Stories of Rescue
“Ohana” means Family
Family means nobody gets left behind...or forgotten
“She’s your problem now.” Those were the last words spoken by the owner of the mixed Chihuahua/Dachshund (a.k.a. “Chiweenie”) as she surrendered her dog to a shelter in Crowley, Louisiana. This small dog had been adopted only two months prior from a completely different shelter, but this callous owner chose to neither notify the original shelter nor take responsibility for the animal she had chosen to adopt when she discarded her “problem” in the hands of the shelter worker. What was this dog’s “problem”? Naturally, she turned out to be pregnant.
Because people don’t have their pets spayed or neutered once the animals are ready—often due to humans’ misguided notions about the nature of fixing a pet being unkind or unnatural—millions of unwanted pets are born, and die, in so-called animal “shelters” every year. Choosing instead to dump their “problems” on others, these people do not honor the lifetime commitments or responsibilities to the animals who cannot care for themselves, the animals who depend on these people for their very survival.
When Animal Aid for Vermilion Area heard about this pregnant pup in a shelter, they mobilized to rescue her. It was a couple days before Thanksgiving 2013, and AAVA was worried the Chiweenie mix would freeze to death in the shelter. Sure enough, though, she had her babies the next day, perfectly according to Murphy’s Law that everything that can go wrong in a situation will. A volunteer (and foster mom) for AAVA pulled the dog right after the babies were born, and she took them home where she found mom to weigh a whopping eight pounds (full of milk), and each baby weighing only three or four ounces.
The two male and two female pups would be named shortly thereafter as follows:
The first female, Ahulani, meaning “heavenly shrine”
The second female, Kailani, meaning “chieftain or warrior queen”
The first male, Leialoha, meaning “beloved child”
The last puppy, Hiwalani, meaning “the attractive one”
The second female, Kailani, meaning “chieftain or warrior queen”
The first male, Leialoha, meaning “beloved child”
The last puppy, Hiwalani, meaning “the attractive one”
And what would be the mother’s name? It is Ohana, meaning “family.” Could it have been otherwise after she was abandoned by her own supposed family?
The puppies and mother have been doted on lovingly, and the babies are now six-weeks old, as of the second week in January 2014. The family has just moved from one foster's home to a different foster's home, where the puppies now have more room to stretch their little legs and play. While they are not always easy to care for, they are truly beautiful and vivacious, and the family is a “problem” that AAVA is more than happy to have.
