Baby Girl and Boots

  I first met Baby Girl about a year and a half ago when I was doing outreach with another organization. She caught my eye one cold winter day when we were driving around giving out hay. She was laying on the cold ground outside her dog house, attached to a heavy chain with no food or water. She just had that look like 'please help me'. She was big and intimidating, so at first I was hesitant to approach her. It turned out she was a huge love bug and just wanted the affection of people.

I fell in love with Baby Girl that day and vowed I would always go back and check on her no matter what. Time went by and what happens all too often, these people got another dog. Boots was just a puppy when they chained him out front across from Baby Girl. He never had food or water, along with Baby Girl every time we went by, he also didn't have shelter. We brought Boots shelter and would check in on them every once in a while. 

A couple months had passed and I had been so busy that I hadn't been by to check on these two. Me and another volunteer just happened to drive by one day last summer and found that Baby Girl was gone and Boots was left in the front yard, skin and bones! 

He was starving and didn't have a drop of water. No one was home, so we did what we had to do, we called animal control. We drove by a few days later and Boots was gone. After a couple weeks we decided to do another drive by. More often than not, we see people get yet another dog, even after animal control seizes their other neglected dogs. When we pulled up, we were in shock! There was Boots in the front yard again and when we got out, we noticed that Baby Girl was back and was tied up out back. They both looked horrible! We talked to the lady and apparently animal control had seized both of these dogs because of neglect and neither one was spayed or neutered. They both had kennel cough, Boots having the worst of it, from being in the shelter. We gave her more antibiotics and started back over on trying to get this family to step up for these dogs. We started bringing them food again and things started to turn up. A few weeks went by when we weren't able to get out and check on these two. One day we stopped by and found both Boots and Baby Girl very thin. We were so upset and after talking with the family, they said that since we hadn't brought food by in a while, they just didn't feed them!!! This was so frustrating to hear! So from then on, we have been bringing them a bag a food every week so these poor dogs can eat!

Once we started Jade's Mission up, this was the first house we went to on outreach! I was not about to let these two slip through the cracks after all the work and love we have put into these dogs! The flies have been horrible this year and Boots and Baby Girl already had fly strike by the time we got to them in early May. Baby Girl had fly bites on her little nubby ears and Boot's ears were a bloody mess. On top of bringing this family a bag of dog food every week, we also started bringing a fly bag for each dog every week, that's how bad the flies were here. We also brought several bottles of fly repelling gel for their ears. But week after week, their ears were still bad. We started thinking and we realized we were spending over $30 a week on just this house! We had spoke several times over with the family about stepping up, but it never lasted. Marilyn was finally fed up with this whole situation and told the family that if someone didn't step up and take care of these dogs, we could no longer help them. We were very surprised when we returned the following week and Boot's ears were almost healed and they both had water! This doesn't sound like much, but to us it was a huge step! 

It's still hit and miss at this house. We can never safely not go by and know things are ok with these dogs. The past three times we have stopped they have either not had water or their water is so old it was green and moldy. Just today volunteers went by and Baby Girl had no water in this 100 degree weather and was practically in heat stroke! Marilyn told the family to take her in the house and thankfully they did! 

This will be a house we will always go by and check because without us, these dogs would suffer and starve. We are so thankful for all the support we have gained since we started this mission! Thank you so much for all the donations of fly bags, ear ointment, dog food, and monetary donations! Everything goes straight to dogs like Baby Girl and Boots that need our help so badly! 

You can see Boots and Baby Girl on the news from our outreach story from a couple Sundays ago, here is the link: http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/jades-mission-helps-keep-kansas-city-dogs-alive-in-the-heat

Violet, our first adoption!

During our first weekend of outreach we came across a momma dog eating old spaghetti out of the trash. We pulled over and started looking for where her puppies could be. We found them on the porch of someone's house. They looked skinny and full of worms. They started fighting over the milk bones we put down for them. The momma was very aggressive and leery of people, she is basically feral. No one answered the door at this house, so we decided to come back the next day. 

The next day we went back and finally spoke to someone that lived at this house. At first the lady said she wanted to keep all the puppies, one for each of her kids. We had laid out some food for the puppies and they were engulfing it, they were starving. We started talking to her about the vet care these puppies needed and that they appeared to be loaded with worms. Thankfully she did what was right and these sweet babies became Jade's Mission's first puppies! Kendra did a wonderful job nursing these babies back to health. They were completely full of worms, so bad they were pooping them for days. 

