Prayers and Passages

Magnum: Mortally wounded but a victim of neglect

   This is a story of passage.
    It’s not really a tribute.
    Though, of course, this Bassett fellow Magnum was certainly worthy of tribute just by virtue of being a dog.
    As a dog in neglectful, gun-happy and sometimes downright mean North Texas, Magnum had the odds stacked against him. But there were people who ignored the odds. They thought they’d changed the odds.
    We have gathered the facts of his life – as much as they are known – from Molly Peterson, President of the Collin County Humane Society, the organization that tried to create a safe haven and find a lifetime home for this dog.
Collin County is due north of Dallas. Magnum was in the Granbury Animal Shelter – that’s southwest of Fort Worth. Networking. Word of mouth.  A call here. An e-mail there. Sometimes connections are made.
    A year ago Magnum was on the euthanasia list at the Granbury shelter and described an emaciated senior dog with bad skin issues. You can see in his "before" photos that he was handsome and, yet, had something tragic in his countenance.
    “We took him in anyway,” says Molly. “He turned out to be under a year old and his skin issues were flea allergies. Our foster [Stacy Hague] nursed him back to health and he was adopted just over a month later by this family that clearly knew what they were doing when she posed as the adopter.”
Magnum was 11 months old. Stacy tracked down these photos of young Magnum for us.
    Molly says the boy was adopted a month later “by a family where he was expected to live a long happy life.
    “CCHS received a call Tuesday morning that Magnum had been shot and killed.”
Who shoots and kills a Basset? And why?
    And how did his original rescuers come back in contact with this tragic dog? The little fellow was still wearing his Collin County Humane Society tags.
    Those tags may have been symbols of the only time Magnum was ever treated with love and respect in his all-too-brief life.
    The story continues from Molly: “We tracked the tag on him back to the adopter who explained that she had decided to ‘loan’ him to her daughter for companionship while her husband was away for 3 months. During that time, the daughter decided to allow him to roam the streets as he pleased.”
         This is in Valley View, north of Dallas. Let him roam as he pleased, she said. 
    Roaming was a death sentence. A death sentence.
    Magnum had, Molly writes, “joined up with a pack of stray dogs who were injuring and/killing a local mini-horse farmer’s miniature horses. The dogs were reportedly cornering the man’s horses and attacking their legs, leaving them lame [and] needing to be put to sleep.
“Being that Magnum was the slowest in the group, when he [the farmer] caught them in the act Tuesday morning, he shot him in the chest, killing him on the spot. Magnum was wearing his CCHS tags so that was when he contacted the vet and traced him back to us.
    “We are all completely and utterly devastated by this news. This is the prime reason that CCHS (and most rescue groups) have a very strict adoption contract that stipulates that all adopters must return the dog to CCHS if they are no longer able to care for him/her so we can use our resources to find them a home that they deserve instead of being cast out to the pasture to fend for themselves. 
    “This is also why it clearly states on our contract that dogs cannot be allowed to roam free and must be kept in a fenced yard when they are outside.|
    “Where does the law lie with Rescue when we are faced with this horrific news that the adopters violated the contract and Magnum suffered a horrific fate due to their neglect.
    “It doesn't matter if they ‘loaned’ the dog to a family member or if they gave him away (the details of which are currently under investigation). The adopters are responsible for the dog until his last day or until he is rightfully surrendered back to CCHS (per the adoption agreement). “Tuesday morning was Magnum's last day and I can assure you that CCHS will pursue this to the fullest degree to ensure that Magnum’s death will not be brushed under the rug. CCHS wants to ensure that no other horses are harmed, that the adopters are held accountable and the dogs doing these acts are stopped.
    “This all could have been easily prevented and is sickening that he is now deceased due to the careless neglect of the adopters by placing him in the ‘care’ of this family.”
    Molly has a plea for other rescuers. “Please help us spread the word and awareness about this issue so that we can work to prevent this from happening to other dogs. Adopters need to take the adoption agreement seriously.”
    She says that CCHS has established a “chip-in” for Magnum's legal fees “to pursue this family in court and get Magnum (and all of the other dogs that wind up in unapproved adoptive homes) the justice he/they deserve.”
    That chip-in link is HERE. You can contact the Society at its link HERE . Write to the society at PO Box 2733 McKinney, Texas 75070. The Facebook link is HERE.
    Money, of course, cannot change the key elements of this story. It won’t buy more life for the dog. It won’t buy a do-over for the Collin County Humane Society – now upset at having tried hard to help Magnum and having placed him with a family that, ultimately, betrayed him.
    Yes, that is a photograph of the lifeless body of Magnum, his magnificent ears now draped unnaturally into the grass on which he has fallen, his eyes open and seeing nothing and his body irreversibly stilled by a gunshot.
    A man protecting his animals may have fired that shot, but that’s not what killed Magnum. No, the actions of someone who didn’t care killed this dog. 
    In retrospect, as we bring this to a close, perhaps it actually is more of a tribute than it is a passage. It is a tribute to Magnum because he touched people. He inspired them to try to give him a life – he inspired them to hunt for good people to love him. 
    Sometimes people cannot be trusted to love. And isn’t that a sad thing.
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Officer Iris -- partner and friend...

