Pippin's Story!

I adopted a three year old dachshund, Ziggy, from the local humane society in February of 1999. We went in looking for a yellow lab (of course) but the second we "saw" her personality that was it, for me at least. We went home, since there were no yellow labs, butI couldn't get this little black and tan dapple out of my mind. By the next afternoon, she was mine.

Time went on and we decided it would be a good idea to get Ziggy (aka. Crazy Potato) a brother or sister. I started surfing the net and came across the DRWP. For days I searched and inquired about certain dogs but nothing panned out. Then, one day, listed under Indiana was this emaciated little red girl who was rescued from a Tennessee puppy mill.

She weighed 7 lbs. (very underweight for her) and had hook worms, round worms, whip worms, tape worms, a yeast infection on her skin, mange, mites, etc. You name it, she had it. I had to have her. Apparently, the mill she was rescued from had been shut down and she is the "poster girl" for the court case now. I've been told that there were t-shirts made up with her emaciated little face on them.

Beckie Decker fostered her in Indiana. When she was rescued she was carrying 7 puppies...I can't even imagine that little skeleton holding that many puppies! I was told that, later, when the vet spayed her, her little uterus fell apart in his hands because she had had so many litters in her 2 years on this planet.

So I went to Judy Wade's in Massachusettes to pick her up on November 30, 1999. She had just arrived from Indiana by way of Tennessee with a caravan full of rescues. She was very timid, of course. I wrapped her in a blanket and put her in the passenger seat, where she slept for the entire ride home to Maine.

Ziggy loved her at first site. They both sleep in my bed with me and love it. I imagine it's a far cry from the cages at the mill. We go for almost daily walks on the beach (I live 2 miles from the ocean) and she LOVES it! Ziggy has definitely helped show her the ropes of clamming, chasing seagulls, and searching for chipmunks in stone walls! She has gained 6 pounds and is a very muscular 13 lbs. She loves to play with Zig, and gives her a run for her money, even though Zig weighs 25 lbs.!

So that's my story. Thank you to everyone that helped bring my little Pippin into my life. You can see her "Before" pictures on Beckie Decker's site http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Farm/3174/rescue.html. Her old name was Xena. I'll try to get some "After" ones ASAP. She's perfect.

Thank you!
--Amy Clark