Duchess was rescued from a dog fighting ring, where she was used as a breeder dog.  She spent most of her first four years locked in a cage hidden under a tarp being bred over and over.  She was skin and bones and nipples.  When she was finally rescued by the police, she was taken to the Galveston Animal shelter, which immediately euthanizes all pitbulls (either through ignorance or malice or both).  We saw a post going around Facebook that Duchess and her six puppies were going to be killed by 5pm that day.  We rented a minivan and drove to Galveston immediately where brave workers at the shelter snuck Duchess and her babies out the back door!  After getting Duchess and her puppies in the car, they brought out another basket of four older pitbull puppies and then two older pitbulls that were also going to be killed within the hour if we couldn’t help.  Of course, I said, "Put them in the car!" and we left for home with thirteen pitbull puppies in a rented minivan!!  

 

Unfortunatly, all of the youngest puppies ended getting parvo from the shelter conditions and fighting to save their lives eventually cost us over $10,000.  Of the ten puppies that got parvo, eight puppies survived.

 

Duchess is now our momma dog!  Maybe because she had so many litters of her own that were taken away, she tries to nurse and love on all babies.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a puppy, a bunny, a duckling, or a human; if it’s a baby, Momma Duchess will be there!   She helps us introduce all of our new small animals to our entire dog pack.   We always give the new animal to Duchess first and she will immediately claim it as her own.  Once the other dogs see that Duchess has taken on another baby (no matter the species!), they know not to bother it.   It’s pretty amazing actually!