april 7th

This all started when a few blocks down my street I saw a dirty, ripped cardboard sign reading, PITBULL PUPPIES FOR SALE. I am a sucker for pitbulls and recently lost a pit mix to genetic bad knees at age five. We spent an obscene amount of money trying to fix her knees, only for nothing to work. We let her go from her chronic terrible knee pain last July, on the 3rd(2010). It was traumatic to say the least. I felt like we failed her. I promised her I would rescue another pitbull to make up for her short pain-filled life as I let her go the summer of 2010.

This is where the runt comes into play. I had no intention to stop and look at these puppies. We really weren't ready yet to fill her huge void with a new dog, much less a puppy. I stopped on a sunny cold day around the 24th of March. The puppies were running around everywhere!! There were two HUGE pitbulls chained up in the front yard along the fence. I had never known of a dog to be in this yard much less these big dogs. I would've noticed them for sure. They looked like true pitbull fighters.... sad. I asked how much they were and this big dude tells me $200. WHAT! He told me he had already sold two and that there were still "good" ones to choose from. He told me that the one dog over there, chained to the fence, was the mom. He also told me the father dog had hung himself by his chain?!?!?!

At this point I see a tiny bloated version of the puppies up on the steps of the house. I ask the  guy about him. Is he one of them? The guy says yes that he is the RUNT. He goes and grabs the puppy by the scruff of the neck and drags him off the porch. He shows him to me and I remember thinking how sad I was for this little puppy!! I say I will think about it and let him know. We were fostering a batch of puppies for the local Humane Society and I was scared of rescuing him and him giving my foster puppies Parvo. I had them to think about. I walked away with a very heavy heart.

Two weeks later foster puppy free and I still couldn't stop thinking about that little dog. We saw him one more day and still was amazed at how tiny he was. I was talking to a friend at the time and we figured he could become a bait dog. This fueled my determination to rescue him. My best friend(R) and I are always doing what we can for animals, it drives us. I put the wheels in motion April 6th. We got them to say $100 for the puppy. I tried very hard to get him for free.... no chance. By the time these people brought him back to this neighborhood from who the heck knows where they had come down to $80. SOLD. Although we would have paid more...

The three of us bought him April 7th as if he were some unwanted household item. (which in reality he was) The woman showed up on my block with this puppy tossed in her back seat. She tells me the mom dog was stolen... I handed her the $80 cash and quickly grabbed the pathetic puppy. She drove off like a rocket, I'm sure she was thinking we were a bunch of suckers.... We could have cared less about that $80. The reason we did this (buy this puppy) is because we see what happens daily at our shelter. The lost causes that come into the building with no hope for a good life. The shelter does anything and everything to take these "lost causes", rehab them, love them and get them adopted to kind and caring people. R and I want to save them all.  

We thought about calling him Lotto since he hit it. We took him to the shelter for all the things you do to a puppy when they are in this shape. We all couldn't hold him enough, taking him out of each others arms... :) We checked him over, he had demodex mange, nails curling under, and sad eyes. We got his shots that night, treated him for worms, trimmed his nails and fed him actual puppy food for the first time I'm sure. He got a bath cause he stunk SOOOO TERRIBLY. He looked around refusing to go to sleep for hours. He could barely hold his head up but refused to shut those sweet eyes. I finally figured that he didn't want this dream to end...

We planned on rehabbing him in my home as a foster and sending him to rescue once he was bigger and stronger. I guess he was quickly realized to be a "foster failure"... So I adopted him, got him chipped and now he is all mine. I wouldn't trade him for a million bucks!
We named him Mac and this is his blog.