A Tribute to a Rescue Sheltie

~ Mollie ~

Born ??

Died July 8, 2003 at estimated 14 years of age

This is a photo of our rescued sheltie that we named Mollie.  She had come into our program in February 2001 when she was found as a stray by a caring person in Elkhart, Indiana.  She was wandering around in the cold and winter weather all alone. As with all of our shelties, we try to evaluate the health.  We discovered through blood tests that Mollie was in renal failure. Thanks to modern veterinary medicine a dog or cat with renal failure can sometimes live for quite some time comfortably with such a condition. So with good medical care Mollie lived another 2-1/2 years. Despite that, we were uncomfortable placing Mollie in an adoptive home. When we can get a commitment from a foster home to keep a rescued sheltie for an indefinite period of time, we choose to keep the dog in our program and support the dog's needs financially until the end of the dog's lifetime. At any one time we usually have a few dogs like this in our program. We feel that one of our obligations as a rescue group is to offer safe haven to home less shelties even if their health should seem to make them unadoptable. Cases such as Mollie's are a big drain on our finances with their ongoing medical care expenses.  We are always grateful when we are given donations to help us offset these costs. 

And so it is that we say good bye to Mollie who spent her time with us fostered by my son with the company of other foster shelties. 

Teresa Cotton, CPDT

Founder and Director of Indiana Sheltie Rescue, Inc.