Henderson Ranch Road Rescue

HENDERSON RANCH ROAD RESCUE
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On or about September 11, 2004, I received a call from a man that said he had called the Jack County Sheriff about some dogs that were living at an abandoned place on the next property over from him. The dogs were foraging for food and when he took his grand daughter to catch the school bus, they would surround the car, bark and frighten her. He would have to chase them off. In general, they were a nuisance and possibly even a danger to humans. The deputy told him that Jack County does not have animal control and gave him our number. This was not the first time our number had been given to people. We have, on several occasions, helped residents of Jack County when they had a problem with an animal or animals.

I went to the location given me by this nice man to see what we could do to help him and these poor dogs. The place was on Henderson Ranch Road, near where they are building the Jack County Power Plant. There were puppies as well as adult dogs living around what had to be one of the worst places I have ever seen. Trash and old cars everywhere. The animals were living under a burned out doublewide. Everywhere you looked, there were dogs. Of course, the puppies had never know humans so they were as wild as could be. Three of the adults were very sweet and we were able to get them to come to us with the aid of some food. Turned out there were six eight to ten week old puppies and six adult dogs. Two males and four females, one of which was old and had obviously had many litters. One was a large red female that was in heat and I’m sure, had been bred by every male in the area, which meant that in sixty three days, there were going to be twelve to fifteen more puppies brought into the world. All the dogs, except for the older female, were anywhere from one to two or three years old and it appeared that they were all kin. There was no water anywhere on the property so there must have been a tank nearby. We opened several bags of food and put it around then stepped back. You should have seen them go after it. They were literally starving to death. The puppies were ravenous. In fact, I was able to catch two of the puppies when they crawled into an empty dog food sack that I had thrown some empty food cans into. I heard them growling and scuffling over the cans and I simply grabbed the sack and carried them to the truck and put them into a crate. As it turned out, this would be the easiest capture of the day. I managed to get a little speckled female to come to me and put her in the cab of the truck.

I decided to leave for the day so I left several bags of food to keep them busy. Two down and ten to go.

The next day I returned and managed to get a sweet speckled female and a big German Shepherd X. I was able to pick up the female but the big Shepherd had to be coaxed into the cab of the truck. As I was leaving, a young couple happened by. They lived just behind this place. I was able to get a leash on another of the big males but he wouldn’t walk on the leash so the young fellow picked him up got him into a crate. Then this nice couple helped me and we caught the rest of the puppies. They gave us a run for our money. If they had not been caught, in a few weeks they would either be dead or total feral and impossible to catch. That meant there was the old mama dog and the big red female and another black/tan male that had showed up during the night. He was sticking close to the red female that was in heat.

The next time I came out, Pat came with me. We saw all three dogs but none would come close to us. Same story the next two days. The next day, I brought the humane trap. I sat the trap several different places over the next few days but they wouldn’t be fooled. It wasn’t until I got some very old and spoiled chicken and relocated the trap near the burned out double wide they had been living under that we began to get results. The following day after moving the trap, Joe, a friend of ours and I went to check it and sure enough, there was the old black and tan mama dog. She wasn’t frightened at all and I finally was able to slip the leash over her head by crawling into the trap. She came right out and didn’t fight the leash at all. We took her to a friend who owns a grooming salon and gave her a good bath. Every one of the dogs we had caught was crawling with fleas. As a matter of fact, Joe and I had to spray ourselves with flea spray around our ankles because our feet were covered with the nasty little things.

Finally we began to catch the remaining dogs. Next the big red female Ridgeback X decided she couldn’t resist that awful chicken. After we took the red female that was in heat, the little black and tan male dog lost interest and disappeared. Still, we left the trap for one more night. The next day, we returned and picked up the trap. Before leaving, we went to tell the people who had helped us that we had caught all the dogs and were taking off. They said the fellow that had originally called us had called them and said there was one more that had showed up at his home and could he bring it to us so we got one more little black and white speckled female.

Finally, they were all caught and safe. Still I worried about what had happened to the black and tan male. As we were leaving, we saw him laying in the ditch across the road from a house. We stopped and as we walked over to where he was, a big Rottie came running across the road from the house. As I walked back across the road to the house, a lady came out and sat down. I ask if either or both dogs belonged there and she said the Rottie was theirs. We talked for a few minutes and I gave her our card. She said the dog we couldn’t catch lived down the road. Thank goodness. All we needed was another dog.

Meanwhile the puppies are beginning to socialize and are anxious to see us when we go near their pen. We may be able to get them into Operation Kindness, a no kill shelter in Carrollton, Texas. There, they can be seen by a lot more people and adopted. All the adults were taken to our vet who we kept busy for several days spaying and neutering everyone. We’ll bring the remaining three home and get their pictures on Petfinder. Hopefully, lots of nice people will want to adopt them. After what these poor animals have gone through, they deserve the best home ever.

It was a difficult and lengthy rescue but well worth it. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of animals like these abandoned every day by irresponsible people who think of no one but themselves. They caused a hardship for their neighbors who offered to help them in many ways. They take the term “trailer trash” to a whole new low. There is one comforting thought though. What goes around comes around.

Many more pictures from this rescue are here ...