The Rescue of Molly

She was such a sorry looking little thing. She was so skinny, her coat was dull, her ears were crusty and for some reason, she only had a stub for a tail. I remember asking my wife "Who bobs the tail on a dachshund?" We were both dumbstruck at the sorry-looking little dog in the cage.

We were at the Animal Shelter in Clinton, IA. It was the middle of March 2006. My wife had been asking, even begging, to get another dog. Our other dachshund, Oskar, needed a playmate. He was soon to be seven years old and he was starting to act like an older dog than what he really was. He needed someone in his life to bring him back to the playful little dog he had always been. At least that was the argument my wife kept giving me.

I had not wanted to get another dog yet. My other dog, a blonde Labrador Retriever named Dawn, had not been gone long enough. That was the argument I used most often. But it was now getting close to four years since I had to have Dawn put down. True, I missed her - I still do - but that excuse was getting lame and even I knew it. When my wife found the web site that featured Molly as a dog needing a good home, I agreed to go see her.

So as I stated before, our first glimpses of Molly were horrific. She obviously needed good food, good grooming and a lot of love. She would soon get all of that and more. The minute I saw her, I was in love. Here amongst all of these big, barking dogs was this poor, pathetic looking little "doxie," obviously a miniature. One look into those sad brown eyes and I was hooked.

Molly had been a puppy mill dog. She had been rescued recently by another family, but for some reason, she had snapped at the family's three year old child and the family turned her over to the animal shelter where we found her. As I stated, she was in horrible condition - in addition to the other issues we saw at first, we soon learned that her teeth were rotting and she had a scar on her side from when she had been burned.

Puppy mills are horrible places. Their sole purpose is to breed dogs over and over again and to sell the puppies. The dogs are mistreated, kept in cramped cages and receive the minimum for food and water. They seldom if ever get good veterinary care and they are over-bred to the point that the "stock" that comes from the mothers is usually poor. It was quite obvious that Molly had a long way to go before she would be well again.

My wife and I discussed it and decided to bring Oskar in to meet Molly after the vet tech got Molly out of her cage. The two dogs didn't exactly hit it off from the start - Molly, of course, was skittish and Oskar seemed to know that this dog was not well. But he didn't attack her either, nor did he try to dominate her. That cinched it for us - we decided that Molly would become part of our family. We did the paperwork and made the arrangements to have Molly spayed and to get a dental cleaning done - her breath was horrible from decaying teeth. It was at this vet's office that my wife learned that Molly's tail had not been surgically bobbed. The vet told her that it appeared to have been chewed off by another dog, probably due to the cramped cages at the puppy mill. It was enough to make my wife cry and I have to admit, I did to when I was told.

My wife picked her up from the animal hospital on March 17, 2006. This would become Molly's unofficial birthday! Since she had to go to work after bringing Molly home, my wife crated Molly because we were pretty certain that even though she was estimated to be about three years old, Molly probably was not housebroken. Well, not only was she not housebroken, she really had no idea how to live life outside of a cage. All she would do was walk in circles. We were used to Oskar being a lap dog, but Molly would run if we tried to pick her up. The only thing we could find outside of food that she liked was plush toys. She would take stuffed toys - not plastic ones - and move them from one side of the room to another. Back and forth, back and forth. We soon figured out the connection - it was her mothering instinct. She was moving the toys as if they were puppies. We found it cute and heartbreaking at the same time.

Molly has now been in our lives for three and a half years. Today, she is healthier and happier - you couldn't ask for a sweeter little dog! In time, she would let us pick her up to the point that now neither my wife nor I can have a free lap anymore - either Oskar or Molly or both are on us! Molly is a very good eater and she is now at a healthy weight. I treated her ears with udder cream when we first got her and they soon became the soft, supple ears one normally sees on a dachshund. She still has occasional accidents, but for the most part she is housebroken - in fact, she now whines if she needs to go out and piddle or poo. She likes to chase the cats, but she wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was trying to get at her food - she growls "ferociously" at anyone but Mommy and Daddy if they go near her food bowl!

Mommy says she is Daddy's girl and it is true that if I leave the room, she will look for me. When we first got Molly, she didn't understand the concept of me going upstairs. If I went up the stairs, she would go into the kitchen as if the stairs were a doorway into that room. It was as if the dog thought I was Houdini! These days, she now has the concept that the stairs aren't some "black hole" that eats me and then spits me back out in order for me to reappear. If I am upstairs, sometimes she will sit at the bottom of the stairs and stare up and whine until I come back. Other times, she must say to herself "heck with it" and she will come up to my office and see me. She still gets spooked by loud noises and will hide behind the couch cushions if it storms. Heck, she likes to be in any dark place if a lap isn't available - the couch cushions are where we usually look first for her if we can't find her.

As for Oskar - he tolerates Molly at worst. She may bump him or climb on him which will result in him growling and even snarling at Molly. But at the same time, the experiment has been a success. They love each other like any other typical brother and sister combo. Molly grooms Oskar - she keeps his ears clean and for some reason she likes to lick his collar. Oskar sits there and takes it, looking like a man holding his wife's purse at the mall while the wife is trying on clothes. Oskar and Molly wrestle and in peaceful moments they share the blanket we keep in the couch, sometimes striking the best poses a dog lover could ask for. It is so cute to see their four sad brown eyes looking at us as if they are saying "We love you Mommy and Daddy. Now please feed us again."

Even though Molly weighs at best eleven pounds soaking wet, there is no way anyone can convince me that she doesn't have a heart as big as Alaska. She is one of the most loving dogs I have ever had, and I have had a lot of dogs. It took a lot of patience and love to get her to where she is today, and we are so happy she is part of our lives!