 These adorable babies were spayed and neutered yesterday and they are recovering beautifully! And for the best news of all.... Violet, one of the brindle cuties, was adopted tonight!!! A wonderful family fell in love with her and decided to make her a part of their family! Thank you so much for adopting a Jade's Mission dog! Have a wonderful life Violet!

Now we have Sweet William, Daisy, and Lily to find a forever home for! We will be at Tractor Supply in Belton this Saturday from 10 to 4 pm with these puppies. Please check out our website at http://jadesmission.org/Events.html, for more information on this event! We will be collecting donations for our Dog Days of Summer Campaign, which is all about collecting items for fly relief for chained and penned dogs at this event as well! Please come out and see us!

Queenie

We were driving from one address on our list to the next when we noticed a very petite beagle chained in the front yard. This is usually how we find more animals that need help, just simply driving from one address to the next, we come across 5 more animals that need help. This beagle was at a good weight, but didn't have a dog house, so we decided to stop and see what was going on. We talked to a woman that lived there and found out that the beagle's name is Queenie and she was only a year old. The woman said that Queenie lived outside all the time unless the weather was really bad. I talked to her about shelter for Queenie and she said she couldn't afford a dog house, but Queenie could get under the porch. Queenie also wasn't spayed. 

 We found Queenie on just our second day of outreach. We didn't have the money, but I offered to get her spayed for free. The woman didn't have the money, she was taking care of her grandchildren, on top of having a dog. I just couldn't think about what would happen to poor Queenie only weighing 15lbs if a big, stray dog got a hold of her while she was in heat. I also told her I would bring a dog house to Queenie the following week. I left that house that day thinking that these people don't need this dog, they don't care about her, they don't take care of  her. It's so hard to keep a positive attitude because there are so many people who don't care and won't step up to take care of their animal. But we must try to remain positive and stay out there for these animals. 

 

The following week I brought Queenie a dog house. I still had the attitude that these people don't care about this dog. I set up the dog house with some straw and gave them some treats for Queenie. I got to talking to the family and asked if they had seen any fleas and the man said he gives her a bath at least 3 times a week and hasn't seen any. I was astonished! I looked at Queenie and she did look clean. She didn't look greasy and dirty like a lot of the chained dogs we see. I applied some flea and tick meds to Queenie. I also talked to the family about bringing Queenie inside and making her part of the family. They seemed very receptive to the idea. 

 

 A few days later I went by to let the family know that I could get Queenie in for a spay this week. When I pulled up, I didn't see Queenie or her dog house, I really started to worry. I knocked on the door, and who was the first thing I saw? Queen, inside the house! I looked over and her dog house was up on the porch and her chained was gone. I was so happy that we could change the life of this dog. Sometimes it's all about education to make a difference. Queenie went in to get spayed today at S.T.O.P.P, thank you so much Dr. Mah! She is our first spay and what a successful story! She was so excited to see her family when she got home. She was taken right in the house and put to sleep on a comfy bed. 

Sometimes we get down in the dumps and get a negative attitude about people after seeing so many bad situations. But we have to think about the good ones, the ones where we were able to make a huge difference in the animal's life. Queenie gets to be an indoor dog and will never have to worry about having puppies because groups like Jade's Mission, Unleashed, and Chain of Hope are out there making a difference. We have come across so many more chained females that we need help spaying! Please consider making a donation so we can spay these girls! Please visit our website at jadesmission.org to donate. Every penny goes straight to the animals at Jade's Mission.

Alley Ways and Side Streets

We had a very productive day today on outreach! We loaded up a volunteer's old car with the intentions of scouring the alley ways of Kansas City for animals in need, and boy did we find plenty! I want to show the highlights of today's outreach efforts so you can see what we are out there battling against and why we need your support. 

