Puppy on a chain will never be chained again
Puppy on a chain, now freed / Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris ~
Upon hearing that I had developed a cough Sunday night, a friend in Denmark commented, “Your lungs are bothered because lungs get affected by anxiety. Can’t blame you though. Glad I don’t have to see all that every time I turn a corner.”
By “all that” Frederikke Marie Sand meant desperate animals—some who are homeless, some who are owned, all of whom break your heart–here on the Greek island of Kefalonia.
Many Greeks provide excellent care for their beloved pets / Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
Not all cats and dogs in Greece are miserable; many are cherished family members. But there is enough misery so that often just going about your daily business can be a contest in self-control. It’s extremely difficult to resist stopping for every single one of them.
Anyway, it turns out that Frederikke’s diagnosis might have been correct.
Monday morning, haggard and wan, coughing fitfully, I dialed the number for the owner of the puppy who’d I found in the street on Sunday—the man who is also the owner of a building supply store where she always had been either chained up or allowed to roam, even onto the busy highway.
I had barely slept, dreading the call, puzzling over how to convince the owner to give me this little girl. The thought of her continuing to live that way did seem to worsen my cough. All day on a chain heavy enough to hold an elephant, and all night loose but alone on a property packed with large hazardous objects, toxic substances, and not even securely fenced, and all of it on pavement, with not a scrap of grass or even dirt in sight, under all kinds of weather. Great life for a puppy, huh?
Living outside and alone on a chain / Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
I’d been keeping an eye on her for weeks, visiting as often as I could, gushing to the owner and staff about what a delightful little creature she was, and suggesting, in vain, that they let her hang out with them inside the shop instead of banishing her to the outdoors.
By yesterday afternoon when I found her out on a busy road, enough was enough. I scooped her up and brought her home. Then I worried all night. What if the owner asked for her back?
One of my animal rescue gurus took my midnight panic call. How to handle this situation? Benedikte Bjerre, founder of Graeske Hunde, a group that has saved thousands of unwanted Greek dogs over the years and rehomed them in Denmark, suggested I point out all the reasons why it’s not good for business to have a dog chained up.
For example, there’s unsightly poop (her chain only goes so far, so she can’t do her business somewhere private and appropriate), some customers will be afraid to walk near her, others will take offense at seeing her chained, and giving her proper care will require extra work in a store where he and the staff are already overworked.
As it turned out, though, none of that script was necessary. When I rang up and told the owner I’d found his puppy on the loose, dodging traffic, and brought her to my home fearing for her safety, he replied simply, “OK. Just keep her.”
My two other current foster pooches Agapi (L) and Jorja (R) / Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
I almost fell out of my chair. Hard for me to imagine so easily giving up a pet. Just keep her? But to his credit, maybe he had realized that his store is no place for a puppy, or even for a grown dog. (Let’s hope that he doesn’t replace this puppy with another. At some point I’ll have another talk with him about that, obnoxious busybody that I am.)
During that conversation, the owner mentioned that it wasn’t the first time the pup had scaled the fence and gone into the road. My stomach churned at the thought of all the horrible fates she could have met.
However almost as soon as we hung up, the cough started to calm. After a couple of hours it subsided even more, as did much of the anxiety I’d been wearing like a piano or two on my shoulders.
So, Dr. Frederikke, dear friend, you were right.
Now I have an additional foster pooch—the third here in our house at the moment. There’s anxiety associated with that, too, of course: daily care for the newby and the other two, introducing her to her foster siblings, finding her a great forever home, and transporting her there, wherever it may be.
In the car, safe, headed to her foster home with me – the first step toward a brighter future / Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
The ironic thing is that having succeeded in unchaining this puppy, I have now, in a way, chained myself. A lot of work lies ahead for me to do for this little dog and her foster siblings. Meanwhile it is delaying yet again my going home to my own pooches in California, and The Saint, a.k.a. my hubsy.
Still it beats the gnawing worry about her out there alone. And even better, as always happens in rescue, when you free animals from the miserable conditions that bind them, you also set free a part of yourself.
The cough, I think, was a symptom of that bondage—the bondage of grief about this pup and the untold others out there needing help. By virtue of being able to save even just one little girl from a life of danger and loneliness, which is no kind of life for a dog or anyone else, the cough has gone completely away.
Want to help more dogs break their chains? Buy ‘UNCHAIN MY HEART’, A FUN NEW ROMANTIC FICTION STORY about freeing a chained dog! Just $2 and ALL PROFITS go to animal rescue groups who help dogs like Ipomoni.
READ MORE about Ipomoni’s rescue…
Puppy on a chain will never be chained again
Heart marking on puppy’s face symbolizes her loving nature, waiting to give it all to you
‘Don’t leave without me!’ Puppy Ipo will follow foster sister Jorja to a new life
Rescued dogs Ipo and Jorja head to bright new lives in Holland tonight
Patience brings rewards in animal rescue: chained puppy freed, finds loving home
Don’t miss any Spice! Please hit the SUBSCRIBE button above (FREE!) to receive email notification of our new posts.
Here at Spicy Stories Save Lives, we depend on sales of our romantic fiction to rescue and sponsor animals like Ipomoni, and to create real-life happy endings.
Won’t you please use a couple of bucks to enjoy a fun read, to spice up your life, and to replenish our rescue fund?
We, the animals, and our fellow rescuers will thank you kindly!
Spicy Stories Save Lives proudly sponsors needy animals in the U.S. and around the world.
For example we help Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs) 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.
We also do in-the-trenches rescues of angels like Robin, Chance, and Tiger, with help from San Diego Animal Support Foundation, and of Marisol and Lisa, with help from Last Chance at Life.
Spicy Stories Save Lives and the author of this article have no affiliation with the rescue groups mentioned above, other than as a volunteer and donor.
Seen our book? Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need, by Shelley Frost and Katerina Lorenzatos Makris, available through Amazon.com.
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. She 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, Animal Issues Reporter.org, and Examiner.com (Animal Policy Examiner).
