Dante was a standard poodle who was dumped by a heartless breeder at the shelter in Baton Rouge. When he was rescued by his foster mom, he had a fever of 104 degrees and was coughing and extremely dehydrated. At the time, the vets thought he had a serious respiratory infection. After bringing him home and trying to nurse him back to health, we received the heartbreaking news that Dante had a tumor on his lung.
This was very dear to our hearts as Dante’s foster mom, one of our regular volunteers, was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2008, had a mastectomy, and began chemo in March of 2009. She beat cancer and now it was Dante’s turn to beat it as well! Dante recovered from surgery to remove the tumor and was with us for 9 more months but developed heart failure and passed away shortly after that.
From the day he was rescued, Dante showed nothing but love and gratitude to anyone and everyone he came into contact with. He shared a very special bond with his foster mom and went to work with her every day. He was also at EVERY adoption event. He was such a testament to how loving, grateful, and amazing rescue animals can be. In his time with us, he became a certified therapy dog and he and his foster mom visited with cancer patients at Mary Bird Perkins. From the first day that he came into our rescue we knew that he was special.
Though we miss him with his large stature and big, goofy smile, we were inspired to begin our rescue work because of Dante and others like him who were lost, abandoned, neglected and abused. There are so many pups in our society who would not have a chance without the wonderful work of the rescue groups as well as the individual volunteers who work tirelessly to find them loving homes. It is our desire to work within our local communities to help the animals and families come together and live happy and fulfilled lives.
There’s a saying in rescue that I’ve always loved: “Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever.” This is what our rescue is all about. Changing the world; one dog at a time.