by Drew Mitchell

Created on: January 24, 2010

The Rescue of Molly

She was such a sorry looking little thing. She was so skinny, her coat was dull, her ears were crusty and for some reason, she only had a stub for a tail. I remember asking my wife "Who bobs the tail on a dachshund?" We were both dumbstruck at the sorry-looking little dog in the cage.

We were at the Animal Shelter in Clinton, IA. It was the middle of March 2006. My wife had been asking, even begging, to get another dog. Our other dachshund, Oskar, needed a playmate. He was soon to be seven years old and he was starting to act like an older dog than what he really was. He needed someone in his life to bring him back to the playful little dog he had always been. At least that was the argument my wife kept giving me.

I had not wanted to get another dog yet. My other dog, a yellow Labrador Retriever named Dawn, had not been gone long enough. That was the argument I used most often. But it was now getting close to four years since I had to have Dawn put down. True, I missed her - I still do - but that excuse was getting lame and even I knew it. When my wife found the web site that featured Molly as a dog needing a good home, I agreed to go see her.

So as I stated before, our first glimpses of Molly were horrific. She obviously needed good food, good grooming and a lot of love. She would soon get all of that and more. The minute I saw her, I was in love. Here amongst all of these big, barking dogs was this poor, pathetic looking little "doxie," obviously a miniature. One look into those sad brown eyes and I was hooked.

Molly had been a puppy mill dog. She had been rescued recently by another family, but for some reason, she had snapped at the family's three year old child and the family turned her over to the animal shelter where we found her. As I stated, she was in horrible condition - in addition to the other issues we saw at first, we soon learned that her teeth were rotting and she had a scar on her side from when she had been burned.

Puppy mills are horrible places. Their sole purpose is to breed dogs over and over again and to sell the puppies. The dogs are mistreated, kept in cramped cages and receive the minimum for food and water. They seldom if ever get good veterinary care and they are over-bred to the point that the "stock" that comes from the mothers is usually poor. It was quite obvious that Molly had a long way to go before she would be well again.

My wife and I discussed it and decided to bring Oskar in to meet Molly after the vet tech

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