Kyan's Rescue

I am a rescue coordinator for Rhodesian Ridgebacks and this is Kyan's story. Early in January I got an email from a family looking for their Rhodesian Ridgeback who had jumped the fence and not been seen for a week. They had only had her for 2 days. In the email they named a breeder supposedly connected to the dog. I called the family and gave them some suggestions. One was to put up flyers in their neighborhood with her picture. They said they didn't have any pictures of her. I thought surely the previous person, their friend, who they got the dog from, would have some, but they said no. I decided I would call the person they named as the breeder. She said "I didn't whelp the litter so I don't have pictures. I asked if maybe the parents picture would help and she said she couldn't help me.

About a week passed and a female was found by some people that called me. I went and picked her up and called the family that had contacted me earlier. I told them I had a young female that might be theirs. They wanted to know where she was found and then proceeded to say it couldn't be their dog because she couldn't have gotten that far. I was shocked that they wouldn't want to see this dog. I tried to explain to them that after two weeks, there was no telling how far the dog could have gotten or who may have picked her up and maybe she had gotten loose again. She didn't have any collars, but that could have been also explained by someone picking her up. Well, they didn't think it was their dog and didn't care to come see her. It ended up not being their dog and the owner was found and that is a whole other story.

Another few weeks passed and I was contacted by a couple that found a female dog who was hit by a car. This couple in my mind are angels. The wife noticed the dog on a drive home from work. She told her husband and he went back to the spot and found her. She would not let him get near her. He tried for some time to get close but she ran away from him. He spent 5 days trying to catch her going to the same spot every day. She was always there, but still was afraid of him. He would feed her every day and spend time just sitting with her. He was getting so worried about her, so he decided to get a sedative from his vet and put it in her food to give him the chance of catching her. He spent 5 hours with her that day and she finally ate and started acting drugged. He decided to try to get her on a leash and finally did catch her, although even being drugged, she fought to get away with all of the strength she had left, but he succeeded. He took her immediately to his vet. She weighed 35 pounds. A dog her size should weigh about 70 pounds and this was after he had been feeding her for 5 days. She had been hit by a car at least 3 weeks earlier and her hip was fractured. He told his vet to save her. The surgery was performed and they had to remove part of her hip socket but said she would be okay. The surgery cost this family $800.00 and this is not a rich family.

They contacted me at this point to see if I could help find this poor girl’s owners. They described her to me and I knew for sure it was the dog lost by the family that contacted me earlier in the month. I called the owners while the other couple held on. The owner said, “where did you find her,” and when I told them. Again he said no, too far, but the wife said that is about 3 minutes from here. When I told them of her injuries, they immediately said, we cannot afford that and does this family that found her want her? I was shocked. The family that found her already had 4 dogs they had rescued and that was the limit for their area, so they couldn't keep her. I explained this to the owner, but he again said he couldn't pay the bill. I asked about the friend who they got the dog from before she was lost and he said we would call her. She would probably want to go to this vets office to see the dog and make sure it is her dog. GREAT! Well, she never went and after a day, I called the owner back. They said they were still thinking about it.....At this point the family that found her said they didn't want the owners to have her which I agreed on and had always felt that from the beginning. I assured them that they couldn't get the dog back without paying them back for the vet bill.

Time passed and nothing from the owners, so again I called them. This time I said the dog was recovering and was going to be okay, and I would help place her with a loving family, but would really appreciate it if they could at least give me her vet records so she wouldn't have to start all over with her shots and I would like to know about her being on heartworm treatment. They said they could MAYBE meet me somewhere. Okay, I already knew their name and where they lived. They never would commit to when this meeting could happen.

I then went to meet this poor dog. She was so thin and afraid of me. She had really bonded with the family that found her and they with her. They were really torn about wanting to keep her, but not being able to and worried about her future. I felt horrible about the whole thing. Rescue offered to help with the bills, but they turned me down and also said they wanted to keep her until a forever home was found. As we discussed her and watched her, they mentioned to me that they had found a stitch in her neck they couldn't explain. As I looked at her, I noticed a lump on her neck. I felt where the lump was and where the stitch was and thought I felt a dermoid, which is something that ridgebacks can be born with. That is another major surgery, but we were also thinking of another possibility and that maybe a microchip had been removed to hide her identity. Again I called the owners and asked if they would have any idea why this dog had a stitch in her neck.  They said, “oh she had dermoid surgery in May.” Okay, this was January and May was 8 months ago. I was really upset at this point and asked them for the surgeon’s name so I could get this dog back to him to see what this lump was. The owner refused to give me a name and said I didn't need to know that. Not many vets would be familiar with a dermoid and I wanted to go back to the vet that did the surgery, so I couldn't understand why they wouldn't give me the name. My mind was going crazy by this time.

I decided to contact the breeder they named again, to see if she could help. She told me she didn't understand the last time I called her, but she hadn't had a litter in 2 years and the owner was claiming this dog was 9 months old, so she was not the breeder plus her last litter only had one female and she had called to check on that girl and she was safely home with her owners.

Well, I am still stumped but at least these owners will never get this dog back. My dream is that the family that found her and loves her find some way to keep her. If she does have a dermoid, which is a very expensive surgery, we have offered to pay for it and then let them keep her if they can. She will also have to be spayed at the same time. At least this girl is being loved in the meantime and hopefully she will have a bright future.

 Update: