April 2008

This past weekend we attended a dog auction in Ohio. There were 364 dogs being auctioned to go into puppy mills.

As I flew home from the auction on Saturday night I held one of our rescues on my lap. As I reflected over the weekend, the quote that kept coming to my mind was the opening line of A Tale Of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." My heart was feeling both happiness and extreme sadness at the same time.

Among the 364 dogs that were being auctioned were 17 Havanese. All were very young with the oldest being born just last December. The youngest were 8-10 weeks old. The auction house itself was a fire trap that was 2 stories high and one exit. The building itself was dilapidated and they had space heaters hanging from the ceiling. Waiting for the auction to begin I sat and planned my escape route if the building went into flames. It looked like my best bet was to hang from the 2nd floor railing and try and drop to the bleacher type seating on the first floor. This line of thought did nothing to help my "auction nerves" and already nervous stomach. The dogs were kept in semi truck trailers and again had small space heaters .... maybe one or two per trailer. Many of the dogs were shivering in the cold.

I have been telling people since I got back that we were able to rescue 22 out of 17 dogs. After they give me a look that tells me how concerned they are about my math ability, I explain. We were able to get 12 Havanese pups from the auction and another 10 pups from a mill after the auction ended. Many of you know that Cindy, one of our board members, also is President of Freedom Rescue and she was able to bring back 5 other breeds including a pregnant Cavalier King Charles.

As we pulled away from the auction house with 27 dogs in two cars we were all feeling pretty good about the number of dogs we were able to rescue. We were headed back to Cindy's house in Cleveland which was about 3 hrs. away. This is where things took a horrible turn.

Pat, who many of you know and is a HALO board member, received a call on her cell phone that her husband had just passed away. It was a big shock to her and we were all devastated. Some of you who adopted from Pat at her home in Michigan got to meet Bill. Bill was one of the kindest, gentlest people I have ever known. His sense of humor and love for dogs was something that everyone will always remember. Please keep Pat in your thoughts during this very difficult time.

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I want to thank each and every one of you for your support of HALO and making our rescue missions possible. You have all contributed in so many ways. There's not enough I can say about our foster families. They are angels on earth! Some of them even travel to the auctions with us. I thank those of you who have stepped forward to help doing interviews and finding wonderful families to love our babies. Your contributions keep us going and not only help to rescue the dogs but to provide them with the best medical care that they can have. All of you embrace, not only our beautiful rescues, but our mission. We are all a team and we thank you!