ANYA'S STORY

Anya was a Leonberger.  She was whelped in Hungary, grew up in an Amish puppy mill, and found herself on the auction block at age 5.5 years.  She was beautiful, sweet and gentle.  She enjoyed running free, learned to play with toys, and loved attention.  She lived the happiest days  of her life after being rescued.  She was a very special Leo for LIN, and this is her story.

On August 25, 2008 I received a priority email from a woman named Jen who is with a rescue group in Indiana.  She told me about an auction scheduled for August 30th where a female Leonberger and two eight week old Leo-mix puppies were on the list of dogs to be sold.  This auction was aimed at puppy millers as a way for them to move dogs around, it was not advertised to the general public, and it was a secret auction below the radar of the USDA .  Jen asked if LIN wanted to go in and bid on the three dogs, and did we need any help since the time was so short.  It didn't take long for the coordinators to decide that we had to go after the 5.5 year old female and the two Leo mix puppies, and allow Jen to act in LIN's behalf and bid on the dogs.  It was a real scramble to work out the logistics on such short notice, and over a Labor Day weekend, but we organized a transport schedule and agreed on the maximum LIN would bid for each of the dogs.  
Time passed so slowly on the 30th.   I kept checking my watch, adjusting for the time difference, trying to be patient as I taught my agility classes.  When my cell phone rang my students were as eager as I was to know what had happened at the auction.  I knew the coordinators who weren't part of transport also wanted the news ASAP so I quickly sent an email telling everyone that Anya  and the puppies were safe.  I told them Jen said the female was beautiful, sweet and woefully skinny, but her temperament was wonderful.  She was riding loose in the back of Jen's vehicle with no problems and they were headed back to Indiana.  The dogs were officially out of the mill system, on their way to St Louis and the start of a new life.  

The first handoff was to Frenchie Rescue (French Bull Dogs) where the female impressed the volunteer, a woman who knew nothing about Leonbergers.  French Bull Dogs are small and the driver was amazed at the female's size was.  We get so used to the size of our Leos that after awhile they don't seem all that big, but seeing one for the first time inspires a kind of awe especially if a person is used to much smaller breeds.   She said the female walked nicely on a loose leash and that the puppies were puppies.   I have to chuckle when people who know nothing about our breed are introduced for the first time.  They are always impressed by the size and gentleness of a Leonberger, but this is rarely so with a mill dog coming out of an auction.

The rest of the transport went without incident. The last handoff was to Lynn O'Connor which brought Anya and the two pups officially into LIN's care.   Lynn headed back to St Louis with a brief stop at Holly's house to wash the dogs in hopes of controlling the fleas.  The Amish farmer had shaved the mats off of Anya in an attempt to make her presentable for auction, but this only made the raw, scabby areas, and the fleas, all the more visible.  The fleas were so bad that LIN paid for flea treatments for each vehicle that helped in the transport.

The puppies were delighted to be with the female and they greeted her with enthusiasm.  Questions and opinions flew back and forth amongst the coordinators as to whether or not the female was in fact the mother of the pups who were mostly black with a white spot on the chest and looked kind of like Labs.   But the female, now called Mama Mia, was patient and loving with the pups; nuzzling, cuddling and even letting them nurse.  Now in my experience with pups encountering strange females the females may be tolerant  to a point but they are rarely nurturing and loving.  Looking at the pictures of the female with pups these could only be Anya's pups.  The question remained: If these were Mama Mia's pups why did the miller say she had never conceived?   When you looked at the female it was obvious she had whelped a litter recently, and if you took into account her emaciated form she had whelped many, consecutive litters. 

LIN needed to know whether or not the pups were Leo mixes or some other mix masquerading as being some part so we enlisted the help of Jen to talk to the owner of the dogs.  The man she spoke with said his son (the actual owner/breeder) was getting rid of the female because in the five years he had owned her it had been impossible to get a litter out of her.   This statement was a direct contradiction of her physical condition.   Lynn's vet knew this female had been bred many, many times.  When Jen pushed the father he said his son had several other giant breeds, including Newfies, and admitted that the pups belonged to the female but he wasn't sure of the sire.  Once again LIN had rescued Leo mix puppies.  Perhaps the breeding was an attempt at a designer breed, or maybe it was an accidental breeding.   Either way the pups were having a ball playing with mom and they seemed like normal. healthy pups.  A veterinary examination confirmed that the energetic pups were healthy and ready to be adopted. 

While the pups received a clean bill of health Anya, with her new name, was another story.   She was horrifyingly thin, emaciated to the point that her body was consuming itself.   It's probable her physical condition was the result of repeated breeding,  poor nutrition, and underlying infection.  She was drinking incredible amounts of water and refusing to eat.  The vet diagnosed a massive kidney infection and there was no way of knowing if it was a recent occurrence or a long standing problem that had never been treated.  Anya was put on antibiotics, a treatment that would continue for months.  The end result would be extremely damaged and scarred kidneys with severely reduced function.  Due to her low weight and body mass the vet would not give any shots and a spay was out of the question as she would not survive surgery.  He felt she needed to put on some muscle weight, a slow process in an otherwise healthy dog.  In Anya's case  made even more difficult due to the kidney condition, and would re-evaluate in three to four weeks.  A special kidney diet was prescribed which, of course, Anya hated.

Anya's feet were splayed, deformed and barely functional.   All of the tendons had been snapped from walking on cage wire for 5.5 years, and her gait was consistent with breeding stock from puppy mills.   Walking and running were painful and difficult but she took great joy in racing around and sliding to a stop because she couldn't use her toes like most dogs do.   Anya couldn't maintain a sitting position when she was receiving pets and scratches, again because her feet lacked the ability to grip the floor.  She would slowly sink to the floor enjoying every second of her chest scritches.

