Friday Fix (7/20/2012) - Gracey's Story

By Monica Martin

This is Gracey's Story

Being a volunteer with Colorado Puppy Rescue for the past 4 years, I have been fortunate to see thousands of puppies come through the door, go into foster care and on to find wonderful forever homes.

On March 2nd, 2010 the Rescue brought in a frail, skinny 16 week old Shepherd mix from New Mexico. She was called “Julia” and her story made several volunteers (including me) cry.  

On Feb. 4th the pup had been found along the Highway with her litter mates and two adult dogs on a frigid, -8 degree night in Taos, New Mexico. A wonderful woman named Maxine Nakai  was notified of the litter and drove to pick them up. The adult dogs took off but the pups were rescued. Julia was thought to be dead at first as she was found underneath all the dogs, cold and stiff and skin and bones. She was breathing though, but hypothermic and shaking uncontrollably. Maxine took the pups home and cared for them.  All of the pups but Julia were transferred to another amazing woman named Pat Steele who regularly works with Colorado Puppy Rescue in bringing rescued puppies to our organization tirelessly and humbly.

The other pups were strong and healthy enough to go up for adoption at CPR’s event that weekend and find homes. Julia was still very weak. She had been fed warm goat’s milk around the clock for days, and when she was a bit stronger was taken to the Animal Care Clinic in Taos. She weighed a mere 11 lbs. at 3 months and the Vets there determined she had brain deficiencies from near starvation that would cause her to have a shaky stance, difficulty walking and controlling her head. This Neuromuscular condition would most likely be permanent.

By March 4th Julia was strong enough to come to Colorado Puppy Rescue to be given a chance at a life with an adoptive family. At the event, nobody was interested in adopting her. My husband and I had already fallen in love with her and brought her home as our foster. It took  exactly 5 minutes of watching her interact with our two dogs to know we would adopt her.

Her name is now “Gracey” . She has a huge heart, is strong at 66 lbs. and her tail never stops wagging. She is determined to be like any other dog and that’s how we have treated her from the beginning. Her head still  bobs and shakes, she still stumbles if she gets going too fast, her feet come out from under her when she’s excited, but as far as she knows, she has no handicap. Gracey is smart, playful, sweet and gentle with all the foster pups we bring home. She captures the heart of everyone who meets her.

Here is a video that was made when Gracey first came to Colorado Puppy Rescue.

Currently at CPR we have an 8 week old puppy that came to us with her two sisters and her Mom when the pups were just four weeks old. As they became more active, the staff noticed that “Scooch” was walking unsteadily, running into objects and shaking. This adorable little girl has been checked out by our Vet and is healthy in every other way. She has a vision impairment and stumbles sometimes when walking.

This is a wonderful opportunity for a caring, patient adoptive family to give this special baby a safe and secure home to live a happy, normal dog’s life. Please take a moment to view this short video of Gracey and of Scooch and of their play time together.

Thank you very much for reading Gracey’s story,

Monica Martin

Volunteer at Colorado Puppy Rescue

Special Thanks to James for the fabulous videos montage!