            Perhaps it is fitting that someone she protected and served told us about the death of Iris, the Police Officer.
            Our pal Della Wallace wrote, “This wonderful dog passed away. This is the saddest thing. Her name was Iris and she was the Little Elm Drug K9 until she recently retired.”
            How did Della the Realtor meet Iris the police dog?
            “They were having a fund-raiser in Little Elm to buy Iris an alarm for her police vehicle in case of overheating.  I went to that and fell in love. I don't know what it was about her, but she stole my heart.”
            Della says that Iris’ partner is Chris Ford, named Officer of the Year in 2006 by the Little Elm Chamber of Commerce.
            Iris also was an exemplary officer. She “took second place in the national competition her first time out and only missed 1st place by a few seconds,” Della says. “I knew her very well and she was a sweetheart to all but drug dealers and people she found with drugs on them.
“In her home life she was a pussycat, but let that girl work and watch out. She was very much loved and admired by all who knew her and will be very much missed.”
            The note was signed, “Tearfully, Della.”
            Della was not the only person touched by the dog she called “Officer Iris.” But some of those people are not available for a photograph unless you can get the warden’s permission. For all her good nature and sweet posing, Iris was a working officer, a Belgian Malinois who was a trained and determined drug dog.
            “I will miss her very much,” Officer Ford told Della. He and Iris weren’t just co-workers, they were partners and friends.|
             You don’t lose a friend and partner without feeling the kick in the heart.
            Officer Ford said that Iris had “some type of cancer causing her to bleed internally. She died peacefully with no pain while I was rubbing her head telling her it was OK to go and that I would be OK. As soon as I uttered these words, within 60 seconds, she passed away.”
            These decisions are never easy, but sometimes they are helped by the grace within the animal’s heart.
            “It was very moving and the way I wanted it,” Officer Ford said. “I didn’t want to come home from work and find her dead.... She helped and touched a lot of people during her career. She was an amazing partner and friend who accomplished things many police dogs never do during their lifetimes.”
            As you can see in the photographs, Officer Iris had many facets – she obviously loved being in her patrol car, enjoyed being with her partner and, of course, proudly posed with her medals and wore her badge with honor.
            She was 9 years old when disease stopped her -- it did what criminals couldn't do.
             Della notes that the “toothy” expression came during a demonstration at a county club and says “that pussycat could look really scary.”
            After Iris was gone, Officer Ford took her to Toothacres in Carrollton and, he said, “They did an amazing job with her – and me.”
            As you can see, on the box that holds Officer Iris’ ashes, there is a brass plate that reads “K-9 Iris Little Elm Police Department.”
            Beneath that is the inscription “E.O.W. August 29, 2011.”
             E.O.W.
            As Officer Ford explained to Della, it is “sacred law enforcement terminology used when an officer dies.”
            It means “End of Watch.”
            Officer Iris’ watch has ended, but you get the feeling that she is ever vigilant in the hearts of those she touched.
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