The Quest for Unconditional Love

By Thomas Zegray

The Quest for Unconditional Love
Thomas Zegray
This book details the life of a female, golden retriever/chow mix. When I rescued Stella (Brownie) she was a year and a half old and to put it in simple understandable terms, she was suffering from PTSD. Mentally she only had one thought process, survival. The rescue group I got her from knew she was brutally abused but wouldn't give me details. They knew that she was extremely damaged and finding her a forever home was nearly impossible. God found her the perfect 'daddy'. 
This book details the very beginning of her life from birth to present. I'm still writing the manuscript and my estimated date to finish is mid-October.
My hopes for this book is to awaken people to the reality that dogs are being abused and tortured every day and that not everyone should own a pet if they physically and mentally aren't capable of doing so.
This is my third book and my understanding of the process is getting better and my love for writing is already one of my daily routines.
Thomas Zegray
 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Zegray
• Release date: Nov 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393118930

Book preview

Table of Contents

The Quest for Unconditional Love

The quest for unconditional love.

This is my third book and genre. I am trying to hone my writing skills and get adapted to my writing environment.

I’m hoping that this book enlightens the readers like my ESA pet Brownie has enlightened mine.

Animals are born with the gift of living in the now, while humans tend to live in the past while constantly planning their future. Humans can spend their entire adult life, making choices and decisions based on events that happened to them as children. The parents, teachers, and siblings define the course they will take in life unless they can break free and reprogram their subconscious to give themselves a chance for happiness and enlightenment.

We could learn a lot from animals, especially their ability to forgive and forget bad situations or events unless subjected to brutal, constant abuse. Even then, they have a lot better chances of recovering from these situations than humans. PTSD, depression, and other mental illnesses are uncommon but do exist once humans get involved in the caring and sheltering of animals. In fact, it’s virtually unheard of for animals surviving in the wild.

The number of abandoned and abused animals has been going on since man first started acquiring pets thousands of years ago. Laws and regulations have been updated over the years, especially recently. This, just like anything else, can only work once the person or persons have been caught and/or the powers to be actually chosen to enforce the issues.

The saddest part is animals are so trusting and loving that normal people can’t believe that this happens every single day all over the world. The number of people actually charged, tried, and convicted are far, and few, and most people don’t recognize the signs that an animal is actually in an abusive situation. The abusers usually don’t even and that they take the pets to the veterinarian periodically, who is trained to identify abuse, neglect, etc.

The situation is a lot better than it used to be, but we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that the pets are being placed in loving homes and are being properly cared for. The need to adopt the high number of animals is so astronomical that the rules are sometimes overlooked, and it puts the animals into homes that can’t feed the humans, let alone the pets. Some many rescues and shelters do provide food to low-income families to assist in providing food to the animals.

The love for finding the animals permanent homes is ever increasing, but the amount of families willing to care for the animals is totally insufficient. This leads to shelters and fosters being overwhelmed to the point that they violate the rules and laws.

I hope this book awakens the readers to join the cause for animal rights and stricter laws to protect our 4-legged friends and makes more people foster and/adopt.

Chapter one

It’s a hot August morning a couple of hours before sunrise. Jada is panting and pacing the floor near her water bowl. Jessica hears her, and she is wondering if it’s time to give birth to her puppies. She nudges her husband, Stephen, who moans and growls, it’s not time to get up yet, Jess. Jessica nudges him again and says, I think Jada is ready to give birth. Stephen growls again and says, she doesn’t need us, and rolls over to go back to sleep. Jessica rolls out of bed and stretches before heading off to see where Jada is.

In the kitchen, Jessica has a day bed for Jada, who likes to look out the back door and scope out all intruders. Jada is lying on her daybed panting and looks up at Jessica lovingly. Jessica knows by the look Jada gave her that she about to give birth any minute. Jessica starts manually making a pot of coffee since it’s hours before the automatic timer makes it. She looks at the clock and frowns, wondering why these things always occurred in the middle of the night. Jada starts moaning and is on her side now about to perform the miracle of birth.

