Spent all day yesterday at the sanctuary with the Bakersfield 4. I had fun calling them by their new hip hop first names. Rza and Sza, Cardi B and Apollo tha' Dog! They looked at me like, "what???" But when Angela gave me some weiners to treat them with, it was all over with. Best friends...almost. Turn up your headphones and join me and the Bakersfield 4 on a glorious afternoon.
Apollo tha' Dog was the first to run over and make friends. The three girls weren't so quick to bond. That's ok. I know what they've been through. The Bakersfield Californian wrote a great article about our four survivors and feature the great video shot by Danny Spanks of KCAS Bakersfield Animal Shelter.
I've changed their names from Dorothy and Indica, a pot name. Chiquita and Apollo. I believe in all dogs getting a new start which includes a new collar and a new name, a new leash on life. Dorothy now called Rza after the great poet and Wu Tang Klan founder, well she's got a lot to say, too. And said it all yesterday. I wish sometimes I could speak better 'dog' cuz boy, Miss Rza had a tale to tell. Her partner, formerly Indica. I've never liked naming dogs booze and drug names. It's disrespectful, so she is now called Sza after Solána Imani Rowe the recording artist from St. Louis MO whose current hit Kill Bill is in steady rotation over here at Reunion Rescue where the music plays for the dogs, birds and cats pretty much 24/7. Sza and Rza were plastered to one another in fear subject to the incredible abuse they suffered, but now they're beginning to let go and relax. They were wandering around, sniffing and getting into stuff all afternoon yesterday. It will be a nice thing to watch them become their own dogs and learn the softer side of living a good life, not waking up every day in terror of the next beating.
Yeah, I sang to the dogs and they looked at me funny. They didn't seem to mind. I sang a little bit of What a Wonderful World a la more Joey Ramone than Louis Armstrong. I can't always remember all the words to songs, so I make up verses that appeal to their interests. Or what I think they are thinking. Chiquita - now called Cardi B - and totally living up to her new name. She is little miss sass. Her likes the men folk most. By the end of my visit Cardi was coming around with the others and checking me out a little bit. That's ok. Take your time. I kept telling them they didn't have to be best friends now, but they're gonna learn how much I love them and we're going to be comrades. They have good long lives to get busy living.
Apollo tha Dog! was from the first ready to party. He jumped right out of the SUV the other day and commenced to sniffing and getting to know his new home. For a dog who's been beat in the face over and over with a baseball bat to make that kind of transformation and to trust his new humans is nothing short of miraculous. These dogs are good dogs and they deserve a good life.
Thank you much to Angela and Ruben who run the sanctuary and give their lives to dogs like our four and many others. Their place is dog heaven on earth, home to many pets who had nowhere else to go and no one to care for them. It is filled with wonder.
And please sign up for the new Reunion Rescue newsletter - organizing to #savelives just like the Bakersfield 4.
two drifters, off to see the world ...
there's such a lot of world to see ...
we're after the same rainbow's end
...
waitin' 'round the bend
...
my huckleberry friend
...
Moon river and me
