Hurricane Harvey has been devastating to both homes and families, but for one little Boston Terrier pup named Daisy, Harvey has brought about a new beginning. Over a thousand miles away, Daisy is starting her new life with Kimberly Miller in Columbus, Ohio.
Daisy’s pet rescue story starts in Houston, where the flooding got so bad on Tuesday, August 29th, that Daisy’s family had to leave their house. At that time, the shelters were not accepting pets, so they put Daisy up as high as possible in her dog crate and then left the house. Note that this is not an acceptable method of keeping your pet safe during a storm. If your evacuation location does not allow for pets, choose designated caregivers that are able to care of them.
“Somewhere along their route to the animal shelter, the family luckily passed an animal rescue boat and told the animal rescuers that they had to leave their 14-week-old puppy at their house,” says Miller.
Daisy wound up in an animal shelter, where she was put up for adoption. “Due to the fact that the family that had Daisy had just lost everything they owned in their house, and they also had children, they knew that they couldn’t care for the puppy the way she would need, so they relinquished their rights to her and agreed to put her up for adoption,” says Miller. “A friend of ours was working with the animal rescues and knew we had other Boston Terriers and thought we would be a good fit for the adoption.”
Miller had been thinking about getting another dog (although not seriously looking yet), so when the friend got in touch, she couldn’t resist taking a look at the photos, which pretty much sealed the deal. “There was a questionnaire that we had to fill out regarding our living situation to make sure we would be the right fit for Daisy,” Miller says. “We advised them that we had other dogs that were very happy and healthy, and that we had a nice fenced-in backyard; we were approved for the adoption very quickly.”
At the time of her rescue, Daisy was approximately 13-14 weeks old. Although she didn’t have any severe injuries, she had hair loss (Alopecia), a small cut on her ear and a couple of small cuts on the top of her head. “Once we were approved and Daisy was going to have a place to go, they immediately took her elsewhere for quarantine,” Miller says. “They wanted to make sure she wasn’t in contact with any animals that may make her sick and therefore unable to be transferred to us.”
The original owners lost all of their paperwork regarding vaccinations in the flooding, so there was a delay until they could contact the breeder for a copy of the necessary papers. “Daisy had to remain in quarantine until the vets could verify she was healthy and that all of her records were in order,” says Miller. “It took longer than originally expected to get the vets to state that she was healthy, and they cleared her for the travel to Columbus.”
A New Life
Miller had not met Daisy prior to picking her up at the airport, but the initial meeting went great. Although the Miller’s vet gave Daisy a clean bill of health, he did prescribe antibiotics to be on the safe side due to her cuts and Alopecia. “We got fish oil that we put on her food to help with the skin condition,” Miller says. “We also think that during her time at the shelter and being in a crate for so long, she was stressed and chewed on the crate a bit, because a lot of her back upper and lower teeth were missing.” Since this was causing discomfort when eating dry dog food, Miller says they had to mix her dry food with soft food, some chicken broth or chicken and turkey baby food to help her eat. “Her teeth are now coming in, so it is getting easier,” says Miller. “She has actually gained a little over half a pound since she has been here.”
In every other way, Daisy is a very playful, noisy, never-stop-running puppy. “She seems to have adapted very well to her new home and the other dogs that we have, as they all play together very well,” Miller says. “I think that due to the fact she was so young, she has adapted to the new household and people very easily.”
In fact, Daisy is enjoying her time as a spoiled rescue dog who receives lots of toys and cuddles. “We have a toy box with all of the dog toys in it, she loves to get every one of them out—we then put them back, like a game—and she gets all of them back out immediately,” Miller says. “She sits at night with the other dogs on the couch and sleeps with them; they don’t mind when she crawls all over them.”
Diana Bocco is a full-time writer and adventurer who has written for National Geographic, DiscoveryChannel.com, Yahoo! and Marie Claire. Diana has lived in five countries and taken her rescued dogs along to each one of them.
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