She was born in a dark, dirty building filled with hundreds of cages. The smell and the noise was overwhelming. Her mom and dad had been born here too . Wires cages with piles of feces below them. Cages packed with as many dogs as they could hold. The only human contact they had was to move them from one cage to another for breeding and whelping purposes.
When she turned 8 weeks old she was loaded onto a truck filled with puppies. Her destination was a pet shop hundreds of miles away. In a cramped, dark, over heated truck, they made their way. They had one stop on the way, to pick up more puppies from another puppy mill.
When they opened the back of the truck they noticed her lifeless body in the corner of a crate. They took her out and placed her in another crate and tossed it aside.
Later that day a woman was on the property to buy some of the old breeder dogs that were no longer of any use to the miller.Their breeding days were over, so it was either a bullet or sell them to someone wanting to save them.
She noticed the puppy laying in the crate and asked what happened. “It’s dead, died on transport” he said. His voice was cold, it was no big deal to him except for the fact that it meant money lost.
The millers were still loading up the truck with other pups for transport to the petshops, so the woman had to wait for the breeder dogs. As she stood there she thought she saw the puppy breathing. She inched closer, not wanting to draw attention to herself. She was sure she saw the puppy take a breath. When she got close enough she put a finger into the crate and touched the puppy, it was alive, barely. She told them it was breathing and asked what they would do with it. They replied, “take it if you want it”.
That’s when I got a message from her asking if we could take the puppy in. I said yes and sent my husband to go pick up the pup. He went straight to the vet with her. She was seriously anemic, dehydrated, and severely malnourished, her eyes were infected and crusted over. She weighed just 2.45 lbs, less then half of what a healthy puggle pup her age should weigh. The chance of her recovery slim.
She was placed on IV and the testing began. She would be staying at the vet’s for several days, if she made it through the night.
The next morning I got a message from a vet tech letting me know that she was still alive. She told me that she named the puppy Gracie, because it was only by the grace of God that she was still alive. They knew she was anemic, dehydrated, malnourished, and had eye infection, but they couldn’t find a reason why. So all they could do was support her with IV, vitamins, cream for her eyes, and forced feedings.
She made it through another day and she actually licked the food as they syringed it into her mouth. She would stay another night at the clinic. The next morning, she was a little perkier. It was a Friday though and no one is at the clinic over the weekend. We would wait until the end of the day to see if she needed to be transferred or if we could care for her at home. Gracie continued to improve during the day, licking at her food and sitting up. It was decided that she would come home to us.
It is now Sunday and Gracie is continuing to improve. She needs cream in her eyes 4 times a day and is fed small meals every 2-3 hours. She is on a special diet for malnourished pups. She has a very long way to go, but we are seeing some positive signs. She even whined for me to come get her and she has licked my face when I hold her. She loves curling up under my chin and sleeping there.
Gracie will be seeing the vet weekly to make sure she is progressing and that her anemia is getting better. We are a state licensed, 501C3 Non-Profit rescue, located in Mt Carmel, PA.
