Sarah is in the bottom right of the photo. We adopted Sarah when she was 4+ years old. We did learn a little about her because she was a surrender to local authorities in the mid-west. She and her sister had gotten loose and chased a calf into a fence where it was injured. The husband told his wife that if Sarah and her sister Misty were still there when he came back from his task at hand he was going to shoot both. The wife called a local rescue and they came immediately and took both dogs into custody. Sarah was transferred to the rescue here in Colorado and Misty was sent on to Utah.
Sarah apparently was an outdoor girl kept in a pen and had been traumatized or mistreated and abused probably by the husband. When we got the call from the rescue to see if we would take her we jumped on the opportunity and went to meet her with Bozwell and Gypsy. She was excited to meet us but then her fear kicked in and she ran and hid under the porch of the rescue. We spoke softly to Sarah, tried to carefully introduce her to situations that would build her confidence. We did not force situations on her and after a few months she came out of her protective shell and started to act like a new confident girl.
It breaks my heart to see a sweet girl (or boy) like Sarah so broken like that. It was only through gentle handling, not making sudden moves to her and speaking softly that her true self finally broke through. It took over two years but when Sarah came out of her shell she was an absolute wonderful girl. I miss not having her jump up and lay in my lap and her rare but tender sweet kisses.
Sarah lived until she was 13 1/2 years old and died of congestive heart failure. We had her for 9 1/2 years and I will never regret bring her to our home to become what she was capable of being. Her prior owners never knew what a great potential she possessed and for that I'm happy as they don't deserve to know how wonderful she was. They don't deserve anything but contempt or worse for what they did to her. To me there is nothing better than bringing the best out of a previously abused dog.
We had never adopted a seriously abused dog before but Sarah still makes my heart swell to overflow. If you have a chance to adopt a seriously abused dog all the training you need is patience, more patience and compassion. To have the trust and love and adoration from an abused dog is beyond description. As with all our past dogs I miss Sarah tremendously. I would not hesitate to do it all over again. RIP my sweet girl - you are whole now......
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