Sunshine, lollipops, rainbows and hot dogs: the Bakersfield 4

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

Livin' it up in la vida with the Bakersfield 4

Our little refugees on their first day of freedom at their safe house. Outside a little country town, Apollo tha' Dog, Rza and Sza with their little sister Cardi B explored and played all day long till they were plumb tuckered out like we say down here in Texas. At one point, their road bud Ruben turned his back and then found Rza and Sza dripping wet. He heard some splashing and there was little Cardi B taking a dip in the doggy swimming pool. I am going to venture a guess this is the first time she's ever enjoyed a dip in a swimming pool. I knew she had a bit of Miss Sassy in her which is why the name Cardi B. Cardi B is the little dog in the news photo getting beaten with a baseball bat with her sweet little mouth taped shut. It's horrendous, but if you could meet this little one, you'd be even more disgusted at how anyone could treat her with such cruelty.

It's my job to make sure they never ever know anything but gentle care and love in a peaceful surrounding. .FYI, the plan is to keep them boarded at the safe house in the country until I can bring them here to my refuge - also in the country out by Lake Travis - when some spots open up. The flipside of being the only 100% no-kill raw-feeding holistic treatment pit bull refuge is everybody lives nice long lives. Amber rescued for the mean streets of Houston, then survived the horrors of Spindletop will be 17 this coming July. Pretty good for a staffy bull - English bulldog mix under any circumstances.

It's still a long road to recovery. The girls still need to be spayed and all seen by a vet. If you would like to sponsor one of the dogs or make a small donation, please visit Reunion Rescue website and click their donate photo or the DONATE button and type in Reunion Rescue. Every penny goes to these dogs. Nobody here makes a salary and most months all the funding for good raw food and supplements come out of my social security check. Long gone are the days when you could get help from the big pet store chains like Petco and Petsmart when you donate at the checkout stand. Who knows where the money goes. 

Please follow the dogs on their Bakersfield 4 Facebook page. When we reach 100 followers, the page gets its own vanity URL. Share with your dog-loving friends. Thank you for taking the time to read this update. Now lets dive into some photos.

And please sign up for the new Reunion Rescue newsletter - organizing to #savelives just like the Bakersfield 4. 

Welcome to Texas ya'll to the Bakersfield 4

They're here. It was a long trip, but the Bakersfield 4 are home. Welcome to Texas, ya'll. New names to go with their new lives. Kissing that past goodbye. It was bittersweet for our four. They made friends for life at Bakersfield KCAS animal shelter. I've pulled a bunch of dogs from KCAS in the past. I'll share photos and updates in later stories, but this story is all about a brand new life, or like my good buddies the Hickoids say Brand New Way. Welcome home, Rza and Sza (formerly Dorothy and Indica) Cardi B (formerly Chiquita) and Apollo tha' Dog!

I got to the sanctuary where Reunion Rescue will be boarding our four with a truckload of food, good food, rich people dog food from our friends at Healthy Pet, Tomlinson's and Petsmart. After a long ride filled with detours that took Ruben and our travelers all the way up to almost Nevada from Arizona, they pulled in. 

I knew to hold back as they are understandably fearful of women. It was hard for myself and Angela who is the director of the sanctuary where they're boarding. She kept saying she wanted to scoop them all up and squeeze and cuddle them. They truly are adorable in the classic Colby dog nanny dogs. Staffy bulls, tiny and fiercely precious. Apollo tha Dog hopped right out of the van and got to exploring. He gave the place his A #1 seal of approval, running around and sniffing and playing with the other rescue boarders and home dogs at the sanctuary. 

Please like Bakersfield 4 Facebook page.

And please sign up for the new Reunion Rescue newsletter - organizing to #savelives just like the Bakersfield 4. 

More to come, but here's a late shot Angela sent. They have their own room with a dog run and playtimes in the big dog fenced area. I think everybody likes their new home here in Texas. Oh yeah. The red pillow under Rza's head. It was part of a big sack of toys and outfits that are going over to our friends at The Dogslanding House. But that red pillow. I was what am I going to do with this. Angela has a collection of little dogs from the shelter system who have sanctuary for life with her. I thought they might like the pillow, but Rza had other plans for it. Sweet dreams, angel girl. 

                           

Parting shots from Bakersfield - Day 4

Our four travelers have had some new experiences. Some firsts. They've never been out of Bakersfield and now are seeing the country and learning there is good in this sad old world. Thank you to Danny at KCAS Bakersfield shelter for the parting shots. He's working on a video and Pit Bulls and Other Animals can't wait to share it. 

And please sign up for the new Reunion Rescue newsletter - organizing to #savelives just like the Bakersfield 4. 

Ruben, their road caretaker and driver, says each day they get more and more relaxed. Learning to trust humans when you've never known kindness is a big thing. Thanks to the Bakersfield KCAS staff who took the time from a busy workload in a huge crowded shelter to show these dogs some kindness, the first they'd ever known.                     

