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by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris ~

It’s an old, sad story. People move out of their homes and “forget” to take their dogs with them. It’s even sadder when the dog is a senior, like Chip. Add in the fact that they left him with an easily treated flea infestation, causing him misery and hair loss, and it breaks your heart.

Luckily after a few weeks the landlord of the property noticed Chip’s declining condition, and took him plus Rusty, a five-year-old Chihuahua mix the tenants had also left behind, to a shelter.

The next piece of Chip and Rusty’s good luck was that they landed at the Ventura County Animal Services facility in Camarillo, California. Chip immediately began receiving an impressive amount of treatment from the shelter’s veterinarians, along with detailed attention from staff and volunteers.

They banished the fleas, cleaned his skin and eyes, provided oral medications, and ran blood tests, all the while working to assure the confused, frightened fellow that he was now safe.

Finding that both Chip and Rusty were microchipped, shelter staff contacted their owner, who agreed to pick them up, but never did.

Responded quickly to treatment

Soon the shelter’s work for Chip paid off. In just a few days, he started feeling better. His appetite returned. He no longer shied away from touch. He began to enjoy being petted, even seeking out contact and affection. Then he showed the volunteers how much he loved playing ball.

When the shelter allowed a volunteer to take him home for a few days, she reported that she thought he must be younger than the 12 years that had been estimated, because he was so active and playful. In fact, although she loved him, she couldn’t adopt him because he was too energetic for her own two senior dogs.

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Spotted by Rescue Diva

About 150 miles south at Rescue Diva headquarters in San Diego county, I ran across Chip’s photo on the shelter’s website. My heart lurched. He looked a lot like our pooch Agapi, who went to heaven last year. Similar coloring, similar soft eyes, and similar hair loss.

A beloved longtime friend had just passed away the day before I spotted Chip—a high school English teacher who helped save me from troubles at home, and who gave me the confidence and the skills to pursue a career in what I loved—writing. The departure of Mrs. Christine Eastus came as the latest of numerous losses of our loved ones in the past few years.

My grief ran deep and hard. I felt the need to fight back, to give death a kick in the pants. And nothing reaffirms life better than rescue.

So I emailed the shelter, asking them to sign up Rescue Diva as Chip’s sponsor for whatever he might need, and let them know I’d be contacting rescue groups to get help in pulling him from the shelter and re-homing him.

They quickly answered my questions. The county covered Chip’s needs while in the shelter, but they didn’t turn down help for getting him fostered or adopted.

In their reply they also mentioned that Chip had been brought in with another dog. I said we’d sponsor Rusty too, because can’t leave buddies behind, can we? 😊

Rescue Diva relies on sales of our fiction to create real-life happy endings like those of Claire, Tika, and Dolly. Enjoy a fun read while you replenish our rescue fund!

Canine Adoption and Rescue League stepped up to the plate

Immediately I started begging rescue groups for help. Canine Adoption and Rescue League (C.A.R.L.) stepped up to the plate right away. That evening I enjoyed a lovely conversation with C.A.R.L. executive director Sharon Clark, wherein we began plotting how to partner on helping the two pooches.

At first I struggled with the decision of whether to foster them here at Rescue Diva HQ, vs. board them at a nearby veterinarian’s pet hotel, vs. take up Sharon on her kind offer to house Chip and Rusty at the CARL facility for a reduced boarding rate.

The past two decades of my life have been chaos. Hubsy, a.k.a. the Saint, and I rescued, fostered, rehomed, and/or sponsored more than 250 pooches and kitties, plus four elderly humans in need. Mixed into the fun were my two bouts with endometrial cancer, along with a recent wrist break and surgery.

So I’m just now starting to catch my breath.  And I’m going to need a lot of that breath for the next couple of months while repairing and organizing the mess that our house and yard became during those challenging years.

Nevertheless I decided take the plunge—made arrangements to board Chip and Rusty for a couple of weeks at the local vet’s facility, then bring them home for fostering, so that I could get to know them, take lots of photos and videos to help them find adopters, and pamper them like crazy.

The re-think

Just when we had that plan set, the vet’s facility experienced some emergencies and was not able to accept the dogs.

So I gave it all another think. There could be many advantages to the pooches boarding with Sharon and her team at CARL—not just less stress for me. For example they would get more exposure to prospective adopters, and I would have more time to work on “marketing” them to help them find forever families.

When I asked if I could still accept her offer for the dogs to board at CARL, Sharon graciously took the necessary steps to change our plan. Hurrah for flexible rescue partners!

Meanwhile, great news from the Ventura County Animal Services shelter—Rusty got adopted!

Stay tuned for updates on both Chip and Rusty coming soon.

Please share this article far and wide to help Chip find his forever family, or a temporary foster home?

RescueDiva.com will be covering all his expenses—boarding, veterinary, etc., come what may. And C.A,R,L, will be taking good care of him at their facility.

But we need YOU to help spread the word about this sweet, playful senior.

Thanks for reading and for sharing this article!

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TO APPLY TO FOSTER OR ADOPT CHIP, PLEASE FILL OUT THE C.A.R.L. RESCUE GROUP’S ONLINE ADOPTION APPLICATON.

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Rescue Diva proudly helps needy animals in the U.S. and around the world, such as:

~ Diva assists Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs) in Greece to provide free spay/neuter for hundreds of animals per year, which is one of the best ways to prevent the abandonment and misery of puppies like Noah and Kyla.

~ Diva does in-the-trenches rescues of angels like Robin, Chance, and Tiger, with help from San Diego Animal Support Foundation; of Marisol and Lisa, with help from Last Chance at Life; of Mandi (Diamandi), with help from Graeske Hunde. and of Roki, with help from Stichting AAI.

~ Diva donates to Center for Animal Protection and Education (CAPE), Praying for Paws, Southern California Siamese Rescue, Aniplant (Cuba) and many other groups.

~ Diva assists Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs) in Greece to provide free spay/neuter for hundreds of animals per year, which is one of the best ways to prevent the abandonment and misery of puppies like Noah and Kyla.

~ Diva does in-the-trenches rescues of angels like Robin, Chance, and Tiger, with help from San Diego Animal Support Foundation; of Marisol and Lisa, with help from Last Chance at Life; of Mandi (Diamandi), with help from Graeske Hunde. and of Roki, with help from Stichting AAI.

~ Diva does in-the-trenches rescues of angels like Robin, Chance, and Tiger, with help from San Diego Animal Support Foundation; of Marisol and Lisa, with help from Last Chance at Life; of Mandi (Diamandi), with help from Graeske Hunde. and of Roki, with help from Stichting AAI.

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Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is a career journalist, author, and editor. Her fiction includes 17 novels for Simon and Schuster, E.P. Dutton, Avon, and other major publishers (under the name Kathryn Makris), as well as a teleplay for CBS-TV, and a short story for The Bark magazine.

Katerina has written hundreds of articles for regional wire services and for outlets such as National Geographic Traveler, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers’ Tales, NBC’s Petside.com, and Animal Issues Reporter.

Together with coauthor Shelley Frost, Katerina wrote a step-by-step guide for hands-on, in-the-trenches dog rescue, Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press), coming soon in digital format!

Katerina has written hundreds of articles for regional wire services and for outlets such as National Geographic Traveler, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers’ Tales, NBC’s Petside.com, and Animal Issues Reporter.

Together with coauthor Shelley Frost, Katerina wrote a step-by-step guide for hands-on, in-the-trenches dog rescue, Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press), coming soon in digital format!

Together with coauthor Shelley Frost, Katerina wrote a step-by-step guide for hands-on, in-the-trenches dog rescue, Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press), coming soon in digital format!