My name is BUSTA.  My mommies call me Busta Dog., and I have that name because I was “busted out of jail with second to spare”.  My Aunty B saw an ad on http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/KY224.html and saw my picture.   It asked for immediate help. The ad said I was going to be killed at the pound.  I was 4 months old at the time.  The pound had to many babies and not enough space or food so they were killing us at a rate of 12 a day.  My Aunty B took action!  She paid to have me sprung out of jail with only 15 minutes to spare.  I was going to be killed next.  My 5 brother and sisters did not make it.  This is where my travels started.  My Aunty B found someone in KY to foster me while they found a way to get me to Mass to my moms.  My Aunty B went on a website for people trying to save puppies like me, and found many many nice people to each drive 100 miles and bring me all the way from KY to Mass. When she showed my mommy  my picture, my mommy cried. That was how my mommies found me. When I finally got here, many weeks later, I was very sick and smelly.

The pound would spray down my cage with me in it to clean it and I had a very bad infection in my lungs. I had been starved and my foster family had tried to get me well but it took a few months. My mommies took me to the vet many times, and with 3 doses of antibiotics, I started to get well.

I am now very happy and healthy and mommy calls me a spoiled boy. My mommies even got me a sista!!! WOOF! She came from the same pound.  So I am very blessed.  Blessed that my mommies love me and take care of me.  Blessed that someone saw me, and I made it all the way to Massachusetts.

Thanks,

Busta Veautour, Massachusetts

From Julia:

I wrote on March 25th 2009: Please light a candle for little Lily (formerly Sherry). Lily went to the Bridge today. She was very old and suffering. Lily was dumped by campus in Morehead on a rainy day last June. She had severe arthritis and weak lungs. She had been bred many times in her life. My friend, Sue, adopted her and Lily went to live in NJ. Sue gave Lily what she always wanted…love. So many old breeder beagles never get a chance at a real life so I am grateful that Lily was able to spend her final months with Sue. Sue knew Lily would not last long, but she opened her home and heart to her anyway. Sue went into this knowing that her heart would soon be broken. Lily really began to go downhill this winter. We hoped that she would perk up in the Spring, but she was in too much pain to walk. Yesterday, she began refusing food and Sue knew it was time. Please keep Sue in your thoughts. She is heartbroken…and so am I…I’ve attached a picture of Lily when she was first at the vets here in Morehead. She was a beautiful little old lady.

From her Mommy Sue: And the only thing I would add would be “so in the end, this nameless little old breeder beagle from a Kentucky puppy mill had a name. She had a “mommy” to cry over her and help her cross the Bridge, and she had so many people (16 to be exact) light candles for her…so she died with plenty of love and light all around her. And she had her own big bed (which she loved) and she had plenty of cold clean water and all the good food she could eat. And there were so many animals here that loved her too. I still cry when I think of how unfair it was that she suffered her whole life and only had 8 months of love and kindness. But at least she had that.”

When LIly arrived and I took her to the vet, he was very concerned because her blood volume was so low. While he did give me medicine for her, I did not want to torture her by giving it it her right away because I felt it was more important that Lily feel she was safe, and loved and that she had kindness for the first time in her life. When I took her back to the vet to check her blood volume, he told me that it was a miracle and it was astounding how love and kindness was the best medicine. Her blood volume had returned to normal.