“She’s always wagging her tail, and we have wooden floors, so it sounds like she’s drumming. She is literally the happiest dog I have ever known.”
Four years ago, a police officer in Phoenix, Arizona found an injured female bulldog wandering on the street. The dog's condition is so bad, it's unbelievable that she is still alive. “She was emaciated and covered in ticks,” Jeannette (who asked for her surname to remain anonymous), the lady who eventually adopted the dog, told The Dodo. “She was so dirty, he thought that she was brown, and she or he was so swollen and scarred, he thought that she was also blind.”
Perhaps most annoying of all, the dog’s ears had been bitten off, which suggested that she’d been utilized in dog fighting, possibly as a bait dog. “She had multiple bite wounds to her ear,” Jeannette said. “One of her ear flaps was completely severed; the opposite one was rotten and decayed and not preservable.”
The police caught the dog and took her to a shelter. Then, volunteers from the Mayday Bullfighting Rescue Team stepped in. While the rescue group couldn’t take the dog themselves, they contacted Jeannette and her husband, and asked if they might foster her.
“For some reason, we just agreed, then my husband went and picked her up from the shelter, and immediately took her to the ER vet,” Jeannette said.
The vet team tried their best, but they didn’t think she’d make it. “She ended up having multiple tick-borne diseases, and she or he was anemic,” Jeannette said. “The people at the rescue said she was the worst they’d ever seen. I mean, she literally smelled like death — it had been horrible.” But despite this, the dog persisted.
“You could tell that she was terrified, but there was this hope in her eyes, albeit she had every reason within the world to be angry,” Jeannette added. “We were furious then upset that somebody could have done this to her, and yet she was so forgiving.” The dog wanted to stay at the vet for a while, but before leaving her there, Janet and her husband decided to call her.
“When you rescue a dog, you usually want to offer them a reputation, especially if they’re getting to stay that night, so if they die, they die with a reputation ,” Jeannette said. “We named her Calista, which suggests ‘most beautiful.’”
Calista surprised everyone by surviving the night. Then, she survived again, and survived again. Jeannette and her husband visited Calista every single day. “We really wanted to make that bond together with her, and let her know that there was consistency in her life,” Jeannette said. “People from the rescue also came and visited her, so she just had tons of interaction with people.”
With intensive treatments and a number of other reconstructive surgeries, Calista got better. A few weeks later, she was going home with Janet and her husband. But at the time, they were only committed to fostering Calista — They have another dog, Zazu, did not expect them to adopt another dog. But when Calista was put up for adoption a couple of months later, Jeannette quickly changed her mind
“Everyone else joked and said they knew she was staying, but we said, ‘No, no, she’s just a foster,’” Jeannette said. “And then as soon as she was available for adoption, I said ‘No, she’s not going anywhere.’” “Now I can’t imagine her being anywhere but with us,” she added. “I think we would have liked to emotionally accept that we were able to bring her in.” “He was very helpful to her by teaching her the way to be a dog,” Jeannette said. “She didn’t skills to play, and she or he was scared of everything, and seeing him do things was very helpful to her.”
Calista still has some health problems, and she’s currently being treated for mastocyte cancer. But Calista is filled with joy. “She loves life,” Jeannette said. “She loves food. She loves people. She loves other animals. She’s just a tremendous, amazing soul. Sometimes fear crops up from her experiences, but she’s just about overcome all of that.”
“She’s known for her tail drumming,” Jeannette added. “She’s always wagging her tail, and that we have wooden floors, so it seems like she’s drumming. She is literally the happiest dog I even have ever known.”
This is such a wonderful outcome, for such a fantastic dog who had been betrayed by evil humans.
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