Jada is a golden retriever mix, but no one knows what the mix is. She looks mostly golden but is only 65 lbs. and has most of the golden retrievers' characteristics. Jessica and Stephen rescued her at six months old after her original owner died. She was in a foster home for a month, when Jessica spotted the ad on a local rescue website. She was a bit discombobulated after losing her loving first master then changing homes twice in a month. She settled in nicely with Jessica and Stephen and was already house trained and learned to love her daily walks now that her older original owner couldn’t give her. She is now a year and a half and completely comfortable with her forever home. She has a large backyard she protects, roaming it most days chasing birds, squirrels, or anything else that dares invades her territory.

Another dog found his way in a while back, and since neither were fixed, the inevitable happened. Neither Jessica nor Stephen witnessed the intrusion, so they have no idea what kind of dog the male dog was or who owned it. In fact, neither Jessica nor Stephen ever saw another dog in the yard afterwards either. Stephen called it a hit and run, and we’ll find out what kind it was after Jada has the litter. Recently, Stephen installed a fence, but like Jessica said, It’s a bit like putting the condom on after sex.

Jessica and Stephen live in rural South Carolina 100 miles west of the ocean. Stephen is an independent contractor, and Jessica has an online mail-order business. They love the solitude, peace and quietness. Jada was never fixed, and Jessica intended to have it done, but procrastination cost them. The sponsor they got Jada from didn’t have the funds and found Jessica and Stephen fairly quick, and they promised to get her to the vet if she waived the adoption fee. Time passed by, and the 40-minute drive and lack of time are now going to cost them. Now they have to find homes for the litter plus care for them until they can be adopted.

Jada is giving birth to one then two until Jessica counts five. She starts caring for her litter while Jessica sips her third cup of coffee. Stephen enters the room, stops and stares at Jada and her pups and looks over at Jessica and says, see, I told you she didn’t need us. Jessica doesn’t even acknowledge him nor answers back. She just focuses on Jada cleaning and taking care of the litter. Stephen pours himself a cup of coffee and sits at the kitchen table, sipping it black while watching Jada in amazement. "Jada is going to the vet; if I have to take her myself, we’ll find a way to pay for it one way or another. Jessica looks at him sternly and says that the vet is only there sporadically because he is semi-retired and only opens a few days a month. Stephen sighs and says that we’ll have to make it work. She needs shots and tests besides being spayed. Even though we live in the boonies, she should go at least once a year for a thorough examination. Jada is nursing the pups, and one pup seems to be having difficulty getting a spot to nurse. Jada is lethargic, letting her litter do what instinct tells them. Jessica watches the pup try squeezing her way in and backs up after numerous futile attempts. The pup starts to whimper and tries again as Jada exposes herself more to open up more room. The pup attaches to a nipple and starts nursing instinctively.

Jessica waited a day to approach Jada and the litter to ensure all were born without defects and take count of the genders. Jessica gently picked up each pup and inspected for abnormalities and their gender. After inspecting all 5, she found all 5 to be perfect and 3 being male and 2 females. She has already put out the word to friends, neighbors, and relatives in hopes of getting the litter forever homes as soon as they can be separated from Jada. She thinks to herself that the litter is all healthy, and thank God it sure looks like they will all survive. Now, to find 5 forever homes, and it should be fairly easy since she and Stephen already decided to give them away for free with a promise to take them immediately to a veterinarian for checkups and neutering or spaying. Now it’s a waiting game for six weeks and observes anything unusual or quirky.

Jada is eating and drinking water normally and spending all of her time caring for her litter. Jessica notices one of the females is kind of tentative towards nursing while the others just jump in and fill their bellies and snuggle with mommy. She seems normal size in comparison with the others and figures the pup is just a little different from the others. She decides to keep an eye on her and monitor some more oddities. She is thinking about naming the tentative female but decides against it. She got afraid of any attachments where she and Stephen might then consider keeping her. She figures they’ve been lacking in properly caring for Jada, and caring for two would be overwhelming since they both works, even though she works from home. She decides that all is well and heads into her office to check emails and monitor the website for sales or potential sales. Stephen went to work as usual and actually worked a half-day the day before after Jada gave birth and all was deemed well.

