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Here is Maggie’s story -

In May 2007, my neighbors brought home the cutest puppy with the intention of training her as a “guard” dog. Over the summer I watched this beautiful girl pace on her chain and lay watching the family home, yearning for someone to love her. She was so excited when someone came to feed her or when my children and I would stop by to visit on our walks.

As Maggie grew so did her chains, because she could break them. Needless to say, Maggie got food and water, but not much else. She never did get any training or even one trip to the vet.

As Fall approached and the threat of cold weather loomed, I wondered if the family was going to leave Maggie chained out front all the time. That was not their intention. What they did was to build a pen for her around the back of the house and put her there.

We still made several trips a week to visit Maggie and her sweet disposition never changed. As fall turned to winter, I was thankful for a mild winter, for Maggie’s sake.

On Feb 1, 2008 I was at a Silpada Jewelry party talking with the representative, Lori Casciani. The topic turned to dogs and I explained Maggie’s situation to Lori. It turns out that Lori is a dog rescuer! She asked me to contact her the next day to see what could be done. I went over to check on Maggie the next morning, only to discover that her water was frozen solid. My daughter and a friend took Maggie some water and I contacted Lori.

Through a series of emails, one of Lori’s contacts provided the link to DogsDeserveBetter.org. Upon review of the website, I found Marla Dakes’ contact information. I emailed Marla and received a reply within hours indicating that she could help Maggie.

Lori provided a template for a flyer and I took pictures and created a flyer for Maggie. I put this on my work barter board and received many calls of interest but no takers. Although I wasn’t in a position to keep Maggie, I was able to offer financial support to help pay for her vet bills.

Lori, Marla and I discussed various tactics for me to approach the owner to see if they would be willing to surrender Maggie and Marla sent me an owner surrender form.

Thankfully Maggie’s owner was very frustrated at Maggie’s size and ability to escape her pen. He was very glad to surrender ownership of “that pain-in-the-butt dog”. Since we were not able to find Maggie a home quickly, Marla and I worked out our schedules and she came to get Maggie Sunday night, Feb 10. We both had plans most of the day so I took a blanket to put in Maggie’s dog house and also broken up her frozen water. Her food had been dumped over the fence so I picked up individual pieces and fed them to her. She has the manners of a princess!

Around 5 pm, we got home and brought Maggie to our back porch and played with her until Marla arrived. After Marla departed with Maggie, I had console my daughter for about 30 minutes.

We had both fallen in love with Maggie and wished we could keep her at our house. I reminded her that because of Lori, Marla and DogsDeserveBetter, we were able to save Maggie’s life and help her find a loving family, plus we provided her with her first memories of playing and feeling loved! Marla (she wears her angel wings on the inside by the way) would up fostering Maggie and keeping me updated via email notes and pictures.

“Aunt Marla” introduced Maggie to her “puppies” and took her to the vet for her shots and heartworm check. Thankfully, Maggie tested NEGATIVE for heartworm – what a blessing! Good News!!!! Maggie was spayed on Feb 26th.

On March 2nd, Marla delivered to her new family. The couple that adopted Maggie have plenty of room for her to run plus another dog to play with. It seems like Maggie hit the jackpot with her new family!

On another note – through my discussions with Marla Dakes and in looking at the DDB website we decided that even if we couldn’t keep Maggie (didn’t want her living too close to where she had been chained) we wanted to adopt another dog. I’m happy to report that we are adopting Harriet, the beagle, who will fit in perfectly with our family.

My mom got interested in some of the dogs that I showed her and wound up adopting a year-old boxer mix from a shelter in Dayton.

This story has a happy ending – 3 dogs who started out life in a bad way have now found families to love them the way they deserve to be loved! I can’t begin to thank Marla and DogsDeserveBetter for providing Maggie and other dogs with the chance of finding a real family! I’ve attached 3 pictures – Maggie, Omar (one of Marla’s dogs) and Harriet, and the three dogs taking a nap together. Life is good!

Best Regards,
Terri Wallis,OH

If you've been touched by Sheeba's story, and would like to help us free more chained dogs, all donations are gratefully accepted. Thank you!

If you'd like to donate via regular USPS mail, you may print out this form in .pdf format, and send to P.O. Box 23, Tipton, PA 16684

Contact Info: Dogs Deserve Better, Inc. • P.O. Box 23 • Tipton, PA 16684 • Toll Free 1.877.636.1408 • 814.941.7447
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