This is the story of Tinker Belle. Sadly it is also the story of so many wee tykes who are born into a puppymill. One of Tinkers Rescue Angels is Luann Johnson. Luann has kindly written the first part of Tinkers story for us.
On a rainy March morning, the rescuers left their hotel room and drove down the gravel roads through the backwoods of the Missouri Ozarks to the "Puppy Ridge" kennel closeout.
The rescurers were met at the gate by armed guards. The rescuerers did not identify themselves, but told the guards they were attending the auction to purchase breeding stock. They carried three dog crates in the back of their car. Their story was persuasive and the guards pointed them to a parking space in the nearby field.
One rescuer went to pickup an auction number while the others began walking through the windowless concrete block shed that housed the small dogs. The sheds had a four fot wide aisle down the middle with two or three levels of dog cages on each side. Between each level of dogs was a drainage system to catch the waste from the dogs above. Each dog cage held two, three or four little dogs. Each dog cage ws smaller than a medium sized dog crate. The cages were enclosed on three sides and had a wire grate gate on the front. Most of the cages also opened to a small exterior chicken wire run. Some cages did not have the exterior runs. Those cages held the mother dogs and theirunweaned pupie. Thoses cages held four little three month old scotties.
The rescuer then went to the outside runs to examine the larger dogs. Each run held two, three or four dogs. The dogs were kept on pea gravel and each run had a dog house. All the dogs were dirty and matted. Finally, the rescuer examined the whelping shed. There were about half a dozen new mothers in cages with their new babies.
Puppy Ridge advertised over 250 dogs for sale. Another 100 had been brought in from another kennel for dispersal. The aution flyer indicated that Puppy Ridge had sold over 800 puppies during 1999. Each dog had a chain collar with a white tag that gave an identification number. The auction flyer identified each dog by its number, its age and its breeding history. Most of the dogs were under five years old. Most of the females that were over a year old had already had one litter of pups.
The auction was held in a tent. Buyers from all over the Midwest were there to purchase dogs. Mnay of the faces were familiar, but many were not. The rescuers took their places on the bleachers. The auction started at 10:00. The auctioneers announced that they would attempt to sell 50 dogs an hour. The local church would be selling cofee, hotdogs, hamburgers and various kinds of pie to raise money for it's youth group. The deputy sheriff and the guards would keep order and make sure no one left with out paying for their dogs. The AKC representative was present just to make sure that everything went smoothly. And, by the way, any rescue group was welcome to buy a dog. But, video equipment would be confiscated. Female dogs with young pups couldn't be transported out if state, but the kennel owner would be happy to hold the dogs until the puppies were ready to be weaned. Since he planned to continue brokering puppies, he wuld probably agree to buy any unweaned puppies that were left on his premises.
Weimerieners, Yellow, Chocolate nad Black Labs, Beagles, Rotties, Boxers, Wheatons, Lhasas, Cockers, Yorkies, Silkies, Poms, Westies, Scotties, and Cairns. It seemed like the miller had every possible kind of dog. It started to rain. and the bidding went on and on. As each dog was brought in, the auctioneers would make a comment about him or her. The were identified bu their "model" number. A 19996 model, a 1997 model, and so on. Most of them were discribed as "good all around". The breeding history of each female was discussed.
Finally at 2:30 the Scotties came up. Four precious babies. Two males and two females. The rescueres had sat for more than five hours without getting a dog and were determined ti have a Scottie. The two females were auctioned first. The bidding started at $100.00 and went up in $50 increments. Within a minute, the bidding was over and the rescuers had their Scottie. The ayctiioneer caled for them to pick the female that they wanted. There was no way to know which female was best. So, they picked th first one and hoped that she would check out well at the vet's office.
The rescuers stayed to bid on the Westies and were lucky enough to purchase a one year old Westie. She sold for less then the others because she was not AKC. The wonderful people of "GreatWestieGathering" were notified. They had been on their computers all afternoon waiting to see if their rescue attempt had been sucesssful.
The bill was paid and the two little girls were loaded into the crates for the five hour drive home. Two days later, the Westie who's name was Buffy, and the little Scottie, who had no name, were taken to the vet and both checked out. They were given all of their shots and papers were made for the overland transport. They were ready to start their journey to their new foster home. They were going to Florida to stay with Westie rescue until the perfect forever homes could be found.
Four days later, their transporters arrived. The first leg was handled by a wonderful young couple who had rescued a Cairn. The picked up Scottie puppy and Buffy and drove them to Tennessee where another nice lady picked them up and drove them to Alabama. In Alabama, they found a ride with Frank and Ann who took them in their Travel Trailer to Hollywood, Florida. Somewhere in Tennessee, Scottie puppy chewed up all of her transport papers along with her vet records and her AKC paperwork. And, not very far into her trip, she decided that she did not want to stay in her crte, but wanted to share a crate with Buffy.
Before the dogs began the journey, it was clear that there was a big problem. The little Scottie had never been registered and she had no name. "Scottie puppy" just wasn't working. The people of GreatWestieGathering took up the challenge and soon e-mails were full of all types of names. Somehow the name Tinker Belle was suggested and it stuck. From that day on "Scottie Puppy" was Tinker - or Stinker - depending on how she was acting.
Then a second problem arose. What to do with Tinker? She wasn't a Westie and Westie Rescue didn't have any adoption applications for her. The call went out for help and the first person who came to mind was Mickey. Mickey helped rescue everything and knew every Scottie person in the world and would know someone who could foster Tinker until a home could be found.
It is our hope that Ann will write a little about Tinker's time in Florida. But for now................
That brings Tinker Belle's story to me, I'm Mickey. When I first saw the E-mail from Luann, my only intention was to help find a foster home for wee Tinker. As Luann and I exchanged e-mails back and forth, a connection began to come to the surface. See I had lost my Wee Bonnie Belle to Lymphoma, just a little over a year ago. She had been four years old when I rescued her. Here was a Wee Tinker Belle who was four months old. And so the story goes on.
Your life had such a rough start. You were born into a puppy mill in Missouri. When you were barely three months old, you were rescue by human Angels called Rescuers. You made your way all the way to Florida to Ann. You were fostered with them for a while, just starting to spread your wings. Just the beginning of that terrier spirit, the adventurer showing thru. Then one day emails were sent out, they needed to find you another foster home, could I help, did I know anyone? Why not me I thought, I wanted you! I didn't even know anything about you, except you were four months old and your name was Tinker Belle. So I crossed my fingers and sent my email. I was on pins and needles waiting to hear. I was supposed to go out of town, but sat glued to the computer screen. Then the call came. "YES" you were to be mine, you were going to join our family! Hurried emails, phone calls, arranging transportation. They sent your picture to me. My fate was sealed, love at first sight! On that Friday afternoon, as I checked the emails, all the plans were there, in just a few hours, you would be on your way! In a week you would be home! Alas, little did I know, that you had started your journey that morning.....but not to me. You had escaped from the house where you were being fostered, and found your way to the pool.....found your way to the Rainbow Bridge. When I first recieved the call, I didn't quite comprehend. Several hours later, I was still in shock. I remember looking at your picture and thinking why? Even though I never held you in my arms, or felt your soft puppy breath, you are still "MY LITTLE ANGEL". You took a little piece of my heart with you to the Bridge. Some day my little Angel, "I WILL" get to hold you, I will feel that sweet puppy breath, when I follow all my Angels to the Otherside.
Sleep well my Angel!
Your Almost Mom!
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