Shotzee’s Rescue

March 16, 2001 U.P.W. received a call around 11AM from a man that had taken his own German Shepard to his vet, and while waiting to see the vet, overheard the owner of another German Shepard that was there, instruct the Vet staff he wanted to have his dog put to sleep by 5PM that day if no one wanted her. He told the staff he no longer wanted the responsibility of taking care of her because of medical problems she had. This guardian Angel that took the time to try to help save this dogs life at the vets office, who happened to be their at the right time to over hear this conversation, had received one of our publications at a local traffic intersection from one of our volunteers, and called our number to see if we could do anything to help save this dogs life before 5pm.

After talking to him and hearing this story I became outraged, and called the clinic and wanted to know the story on why this dog is being put to sleep. The vet staff explained the situation and I asked them to have the owner call me personally to let me save this dog from being killed. I got a call from this heartless owner around 2PM and asked him why he would give up his dog and have her put to sleep. He explained to me he did not want to keep his dog anymore because his wife was pregnant & the dog had some sort of eating disorder where it could not keep on weight and he did not want to deal with the financial medical responsibility of taking care of this dog anymore. The ironic part is this man lived in a very high income neighborhood, works for the government, and had bought this dog from a German Shepard breeder in Europe and had her shipped to America.

After talking he agreed and gave permission to surrender the dog over to my organization. I immediately made arrangements to pick up the dog by 4PM, 1 hour before she would have been put down. Kill, Kill, Kill, this has to stop happening and we must educate the public to become more responsible pet owners with alternate solutions then executing their own pets because they DO NOT fit their own Pet standards. The excuses I have heard from them all is amazing why they give their pets up or have them put down, from behavioral problems, medical problems, age problems, having to move, being allergic, having a baby or just not wanting the responsibility of a pet anymore the list goes on & on. These irresponsible uneducated pet owners make the decision to throw these living helpless pets away like garbage out of desperation & stupidity, and do not take the time to find an alternate solution for this animal. Maybe a few of you out their are guilty of this and will realize what I am saying.

Wake-up America! These pets have hearts, souls & feeling like we do, they are not stuffed animals. I get very upset when civilized, educated & professional people make their own laws and become Judge, Jury & Executioners of their own pets. When my fianc and I arrived at the vets office at 4PM, we were greeted by the most loving wonderful German Shepard that looked liked it had been abused and was starved to death and was nothing but fur & bones. This dog made us both very upset to see how someone could do this but at the same time she made us cry to see her little eyes light up with joy as she knew we were her guardian pet angels that came to save her from being killed. This beautiful dog’s name is Shotzee and this story has a very happy, happy ending that we wanted to share. This wonderful dog touched our lives as well as many other animal lovers that fell into her path. It’s amazing how one pet can change the destiny in all of our lives for one moment in time.

We loaded up Shotzee in my fiancé’s truck and took her to another friendly vet for observation & to be bathed. At that time my organization was putting on the PET PAL Adopt-A-Thon the next day March 17 , 15 hours after we rescued Shotzee from being killed. After examination by the vet Shotzee was determined to have a Pancreatic disorder and was prescribed a special powder medicine that she had to take for the rest of her life. We had to put this medicine powder on her food every feeding and let it sit for 30 minutes prior to her eating so it would absorb into her food. Regular dog food would not stay in her stomach which caused her not to gain weight. We then had to find Shotzee a foster home as we did not have a shelter facility at that time and use foster homes for our pets. One of our board members/volunteer Phil Marvel offered to foster Shotzee at his apartment, who also has three rescued dogs, until we could find her a good family & home.

I contacted our PET PAL friends at Tri-County Humane Society, Jeannette Christos to tell her about this lifesaving story and special little girl named Shotzee. She offered her organization’s help to take Shotzee in at her shelter & give this little dog the special time and medical care she needed. I know that Shotzee would be in the best of care and Jeannette would find Shotzee the right adoptive family too. Susie at Tri-County who takes care of many homeless pets for Tri-County picked up Shotzee, and for 2 weeks gave her the special medical food, attention & love she needed and after watching her progress, Shotzee was put up for adoption. I just want to let everyone know through everyone’s help, this little dog’s life was spared.

Now for the happy ending, Shotzee was adopted to a loving family in Parkland that also have German Shepards themselves. These new adoptive parents were willing to devote their lives to help take care of Shotzee’s special medical needs forever. Shotzee will spend the rest of her life living the way a HAPPY dog should live with lots & lots of love to give her family forever. Thanks to the mystery man at the Vet that made the call, Tri-County Humane Society that found her a new home , Shotzee’s new family that opened up their hearts, and all the wonderful people in my U.P.W. organization, My fiance Don Kjos, Phil Marvel, and Chris Sisto, who all took the time in helping save the life of this precious little angel from totally irresponsible, uncompassionate bad humans in this world.