Pen #59!

To Be Continued...
After Teresa told me about Stubbs serious life and death situation, she put Jack and me on a conference call with her and we discussed what needed to be done. After we made a plan we ended our conversation and then I began one with Tony and Ben and told them about Stubbs. They were all for saving Stubbs! Then Ben suggested that I call Alison Furst first. She is our good friend in Austin...


Before calling Alison about possibly transporting Stubbs for us I called the place where Stubbs was on death row. It took me three minutes to finally get to talk to a human in charge. I told the person who I was and that our rescue ranch had taken several dogs from them years ago to help them out, and that we would be glad to take Stubbs. I figured that it would be a piece of cake to rescue Stubbs, but I was wrong. 


The person put me on hold for less than a minute and then told me that we could not have Stubbs because we were in their "inactive" file and that we would have to get another rescue group to pull him for us. To say the least that was not what I had expected to hear. I thought that they would have been thrilled about us rescuing Stubbs.


I spent Friday night on the phone talking back and forth to Alison, and three other people who wanted to help us rescue Stubbs. After my last phone call at 9:15 I went to bed feeling exhausted, frustrated and worried about Stubbs safety and I guess that explains why I only got about four hours of sleep.


Saturday morning I called Alison. Alison told me that she would be at the place holding Stubbs when it opened its doors so she could try to talk them into letting us rescue him. Then Alison told me that she had also talked to another animal rescue group that she volunteers for and they had told her that they were willing to pull Stubbs for us if we needed their help! I was thrilled.


After talking to several other people that Jack and Alison had recruited to help us, Alison called me right before noon to tell me that the people at the compound would not let her take Stubbs for us, and then they told her that the organization that she volunteers for, would not be allowed to pull Stubbs for us either. Alison was upset and so was I. 


Twenty minutes later after making six or seven phone calls a woman called me from another rescue group and said that her organization would be glad to pull Stubbs for us and that she would call them now. Ten minutes later after many more phone calls, Alison called me from Stubb's location because she didn't know what to do so I thanked her for trying to help Stubbs and told her to go on home. 


As soon as I hung up the phone I called the woman back who had told me that she would make the call and tell them to release Stubbs to Alison. After the woman told me that she had made the phone call, I told her that Alison had just left the place without Stubbs, the woman was shocked because the place had told her that they would give Stubbs to Alison immediately, but they never said a thing to Alison as she sat in their lobby. After I thanked the nice woman for trying to help us out I hung up the phone and then I took a baby aspirin for my heart.


I called the facility that was holding Stubbs hostage and got a new person. In the softest and nicest voice I asked the person if there was any update on Stubbs or releasing him to us. I am sure the young person had an audience when he/she coldly told me that our rescue ranch could not have Stubbs because he had just been rescued by another rescue group. "It is an ideal situation for Stubbs..." I could tell the person was enjoying their "power trip" when telling me this but I could not believe the attitude or what I was hearing. Before hanging up the phone this person suggested that I fill out their application so that we would be "qualified" to pull a dog from them in the future, while I'm thinking to myself—"How about y'all filling out an application for us to see if we ever want to work with y'all again!" (I had other thoughts going through my head about these people but they are unsuitable for this blog.)


After making four or five more phone calls thanking everyone for trying to help us rescue Stubbs, I cried. I did not understand why these creepy people holding Stubbs had made things so difficult for a dog on death row that had been scheduled to be euthanized that day. Where the heck was their logic coming from?


Later that day I got a phone call from a friend trying to help Stubbs, too. Our friend confirmed that Stubbs had been rescued by this certain rescue organization. And then twenty-five minutes later the same friend called me back to tell me that things had changed. I was told that the organization that was going to take Stubbs had backed out because they had been under the impression that they would be paid $750.00 for taking him. What? You've got to be kidding me!


I could not believe that they were going to take Stubbs because they thought that they would make $750.00! Stubbs' rescue had become the strangest and the most absurd rescue that I have ever been involved in. Then my friend told me that a man named Danny had come into the "shelter" and he wanted to adopt Stubbs, and would come back to pick Stubbs up on Sunday. After I hung up the phone I said several prayers for Stubbs because he needed all of the prayers that he could get.


Later that evening I reluctantly phoned Teresa to tell her about todays weird events. Needless to say she was flabbergasted, disgusted and in disbelief. After she and I vented our anger and disgusts about the "keepers" of Stubbs, Teresa thanked me for everything that I had done and apologized to me for wasting and spending so many hours of my time trying to help save a sweet young Pit Bull who was alone and scared in pen #59. 


Sunday afternoon a man called me to confirm that Stubbs had definitely been adopted to a nice man named Danny. That phone call made my day because I completely trust this person. I regret not getting to personally meet Stubbs or getting to rescue him, but I rest assured that he is finally in good hands and that is what I call "an ideal situation." There is a whole lot more to this stupid and ridicules rescue story but it tires me to even think about it. I am just glad that it has a happy ending.


This evening a little after five o'clock Jill got adopted! A nice woman from Bandera came out and adopted her for her elderly mother who had seen Jill's picture in the Bandera County Courier as our Pet of the Week! Good luck, Jill and thank you Judith Pannebaker at the Courier for helping our rescue ranch find Jill her forever home. Tonight we're keeping our fingers crossed for Jill and hope that she fits right in with her new family.

Y'all have a great evening!