  Photo Comments Sex: Male Weight: 51-100 lbs
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Leave a bone for Butterscotch-Approx1997-Nov05
Nicknames:
Butterscotch, Buttscotch, My Butterscotch Boy
Doggie Dynamics:
| | | | | | | | | Energy | | | | | | Intelligence | | | | | | Friendliness | | | | | | Playfulness | | | | | | Disposition | | | |
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Quick Bio:
Birthday:
May 1st 1997
Likes:
Being warm, being part of the 'pack', the king-sized bed, rawhide bones, car rides, running like the wind
Pet-Peeves:
Ben...the four-legged yellow lab from next door who comes over here and flaunts his "stuff", my previous owners
Favorite Toy:
Kong kong
Favorite Food:
Rawhide bones snuck home in Dad's pocket, for me alone, and not the other dogs
Favorite Walk:
In the back forty...with the horse lunge rope on, cause it "feels" like I'm free
Best Tricks:
Chewing a hole in the old man's pocket to get the Rawhide bone he forgot to give me
Arrival Story:
2004 - I am volunteering at an awful high kill shelter near my home. I volunteer for the dog's sake. If I do not go in to walk these dogs... they do not get out for even a few minutes for a walk in the grass. I have been there often enough that I know all the dogs by name, sex, breed, and temperament. I know that all of the 16 dogs in this unfortunate place at the moment are adoptable. I could not bear to see this beautiful 7-year-old neutered male yellow Labrador retriever/golden retriever cross sitting here with his ever present smile and wagging butt. He is pale yellow all over his body with distinctly matching butterscotch-coloured ears and a butterscotch nose. The dogs are often left to sit in their own excrement and this neat dog is missing his rear right leg which makes it even more difficult for him to hop to greet visitors and avoid the mess. Sometimes when I take him out for a walk his kennel is soaking wet and so is his hair. He cannot lie down without getting wet. They will not allow me to clean the kennels. This dog has only three legs and although people sometimes come in and walk by his kennel, they do not notice... if they do they usually ooh and ahh and coo while saying, "Oh what a pity" as they keep on walking. I know this makes him more difficult to adopt and they euthanize here often and indiscriminately. I suppose this dog had been hit by a car in the past and wonder why a family that went to considerable time and expense to have the amputation done would now surrender their companion to this awful place. There is a 'sale' on this month, as they do not normally have this many dogs. A sign on the front door reads that the dogs are only $35 for the month of June plus NY State licence fees. There are eighteen kennels available for use... fifteen are occupied and one has a sign on it saying "Do Not Use - Door Broken!" It has been over a week since they moved a new dog into this adoptable area from the infamous closed and off-limits custody area. While driving home I commit the dogs to memory and go over the mathematics in my head...eighteen minus one broken kennel equals seventeen minus fifteen kennels being used equals ONLY two available kennels left before the dogs that I have come to know and love will start disappearing by the time I next go in to walk them. They will always tell you, "Oh he was adopted and turn away quickly." I have stopped asking. I grimly drive home thinking about asking someone to go in there and please repair the broken kennel door.
Butterscotch is mine for $15 and $7.50 for the NY State Licence fees. They tell me you can go in the back and get him. I am walking out and saying, "Come on Butterscotch". The woman at the front counter asks me whether or not he answers to his name. I am surprised and ask, "Well that is his name, is it not?" She replies, "Yes, but you can give him a piece of cheese and call him whatever you like." She is serious! Butterscotch and I get into the jeep together... he has no trouble getting in and we do not feel the need to hang around to say goodbye. As we drive home I tell him, "Gosh, you sure do stink boy...we are having a bath as soon as we get home." He looks at me and smiles as he sits beside me in the front passenger seat. When we get home Butterscotch climbs the 8 steps to the second floor as if he has lived here all of his life and straight into the bathtub... no trouble. As I bathe him I feel stitches in his groin and at the end of his stump. How can this be? His body is built up through the shoulders...leading me to believe is accident must have been some time ago. The rabies tag they gave me is attached to a veterinarian's printout...the owner's name is whited out. I hold it up to the window as I read it and think...I wonder who are you, Mr. Robbins, and why did you part with your wonderful companion. I later find out he has had these missed stitches for three years. Butterscotch is clean but the stink of the shelter permeates his hair. I call a friend who tells me to sock the baby powder to him. I do and the smell is bearable to be able to sleep with him tonight. He stretches out on the king sized bed and snuggles up next to me as I stroke his butterscotch-coloured, silky ears. He chews on his new rawhide bone awhile and falls asleep. I wonder if he is dreaming as I am of those eighteen kennels and doing the math.
UPDATE - 17 months later...January 8, 2006.
My Butterscotch Boy passed on January 13, 2006 with congestive heart failure but he had the best 17 months of his entire life with us. He had been left tied up to a dog house and left outside all his life...ran off and was hit by a truck, survived and then they dumped him at the local SPCA when the kids went off to college. I had been volunteering at the SPCA and adopted him. From that point on it was doggie bones slipped home in my husband's pocket (so the others did not notice), and sleeping in the king sized bed. We will always treasure the time that he spent with us.
Bio:
Three-legged dogs get along just as well as four-legged ones. Butterscotch could run faster than any of my other dogs, including the pointer. I believe this is possible, if the amputated leg is a hind one; his shoulders build up more muscle than other dogs from having to hop around on the one back leg. Also, interesting to note: Since, Butterscotch had been kept outside, his entire life, before I adopted him, his coat, reflects in the photo below, what his coat looked like then; after eating better chow and living indoors (where he belonged), his pale yellow coat blew out and as he looked thinner as the rugs looked thicker. His coat color changed entirely turning from almost white to the shade of a golden retriever. His Butterscotch-colored ears remained his most striking feature though...much darker than the rest of his coat. I found out later that Butterscotch was abandoned to the local pound along with his sibling, Licorice. The shelter did not put the two dogs together, nor did they try to adopt them out together or even mention it. Perhaps, this was a good thing or I would have wound up with 6 dogs at the time instead of only 5 in my home. I did find out that Licorice was also adopted into another family. Working for another rescue group, oddly enough, I later received a phone call from the previous owner, who coincidentally asked me to remove the outdoor cats from his new neighbor's yard as they were "allergic" to them. When I informed him that I had adopted the dog he previously owned he could not have cared a whit...what a shame that these type of people adopt a pet at all...Butterscotch and Licorice, both were denied the lifetime of love they both deserved.
Forums Motto:
No more chained dogs!
I've Been On Dogster Since:
| April 7th 2007 |
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More than 4 years! |
Rosette, Star and Special Gift History
Dogster Id:
515752
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