My Life with Shelter Dogs

By John Huh

This book is the accounting of how I became involved with shelter dogs and rescued fifty-five of them from high-kill shelters or situations that could have led to death by cruel circumstances or euthanasia.
This story is about not only of these fifty-five dogs but also of dogs that were in shelters but desperately needed help to cope with shelter life. It also describes how dogs with issues were handled so they could learn to deal with their issues and become family members and lead normal lives. It is also about abused dogs and how to get them to trust a human again.
This book is dedicated to my own dog, Scrappy, whom I rescued hours before he was to be euthanized for biting people. He was a fearful, abused dog and didn’t trust people. We built his trust on his terms, and eight years later, he is very much loved and part of our family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796090475

John Huh

My name is John “Jack” Huh. I am retired and live on an island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I proudly served my country as a U.S. Marine. I worked thirty-six years for a wonderful Fortune 500 company, and part of those years flew their company aircraft. After retirement, I became involved with shelter and rescue dogs, many of which were abused. Much of my work for the last twelve years has involved saving lives of shelter or abused dogs. When I was in grade school, one day after school, there was a bully picking on an overweight kid who really couldn’t defend himself. I didn’t like what I saw, so I stepped in between them, and I was ready to fight. Much to my surprise, the bully walked off. Anyone who abuses a dog is a bully and, in my opinion, is committing a crime and should be punished accordingly.

Book preview

My Life With

Shelter Dogs

JOHN HUH

Copyright © 2020 by John Huh.

Library of Congress Control Number:         PENDING

ISBN:                 Hardcover                         978-1-7960-9049-9

                           Softcover                           978-1-7960-9048-2

                           eBook                                978-1-7960-9047-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/26/2020

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1    How It All Started

Chapter 2    T-Bone

Chapter 3    Zeke

Chapter 4    Scrappy AKA Einstein

Chapter 5    Stella

Chapter 6    Bo Duke

Chapter 7    Blossom

Chapter 8    Bella

Chapter 9    Lillie

Chapter 10  Jessie

Chapter 11  Sky

Chapter 12  Pretty Girl

Chapter 13  Longshot

Chapter 14  Lucas

Chapter 15  Patches

Chapter 16  Sammy

Chapter 17  Bailey

Chapter 18  Lola

Chapter 19  Lyla

Chapter 20  Max

Chapter 21  Banjo

Chapter 22  The Puppy That Would

Chapter 23  Sissy

Chapter 24  Diamond and Blitz

Chapter 25  Diesel, Rosa, and Katie

Chapter 26  Charlie Girl

Chapter 27  Puppy Litter Number 1

Chapter 28  Puppy Litter Number 2

Chapter 29  Animal Control Rescue Dogs

PREFACE

This book is the accounting of how I became involved with shelter dogs and rescued fifty-five of them from high-kill shelters or situations that could have led to death by cruel circumstances or euthanasia.

This story is about not only of these fifty-five dogs but also of dogs that were in shelters but desperately needed help to cope with shelter life. It also describes how dogs with issues were handled so they could learn to deal with their issues and become family members and lead normal lives. It is also about abused dogs and how to get them to trust a human again.

This book is dedicated to my own dog, Scrappy, whom I rescued hours before he was to be euthanized for biting people. He was a fearful, abused dog and didn’t trust people. We built his trust on his terms, and eight years later, he is very much loved and part of our family.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Outer Banks SPCA and Staff

Outer Banks SPCA Director John Graves

Virginia Beach SPCA and Staff

Fearful Dogs - Debbie Jacobs

Darlene Zacharias adopting Zeke, one of my first rescues

Tami Willis adopting Blossom, another early rescue

Eastern Shore of Virginia, Animal Hospital Dr. Paula Cameron

Roanoke Island Animal Clinic Dr. Burkart

Eastern Shore of Virginia, Animal Control Melfa, Virginia

Without permission from John Graves, much

of this would not have been possible!

CHAPTER 1

How It All Started

In 2004, I retired and relocated to the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I started volunteering building houses for Habitat for Humanity and learned a lot about basic carpentry skills and how to fix things in regard to construction.

A neighbor of mine was on the board of directors for the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and when she found out what I was doing, she asked if a group of us could take care of some badly needed repairs at the local SPCA.

I visited the SPCA to understand what was needed and told them I felt sure that we could gather the help needed to handle most of their issues. I did tell them that I did not want to get involved with any of their dogs as it seemed so depressing to see them in cages, pleading for attention. That was agreed to, and before long, we were cleaning up their issues.

What I had not counted on was my own weakness in regard to getting involved with dogs that so desperately needed a little attention. In a short time, I found myself playing with them in the outside play yards or sitting with them in their kennels. I was slowly slipping into an uncontrollable status of trying to save the lives of these poor creatures and, better yet, find forever loving homes to live out the rest of their lives in.

Little did I realize how involved this would get and how emotional the ups and downs could get.

My first rescue attempt was a complete failure and ended up with the dog being euthanized. He was a big boy named Dreyfuss, a Mastiff mix breed, and he didn’t like one of the staff members. I would sit in his kennel and pet him for hours, and we became buddies. Recognizing that there were issues, I searched and found a rescue that said they would take him. A time and date were set, and I felt we were on the verge of saving this guy’s life. The date came and went and no rescue. Calls went unanswered, and staff felt the situation was getting unsafe, and he was euthanized.

I was sick over it, but there was another dog there in a very similar situation. A staff member openly admitted to being afraid of him, so I knew what was going to happen based on my very recent past experience. Again, I called around and found a rescue that said they would look at him and decide. Learning from my first attempt with a rescue, I decided I would bring the dog to them, and we would go from there. All was agreed to, including a time and meeting place, and I packed up our white German Shepherd, named T-Bone, and off we went. This one was successful, and more of his story will follow in a later chapter.

By now, I was recognizing that I was getting pretty well hooked on working with shelter dogs and decided I needed some help to learn more about how to work with these dogs. It was suggested by the local SPCA Director that I visit the VB SPCA and spend some time with them, and they would be willing to teach me more about shelter dogs, including handling fearful dogs, enrichment, clicker training, and doing aggression