FURRY FRIENDS - THE STORY OF EASTER

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Note: We found and rescued a starving dog in early March of 2008 - Easter weekend, as it turned out. I'll let my 12 year old son tell the story in his own words. Editor

On Easter weekend everything was going good for me. I just rented a game that I wanted for my Wii. My mom works for a pet sitting business. We had to do a pet visit that we like to call the sad dogs. We call them the sad dogs because their owners leave them outside all of the time and the dogs are always muddy messes.

We brought canned food with us to feed the dogs so that they have something to look forward to since they are always outside. We only used one can and had the other one left over. We also brought a big box of dog cookies to totally spoil the dogs.

We left to go home. As we were driving down the road I was startled when my mom gasped as the car came to a halt. She pulled the car over. In the bushes a black, skinny figure was looking for something to eat. "Oh my god," my mom said.

"That's a starving dog," she said. And that is exactly what it was. An emaciated Rottweiler with a disease that looked like mange stood there.

"Stay in the car Randall." Mom quickly grabbed the left over can of dog food and dumped it in a tray so that the dog could eat it. The dog literally inhaled the food. The dog cared about food more than anything else.

As I watched my mom give the dog water, I threw cookies out of the window so that the dog could eat them. She told me to get in the passenger seat. Mom lured the dog into the car with a cookie. Then mom shut the door and drove off.

Fortunately the dog was very friendly. We finally reached the house. Mom immediately went into the back yard to fix the kennel so Easter could sleep in it.

I went in the house to wash my hands. Then I went into the backyard to see what my mom was doing. She said the dog was in the front yard. I went into the front yard and found the dog pawing at the gate. I lured the dog back to where my mom was.

"Is the kennel ready?" I asked my mom. "Yes," she said. So we put the dog in the kennel.

"What will its name be?" I asked. "We have to know if it is a male or female." Mom looked. "It's a girl," said mom. "Let's name her Easter since it is Easter weekend." "It fits." I said.

"Go inside and get more cookies," she said. I walked off, thinking we saved a life.

"Should I make found dog posters?" I asked mom. She said I should. I got on the computer and made posters. I got on my bike after I made the posters and I stuck them up around the neighborhood.

My step-dad said that we should take her to the animal shelter. "No," mom said. "An emaciated dog that has a disease similar to mange won't get adopted."

We printed more posters and put them up by Dairy Queen and Lake Wilderness. We got home and mom spent hours on Craigslist, Petfinder, and other Internet missing pet sites trying to find out if there had been anyone who had been missing a Rottweiler for two months. We had already decided that anybody who had been missing her for a short period of time in this condition deserved to go to jail.

We found someone that had been missing a Rottweiler on Craigslist. Mom emailed them about that. They replied. The reply said that can't be her. We found her a month ago.

It has been almost one week since we found Easter and no one has replied to the posters or the ads. Mom and I went back to where we put up the posters and took all of them down. We didn't know what weird diseases Easter had so we decided it was time to take her to the vet.

Unfortunately I had school the day mom took Easter to the vet so I was not able to help her. Easter is horrible in the car. She jumps up and down and slobbers all over. You have to give her a cookie to calm her down.

I came back from school and asked mom what happened. Mom said the only hard to cure disease that Easter had was a heart murmur. Easter had no microchip and had to be spayed.

We did not know if we could keep Easter because we already had another dog. Her name was Whoopi. Whoopi does not like other dogs. Whenever she spots another dog she jumps up and down and acts like an idiot. We decided that we should let Whoopi meet Easter.

This was no different from the other time she sees another dog. Whoopi barked and growled. It was no surprise that Whoopi did not like Easter. We brought Whoopi back inside the house.

We were very sad that Whoopi did not like Easter. Easter was such a sweet although energetic dog. Whoopi only likes dogs that she is used to. She liked the neighbor dog because they saw each other constantly.

It was about 7 at night. We heard the neighbor kids shouting. There was a commotion in my neighbor's back yard. We looked outside and saw Easter jumping around in their backyard. I quickly got my shoes on and ran outside.

Mom handed me a leash and I ran over to the neighbor's house. I jumped over their fence. Easter would not jump over the fence so I had to think of something to do. I saw a bench and put it by the fence so that Easter could get to the other side of the fence. We got over the fence and took Easter back home.

What was it that Easter wanted in their backyard? That we had no idea. We think she might have escaped because she did not like being stuck in the kennel. I don't blame her. I wouldn't like being stuck in a kennel all day long.

We put Easter on the rope and mom tried to figure out how Easter had escaped. She did not dig through the ground because there was no hole.

Mom finally figured out what she did. Easter had jumped on top of her doghouse and jumped over the fence. Mom moved the doghouse. What an escape artist!

Mom was still looking all over Craigslist for Easter's owners. Somebody suggested Ginger's Pet Rescue, so mom decided to look at their website.

Ginger knew a lady who might want Easter. Mom contacted the lady and she did want Easter. She had owned Rottweilers before and sounded like she could offer her a good home.

The lady said she wanted to meet us at the Family Fun Center, so we decided to meet her there. We loaded up Easter and drove off.

Easter was absolutely horrible in the car. She slobbered and tried to sit in your lap. She went crazy every time she saw an animal or even a statue of an animal. My job was to keep Easter out of the front by holding onto her collar. I wondered if she had ever gone for a ride in the car before we got her because it sure did not seem like it.

After what seemed like long endless hours of driving we finally made it to the Family Fun Center. Mom called the lady and asked her where she was. She told mom and mom followed her directions.

We saw the lady sitting in a truck in the parking lot. Thank goodness, I thought.

Mom got out of the car with Easter. The lady got out of her car with her daughter and a Jack Russell Terrier. The dogs sniffed noses and seemed to like each other.

Mom talked to the lady about Easter. She really liked Easter. The lady seemed very nice. She said she was going to take the dogs to the beach the next day and then take them on a vacation about a week after that.

The lady wanted to take Easter home. Mom gave her Easter. She seemed like a really good person to give Easter to. Mom said as long as Easter liked the lady's cats everything would be fine.

Mom started to cry as we got in the car. I told her that she did the right thing.

I went over to my neighbor's house; they had a big trampoline that I really like to jump on.

Mom started yelling at me from across the street. She told me to come back home, so I did.

Mom said that she got a phone call from the lady who had Easter. Easter had tried to kill one of her cats so we were getting her back!