The story of my first Rotty rescue

Jess on her first outing from the kennels to properly meet Billie

Well here goes with my first ever blog!! I am not sure if anyone will even look at this, will wait and see

I have owned dogs for most of my years from the age of 1o, these have been mostly pups or taking in dogs from 'friends' who have either grown tired of them or had problems

I lost my 2nd German Shepherd Ven in July 2007 1 week after his 13th birthday. Ven was my 2nd German Shepherd.
Ven 2007 aged 13 years

This left me with my beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog lady called Billie (yes she is a girl) - see picture - who is now the grand age of 9 and will be 10 in June. I have kept it from her that the average age for her breed is 7-8 yrs. Billie was bred by my sister who still has Billie's brother Merlin, his half sister Morgan and one of Morgan's pups Luka. (makes for a very full house at Christmas !)

Billie aged 7 yrs

Anyway getting back to the main topic of this blog - Jess.

I made the mistake of visiting the local council pound with a friend Linda which we have done now and then in the past - I moved to live opposite Linda in June 2007, she has been my best friend for approx 28 years !! and we are more like sisters.

oh my god am I that old !!!

Linda has 3 dogs already and was not really looking and I have tentatively looked as have missed having two dogs.

So anyway there I am looking in the pens at the kennels - giving it the AAH factor, in the first row of kennels the ever present staffy that you find at rescue kennels. In the end pen there were a pair of brown eyes looking out through the entrance door - then appeared a little bit more of the head. A smallish Rotty head emerged, followed by an underweight body with an obvious problem of some kind to her back legs, having had at least one litter of pups possibly a lot more. Wanting to say hello but very unsure. I crouched down by the pen fence and talked quietly to her she came over and leaned against me through the mesh with those beautiful brown eyes I stroked her wrinkly nose.

Jess's ribs when I first walked her

We continued looking around the kennels seeing all the many staffies there and a gorgeous cross bred that was approx 8 months old and looked like a wolfhound terrier cross or something !! a very thin black greyhound (another regular inhabitant of rescue centres!!!) but I was drawn back to the kennel with Jess in. The kennel maid brought her out to me and she sat beside me and looked up at me !!

We walked her a bit outside the kennel but didn't go far, Jess obviously has a problem with her back legs/spine and sometimes drags her back feet (I thought maybe muscular atrophy as my shepherd had suffered from this and similar gait) Enquired if I would be able to bring my dog to meet her which was agreed.

Next day I returned with Billie and they seemed fine, not gambling about but then it is a long time since Billie has done that - she is more a gentle stroll type of girl - but they ambled about happy to walk beside each other. I then asked if they would be happy for me to take Jess into my vet for him to check her over. Which they agreed to.

Next day everywhere was covered by snow and roads horrendous so had to leave it another day before returning. Took Jess into my vet who knowing I live on my own and aware that I do not have unlimited funds - advised that 'if you are sensible you will return her to the kennels and walk away' in a tone of voice that shows he knows (having been my vet for nearly 30 years) that I am far from sensible !! Without a full exam using x rays etc he was unable to give an exact diagnosis but has said she is likely suffering from degeneration of the spine - more or less the spinal muscular atrophy I had thought of. She also has front legs that click outwards at the wrist joint when walking, underweight and slight discharge from eyes. After examining her the vet feels she is in no pain and the spine will eventually give out and she will be paralysed on her rear end (the same as my shepherd Ven bless him) so I decided to return her to the kennel for the night (was very tempted just to take her home then !) and think very carefully about this as I would not be able to insure her due to age and pre existing conditions. I returned Jess to the kennels and hated walking away from her, I passed on the verdict of my vet to the kennel staff and advised I would go home and would think about it overnight. I also had to consider my 3 cats at home !!

Well !!! to say I didn't sleep much would be an understatement !! I returned to the kennels and asked if I could take her home to see how she was with the cats and if all OK I would keep her overnight to see how things progressed. I have to say here that the kennel owner and staff were always helpful, never pushy and happy to fit in with me taking Jess out to vets etc.

Just look at those eyes !!!
On Sunday 8th of February Jess came home and is still here !!


Jess is my 7th dog but she is my first adult dog from a pound with absolutely no history so I guess we will both have a lot of adapting to do !!

When I picked Jess up from the kennels I had my girl Billie on the back seat and put Jess in the estate part. We then went to our local park to walk them before coming home so they both came in together. Billie rarely has a lead on except for late night walks (mainly because she will scavenge on roadsides - you can probably tell from the picture that she is obviously starved !!) so I put the flexi lead on Jess. She seemed pleased to be out in the open and walked along quite happily if a bit wobbly.


We returned home - luckily my cats have lived with dogs all their lives and been used to friends and my sister's dogs visiting so when a new dog is in the house they move around very slowly. Jess was very interested in the cats but was very good when told NO and backed away from them, the cats are not afraid to tell off strange dogs and let them know who is boss. All seemed good so far, I phoned the kennels and let them know that Jess would be staying here overnight.


Jess spent the evening choosing between a high sided square bed or a thick duvet type bed although a lot of the evening was spent with her head on my leg trying not to fall asleep. Billie was so good with her and no jealousy at all and they spent a lot of time with both their heads next to each other on my lap. I had a fright at one time I had forgotten to pick up Billie's bones I heard crunching and came in from the kitchen to find the dogs both lying on the rug together chewing the bones . We went back to the park in the afternoon with one of Linda's dogs Jay - a border collie from Cornwall. Jess was OK with Jay although at one time she showed dominant behaviour of trying to put her head over his neck and the beginnings of trying to mount him which Jay objected to - no surprise, Jess mouthed him but no teeth involved and it was all very quick.


I settled Jess overnight in the kitchen with the square bed, she started to bark about 01:40 but on opening the door saying NO and retreating she was quiet the rest of the night, the same the next night but have had no mid- night barking since. The house training is a totally different matter though, and non existant. I cant obviously say for sure that she was an outside kennel dog but there are definitely no restraints in that department lol

Unfortunately two days after she was home I discovered that she has kennel cough and has passed it to Billie who has become quite severe with it, has progressed with green gunge coming from her nose. I am hoping it will not have any long lasting effects, I have just found out that her brother has been diagnosed with a heart murmur.

It seems very hard to realise that Jess has been here two weeks now. Jess has now had both her vaccinations and has had one lot of treatment for mites and wormer and one more in a week.

I may come in for a lot of criticism here when I say that I work full time with long and mostly night shifts, I did think things over but felt that I could still offer another dog a good home and I am very lucky in moving just over a year ago to live opposite my best friend as it works out so well for both of us, Linda works days so I walk two of her dogs the Cornish Border Collie and rescue Greyhound (the old girl - Collie x Spaniel, goes into the garden or stays in her bed upstairs) at lunchtime and Linda walks Billie for me. Linda is a godsend when I work days at weekends as she will pop across and let the dogs out for me and feed them. The shift pattern I work doesn't lend to a steady routine for toilet training but I am hoping that it will help Jess to follow Billie's lead.