#54 The Puppy Mill Survivor

After a 9 hour drive in a van full of puppy mill castoffs, terrified and filthy, this little lady was pulled out of the van and put onto my lap and into my heart. The sun was playing off the Aspen trees along our 6 hour drive home and every once in a while a ray of sun would hit her filthy coat and light up the beauty underneath. #54 (tattoo in her ear) was from then on named Aspen.

She has been up for adoption since January 10, 2007 but because she had never been out of a wire bottom cage and had been neglected, the perfect family is hard to come by. She had to have 29 teeth removed because of abcesses and rot and she has been crudely debarked. Still, she is a pretty little girl full of promise. When I think of where she spent the last 7 or 8 years of her life, it sickens me. She is one of thousands and thousands of dogs that have had this secret life of neglect and pain. I'm so thankful her life was spared and that, as she slowly eases her way out of the shadows of her past, we can be here to make her future years the best they can be.