Keeping a dog chained up has to be one of the cruelest acts of neglect. Chains can be heavy and often the poor pup will be chained up for hours on end without food, water, or a comfortable bed. So when a woman spotted a number of dogs chained up outside a property in New Mexico, she got in touch with rescuers who headed over straight away to take the dogs to safety.
One of these dogs was named Violet, and thankfully her story has a happy ending.
Poor Violet’s white fur had been stained by the heavy, thick-linked metal chain that lay around her neck, and rescuers questioned the possibility of the poor girl having been chained up her whole life. She was around two years old when she was taken from the property in Miguel County, New Mexico, by NMDOG, a charity who rescue chained dogs.
Chaining up dogs is never right, but in New Mexico it’s an illegal act, meaning that the organization had the right to take the dogs away to a safe place.
“They were able to get somebody to go out onto the property and explain the ordinances and what was wrong with the situation,” Angela Stell, founder and director of NMDOG told The Dodo. “When they did that, they found that the guardian of the dogs was in jail on unrelated charges, and he was not on the property able to provide daily care that these dogs needed.”
With the owner in prison, no one knew how long the dogs had been left for, or whether anybody was coming to care for them.
But it was clear to see that these dogs were suffering from the neglect that they’d been put through and they needed help.
“I’m not sure if somebody else was staying on the property or coming to the property, but overall, these dogs were just kind of abandoned and forgotten,” Angela said.
After being taken in for an assessment, vets found that poor Violet was sunburned from being left out all day in the garden, and she had also developed flystrike, a condition in which maggots eat away at the flesh. But these things she could recover from.
It was the mental effects of her neglect that would take Violet time to heal from.
“She was very, very afraid, and is still a little timid,” Angela said. “If you raise your hand to do something, or move your hand too fast, she kind of ducks and cowers, like you’re going to hit her. I can’t imagine what somebody did to make her do that. But she is coming around with nice words and good, positive interactions.”
With love and patience from the volunteers at the center, Violet slowly began to open up and trust people.
She was gifted what is likely to be her first-ever stuffed toy – a cuddly raccoon. At first, she didn’t know how to play with it, but since then Angela has spotted her batting it around on a couple of occasions.
Violet also has a superpower! She has the ability to make anybody laugh and smile, and the sweet girl can wiggle each ear in a different direction.
“She’s very sweet, and she’s opening up to us and the staff at the clinic,” Angela said. “She really likes her stuffed animals, and she likes to curl up in her blanket. She likes to go for walks. She’s just learning about the world around her, and not being chained anymore.”
But Violet’s story has a happy ending:
A year after being rescued, Violet finally “found her perfect human” and was adopted into a furever home. NMDOG shared on Facebook:
“Violet is an only child with a whole wonderful extended family. All of her Aunts & Uncles have been over to visit & welcome her…with prezzies! She has more toys & beds now than any other dog on the planet (wink!). They even stop by during the day while Mom is at work & play games with her! But when Mom comes home, the real fun begins!!”
We’re so glad that this sweet baby found her perfect family, and we’re sure that their love will more than makeup for the difficult beginning of her life.
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