I asked Carol Johnson for the name of the toughest case on their adoption list, the one dog she thought would be the hardest of many sad and sometimes hopeless cases in the FOHA/RI adoption program to find a home for.

She gave me the name of Evie, a 10-year-old mixed breed chihuahua abandoned at a notorious shelter in Texas.

Everyone had given up on Evie, nobody wanted to pay all of her medical costs, so Carol and her group decided they had to try to save her, she was headed for euthanization. When I first saw Evie’s photo a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t bear to put it up on the blog, it was too disturbing for me.

All the more reason to write about it. What is disturbing is the work.

Evie, says Carol, has never known a human who treated her with affection, yet she is a sweet and affectionate dog. She has months worth of medical care ahead of her before she can be cleared for adoption, and Carol says she knows full well that the shelter would have euthanized her.

Carol drove three hundred miles to Texas to get Evie and bring her back to Arkansas.

Friends Of Homeless Animals/RI decided to pull her out of the shelter and give her a chance to find her first loving home, even though they know the odds are long. They are asking for an adoption donation of $299 (transportation costs included), she faces more than $1,000 in medical costs, which FOHA will pay for.

Carol is eager to point out that her group never makes any profit from donation fees, they go to pay the enormous medical costs they incur, the healthier dogs pay for the sicker ones.

Evie won’t be released for adoption until she is healthy. She is, says Carol, a nice dog. Carol doesn’t hype her dogs. And it is possible Evie will never be that healthy.

Carol doesn’t sugar coat the dog’s life, Evie was quite severely neglected before she was dumped off at the animal shelter. She has a grade 4 heart murmur, a hernia and heartworm.

For now, she is hairless.

I can’t honestly say that I would ever  have adopted a dog like this, or that I would now. Maybe one day.

It takes a particular kind of heart and commitment to take in a dog like this, I don’t know that I’m up to that. Many shelters and groups would have put Evie down, so very few people would adopt her. And I’m not urging anyone else to adopt her or assuming that they will. I have no ego about that.

Evie represents a very personal decision for a very unusual person.

I am drawn to writing about Carol and her group, and these desperately needy homeless and abandoned dogs, the worst of the worst cases when it comes to abuse and abandonment. This dog and this group and this writing pushes me right up against my comfort zone, I’m not sure I agree that dogs like this ought to be kept alive, she has suffered so much.

But Carol’s dedication and empathy are both powerful and infectious, and I am eager to see if it is possible for dogs like this to find good homes, even as I do not think I would have the stomach for it myself.

What were you thinking?, I asked her when you decided to give this dog a last chance.

“I thought she deserved a good home before the end of her life,” she said, “something about her said “don’t give up on me.”

I asked Carol what it was that makes her and the others in her group decide to keep a dog like this alive, and she said that is hard to define.

Something about Evie conveyed the feeling that she has something to offer, is both loving and curious. She is already improving, says Carol and she is dedicated to making her comfortable and safe no matter how long she stays with her.

It’s not like her group takes in every dog. Some are too sick, she said, or are suffering too much.

I think in some measure, Carol wants to give this dog a loving and caring home before she dies, something the has never known. I can see how satisfying that could be.

If Carol and the other members of her group are willing to take this dog in, I wonder if anyone reading this would want to do the same. It would be months before she was even available for transport.

I think it will be interesting for me to see. This is the kind of rescue I have avoided for all of my life, the dogs I have “rescued,” were young, vital and quite healthy. Bud has heartworm, but he is a young and otherwise healthy dog.

There are rescues and there are rescues. He would surely have found a home, Evie may never find a home. If anyone out there wants to change that story – it is up to you, I’m not pushing it – you can contact FOHA/RI or e-mail the very dedicated and committed Carol Johnson, a new and valued friend of mine, at [email protected]. Carol has a big heart but she is a truth-teller, she will tell you no lies.

Let’s see what happens. I am somewhat in awe of Carol Johnson and her empathy, even as I wrestle with the many ethical issues relating to dogs and their lives. She is a very good person.