Callie's Story

It was a Saturday and the local pet shop was having adoption day.  We had just finished lunch at one of the local restaurants and my wife, Sue, said “Let’s stop and look at the adoption dogs”.  Not wanting to be disagreeable, I said ‘yes’ because I knew there was no way we were going to get a dog.  We could come and go as we pleased and really didn’t need a dog.  So . . . . we went to look.  In the pen was the cutest little fur ball with a black mask – a Border Collie and Australian Shepherd mix.  She was 4 months old and scared.  The rescue folks had just gotten her that morning after her owner dropped her off at the vets saying she didn’t want the dog anymore.  So we picked her up, she wrapped her paws around our arms and held on tight.  We knew we were in trouble but we decided to go home and talk about it.  Well we got home and just looked at each other and said “Let’s go get her”.  So we went back only to find she was gone.  It had only been about 30 minutes since we left – we couldn’t believe it.  Come to find out another woman who was petting her while we held the dog and was just waiting for us to put her down.  As soon as we left, she picked her up and adopted her.  We realized that the ‘Aussie’ traits in this little dog were what attracted us.  So I got on the phone and started calling Aussie rescue groups, asking them if they knew of a 6 month old female blue merle that was available.  The first 2 groups had no leads but the third group I called knew of an 8 month old female blue merle in Rancho Cucamonga.  They said that the dog had some kind of foot injury.  She suggested that I call the vet’s office and talk with Amy – so I did.  Amy told me the dog had a badly infected foot and she probably was going to loose her leg, so if a 3 legged dog was a problem, they recommended that we not come and look at her.  On Saturday of that week, my wife and I decided to call Amy and go take a look at the dog.  Upon arriving, Amy told us to wait in one of the exam rooms and the doctor would bring her in to us.  About 5 minutes later, the doctor arrived with the dog. 

The owner indicated that her foot was no better and that he had been meaning to bring her back in.  Her wound had putrefied and the odor was so bad she was immediately taken out of the waiting room.  The bandage had become twisted around her foot and in an attempt to remove the bandage, the dog had chewed away part of the inside of her foot.  The vet informed the owner that the dog would now probably loose her leg because of the infection.  He asked what that would cost and when told $1500-$2000, he told the vet to ‘put her down’ that he didn’t want her.  Amy and another girl asked if he would sign the dog over to them and he said fine, it didn’t matter to him.  Amy and her co-worker were going to pay for the amputation and try to adopt her out.  Meanwhile the dog was in the back room full of morphine.  She was in so much pain, that morphine was the only thing that would quiet her down.  Even with all this information, we couldn’t resist her and took on her emotional and physical issues.  She stayed at the vet for another few days to see if they could somehow get the wound to start healing.  This involved opening up the wound and cleaning it out down to the bone.  It was a long 4 days but Wednesday finally came and we were off to pick up our new family member now named Caille.  We signed the papers, paid the bills and were preparing to leave.  The doctor said to take her to our vet as soon as possible.  He thought the leg would still probably be lost because they couldn’t get it to start healing.  He also told us after all the paperwork was completed that “Oh by the way, the dog seems to be very aggressive to other dogs” and because of her history we were told not to get in her face because of the constant aggression.  We were also never able to get her AKC papers from the previous owner.

We took Caille to our vet, La Canada Pet Clinic.  Our doctor, Dr. Dietrich, was cautious but a little more optimistic.  She wrapped the wound with a type of synthetic cadaver skin, pumped her full of more antibiotics and said to come back in a week.  Within that week, the wound had started to heal.  The foot had been saved!!  Caille had to wear a head cone for about 3 months until the wound had healed enough to be considered a licking wound.  If taken off too soon, there was the chance she would reopen the wound by licking it.

Well, now that the leg was saved, we moved on to the second of her issues – no social skills.  Because she had very little interaction with her first owner or anyone else, she was like a wild Dingo.  She would bark if you ran water, bark if you turned on the microwave and if you dared turn on the vacuum cleaner -  YIKES.  We have a 2 story house, so stairs even posed a problem.  She didn’t know what they were or how to use them.  Playing amounted to her jumping on you and snapping at shirt sleeves.  If the Fugitive was still on TV, I could have given the one armed man quite a few shirts.

We were at a loss.  We tried to get her into 2 different group obedience classes only to be sent packing.  All of the trainers told us she was too aggressive to other dogs and very disruptive.  I had done a TV show with Matthew Margolis once and thought maybe Uncle Mattie could help.  I called Matthew and explained the problem.  He gave us the name of what he called “his best trainer.”  Enter Nikki Litwin, Caille’s salvation.  Nikki came over and worked with Caille and gave us lots of homework.  Because I work freelance, I was afforded extra time to work with Caille when I wasn’t working.  Sue and I worked with her together and separately.  Little by little she gradually made progress.  We put in lots time but Dr. Dietrich gets the credit for saving her leg and Nikki for making her a fully adjusted, contented, loving dog.  Nikki said normally a dog like Caille would be adopted out 2 or 3 times and finally put down because they are too out of control and unmanageable.  To this day, Caille and Nikki share a unique bond that is different from anyone else.
 

Doing agility has helped give Caille a purpose in life and for that we are forever grateful to Cara and Lisa of Jump City Agility. She has gone on to earn her AX and MXJ and is working on her MACH. Who would have thought that needing to train a crazy out of control dog would lead to me running a top winning agility dog.

Today, Caille doesn’t scratch on doors, merely sits there until you open them for her.  In fact, she once got locked in our pantry for a couple of hours and when we opened the door she was quietly laying on the floor just waiting.   She has turned into the best dog ever.  She still has a couple of quirks i.e. she doesn’t like to be picked up nor does she think anyone else should pick up their dog.  To us, though, she’s perfect.

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