                            

 Once we started braving alleys in midtown, it didn't take us long to find our first stop. We pulled up to a backyard that had a shepherd mix chained on a very heavy tow chain. We decided to stop and see if he needed any protection from the flies and see if the owner would be interested in a light weight cable tie-out. Luckily, the owner was out back, so we got out and found more than what we first expected. There was also a female pit chained up that had recently had puppies. One of the puppies was still there, but the woman had plans of keeping him, the rest had died from parvo. We started in with asking if she would be interested in spaying the female pit, Princess. She didn't seem too receptive, she was more interested in finding a new home for Princess. We will continue to work with this situation, and hopefully with rescue, we can get Princess out of this situation. The last thing we want is another unspayed female pit being given away. We were able to get Princess on a light weight tie-out. Next we moved on to the shepherd mix in the other corner of the yard. The woman explained that he had recently been attacked by a dog and was in bad shape. He had open wounds and was very skinny. Once we started looking at him, he had a wound on his back leg that had maggots in it. The woman was disgusted and said that she was taking him to the vet immediately tomorrow. We got this poor boy off his heavy tow chain that Marilyn could barely lift it was so heavy. We will be checking on this situation on Tuesday to be sure that this boy received the proper vet care.

Here is Princess and her puppy Ice Cube. 

Here is Marilyn assisting the woman with getting the shepherd boy off his 50+ pound tow chain. 

 After that stop, it just added more fuel to our fire, we kept trucking down alleys looking for more animals in need. A few stops later, we came across the saddest sight. In this disgusting and filthy backyard was this lonely girl who was on a tangled tie-out, not any longer than 4ft. She was literally trapped in her own feces and trash was all around her.

We got out to get a closer look at this dog's situation. We knocked on the door, but no one answered. This girl had no water, the flies were everywhere, and she could barely move. We couldn't leave her like that, so we decided to go ahead and fix her up and make her more comfortable. We got her off her tangled short tie out and on a longer tie-out so she could have more freedom. We got her fresh water and food. We also hung a fly bag up and put fly ointment on her fly bitten ears. Marilyn also got to work shoveling all the feces out of her area so the flies wouldn't be so bad. She was very shy and shut down, but she let us do our work. We also noticed that she appears to have had puppies before and hasn't been spayed. We left our information and will be back to check in on this girl. We would love to get her spayed. 

 As we were looking for another terrible looking alley way to head down, we came across this boy, JoJo, driving down a side street. He looked like he needed a lot of help. We stopped and talked to the owner. He said that he didn't have a lot of money and really needed some help caring for JoJo. We walked to the backyard to get a closer look at poor JoJo. His ears were horrible fly bitten, he was very thin, and he was on a heavy tow chain. He didn't have a drop of water and was so hungry. We had a lot of work to do here! 

First things first, we got JoJo some food and water. As he drank and drank from his bucket of water we got a closer look at his poor ears, they looked horrible!

We started talking to the owner about how to keep the flies away, he didn't realize that all the poop he hadn't picked up was causing the flies to be so bad. We hung a big fly bag up for JoJo and showed the owner how to apply the fly ointment we were leaving with him. We explained the importance of making sure JoJo has water at all times, especially in this heat. We gave him a big bag of puppy food to help bulk JoJo back up and will continue to help out here with food. We were so happy to also get JoJo off his heavy tow chain and on a light weight tie-out!

We headed further south looking for a dog we had helped in the past when we came across this beautiful boy. He needed our help for sure! He had a poorly built dog house, no food or water, and was tied to a tree with several leashes. His ears were also being eat alive by flies. We were not able to make contact with owners at this house, so we did our best to make this boy comfortable until we can talk to the owners. 

We hung up a fly bag, lathered on the fly ointment on his ears and gave him fresh water and food. This boy is very thin. We left a big bag of dog food and fly ointment on their door step. Once we make contact with the owners we will get this guy a new dog house and on a cable tie-out. We will be monitoring this situation to be sure this dog is cared for properly.

We had a long day today, but it was so worth it. We made over 12 stops and helped around 20 dogs today. We hung fly bags at almost every stop we made and handed out many bottles of fly ointment for fly strike. We took 5 dogs off of their heavy tow chains and replaced them with light weight cable tie-outs. We gave water to the thirsty and food to the hungry. I would like to thank everyone that has helped us by contributing fly bags, fly ointment, monetary donations, and more! We are just starting up and our funds are very limited. We need everyone's support to continue this much needed work. We have our PayPal account up and running and we also have monthly recurring donations available. We are ALWAYS in need of more fly ointment, fly bags, heavy duty cable tie-outs, buckle collars, water buckets, and dog food. We have drop off locations all over the KC area and we have a great website where fly bags and ointment can be purchased (http://www.horse.com/). Please visit our website at http://jadesmission.org for more information on how to help us continue our outreach efforts!

