"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

Success Stories

Angels Unawares
by Lu Wyland

It was a day of noise and activity and dust. I’d just turned off the vacuum cleaner and emptied it outdoors in the trash bin, taking time only to call to the dogs to come inside. I was preparing to rearrange furniture when the phone rang. Anticipating this was a call from someone to sell me aluminum siding, a second mortgage or dry basement service, I answered warily. But the voice on the other end was someone I knew but had never talked to. We had spoken, but always through pictures and letters; pictures and letters primarily about a little dog named Angel who was rescued by one that took her out of the shelter so she could recover from her wounds and infections in a home, not a cage.

Angel was a dog with a past but no story. Found on a street and in obvious poor condition, she was taken to a shelter. They determined she was older, possibly ten, and between infection and injury, had lost much of her coat on her back. What was there was silky and her eyes held that same expression so many of us have grown to love. When her face showed up on petfinders in October there was a cry that came out from the email list of volunteers that somebody needed to check on this “possible Hav” sitting in a shelter in Georgia. Laura readily offered to do it.

Angel left the shelter for her foster home. Initially she cowered at the sight of hands reaching for her and the noise and activity of a home seemed to overwhelm her. Still this little dog in such poor condition surprised Laura by being housetrained, crate trained and well behaved on a leash. Like a grand lady who’s been kicked out to the streets, she still held onto her sophisticated manners, never forgetting her place in the world. Her wounds were treated and her coat grew though a few bald spots remained where her skin was thick and tough. The vet found a heart murmur. She had arthritis. But her playful spirit still got her involved with the family and her canine buddy, Daniel. Angel’s picture was taken at various times and those of us following her story rejoiced in her changes. Angel’s angel did a write up for her adoption. Sandy posted it and her picture on the HCA Rescue website. People got interested.

And then Angel’s hip dislocated, probably as a result of an accident while outside with her foster brother, Daniel. One minute she was walking happily up the stairs on the way inside, the next minute she was on three legs after giving Daniel a nip when he tried to see what was wrong before she retreated to her crate. Concern about this little fur angel, who’d continued so bravely through her life, was evidenced in the posts on the list as Laura wrote updates and we followed the story closely, the way some people keep up with soap operas or West Wing.

Angel came through the procedure to put her leg back in place, tolerating the anesthesia (much to everyone’s relief) and even learning to balance on three legs while her fourth leg was taped in place to allow the joint to heal. Hopes abounded and a family said they were interested in adopting her. Then Angel’s hip dislocated again even while taped. It happened literally overnight. The warning the vet had went home with Angel became undeniable truth. The joint was too damaged. At age ten, with her prior diagnosis of arthritis and her heart problems, Angel faced surgery to remove the femoral head. The vet was not optimistic. So the phone rang.

First the laundry basket was dropped. Then the dogs stopped their playing to look at me sitting-- Mom on a couch in the middle of the day. Something extraordinary was happening. All three girls were up and on my lap or flanking my sides as I talked with somebody I know only because of pictures and stories and unending acts of kindness.

It seems cruel that kindness can pain you so or that you make decisions about what’s right at a time when all you really want to do is celebrate the finding of a home for a fur Angel you believe is finally getting her chance again in life. But that’s what happened. Laura didn’t put me on any spot to ask what I thought, but I told her because I listened and there was no way to hear without being honest. And having lived through femoral head excision for my own dog several years ago only she was ten months instead of ten years, I couldn’t pretend it would be an easy choice or even that I thought it was the right one, particularly given the medical opinion from the vet.

Angel has seen the specialist her vet recommended. He didn’t have the answer Laura wanted to hear. In fact he uncovered another problem for Angel in her otherleg, a torn CCL. How this wee one is able to still move in her world, wagging and watching and happily greeting her foster dad and mom, with a body that isn’t at all cooperative is something we don’t understand. But for now, her days seem to be filled more with her joy in the world and delight that she’s got her own crate, a bed of her own, and good food in her bowl, than they are with pain or distress. She wags until she literally falls down and her spirit keeps picking her up.

Some of us walk through this world and manage in very little time to touch many hearts. Large indignities and gross unfairness and neglect are weathered with no loss of grace. Manners are retained despite horrid experiences, and faith in another is granted even when so many have let you down. Angel manages to weave this legacy and do so with a wag and an endearing look at the camera. I felt sorrow when we made the decision that Angel can’t be adopted. Her health doesn’t allow it. Then I looked again and realized Angel got not just a family, but a chance, and she took them both with grace and joy when Laura and her partner, Scott, opened their home to her.

It is not a small thing to give of your heart and to make room on your lap even while you prepare yourself for the day when that small one makes her way into somebody else’s lap and heart. In unexpected ways we sometimes find that we became the family we were seeking for that little one. I’m extraordinarily grateful to people who do this. They are the ones who remember, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2

Copyright Lu Wyland 2003
They're All Keepers - click to visit Lu's website

To read about more Havanese success stories please click on Happy Endings. You will be directed to the Happy Endings page of Havanese Rescue Inc. Once on the page, click on the wagging tail and you will see all the wonderful Havanese that have been given a second chance at life.

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