At my house, we have always had a lot of pets. We have had every pet you can think of. Some come into our house to stay and others are just temporary. I have had pets for as long as I can remember, but right now at this moment we have three dogs, two cats, three chickens, a gerbil, and a rat. Besides the chickens and the gerbil, we have saved the other animals from being stuck in a shelter or death.

The dogs we have now were all saved. The big dog we have named Babe is an English Mastiff and was saved from the shelter. We got her last winter. The people from the shelter took her from a house where she was tied up in the back yard without food or water in the freezing cold snow. They could not keep her around the other dogs or people in the shelter because she was so scared. She hated people who had hats on, and was also scared to walk through doorways. They had no idea if they could even keep her in the shelter. When we came to see her, we took her in right away, and she is now one of the sweetest dogs you would ever meet.

We have two other dogs, their names are Lucy and Pedro. Lucy is half Chihuahua half wiener dog, and Pedro is a Chihuahua. They were at a veterinary clinic in a nearby town. The vet in that town said he was going to euthanize them on that upcoming Friday at nine in the morning if no one came to get them. We had a person from the shelter in town call my mom on that Thursday and asked if she had heard about these two dogs. My mom then looked them up and decided instantly that we were going to get them. My mom called the vet to tell them we were getting the dogs the next day and to not euthanize them. We had no idea what we were getting into. We did not know if these two dogs were going to be nice or aggressive.

When we arrived we noticed it was a very nice veterinary clinic. We walked inside and it was very warm and inviting. We talked to one of the vet assistants and found out they were putting the two dogs down because they wanted more room to board pets whose families were going on vacation. She thought it was terrible that they were doing that. We could hardly believe a place that nice would do such a heartbreaking thing. After talking to the vet assistant she took us to the cage where Lucy and Pedro were. She first took Lucy out of the cage, a long-bodied, short stubby legged dog, with long fur. Lucy immediately starting licking my face as I held her in my arms. It was as if she knew we came to save her. The vet assistant then got Pedro out of his cage. He was black and very skinny. He was very timid and scared in the vet clinic, but when he got to our house he was the nicest dog we have ever met.

The backgrounds on these two dogs were quite sad. Lucy was a “designer dog” who was bought from a breeder. Her owners did not want her anymore, so they left her in a shed to die. Pedro was a stray running around in the city and someone brought him in. Their lives now have completely switched for the better.

I have learned from this experience that it does not take much to save a life. These dogs were all in life or death situations, and it feels good to know that we saved their lives.