Blackie

We've known Blackie for a long time. We used to visit him when we were with another outreach group. Blackie didn't have a dog house and he was chained in the corner of the yard at a house in KCK. We hooked him up with a dog house and a light weight tie-out. We started bringing food by on a regular basis and checking up on him. Time went by and we weren't able to visit Blackie, even though he was always in the back of our minds. Once Jade's Mission started, we knew we had to get over to KCK, outreach is much needed over there. So we decided to divide our time between KCMO and KCK. A couple weeks ago when we first started outreach, we spend our 3rd day in KCK. Marilyn and I kept racking our brains trying to remember where Blackie lived, neither one of us could remember. This past weekend, after spending some time in KCMO, we headed over to KCK in search of Blackie and others that needed our help. On the way to KCK, it hit me! I somehow instantly remembered the street this dog lived on. We headed over. We expected to hang a fly bag and fix Blackie up. When we pulled in the drive way, Blackie didn't even raise his head to look at us. I went to the door and the boy that answered said that Blackie had been sick for about two months now and everyone this family had called hadn't helped Blackie. I was afraid to walk over, afraid of what we would find. Blackie was laying in the dirt that had pieces of glass and other trash in it. His water was filthy and he had no food. He didn't even move as we approached, I thought he was dead. Then he slowly raised his head and looked at us. He looked terrible! He had lost a lot of weight, his eyes were goopy, full of green gunk, and he had trouble getting up. Marilyn and I both looked at each other and knew we couldn't leave him here like this. I had no idea what was wrong with Blackie, but we knew he needed to see a vet asap! We loaded Blackie into the car and took him back to my house for the night. 

He pretty much slept the whole car ride home. We got him set up for the night and I took him to the vet the next morning. I was thinking he had some kind of respiratory infection that some antibiotics could fix. My vet took one look at him and told me he had distemper. He had all the classical symptoms. That hit me pretty hard. He also tested positive for heartworms and he was loaded with intestinal parasites. Things looked grim for Blackie, but through it all, he had a great attitude. That night I did a lot of research on distemper. There isn't a cure for it and the only treatment is supportive care. I also found out that once a dog starts to show neurological signs, things can go downhill pretty fast from there. Blackie was already at that stage. He had trouble walking, had a lot of odd head twitches, his jaw chattered uncontrollably, he fell down a lot, and ran into things. I still stayed positive. Blackie was the sweetest dog, he would just come up to me, wagging his tail, and collapse in my lap. Since Sunday, I noticed a lot of changes in Blackie's neurological problems. Everyday he had a harder time getting up and around. Yesterday, I had to hold him up so he could pee. I knew we had a tough decision to make. After talking with some of our volunteers, we knew we had to do what was best for Blackie. 

After school yesterday, I took Blackie outside and we sat in the grass while he laid next to me for some love. I made a call to the vet and took Blackie on one last car ride (he loved car rides). He was happy as can be at the vet and laid down in my lap for the last time. He let out a huge sigh as he passed away, it was like a sigh of relief to be leaving this world that was so cruel to him. Blackie lived his life on a chain, but not anymore. We can't think of the bad parts, we have to think that for the last week of his life, he knew he was loved. He got to live inside, he felt clean and cared for (he got a bath, ears cleaned, and a pedicure!), he got three meals a day and fresh water, he got to run free outside without the jerk of a chain. Now he can run free forever without the sickness that ended his life. I hope Jade was the first dog he saw when he entered heaven. It breaks our hearts to have let him go, but we knew it would have only gotten worse for Blackie. He left this world knowing he was loved. The world works in mysterious ways, I don't know what made me instantly remember where Blackie lived, but I think God I did. If we wouldn't have shown up that day, he would have died a slow, lonely death in his dirt pit. Thank you so much to everyone that donated for Blackie's recovery, it means so much to us! All the extra donations that we raised for him will go to the next animal that needs our help! 

Blackie is being privately cremated at Rolling Acres, and I have paid, personally, for his ashes to be returned to Jade's Mission. There is a beautiful field near my house where his ashes will be spread so he can be free forever.