A guest post by Cathy Hester, as told by Moses
My Old Life
My name is Moses. For the first 16 years of my life, I had no name. I had no person. I had no life. I lived at an Amish farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I lived in a dirty hutch in a dark barn. I walked on wire. I suffered in the heat and the cold. I was a breeder. I had no life.
My personality was feisty. I barked a lot and I liked to fight. I would fight the farmer when he grabbed me to shove me into the hutch of a female dog. I bit the farmer and I bit the female. To prevent me from biting, my teeth were knocked out. My jaw was broken. I could not close my mouth. To prevent my barking and disturbing the neighbors who would complain, my vocal cords were broken by a pipe shoved down my tiny throat. I had no voice. I had no life.
I endured this existence for three days shy of 16 years. Then the impossible happened. The farmer was finished with me. He called a local rescue that he trusted—A Tail to Tell Puppy Mill Rescue. He told the nice lady to come quickly to take me and some other dogs away. If they didn’t hurry, we would be killed—shot, drowned, beaten with a shovel, burned, or put into a wood chipper. The lady hurried to the farm and saved us. I had no idea what was happening.
10 Comments
You gave your love and you helped your Mom. We know as we have helped 5 dogs go to the Rainbow Bridge and all were loved too.
i just had my worst cry of the day reading this. i wonder if the fall acerbated or caused the problem like it does in humans.
I just read this at work and am wiping away tears. I lost my precious boy Marty to this disease in December of last year. I still think about him all the time. I miss him so much. I feel kind of guilty because I wonder if I kept him around a little too long. I just couldn’t bear to say goodbye. He passed in my arms the evening of December 13th. He was 18 years old. He was the sweetest little boy and watching him decline was so hard, but I was there for him and loved and held him until the end. I wear a locket with some of his ashes inside it everywhere I go. I’ll never have another friend as special as Marty. He was with me through the hardest and most trying times of my life, when all I had was him. I miss him so.
I completely understand. I feel your pain. I thought I was prepared, but I was not. I hope you have a new companion, but one will never take Marty’s place. I am so sad getting in the car each morning without Moses. He was my emotional support when I was blue. Just having him next to me calmed my spirit. I thank God for those three years.
I found comfort in your story. I had a 17 year old rattie named Busterboy who I had to put down on the 6th of December 2018 it broke my heart! I loved that little boy so much. I missed him so much I became so depressed. Then one day I found my Dinah on a ratty rescue page. Dinah is a ratty she is 11 years old and I truely believe that God sent her to me to help me with the loss of my Buster Boy.. Thank you for sharing Mos’es story…..
I hope your Dinah will be with you a long time to be loved by you and to love you back like Busterboy! I know how hard it is.
From Margaret:
Oh that just tore my heart to pieces. Almost exactly 1 year ago we had to put our boy Cooper down. What bothered me most – and still bothers me – is that his brain was just fine. His hearing was going and his back legs all but gave out. At 1st he could at least get up and walk around on the carpet but he eventually started having trouble walking on the linoleum in the kitchen and, at the end, he had trouble getting up even on the carpet. We were getting ready to move and the new house had all wood floors and I knew that he wouldn’t be able to navigate that house. We asked someone to come for the house to help him cross over because he was terrified of going to the vet. We couldn’t Even think of taking him somewhere and getting him so upset at a time like that. I still cry really hard when I think about him but I know he’s looking down on us and chasing squirrels all day long! I’m not even a dog person but I miss our Cooper!
I can’t tell you how the horror of his beginnings to the sadness of his ending has affected me. I had to let my 17 year old dachshund cross the rainbow bridge on August 1, 2018. He had cushings disease for the past 3 years and was doing well on medication. Early last spring, when I was typing a comment about my 19 year old and her dementia, I looked over and saw him stuck in the corner. That was the first sign. A couple of months later, we brought him in for bloodwork and it showed his liver numbers were increasing. After antibiotics, ultra sounds, more bloodwork and assorted medications, it was hopeless. His liver numbers were increasing and he was on the way to liver failure. We stopped short of a liver biopsy. We couldn’t put him through that, not at 17. His dementia advanced faster than my 19 yr old who has kidney disease. He also turned vicious with the other dogs, but not with us. Even sadder, my 19 year old searched for him at least 3 to 4 days after. (even with dementia, she knew he was gone). He bit her constantly when she was walking around. (He had 4 teeth) We had to keep him separate when no one was in the room. They grew up together. How lucky we are to have these little angels in our lives, even for a short time. In Moses’ case, way too short a time. I know the sadness, the quiet, the emptiness, the loss. I’m so very sorry.
Thank you for this article. I, too, had a Moses. A perfect Shih Tzu that I inherited from my son about 5-6 years ago. I’ve known Moses since he was 5 months old. He lived in California for 3 years with my son, but my son moved back and I saw him often. I inherited Moses because my son’s 2 year old couldn’t leave him along and he snapped at my grandchild. I couldn’t let Moses go to a stranger. Even though I had 2 Shih Tzus of my own, I wanted Moses. We travel a lot and when we flew across country to our second home we always took the dogs (under the seat). All the dogs were great travelers. Now, Moses can’t handle it. That was before. Moses was now 15 and his dementia was worsening. He was “ridiculously healthy” as the vet said, but his mind was going. He smiled more than any dog I’ve ever seen!! He had lost his hearing and a lot of his eyesight. Within a month, the eyesight was almost gone and it made him even more anxious and the smile is long gone.. In the car, he would bark loudly (which he never did) and whine because he was so distraught. He got stuck in a corner and woke me up whining. I couldn’t bear to put him through more. I don’t know if he remembered me anymore or not. I decided when he no longer frolicked in his bed, his joy for life was gone. As with the others, he constantly paced, had accidents in the house. I helped him pass a week ago and I feel so guilty. But your article and all the replies have brought comfort. Thank you all for sharing. I still have 1 of the Shih Tzu’s left, but he’s 14 and I know his time is limited.
Your little Moses and your love for him touched me now, two years after his death. Thank you so much for giving him a good home where he got to be a real dog and do good work spreading awareness of puppy mills. People who can do such things to defenseless creatures must be living a real hell to be able to commit such acts. I hope Moses has guided another love your way and you continue your good work. Bless you.