Peggy's Story

Many of you have asked me why Peggy has not been in any of my posts of late.  I am going to share Peggy's story with all of you.

This is so personal for me and I was not going to share it but now that some time has passed I feel I can share the story of this beautiful girl.

This is Peggy the day we picked her up from the Breeding Farm she was kept.  This is one of the biggest breeders of Basset Hounds in the midwest.  He has a large farm where he has set up breeding kennels for his dogs.  I am not a fan of these places and as I tell you Peggy's story you will see why I say this.

This is a picture of Peggy with my little grand daughter Charlotte when we first brought her home to live with us.  She loves kids.

Peggy made herself right at home with my whites lol!

She loved this white chair of mine.  It's all good since it is a washable slipcover!!! 

 Here is Peggy's story.  
Grab a frosty beverage this is a long story.

  After Cooper died a breeder contacted me through email saying he had a female basset hound he was breeding that he was ready to give up for adoption into a forever home.  

I was not sure I wanted to take on another dog after just losing Cooper and having so much going on in our life.   We were moving into the new house, renovations,  moving my mom up from Florida for her care and babysitting for my two granddaughters.  We had a lot going on!!!

The breeder was one that I contacted before we got Cooper.  I had heard that sometimes when his females are too old to breed anymore he is willing to place them in forever homes.  

 I had contacted him awhile back and at that time he did not have any females ready to go to a forever home.  So I let it go.  

Then Cooper came into our lives.  We loved him and gave him a great home until the cancer took him after only having him a year.  He was a lug of happiness and love for us.  Terry and I were devastated when we lost him.

A few months after we lost Cooper this breeder popped up in my email saying he had a female ready to be placed into a home.  He was inquiring if I was still looking.  

I thought ok maybe this is meant to be since I had contacted this guy over two years prior and nothing happened.  Now that Cooper had passed,   I get this email that this breeder has a female for us to consider.  Hmmmmm. 

  Even with our lives being busy,  I thought maybe this was meant to be too.  

After seeing her sweet face I knew we had to take the plunge again.

 So down we traveled to Indiana where this breeder lived.  The farm was big and clean but all I could see was long fenced kennels with little small dog shelters at the end of each run.  

Inside each run was a female basset hound.  Even with all the kennels being clean I felt a sadness for these beautiful dogs knowing nothing but being outdoors and bred for puppies.  

No human contact except when the breeder fed them or took them to breed.  

They all barked and wagged their tails at us and seemed happy.  I guess a happiness of not being miss treated and knowing nothing else in their lives.

We took Peggy home with us.  She was the smallest of all the females we saw.  

We have had several basset hounds over the years and this one seemed to be very small and skinny.  

The breeder said he was giving her up because he had tried to breed her a few times and each time the babies were still born or he just could not get her to go into heat anymore.  

So after all these problems with breeding Peggy the breeder did not want to care for her anymore.  Once they do not produce good puppies they are of no use to the breeder.   

I felt good about adopting Peggy and giving her a better life with us.

After taking Peggy to our Vet and having her examined we found out that she was under nourished because of having 10 really infected  bad teeth.  

That is why she was underweight.   Poor girl could not eat much.  Can you imagine having 10  really bad tooth aches!  

Made me sick and heart broken to hear this from our Vet.  We started with getting Peggy fixed.   Then the bigger and more extensive second surgery was to have the teeth removed and antibiotics given.  Peggy began to come around and gain some weight and feel better.  

The Vet said she probably was having still born liters because of being in such poor health with the teeth.  

I was outraged that this breeder with such a wonderful reputation did not know this about one of his females.  

It was obvious he did not pay attention to the health of his dogs.  

If he would have payed more attention to her health she probably would have given healthy puppies.  

I wrote him and told him all of this and what I thought of how careless and irresponsible he was to not pay more attention to the health of his dogs.


 After fixing Peggy up and getting her healthy again she became such a sweet and loving dog.  

The problem with Peggy as we would come to find out is that she needed a "Pack".  Peggy only knew living with other dogs and now she was just with Terry and I.  

Peggy would have major anxiety when I would leave her for even a short time.  I would come home and she would be a mess with how much stress and anxiety she would go through while I was away.  Made my heart break each time.

I talked to the Vet and she gave us some retraining things to do with Peggy to get her to not have as much anxiety when we had to leave her alone.  

We worked with her for months with nothing seeming to work.  The only other option was to  drug her with anti anxiety medications. 

 The side effects of these meds would not give her a good quality of life and she would be in a foggy  state of mind on these meds.  

I just could not bring myself to do this with her. I felt this fur angel had been through so much already.

I could take her with me when I would go down to babysit and go to most places,  but she did have to be home alone a lot during most days.  When I would go over to care for my mom I could not take her with.  Dogs were not allowed at the senior place my mom lived.  So we still had a big problem.

Our Vet is a wonderful caring vet and she said she felt that Peggy was a Pack dog.  She needed a pack and Terry and I were not enough of a pack for her.  

We had to make a big and hard decision.  We needed to find Peggy a new home with a pack of her own.  I have never ever had to give up a dog from our family.  Never Ever!!! So this was the hardest thing we were going to have to do.

I was talking about this with a good friend and she said her daughter and SIL and their three kids were looking to adopt a dog.  

After giving it some thought.    I felt maybe the kids would hopefully become her pack and she would have a better life free of anxiety and fear.  

We decided to adopt her out to this wonderful family.  I knew they were dog people and would give Peggy a loving home.  

That was not the hard part.  The hard part was giving her away.  Even when your head says this is the perfect solution for everyone,  my heart was breaking into a million pieces.  

So when the day came for them to come and pick up Peggy I could hardly keep it together knowing this was goodbye.  

I felt like I was giving up one of my children.  Peggy immediately  bonded with the kids and they were so excited to have Peggy going home with them.  

As they drove down the street I watched the car drive away.  I felt like I was in a dream.  I wanted to run down the street yelling wait give her back I made a big mistake!!!

  My heart was breaking into a million pieces.  Terry and I both cried as we saw the car drive away.

Later that day I got this picture with one of the boys and Peggy already bonding.  It was a good thing for my broken heart to see.

Peggy was bonding with her new family and pack.

Then a few days after the picture came through they sent me this video of her playing and adjusting to her new pack.  My heart began to feel less broken and I could see we did the right thing for Peggy.  She now has her pack and is loving her life.

Peggy has not had any anxiety with her new family like she had with us.   She is adjusting well.  She is happy and loving her new home.

I learned from this life lesson that our purpose was to save her from starvation and poor health and to get her ready for her forever home. 

Peggy was not meant to be our forever pup she needed a bigger forever pack to spend her life.

I can finally share this with all of you.  It took some time for me to be able to share this. 

While it is a heartwarming end for Peggy it was a heartbreaking journey for Terry and I. 

I now know that we did the right thing for everyone.

Our purpose in Peggy's life while short gave us love and taught us that sometimes the right thing to do is not the easy thing.

Peggy is in a great home and is so loved.  I get updates on her and I can actually laugh and smile now and not cry from missing her so much as her new family shares her life with us.

Terry and I miss having a dog.  We have always had a dog or two in our home.  So this has been a major adjustment for us. 

We have so many outside responsibilities in our life right now and hope someday when things calm down to be able to adopt another beautiful fur angel into our hearts and home.

That is the story of Peggy.  She is thriving in her new home.

Hugs,
Kris