SEPTEMBER ISSUE IS OUT NOW!
Dear Readers — page 4 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Show Off Your Pets — page 5 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Adopting Older Pets: Less Stress, More Pleasure — page 6 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Abused Basset Trains As Therapy Dog — page 7 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Ask Andy About Dog Training — page 8 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Calendar of Events — page 10 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Doctor's Corner — page 15 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Newest "Entremanures" — page 20 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Breed of the Month — page 22 (pdf)Requires Adobe
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Abused Basset Trains As Therapy Dog
Harley
by Monika Unsworth, Special to Pet o?? Mine
If it is the long droopy ears alone that make a Basset, Harley would not make the grade. His white left ear has a big chunk missing, most likely ripped out by sparring pit bulls. His black-and-white right one is so scarred that it has curled up and contracted to half its normal size.
Yet his battle scars do not prevent him from bringing joy and hope to everybody he meets. Harley is training to be a therapy dog. The gentle Basset will soon be visiting women??s shelters, psychiatric wards, and children??s hospitals to tell his amazing tale of surviving horrific odds and coming out on top wagging.
A year ago, Carolina Basset Hound Rescue (CBHR) received a call from John Acrum SPCA in Charleston, S.C. A dog had come in with ugly-looking wounds to his back, and rubber bands holding his maimed ears together. Another two seriously injured and traumatized dogs had recently been recovered with similar wounds and shelter staff assumed that Harley, too, had been used as a ??bait? dog in dog fighting. Since he was standing no chance of being re-homed, he was on that day??s euthanasia list. Convinced that he was a Basset, a shelter worker, touched by his soulful eyes and gentle nature, pulled him off the euthanasia table and made the call.
CBHR officers took one look at Harley??s mauled ears, trusting eyes, and constantly wagging tail, and decided to take him in. When his first foster Mom, Sue Ramsey, came to pick him up, he jumped into her car, patiently sat beside her in the passenger seat, ate two chicken tacos, and politely avoided the lettuce.
Harley ended up with foster Mom Ann Campbell in Myrtle Beach. She says he was the ??perfect dog?—sweet, house-trained, and immediately best buddies with her other five dogs.
??He was like their big daddy—calming them down whenever they got too rambunctious. I just thought that was amazing for a dog that had been so badly attacked by other dogs,? says Cambell.
Even Campbell??s Dad, who is not a dog-person, fell in love with him.
??They??d hang out on the porch together for hours. Whenever I talked about getting Harley adopted, Dad would tell me to re-home one of my other dogs, not ??our?? Harley,? she says.
Nevertheless, Campbell started a major publicity blitz to find Harley the best possible ??forever? home. She did not accept that Harley??s scars made him ??un-re-homable.?? She posted flyers with his picture and story in local pet stores and businesses and even took him to Myrtle Beach for Bikers?? Week.
??I just knew that special person was out there for him. We just had to find them.?
When Marilyn Meade, a psychiatric nurse on vacation from Columbia, walked into a Myrtle Beach pet store to buy a new collar for her Coonhound mix, Ashleigh, the last thing on her mind was to get another dog. Yet after seeing Harley??s story in the store, she felt compelled to go back to read it again, and write down Campbell??s number.
??There was something about him—he touched me deep inside,? she remembers.
The day of Harley??s handover was tough for Campbell.
??I knew I was going to cry for days, but there was no doubt in my mind that Harley had a special purpose in life, and Marilyn was the person to help him fulfill it.?
Harley, who has been renamed Hank (aka ??Penguin,? because of his funny Basset walk), has settled right in with Meade. She says he is a ??wonderful dog—sweet, gentle, and wise?.
??It??s amazing how after everything that??s happened to him, he could just wipe the slate clean and trust me with his whole heart again,? says Meade.
Just as Campbell hoped, Meade has great plans for Hank: She is working with Prescription Paws to get him certified as a therapy dog. She plans to take him to women??s refuges to show battered women and children what Hank has been through, and how he has come out on top of it, ready to love and trust again. She used to own a black Labrador she took to her hospital??s mental ward to watch patients?? eyes light up when they saw her. Hank is special, says Meade
??Hank has got that special something in him, too—inspiring people and filling their hearts with love and hope.? 
(Monika Unsworth is a volunteer with the Carolina Bassett Hound Rescue.)
Read the September Issue of Pet o' Mine on-line: (METRO) or (UNIFOUR)
