messages and texts at 11:30 p.m., and finally by 1:30 a.m. I decided to try sleeping. It sort of worked, but I was up early to check for more messages, send responses and get the latest news fromGert. At 8:30 a.m. the next day, the Cavalry showed up at Joe’s house. I was on the phone with Sue when Gert pulled up, and she said Gert was speechless. I quickly got off the phone so they could do introductions and get to work. I had spoken to Gert at 8:00 a.m. She thought she was going to be alone at the house. I told her I was pretty sure at least two other people would be there tohelpwith thedogs. Therewere six people in all. As they were work- ing, I received a text frommy groomer friend in Madison, who said she actu- ally could take the two Welshs be- cause they are Terriers, not Springers as she first thought. Everybody left Joe’s house with dogs. The Bedling- tons were brought to me by Gert and Joe’s aunt and uncle, two OES went with our family friend and the two Welshs left with the people fostering the other OES, to be delivered to the Madison groomer. This experience has taught me some really valuable lessons. Don’t take good health for granted. Find a neigh- bor like Gert to have access to your house if something happens. Make sure she knows who to call first for help with the dogs. Have a list of names and phone numbers of people to contact, including your veterinar- ian. Have your dogs identified and their records in good shape. Use So- cial Media for good! Ask for help and be grateful when it arrives. This story is far from over, but here is one last thought I had this morning as I was discussing the situation with one of Joe’s puppy buyers. I started to think about what would have hap- pened if Gert had called the Humane Society or SPCA instead of me. Gert is just a friend who loves puppies. She doesn’t know or much care about the battle between good breeders and the Animal Right’s movement. Only one of Joe’s dogs has been altered, be- cause he is a breeder. If she had called
a humane society, they would have “helped” her by picking up the dogs, spaying andneutering all of the adults, then selling them to create income for their business. In a sort of morbid way of looking at it, Joe’s demise would be more convenient for a shelter because then they would have valid reason to collect and sell his dogs without hav- ing to worry about legal ownership issues. They don’t care about careful breeding programs or pedigrees, they just want inventory to sell to make money. Oh how the world has shifted. Remember when good shelters used those very words to describe the ter- rible puppy mills? Every single person who has one of Joe’s dogs appreciates the work he has done to breed healthy purebred dogs. Every single person will take care of his dogs in the hopes that Joe will be able to reclaim them in the same con- dition they were in when they lived with him. Every single person who is fostering understands the true mean- ing of dedication to the passion for breeding healthy dogs and the impor- tance of preservation breeding. Every single person who has taken Joe’s dogs is genuinely concerned about his health and recovery, and wishes him well. Every single person is tak- ing this situation personally and seri- ously, and they are all prepared to be in it for the long haul. Yesterday my daughter said some- thing to me that really got my atten- tion; “You know, Mom, I had forgot- ten how nice it is to be part of this tight-knit dog world that really cares about each other and helping people out when there is a need. I actually got teary eyed watching the responses to your post come in. These are great people, and I’m glad I’m back!” I got teary-eyed when she said that. It is a remarkable community that we live in. I am not sure we always give our- selves enough credit. Yes, we can be fiercely competitive in the show ring. But we also come together in a crisis like no other group I have ever seen. An attack against one of us is an at- tack against all of us. We are our own United Nations.
word out to the dog world that we had a lot of dogs that needed temporary fostering until we had solid informa- tion about whether Joe would be able to care for them himself. We had no idea how long that might take—we just knew the dogs needed a place to be by the next day. Gert wanted to bring all of the dogs to me, but that didn’t seem like a really good idea. I could handle the Bedlingtons, but the others would put a huge strain on my already thinly stretched staff and facility. I immediately called a groomer friend who lives in Madison and she suggest- ed we get the word out through social media. Facebook was our primary platform—personal pages and a Wis- consin Groomers page. I put out an emergency notice onmy personal page and my daughter put out a notice on theWisconsinGroomers page. Within one hour our posts went viral. Mine was shared 64 times, and my private messages were coming in so fast that I couldn’t keep up. I got a text from a Bedlington owner who said she could go over that evening if that would help. I asked if she could go over to reassure Gert that the Cavalry was on the way, and if she could handle fostering the puppy Joe wanted to keep from the litter, Gert and I would be eternally grateful. Two hours later I got another text from her showing me the baby girl resting comfortably on some soft blankets. She was noisy, but safe. One down, ten to go. At least Joe’s pick pup- py was tucked safely away with some- body I trusted completely. The next hurdle was finding people to foster the three OES and the two Welsh Terriers. I scanned the offers for help and chose one from a per- son who has been a family friend for 20 years, and one from a breeder in the Madison area who immediately started working on the logistics of getting the dogs placed by forming a Messenger Group of people who were local and ready to help. Both people agreed tomeet Gert at Joe’s house the next morning and make sure all dogs were out of the house when they left. I was still responding to private
26 • T op N otch T oys , J uly 2019
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