THE DOG THAT NOBODY WANTED
The pound, a divorce, to the ranch … a true story …
Jim and I were in Folsom, Ca. the summer of 2006. Our son had just married Heather and we were visiting the newlyweds.
I’m sure I barely noticed their new dog they had just got from the pound named Molly. But I did notice every time she was alone in a room there was an “accident”. She’s too old for this I thought, obviously never been house trained. Also from the looks of her stretched out tummy she had had many puppies. I surmised that she may have been in a puppy mill and when too old to breed they left her at the pound for a second chance, and with that pretty face it came.
A couple of years later to our dismay there was a divorce between these two wonderful people. Why?That is another story. Anyway Heather kept Molly with her at the Folsom house until the digging, barking and a real lot of anxiety on molly’s part became just too much of a problem. Heather explained the situation to Nick and he agreed to take Molly to live with him in his small downtown Sacramento studio apartment with a tiny little patio.
He related a few stories about life with Molly in cramped quarters. Like when he was barbequing a steak on the patio he stepped inside for a moment and came back outside to find the steak was gone and Molly seemed to be very pleased! Or the time Nick had a date over and they went out to the hot tub only to come back in to a big wet spot on the couch from Molly and that ended the date! Nick did put up with a lot in that studio with Molly plus her barking in this complex. He did get her a bark collar to wear while he was not home and that helped with the neighbors.
When Nick had to go to his scheduled Guard duty (he is in the Army Reserve) for 3 months we agreed to take Molly in with us in our home in southern California. Even at our house she was not loved by the neighbors (that bugle bark!) and she did threaten our older dog once at the neck with bared teeth. Probably how she had to live in her earlier life to eat I thought. She also had a terrible fetish about always having to be in the house. She would just panic at the door anytime we would put her out and again I thought about what her earlier life must have been like, so sad.
When Nick’s three month duty was up I thought about keeping her but my husband said he didn’t want that dog. So back to Sacramento she went.
After some time Nick got deployed to Iraq for a year. He tried but could not find a home for Molly except one a place that’s called the ranch southeast of Sacramento. The proprietors were very good and loving with dogs and there is lots of room with 500 acres of open ranch country. So there she went off again to yet another home … because.
I did think about her often and asked Nick before he left on his deployment if he ever went to the ranch unannounced to check on her treatment there. Were they being good to her? Who would want an old non productive breeding dog anyway?
I let it be and tried to not think about Molly until we received the following e-mail from Nick that the ranch just was not working out. Not because they were not nice to her, read on …
From: Nicholas xxxxxxxxx
To: xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue, Jul 25, 2010 1:10 am
FWD: Molly