Jessica is working and keeping one ear open in case she hears Jada or the pups in distress. She sends out multiple emails to potential candidates for the puppies and multitasks back and forth, handling her online business. She notices she is preoccupied with the pups and Jada and brushes it off as her female side overreacting. Jessica and Stephen have tried unsuccessfully for years to have a baby, but the blessing never happened. After numerous tests, the doctors determined that physically there was nothing wrong with either one and to just keep trying. The one specialist told them it was inevitable unless mentally one of them or both of them were stopping it from happening. Neither Stephen nor Jessica were overly concerned, so Jessica tends to figure that the specialist may have a point. Jessica gets a quick reply back from a neighbor wanting to check out the litter. Jessica swiftly replies back that she will have to wait a while, at least a few weeks. She smiles, thinking that one potential adoption already and the litter is only one day old.

The days go by slowly; Stephen is crazy busy at work with it being summer, and he does tend to make most of his money during the warmer weather. Jessica and her online business are steady 12 months a year. Even slacking off a day or two, she can catch up easily since she’s been doing it for many years. They both love the solitude, and their closest neighbor is a quarter-mile away. The drive to town is just under 30 minutes, but Stephen and Jessica both don’t mind the driving, and Stephen will spend a few nights in a hotel if his work takes him too far a drive from home. His company spans up to 300 miles if the contract is worth enough for travel and lodging costs. Most of Stephen’s work is under 60 miles, and he drives home even after 10 plus hour days. He makes enough in the warm weather that he takes off from Christmas to mid-March. He then works online scheduling projects for the spring into summer. They actually got Jada to keep Jessica company on a few occasions whenever Stephen works too far from home and needs to temporarily stay in a hotel until the job is completed.

Jada is sleeping a lot between nursing, and the pups are getting mobile and wandering around curiously. Stephen put a wooden gate to confine the litter to the kitchen. Jada lets Jessica know when she needs to go outside, and they put puppy pads down near Jada’s day bed, but the pups rarely find them. Jessica keeps a bucket and mop and lots of paper towels handy. The pups won’t start eating solid food until after 3 weeks up to 7 or 8 weeks. Jada plays with the puppies, but they spend many hours sleeping and nursing. Jessica watches them in amazement, she and Stephen never experienced anything like this before, and Jessica is constantly googling for information to ensure that all is well with the brood. Time is going by, and she is amazed at how fast they are growing in just a week. Jada seems perfectly healthy, and instinct makes her a perfect mommy. She keeps a watchful eye on them and rounds them close to her when they try to wander. The one female is doing fine now with nursing but tends to stray and sleep alone from the others, but Jada nudges her close to the daybed while she reluctantly snuggles with the brood like pack animals are supposed to.

Stephen arrives home that night after 6pm and immediately goes to the kitchen to check out the pups and Jada. Jessica greets him with a hug and a kiss, and they admire the progress of the pups. He notices the one female is separate again from the family and suggests that maybe she will be a bit slow. Jessica laughs and says she probably hates crowds and is like us; that’s why we live in the boonies. She looks physically fine and is growing at the same rate as the others; she’ll be just fine. Jessica tells Stephen she made salad and baked potatoes; his job is to grill the steaks she purchased from the butcher they know. Stephen winks and says he’ll jump right on it. I have to get up early for a new project near the North Carolina border tomorrow. It’s only one day so I’ll be home tomorrow night but late. He grabs the steaks from the refrigerator and heads towards the back door. Jada jumps up to follow, and all the pups follow but one, the tentative female. He lets Jada out while Jessica keeps the pups from following. Stephen turns and says out loud about the special female, that one is Stella. Jessica shakes her head and continues to corral the pups trying to follow mommy.

