The Tail of Lennie the Boxer
A harrowing story of animal rescue during the COVID-19 pandemic!
Hello and welcome to the first post ever! We hope that you’ll join us in the Habitat for more uplifting, smile-inducing, face-licking stories about our amazing furry friends sent straight to your inbox!
COVID-19 🦠
March 14th, 2020 is a day that will forever live in infamy in this country -- the day when we were all forced into an abrupt, at-home lockdown without knowing when life as we knew it would return. It felt like the world was coming to an end! As you know, it wasn’t ending yet, it was just on paws 😉. But by March 16th, it became clear that shelters were going to start overflowing with dogs. They continued to take in animals, holding adoptions on an appointment-only basis, but we knew what that meant… with little public access to shelters, dogs were going to be euthanized.
Naturally, we had to do everything in our power to stop it! Our shelter siege began the morning of March 17th, when our intrepid team braved the COVID catastrophe, caravanning to one of the only shelters still open, which also happened to be the worst high-kill shelter in the greater LA area. Moved by the knowledge that we absolutely needed to help keep the shelter kennels empty, we were able to pull 9 dogs in less than 1 hour!
If you could have only seen us -- frantically running up and down the aisles, trying to match dogs with the handful of fosters we already had lined up. Each lonely friend was harder to leave behind than the next, so of course we took more than we had planned! As we were getting ready to leave, one extra sad pup caught our attention. We asked ourselves, how could we leave Lennie, the senior boxer mix who had been brought in only 7 days earlier? A poor terrified Lennie had bitten a medical worker during his intake exam and had been scheduled for execution. But by the time we met Lennie, we had already pulled more dogs than we had ever pulled at one time, and we didn’t have a foster home for him. We knew that since we had freed up so much kennel space, they would likely postpone his euthanasia date, which gave us a small window to work with... and you better believe we got to work. We made a vow to Lennie - we would be back within 24 hours to rescue him, come hell or high water!
March 17th was a red-letter day for the HIT Living Foundation. It marked a turning point when we went from a rookie rescue to a dog rescuing machine, determined to spark a movement in the world of animal rescue! Nearly 3 months later, we have rescued 69 dogs, had 72 adoptions, and currently have 53 dogs in foster homes, not including 3 adorable litters of puppies! 🐾 🐾 🐾
Honoring Our Word 🐶
Lennie entered the shelter as a stray... but he didn’t come in alone. Alongside Lennie was his much younger doppelganger, a pup the shelter staff thought might be his son because they looked so similar and got along so well. The 2 dogs spent 7 days in the same kennel, but Lennie’s cellmate was in much better condition.
Even without a proper medical exam, it was obvious that Lennie was in ruff shape. He was emaciated, anemic, and covered in hundreds of ticks. Even through the kennel bars, you could clearly see (this is going to get a bit graphic) that Lennie’s genitals were dripping pus and his urine looked like honey (he had a very bad urinary tract infection). It’s not hard to understand why Lennie bit a medical worker. This poor helpless animal even had live worms crawling out of his butt! Despite all of the pain and discomfort he must have been feeling, Lennie still proudly wagged his tail and leaned against the cage to be close as people walked by.
It was never a question, we knew that we had to return to save Lennie -- after all, we’d promised him and you never break a promise to a friend! Thankfully, his execution was postponed due to the tireless work of our team. So, true to our word, we were back at the shelter the following day. Sadly, when we returned to rescue Lennie, we learned that his cellmate had been rescued the day before, and Lennie had been left all by his lonesome. But we swooped him up and put him on the road to recovery, and a short time later, he was adopted into a new and loving fur-ever home.
We’re proud to say that Lennie is now thriving with his fur-ever family! He’s beginning to learn commands for the first time and, although still timid, he likes to cuddle and he’s not afraid to ask for affection. He’s even teaching his new family some things! “In his Monday Zoom class, Jack [Lennie’s much younger hooman brother] introduced everyone to Lennie as his foster brother. Jack helped feed Lennie and make sure he had plenty of fresh water. When a small dog growled and yapped from a balcony, Jack got very upset, but I told him to look at Lennie: calm, nonreactive and staying right next to Jack. ‘Lennie’s not worried, Jack - maybe Lennie’s trying to tell you that you don’t need to worry, either!’” He’s already shown loyalty to his new family. He’s also goofy and loves to roll around in the house and run around in the yard. And he can’t seem to get enough of peanut butter flavored things! “We decided that we hope Lennie is thinking now he has a family and the love he needs to be a real dog again.”
We could not have asked for a happier fur-ever after fairy-tail start to Lennie’s new life and look forward to hearing about his continued progress in his new home!
Such a beautiful story. Thank you for all the work you do!