Dear Liesl
I almost wrote this to send out to your listserve but thought perhaps it wouldn't be appropriate so I'm writing this for you. If you'd like to send it out, it's ok. I just feel like I won't be able to sleep if I don't write down and share all the wonderful things I know about Buddha. Buddha affected everyone he met and we all have our Buddha stories but this is how I remember mine.
There aren't words for how thankful I am for your kindness to Buddha. For accepting him into your home and your pack. There is no place on this Earth that I would have rathered he spend his last months. You could see it in his face and his eyes - he was so at peace and content with you and all your sweet dogs.
When I went out to the property in Alsea, Buddha was the first dog that the sheriff's team and I met. He was chained to a short zip line. If I remember correctly, he didn't even have one of those little boxes that served as a dog house. He didn't have a bed or food. He had a dirty bowl of water. Buddha was always slightly alarming to people at first and I was no exception. For a split second I was taken back by how strong he looked, by how scarred and damaged his skin was. He readily approached the team, not wagging but curious perhaps. He took treats so gently although he must have been starving.
Like all the dogs, when he got to Heartland, he ate and ate and ate, then threw up, and then slept and slept. Over the next few days, we all commented about the senior aged dog with the haunted eyes, the "dead" eyes. We couldn't imagine the things that he had seen. Buddha was never any trouble - he just layed stoically on his bed and would watch us all pass, not lifting his head but just taking it all in. He'd take treats, eat his food with gusto and kept a clean kennel.
All the dogs were examined by vets and we started treating Buddha for his skin, which was raw, yeasty and sore. We gave him medicated baths and he would groan with pleasure, but still he never wagged. I don't remember how many weeks it was, but it was many, before he gave his first wag. I was bathing him and I heard his tail lightly beating against the side of the metal tub. I told him he was such a good boy and he wagged a little more. I kissed his face and he gave me a little lick back.
His eyes started to change :) They became brighter, more alive. He would lift his head when people walked by his kennel. Although many people told me I was crazy, I took my little four pound yorkie in his kennel to meet him. He was so gentle and kissed her little face and although it was difficult physically, he lifted his leg and urinated on the wall to impress her - she was very impressed! Later I took a two week old bottle baby kitten I was fostering to meet him and Buddha responded with the same gentle nature that I had come to expect. He licked the baby several times, lightly and that was that. Not even a little nibble.
Up until this point, I had never dared to dream that any of these dogs could be helped or saved. Despite the positive outcomes for dogs big cases like the Michael Vick case, we were a small shelter in Oregon and this was a relatively small case with only local media attention.
But I started to hope a little for Buddha. I told myself that I could live with whatever the outcome was, if I could help this one dog. But his health seemed so poor. We worked really hard to get him better.
He gained a little weight, his hair grew back - he started to frolic in the yard!! Sometimes not so gracefully and he'd trip over his feet and then shake it off like he meant to do that :) He do little mini-zooms. He'd play as hard as he could and then back to his kennel to rest.
Eventually the case was over and I took Buddha home with me. He met my 5 cats and all my kitten fosters. My cats don't really like dogs very much but as I had come to learn, there was something about Buddha that put everyone at ease. They liked him and he liked them. He would share his food with them. My yorkie and he would sleep side by side. Kittens would follow him around and bat at the tags on his collar. He would take so much care to not tread on them on the stairs - you could see him worry about how he would get around the kitten without stepping on it. He was so selfless in everything that he did.
Our shelter staff had a BBQ at a local park when the case was over. It was a time of sadness for us but we were also looking forward to moving on. We took our Buddha with us and he played with our dogs and ate hot dogs. I would see families with children in the distance and they would take one look at him and skirt the other way or go the long way around us. I would look at them and think that they had no idea that they were going out of their way to avoid an angel - a truly blessed and beautiful soul. This sweet dog who had no reason to love or trust anyone, who loved everyone.
I am so thankful for so much. I am so thankful for Liesl and her Luv-a-bulls for giving him a home for his last months. For caring for him while he was ill and continuing to treat his skin issues. I am so thankful to the sherrifs department for following up on the lead that took us out to Alsea - Buddha would have died out there, chained in the cold, alone and hungry. I'm so thankful that my friends and co-workers got to know him and love him because even we are not as enlightened as we may believe and the media's misinformation and stereotypes about pit bulls affect even us. Buddha turned every one of those stereotypes on their ear. I'm so thankful to have known him and that I was able to go say goodbye.
All my best;
Brittany
