Evie, the brave and battered 10 year-old Chihuahua who has never known a loving home, and who was destined for almost certain euthanasia, has been adopted.

Even the Friends Of Homeless Animal/RI workers who took Evie out of notorious shelter that had been raided by the police did not expect her to be adopted, they thought she would end up as a sponsored dog in Foster Care.

They did not know the Army of Good. We do the impossible every day. I admit that I took Evie’s plight as a very personal challenge, and also an opportunity to explore the ethical and practical realities of animal rescue.

Her vet and rescuers call Evie “Sweet Evie.” That bodes well for her new human.

The motto of FOHA is “rescuing small dogs with big hearts.” I think it takes a big heart to bring home one of these poor animals.

I told myself that someone would rescue Evie if I did my job presenting her dilemma well. I had faith in that. I also recognized that if this is not something I can do, it is something I can support.

Last night I got a message from Debra Otto, a blog reader from a suburb of Minneapolis. “My name is Debra…Your blog about Elvie is wonderful and heartbreaking.  I will adopt her and give her a wonderful loving home. In fact, one of my friends tells me he wants to come back in his second life as one of my dogs. I am in communications, a writer and photographer. I have two dogs, Rose is an English bulldog who happens to be deaf. Her owners didn’t want her once they realized she was deaf. She is happy and knows many commands. I also have a French poodle named Marcel. He is a wonderful and smart guy. I promise I would give Evie a wonderful loving home. When I know something is right I know.”

She sure rounds right to me.

Debra connected Carol Johnson of FOHA, the woman who saved Evie – she has become a good friend –   and brought her to the Southern Arkansas Veterinary Clinic and Dr. Jonathan  Bradshaw. They have treatments for heart disease, a skin infection, pneumonia and hernia. Another blog reader is picking up Evie’s health care costs. (Another asked to adopt her this morning.)

I spoke with Dr. Bradshaw yesterday and he said he expected Evie to recover from all of her ailments  (I don’t know any details about her heart condition) and be fine for adoption. He said she is doing beautifully and the photo above shows the progress after just a couple of weeks, the one below shows Evie the day she was taken out of the shelter.

This makes me think that anything is possible.

You can see for yourself what Carol an Dr. Bradshaw have already accomplished.

 

Carol said she just couldn’t bear to leave Evie alone in the shelter  to die. She believed she deserved to have a loving and caring home for the first time in her very sad 10 years of life. The family that owned her simply left her off at a shelter, they didn’t want to pay for her medical care, so she had no treatment.

Like me, FOHA is into lost causes. We will have fun working together.

Sylvie is growing a coat and already has some hair. All of her problems are treatable, according to her vet.

“It’s something of a miracle,” Carol told me this morning. “I thought it would be almost impossible to find a good home for her.We are so happy she is going to have a home like this.”

Carol is putting Debra through the usual hoops, but it looks very promising.

Debra told me she is not an impulsive person, but when she commits to something right, she is certain of it, and she is quite certain about adopting Elvie.

Evie has to get to Minnesota once she is well, and I volunteered to pay the transportation costs to get her where she needs to go.  Debra has said she will to anywhere to pick her up.

Evie is suddenly an important transitional figure in my life now. She is challenging me to look at the way in which I think of dogs and of rescuing dogs. She is challenging me to learn and thank and grow and change.

I am not at all certain that I would adopt a dog like Elvie, or doubt the mercy of euthanizing her in the shape she was in. We can’t save all of the dogs, and morally, I am not sure we should.  I believe penning dogs up in crates for the rest of their lives is inhumane, a form of social and sanctioned abuse.

I would rather put my dogs to sleep than to see them live like that just so human beings can pat themselves on the back for being righteous.

But like Carol, I am touched by the idea of the unadoptable and highly vulnerable dog and the fact that this poor and blameless creature has never had a single day of being loved in her life. I think Debra will have an immensely satisfying and meaningful experience.

There is something wonderful and uplifting about animal rescue, I think it makes us better humans and it give me much hope for the world. It asks us to understand ourselves and our own emotional lives.

Carol and I have agreed to continue working with one another. I am interested in writing about the hardest cases, the homeless and sick dogs that people like Carol plug from death and love and work to find  homes for.

Why does one kind of dog get adopted, and another, left to their fates?

It is a wonderful feeling to know I helped Evie get a home, but I also intend to continue thinking and writing about rescue and the many dilemmas it raises. Are we turning support of our emotional lives over to animals? It is appropriate to spend vast sums of money on sick and dying dogs when we are constantly  cutting back on caring for education, the vulnerable and the poor?

How can we manage the emotional impact of animal rescue on ourselves and our psyches?

The homeless people in our cities don’t  have other people swooping down on them to re-home and rehabilitate and care for them. They rot in the street for years. Have our own moral values become inverted by the ease and comparatively low cost with which we can change dog’s life, and the great complexity of affecting the lives of people?

I meet people all the time who tell me they have given up on trusting or caring for people, they have absolute faith in the love of their dogs. I don’t want to be one of those people, dogs and people belong together, they compliment one another, they can open us up and lead us to other people, it is not one or the other for me.

I’m not giving up on asking about these questions and writing about them, but I have also decided to work with FOHA/RI permanently and help as many of these dogs as I can, within reason.

As many of you know, I have spent much of the past couple of  years working to help the nation’s embattled refugees and immigrants. I’m adding homeless dogs to the list. It seems more in balance that way.

I am so happy to think of Evie getting a home I hope Debra will send us a steady stream of photos, and thanks so much for your interest in these days and for supporting and understanding my work.

It does take a village sometimes I think of Evie abandoned in Texas, Carol rushing from Arkansas to bring her to safey, Debra in Minnesota, me on my farm. People really want to do good when give the chance, that is the gift of our hard times.

Audio Notes On Sweet Evie’s Adoption