The two are eating dinner, and Jessica looks over at Stephen and asks, why Stella? Stephen laughs and says it’s from a really old movie ‘on the waterfront' with Marlon Brando. Jessica frowns because she still doesn’t understand the correlation. They finish dinner, and Jessica cleans the table and puts the leftover food away while Stephen is rolling on the floor playing with the puppies and shouting over to the loner pup, ‘STELLA.’ Jessica is laughing while rinsing off the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. Every night Stephen does this ritual going forward. After cleaning the dishes, she joins Stephen in rolling on the floor, playing with Jada and the pups. Jessica holds one of the males up to her face and says to Stephen, I don’t know what kind of dog wandered into our yard, but the faces of the pups are much narrower than Jada’s.  What kind of breed does it look like? Stephen picks up Stella and says that the nose is light-colored and thin, maybe a chow or pomp? Jessica looks at the pup in her arms and says, yes, maybe a chow. What difference does it make? We will find them forever homes with the stipulation that the new owners get them spayed or neutered.

A couple of weeks pass, the pups are already three weeks old and growing fast. The pups are still hit and miss, mostly miss on the puppy pads, but Jessica keeps picking them up and placing them on the pads to no avail. Some of the pups are trying to eat Jada’s dry adult food, so she puts it on the back porch, and Jada eats during her stints outside. Jessica called the vet, who promised to swing by when he is in the area. He is retired but sees the local’s animals, pets and livestock regularly. She figures she can kill two birds with one stone and get the brood checked out and schedule Jada for the long-overdue appointment for spaying. The vet, whose name is Harold Johnson, says he’ll give Jada the tests and shots needed while there and give the pups a ‘once over.' In the boonies, the rules and regulations aren’t adhered to, like in the cities and suburbs. Jessica feels like it’s a good idea to take care of Jada and ensure that the pups are healthy before she gives them to their new forever homes. Anyway, there is no definitive date or time. Harold Johnson says he’ll swing by soon when he’s in the vicinity.

Four days later, Jessica is working in her office and hears a loud rapping on the door. What the hey, she thinks, we have a doorbell. She opens the door, and a huge rough-looking man is standing on the porch with an old beat-up bag in his hand. Jessica smiles and says, you must be Harold, the vet. The man laughs and says, I guess you don’t get many visitors here, and proceeds to step inside, past Jessica. Harold asks, which way to the patients? Jessica leads him into the kitchen, and Harold plops the bag on the kitchen table. mom plus 5, whelp, let me get to work, I have a cow needing help giving birth later. For the next half hour, he takes blood from Jada, gives her shots and hands Jessica a tube, and tells her to put some poop from Jada in here. I’m sure there’s plenty in the backyard. When Jessica comes back inside, he checks the pups out one at a time and starts asking questions and poking and prodding the pups at the same time. Harold says that they are all healthy, and what are her plans for them? Jessica tells Harold she is getting all 5 adopted with the stipulation that they immediately go to a vet and that the adoption would be free. She says they don’t have the money to take care of all five. He frowns and says that it’s not the proper procedure and tells her to bring Jada in for spaying, and she can pay him all at once. He says he’ll test the blood and stool and get back to her with the tests' results. He says his wife Catherine will also call for recommended prescriptions. Jessica waves goodbye and then yells to Harold, what breed do the pups look like to you? Harold turns around and smiles, mutts, what’s the difference. Jessica says she needs to know when potential candidates come to adopt them. Harold looks at her sternly and says, tell them golden whatever, the snouts look like chow, but they’re primarily golden."

A few days pass, and Jessica received an email from Harold’s wife, Catherine. She made Jada an appointment in mid-October to be spayed. The email said that the attachment is the result of the testing and a record of the shots administered. It also had a recommendation for an all in one prescription for heartworm, flea, and ticks. A website with a link followed. Jessica opened the attachment and crossed her fingers, hoping for good news. It had a list of shots and how long they were good for. The test results filled most of the page, and she carefully read it line by line, seeing negative after each line item. She breathed a sigh of relief and printed out the email and attachment, and started a folder for Jada. She then put the date into her phone's calendar with a reminder to take Jada for her long overdue appointment. She goes to the kitchen to check on the brood, and the pups are running in 5 different directions. Jada is lying in her daybed, enjoying the mayhem. The pups are close to a month old now and getting the craving for solid food.