How Three Counties Came Together To Save The Life Of One Special Dog
It Takes a Village:
Communications Director Animeals on Wheels Program Director
When people start to make helping others a priority in their lives, they eventually reach the point when they realize that it becomes second nature, no matter if the soul in need is on two legs or four.
Such was the case recently in a remarkable tale of care, cooperation, and charity of organizations in three local counties to help a dog in need named Mr. Dibbs.
An 85-pound-German Shepherd, Mr. Dibbs (Dibby to his friends), was first noticed by volunteer Andrew Merchant from AniMeals on Wheels during a routine visit to a client.
Animeals on Wheels is a companion organization to Meals on Wheels Rural Capital Area. Meals on Wheels Rural Capital Area (MOWRCA), through Combined Community Action Inc. in Giddings, has been providing hot and shelf stable lunchtime meals to people 60 years and older for decades across six counties, including Bastrop, Blanco, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, and Lee.
AniMeals has been providing similar services for two years, in the form of pet food and preventative vet care to dogs and cats owned by MOWRCA clients.
“We had a volunteer go out to a client’s house for a visit and found there was a German Shepherd chained to a tree in the front yard,” said Karen Walpole, Program Director of Animals on Wheels. “He was being given water in a coffee can that he kept knocking over with the chain, and his food was constantly getting scattered. The volunteer went to a local Wal-mart and got a kiddie pool to fill with water so the dog could have some relief and something to drink from, but they could tell that it wasn’t a good situation for the dog, especially with the extreme heat of the summer.”
A few days later, Walpole and Combined Community Action’s Carla Webb ventured out to the client’s property to discuss the situation concerning the chained dog.
They were heartened to realize it wasn’t a situation of animal abuse. The dog had belonged to a previous owner, who had intimated to the client that they would simply be getting rid of the animal when they moved away. Not wanting to see the dog lose its life, the new resident had agreed to keep the dog.
“With a big dog like a German Shepherd, if you’re an elderly person, they can easily knock you over, which is both a fear and a health hazard,” Walpole said. “The physicality of getting outside and caring for the dog was more than the client could handle. He was nowhere near a bad person, he just wasn’t sure what to do.”
After talking with Walpole and Webb, the client agreed to allow them to re-home the dog but warned that it had shown aggression towards other animals, a red flag in any potential adoption scenario.
Walpole immediately reached out to her network of contacts to see if she could find someone to assess the dog’s aggressive tendencies to see what their options were.
Getting a Leg Up
With the client’s approval, the two charity professionals went about getting the dog named Mr. Dibbs by Walpole - the help he needed.
That presented a few problems, the first solved by using a pair of pliers to pry the rusted chain off his collar and give him a leash to begin his new life of freedom.
Having never been able to run, jump, or do any other typical dog motions presented a second problem.
“We had a donated crate in the back of Karen’s SUV, but he was only able to get his front legs up,” Webb said. “He couldn’t lift his back end up so we had to lift him up into the back. But then he went right in and settled down.”
On a day filled with blessings from across the region, the first came when the pair received an email message from Daniel De La Pena, owner of Signature K9 Training Academy in Elgin and an Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn veteran. He told them to bring Mr. Dibbs straight over and he’d be able to give him an aggression assessment using his own dogs and help him chart a course of action to get him on the path to a safe adoption.
On the hour’s drive to Elgin, the dog rescuers got their first bit of good news. Upon further discussion with Mr. Dibbs’ previous owner, it turned out the ‘aggression’ the dog had shown towards other animals had been centered around a turkey and a duck, two animals that a normal German Shepherd was likely fairly interested in eating on a regular basis.
Trainer with a Heart of Gold At Signature K9 Training Academy, De La Pena introduced Mr. Dibbs to his three dogs, who acted their parts like Goldilocks’s run-in with the Three Bears. One completely ignored the new dog in the yard, one sniffed a couple of times and while interested, wasn’t very excited, and the third went ballistic barking and going crazy. Dibbs’ response was to turn around and walk the other way.
“Daniel told us he saw everything he needed to see and that Dibby was not going to be a problem,” Walpole said. “I asked him how much training it would cost and suggested we could start a Go-FundMe to raise money.”
That’s when De La Pena shocked the two charity workers.
“He said he would donate a four-week training program for Mr. Dibbs,” Walpole said. “It’s a $4,000 plan and he decided to do it right there on the spot.”
Dibby’s next guardian angel came in the shape of Dr. Jeremy Finch, a long-standing board member for Combined Community Action and Veterinarian at Fayette County Veterinary Clinic in La Grange.
Finch responded to Walpole and said his clinic could get the dog in despite it being late on a Friday afternoon to receive the vaccines necessary for him to stay and be trained at De La Pena’s facility.
“We could tell there were a lot of eyes on us when we got Mr. Dibbs to the clinic,” Walpole said. “He had sores on his ears, sores on his legs, matted fur, and he was covered in mud. As we told the story to the staff, you could see the shift in demeanor when they realized he hadn’t been abused, it was just a person who couldn’t take care of him.”
The vet exam revealed that he was a good weight - 85 pounds - and 1½ years old, which meant he had been chained to a tree for nearly half his life.
Finch gave the OK for the dog to board the weekend and receive his vaccines, which Animeals has the funds to pay for due to a generous donation from a Fayette County resident.
When Webb and Walpole returned to La Grange on Monday to transport the rescue dog back to De La Pena’s training facility in Elgin, they were greeted by a whole new Dibby.
“When they brought Dibbs out, he had a notable change and lots more energy,” Webb said. “He was very happy to see us, and when we opened the back of Karen’s car, he jumped right into the back without any assistance!” What’s Next for Dibbs?
De La Pena is posting photos and updates of Mr. Dibb’s progress on social media in hopes of aiding AniMeals in finding him a great home when he is ready to move on.
“There were so many acts of kindness that happened,” Walpole said. “So many people came together in such a great way across three different counties. I hope I never stop appreciating what people do and are willing to give of themselves.”
If you would like to support the efforts of AniMeals on Wheels, and pets like Mr. Dibbs, please visit www.mowrca. org.