Lilly's story.....part one.

"Is that a baby pig?", I said to myself as I walked past the now closed pet store on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood,   I never go into pet stores because they depress me, and make me truly angry,  as I watch the dogs and cats in what seems to be one step away from  hell.

For some reason I was drawn in, just to see if the pink little animal that was in the cage,  that seemed to be way in the back of the store far  away from the other cages,  was truly a pig.   To my shock it was a little puppy, who looked at me as if to say, "Please help".  The sign on the cage said "male double dappled dachshund reduced for quick sale, 7 months old".  This creature looked like it was a week old, never mind 7 months.

I had just had a heart attack a few weeks before (congenital, I wasn't even 40 yet).  I could feel my heart racing and I literally had to pop a nitro and leave the store.  I walked home and was so upset that my ex husband could see something was wrong.  I told him and begged him to come back to the store  with me.  He had just walked in from the office and was tired, but he saw the distress I was in and he said, "Sure, let's go."

We walked the 3 or 4 blocks back to the store, but it was already closed.  I told him I wanted the puppy,  would it be OK if I went again tomorrow to look and possibly buy him?  He said something like ,"Jimmy, do you know what it is like to say no to you when you think what you are doing is the right thing?" in an effort to make me smile.  I never slept a wink that night.

The next day I called my friend George up and asked if he would come to look at the puppy with me, and help me if I were to buy him.  He was happy to, but had to do it on his lunch hour which was at 1pm.  I could wait, as I needed to try to calm myself before going there anyway.

I met George there at exactly 1, and showed him the male puppy that had not a hair on it body, due to non treatment of mange.  George assured me that I needed to buy the puppy, and it was a good move, but that mange that bad was going to be a challenge.
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I went to the owner, who I wasn't  even trying to pretend to be kind to, and asked, " How much is that puppy?...She said, "He is going to be put down because of his mange, but honestly someone came in this morning at 8am today to look at him also."  I said,  "You are putting him down and someone else has looked at him after 7 months?"  She said , "Yes",  and told me his name.  It was of course my ex husband.  I told her so, and she asked if I was Jimmy.  I answered, "Yes and I would like to buy him.", to which she replied "well he is $1000.00 with papers."

I assured her that if she didn't accept the $300 that I had in my pocket, that I would call every paper in town, file a report at city hall, and call the Humane Society with a detailed report on her animal hell that she was running , that was made pretty with a neon sign in the window.

Her brute of a husband who resembled Dawg the Bounty Hunter told her to take the $300. and call it a day.

I now had a very sick FEMALE dachshund.  These people didn't even know what gender she was!
I purchased a leash, and,  as I was leaving the woman said,  "I hope you will treat her well."  I bit my tongue, as I wanted to say , "Lady, if I tossed her into a trash can for tomorrows pickup, I will  have treated her better than you ever have."

I didn't have a name for my new dog yet,  and  when her feet touched the ground she started shaking.  She had never been out of her cage for 7 months I was later told by an ex employee.  Her feet were not used to solid ground.  I took her immediately to the vet.

part two tomorrow.