Driving down I-5

I don't ever want to die

Cause I'd no more get to see

All this beauty passing by me

Laundry on the line

Truckers passing on the right

Every color on the wind

You know you're living if you've sinned

Down I-5

Here are a few from the evening departure I stole from Danny's page (so thank you, Danny) to share with you. The workers you see in the photos stayed late after a hard grueling day to make sure the Bakersfield 4 were loaded up safely and to say their bittersweet goodbyes.

The creep who beat them put a bite on their records and one last nasty blow after she'd been arrested. It's hard enough to save a regular dog and until the Bakersfield 4, not one bite case ever has been rescued from Bakersfield KCAS shelter. So, these shelter folks were amazed and pretty elated that the dogs will have a chance to live their lives.

One their way to Austin area, they drove to Hesperia that first day. The Land of Enchantment filled their wide eyes yesterday while stopping often for potty breaks and leg stretching. Ruben even picked up another 4-legged hitcher who our Bakersfield 4 welcomed with no growling or hackles raised. Every text I get from Ruben about them amazes me. I've never seen abused dogs so willing to trust. This is a real big deal. They are teaching me. If everybody, me included, lived our lives like the Bakersfield 4, what a wonderful world this would be.

Shoulder's burning in the window

I should roll it up I know

I pass the signs that promise hell

They don't know me at all

Some are born to sweet delight

Some are born to endless night

Born to endless night 

I've tasted both, they are the same
To each other I turn again

So they should be arriving today, weather and traffic permitting and we'll have some welcome news and photos to share. You can bet on that.

But for now, all is well

I see the horses on the hill

I smell the cut grass on the air

Feel the wind hot in my hair

Down I-5

Please follow them on their Bakersfield 4 Facebook page and help us raise awareness regarding the overcrowded shelter situation in Calfiornia and the rest of the country.

 

 

Cheeseburgers in Paradise - Day 3 with the Bakersfield 4

Today's update features some of exploits of our four Bakersfield dogs on the road somewhere between Hesperia, California and paradise. They don't seem to mind the road and are getting looser and more relaxed with each mile. Only one problem so far. After that first night when Ruben stopped and got them all a hamburger, they were sold. Now every time he has to slow down, they think it's hamburger time and get all waggly-tailed and excited. I told him they were spoiled for good now.

Dogs amaze me. I'm still carrying a hard grudge against SFACC in San Francisco for the time they nearly killed a dog I was saving, Slappy, when the green volunteer who was trained to handle dogs properly sprayed her down with a firehose and opened up the spay incisions from the surgery she'd only had the day before. Slappy was a wonderful dog and as dogs do, she put that horror behind her with injuries that caused her to endure medical issues for the remainder of her life. She forgave them, but I remember every single bitter moment. When Carl Friedman director and his henchman Kat Brown fired Ann Bennet, the vet tech who demanded Slappy transported to Pets Unlimited for emergency surgery when she found Slappy lying in the floor unresponsive in her filthy San Francisco kennel, blood and intestines everywhere. A true horror story in a town shelter named after St. Francis. And they banned me and Reunion Rescue. 

Slappy lived a nice long happy life eating a raw Reunion Rescue diet. She was adopted and a much beloved family member

to Rachel and Mark who witness that evil green volunteer spraying Slappy with the hose. As luck and fate would have it, they moved the family here to Austin and I got to reunite with that beloved Slappy.

But, back to the Bakersfield 4. Dogs move forward. Even the shitty trainers (and I've had a snoot-ful of those) will tell you dogs live in the moment. They honestly do. Like Dorothy, the most impacted of the Bakersfield 4, now called by her Hip Hop name Rza. I like to give all the hard cases a new name to go with their new collar and leash and new home with newfound hope for new beginnings. She was holding back in the car ride that first day, but when Ruben stopped and got them all hamburgers, things began to change. The other three now called Sza, Cardi B and Apollo tha' Dog gobbled theirs up like they were at a backyard BBQ. Rza was not so sure. She growled a little bit when Ruben gently offered the burger to her, but then very carefully she moved out of the crate she shares with either mother or daughter or sister Sza - it's Chinatown, Jake - and sat next to Ruben. She ate her hamburger, probably a first in this dog's life, while gently resting her body against his leg. This, my friends, is a huge breakthrough.

They enjoyed their ride yesterday. Ruben is taking a slower route back home, thank goodness, because he nearly killed himself trying to get to Bakersfield KCAS before they closed for the rest of the weekend last Saturday night. He stops to let them potty every time he hears the slightest whimper or moan. These four have proved to be very well-behaved traveling companions I'm told. They are scheduled to arrive Wednesday morning at the sanctuary where they'll board indefinitely. If I have to go out on the highway street corner with my Reunion Rescue jar to collect their rent, I'll do it. These dogs will never again have to experience anything but love and respect. It's time for them to learn to just be dogs. That is how it works.

And please sign up for the new Reunion Rescue newsletter - organizing to #savelives just like the Bakersfield 4.