Fluffy was one of two dogs dumped at the Accokeek Colonial Settlement. She was so very sweet that the people who work at the settlement took her in, took her to our vet, and then turned her over to us for placement. Apparently there is a puppy mill near the settlement that dumps the breeding bitches there when they are done with the dogs.

When we got Fluffy, we discovered that she had a birth defect where the joint never formed in her one ankle, so it was "freewheeling". It was rather gruesome watching her run and jump, and that jointless ankle just moving around like it did...but it never appeared to bother Fluffy in the least. We'd found a good foster home for Fluffy and they took her to the UVA veterinary school to have the surgery done on the ankle.

The foster home decided that they would adopt Fluffy, and for quite some time it went very well. Then one day they called to say that Fluffy and the other rescued Chow/Sheltie mix they'd adopted from us were getting into a lot of fights. So we took Fluffy back to recondition her after which we were to return her to her home. However, when it came time to send her home, the Dad said he couldn't deal with the possibility of the fights happening again, so we needed to find Fluffy another home.

A family came into the PetsMart and fell in love with Fluffy. So, after the adoption preliminaries were completed, Fluffy had a new home. The couple lived with their in-laws and were looking to get into a home of their own. Consequently, the wife who had been a "stay at home mom" got a job to help get them into their new home sooner.

One day the couple received a call from the family saying that while Fluffy was being walked she managed to get loose and they weren't able to find her. They immediately called us and I rushed over to help in the search. The husband, wife, daughter, and I walked all over the complex and surrounding neighborhood calling out to Fluffy to no avail. Early on in our search, we'd met a couple who were outside their condo doing some work and asked if they'd seen Fluffy. At that point, they told us that this was not the first time that Fluffy had been loose, running around the complex with her leash attached...that she had been tied out to the bush a lot and would get loose. Apparently after both the husband and wife were gone for the day at work, the in-laws would tie Fluffy outdoors to a bush in the condo complex common grounds. At first, the couple didn't believe what we'd been told and couldn't understand why the neighbor would say such a thing.

Finally, while the husband and I were on our way back from where we had been searching close to a nearby shopping center, we saw a handwritten sign posted to a tree along the path. I jotted down the phone number and we returned to the condo to call. Fortunately, it was Fluffy who had been found by a lady who lived in the vicinity. Someone else had also seen the sign and had called, telling the story of Fluffy having been tied out on a regular basis and getting loose just as she had this time. Therefore, the lady was very reluctant to tell me at first if it was Fluffy or where she was. But when I told her that I was the rescue group and that I was going to be picking Fluffy up personally and she would be going home with me, she confirmed it was our Fluffy and made arrangements for me to pick her up from the vet where she was being boarded.

At this point some hard decisions needed to be made. After hanging up, I turned to the couple and told them what the lady had said, and that apparently this had been going on for some time. I told them that they needed to make a decision about what was to be done about Fluffy, because this was a very dangerous situation, and if it continued she would likely end up hit by a car and killed as they lived very near several major highways, including an interstate. They spoke for a few minutes, and questioned the in-laws as to what had been done with Fluffy while the couple was at work, only to find that what the neighbors had said was all true. The mother-in-law didn't like Fluffy and didn't want her in the house, so she was having the other son tie Fluffy outside everyday...this was the first time they'd not been able to find her and get her back. Once having heard this confirmed, the couple decided that they loved Fluffy so very much and that none of this was fair to her, so they were going to give her back to us.

The next time we placed Fluffy, it was to a young couple who took in two of our rescues...however, the neighbor kids would come over everyday to play. That would not have been a problem, but one day as the kids were in the house playing, one of them screamed, and the Chows were startled and began barking at the children. The parents of the children became very concerned about the dogs, so the couple returned both the Chows to us.

After everything that Fluffy had been through in her very short life, the foster care family decided to keep her themselves.

Page created by: Adopt-A-Chow Rescue
7 June 1999