On September 17th there was an article in the local paper about Anya and her pups.  Lynn had taken Anya and her other Leo, Apollo, to a Blessing of the Animals at a local church where they were a huge hit.  Everyone was fascinated with the story of the three rescued auction dogs, and Anya impressed them with her gentleness.  She was very nice to all the animals which included cats, rabbits, and baby squirrels, although given the opportunity she might have eaten the baby squirrels.  She visited with the people and enjoyed pets and scritches as if this was something she did every day.   Her gentle nature and warm eyes had a way of touching everyone she met and when Lynn left she was given a huge portion of the dog chews that were donated to the church.

The pups went off to homes of their own and Anya was depressed.  She lay quietly and wasn't following Lynn around the house as was her usual behavior. She  also wouldn't eat.  Though she still had yet to develop a good appetite, She was refusing food altogether.  She wasn't even taking bits of food to hide around the house, a common behavior for mill dogs that have never received enough food or had to fight for whatever food they got.   The kidney condition was extremely serious and could be causing these symptoms but this time is was Anya missing her pups.  As the days went by Anya returned to her sweet self.

In December the vet felt Anya was strong enough to survive the spay operation.  It was still touch and go, but she made it through.   It was clear that between Lynn and her vet they were giving Anya every chance in the world to be a normal Leo.  All of the coordinators urged Lynn to make the foster permanent and not look to place Anya in another home.   The first reason was that she was happy with Lynn and any disruption in routine could be detrimental to her health.  The second reason was that Lynn's vet, who had managed to keep this dog going in spite of 25% kidney function, would be very difficult to replace. The two factors taken together equaled a happy Leo and Lynn agreed to make it official.

Anya was happy for the first time in her life.  She loved Lynn and Apollo and she was beginning to come out of her velcro phase.  She discovered the joys of squeak toys and enjoyed running through the house, slipping, skidding, sliding, and madly squeaking all the way.   She thought going to the dog park was wonderful, and she made friends with the dogs but wanted to spend most of her time with the people.  She still had to check in with Lynn, but was comfortable enough in the situation to wander around.  Many of the people at the park noticed her painful gait and knew she was from a mill where being caged had destroyed her feet.  They thought it was great that Anya had been rescued and was now enjoying life, running free and playing with other dogs.

February was a milestone and the vet declared Anya his miracle dog.  Lynn wanted to give him the credit, but her vet said that it was Anya herself that had done it. This dog's will to live in spite of horrendous physical problems had kept her going when all the odds were against her.  The kidney medicine and low protein diet had stabilized her kidney function and she was as healthy as she was ever going to be.  It was at this point, seven months after her rescue from the auction, that the vet began to slowly give Anya her shots.  He was still afraid of shocking her system and sending her into a nosedive which would mean hospitalization and intravenous fluids to try and keep her from crashing completely and losing all kidney function.  Everything was done with great care and she received her inoculations one shot at a time, no combo shots for Anya.  

In her six years Anya had never received any shots or vet care of any kind.  Commercial breeders/puppy millers/Amish farmers look on this type of expenditure as being a waste of money.  Mill dogs are to be used until they can't produce anymore and then they are dumped at auction or killed.  Anya was put into auction because she was used up and of no real use to the Amish farmer who had bred her every heat cycle since her first.  She had never been fed good or enough food, her body had never been allowed to recover from the repeated pregnancy, and in her weakened state her kidneys became infected and started failing.  Anya was dying.  If LIN hadn't rescued her she would have gone to one of the big commercial operations and they might have gotten one more litter out of her.   In Anya's condition this would most likely have killed her, but if she could have produced a few puppies in the process then the money laid out at the auction would have been well spent. 

The days went by and Anya continued to enjoy living with Lynn.  There were trips to various places including the dog park, squeaky toys, racing around, going where she wanted to go, never being in a cage or crate, lots of scritches, and life was pretty good.   But here were also dark days when Anya's health declined and her kidney function threatened to crash, but she always fought her way back.  She would go into the hospital for a course of intravenous fluids and intensive kidney medication, she would pull through, and life would go on.   Life did go on as usual until August 2009.   Anya crashed, her kidney function became critical and she was rushed to the vet.  Nothing helped this time.  At the end of a tough, three week fight, where Lynn gave the intravenous fluids at home in between the days Anya spent at the hospital, it was clear that the time had come for Anya to cross the Bridge.  

On August 17, 2009 Anya crossed the Bridge, just two weeks short of one year from the date LIN took her out of the auction.  She died with all the dignity of a great Leo.  She was sweet, beautiful, gentle, loving, and never deserved the gross mistreatment that was handed out to her.  Through all of it she never stopped trusting humans.  Her body had been destroyed but not her Leo spirit or huge Leo heart.  When she came into LIN's care we knew she couldn't live forever but we wanted every moment she had left to be wonderful and filled with love.   That is what it is all about, to take wonderful dogs like Anya out of horrible conditions and give them a chance to really live.  We placed her puppies in loving new homes and that is her legacy.  Her puppies are healthy and happy, even though Anya is gone.  But she didn't die alone and suffering, without medical care, isolated in a cage in a cold barn.  She died loved and happy.  There are Leos out there that deserve a chance to be happy and to make our hearts sing.  Thank you for your support of rescue, your generosity made it possible to give Anya the best year of her life.

Bonnie Goodfriend - President
Leos In Need Rescue, Inc.