Anne Arundel Emergency Clinic. Chloe was doing very poorly and the owner could not afford her care so she was going to euthanize her. I told her to get in the car and drive towards me and that I would take her. When I got Chloe, she was limp and very sick. I rushed her into my vet who started fluids, tests, etc. and then had to take her to another clinic where she had to have a blood transfusion. I spent my entire day at the vet praying that we could save her life.
Tuesday morning came and my vet called – Chloe had died just that morning. She was too far gone to respond to treatment after being so sick for so long. I was devastated and angry and unable to understand how someone could let their dog suffer like this. She could have lived had decisions been made in her best interest. The worst part is that this girl, who couldn’t afford to care for her dog, was driving a beautiful BMW SUV. I would have been hocking my car (and my fiancé) before giving away my dog. May Chloe rest in peace and know that she died being loved by the members of our rescue.
By 6am Wednesday morning, my diabetic foster dog started having seizures and I had to spend another day at the vet. While she is now ok, this kept me from responding to emails yet another day. The good news is that we had 4 dogs go to forever homes this week – one of them being a 13 year old little man.
Between the Pet Expo (which had our rescue out of commission from the 22nd – 28th), taking in sick dogs (we took in three new ones just while at the Expo) and dealing with critical care, it just seems that responding to emails fell to the bottom of the list. Please know if you email us and don’t hear back, our volunteers are not at a spa eating bonbons (who has the time!) but are most definitely involved in rescuing a Yorkie somewhere. THAT is a promise. If we can help, we will and if we can’t, there is a reason. Please don't take it personally.
Thank you to everyone for your continued concern about this little girl. Yorkies everywhere are lucky to have you watching out for them! Sleep well tonight knowing that Bitsy is the very best place she can be!
Jen Quigley
Rescue Me – Yorkie Rescue
Rescue Me Yorkie Rescue