Julie Hargreaves recalls how her four neglected and abused puppy farm breeders were transformed into loved and loving pets
Here are my babies. From top to bottom there is Revvy, Bella, Chrissy and Nellie. This is their story.
I first started looking for a Cavalier back in 2009 when my youngest son was starting university. I’d always been a cat person but I needed a baby to fill my empty nest and had always wanted a Cavalier. However, I was incredibly naive as, sadly, so many puppy buyers are, especially first-timers.
I found a two-year-old Cavvy on epupz in January 2010 and made arrangements to get her. The seller told me he was selling her for his elderly aunt who was going into a home. The cost would go towards her fee.
I travelled to the West Midlands on 16th January 2010 and met the most terrified, dirty and skinny little Cavvy I had ever seen. This was Bella. She wouldn’t make eye contact and just looked so defeated and terrified. I, of course, wanted her because I knew she needed me. I happily handed over the £400 and we left. I knew that it wouldn’t be easy, she wasn’t a pet but I wanted to help her so badly.
We drove all the way back to Lancashire with such a scared little doggy. Bella lay wrapped in a duvet on my knee but she kept so still as if she didn’t want to be noticed. She couldn’t walk on a lead, she wasn’t toilet trained, she didn’t even know how to eat out of a bowl. I joined a Cavvy forum, asked advice and researched puppy farms. My vet told me that Bella had been used over and over for breeding but her body was no longer able to produce. Her under carriage was so saggy and remained so. She also had a slight heart murmur.
Over time she learned to trust me. It took me a month of gentle persuasion, popping her on my knee and whispering to her and being gentle. Then, on my birthday in February, Bella jumped up on my knee and stayed there of her own accord. She was to become my inspiration, my best friend. Bella taught me about the effect that puppy farming has on a little dog both mentally and physically. She also became a spoilt diva who insisted on being hand fed until her final meal.
Three years later I joined a fledgling online group called SCUK trying to raise awareness of puppy farming and tentatively contacting people who advertised their dogs to warn them of the dangers of online selling. We had just started to add rescue site managers to our group as well. Things were beginning to change from just warning sellers and members who were interested in buying the dogs to us getting rescues to take the dogs. We were evolving.
One day at the end of July 2013 I saw two older “Free To A Good Home” Cavaliers advertised. I contacted the owner. He replied to me and we struck up a conversation. He and his wife had bred “show dogs” for years and. She had died and he was retiring. These were his last dogs. They were KC registered. He agreed to hand the dogs over to me! I was overjoyed. I happened to be friends with the treasurer of Humberside Cav rescue who gave me her blessings to get the dogs (even though I was in Lancashire and they in Lincolnshire). I had been home-checked by my local rescue and she gave me a reference. Off we went on 3rd August 2013 to pick up Chrissy and Revvy. We got there and what a sight greeted us.
Chrissy was bumping into the furniture and clearly stressed. Both dogs were filthy, stank to high heaven and had never been inside a house before. The owner showed us where they had lived: a plastic shed with no windows and only a rough floor. They had lived in tiny cages with wire bottoms, no comfort, no cushions, nothing. They were the last ones and there had been 22 in total living in this shed but he had sold the others.
We got out of there as fast as we could, after having to pretend to be nice so he would sign the dogs over. His chickens and coy carp lived in luxury compared to these babies. We got in the car and I heard a big sigh from the back. They lay down and fell asleep as peaceful as you like. I think they understood on some level that their ordeal was over.
They had never had a collar or lead on. According to the breeder, Chrissy was “short sighted” and Revvy “a bit deaf”. In fact Chrissy is totally blind with scarred eyes due to neglected dry eye. She had no tears at all and the eye surface is horrific, so scarred she must have been in agony for years but Revvy spent ages kissing her eyes to keep them moist. He actually saved them. Bella took over that task with great enthusiasm. Both Chrissy and Revvy had ears filled with black Tarmac-like dirt. They filled a bin bag with matted fur.
When I first took them home, they were so joyous and grateful. Bella was so gentle and patient with them. It was chaos because they had never lived inside before but fun chaos. After their first vet visit on the Monday after arriving at weekend, I cried for a week. They were in such poor health and had lived such awful lives.
Both have bald and scarred patches on their tails, which I realised is what they used for a cushion in their cages. They still sit on their tails to this day. Their coats were matted but very thin. The vet told me to give Revvy anything he wanted, let him run round the park if he liked because at least if he passed away then it would have been in freedom. That was how poorly they were. But these tough little dogs defied everyone and have lived with us for over three years. I stopped crying and just vowed to give them the best lives possible- filled with love and comfort
Revvy had a bad heart murmur and, though Chrissy was heart clear, she had the other issues and was crippled with arthritis due to confinement in a cage. She spins round and sways on her feet like a little dancing bear. So sad.
Today Revvy’s heart is doing well on medication and Chrissy has a slight murmur. My little family had expanded. As our group got better at rescuing needy cavaliers, a host of little foster dogs trooped through our house. Bella welcomed them in her usual calm manner. Revvy loved them all as did Chrissy – she’s so chilled out. We rescued Annie (a whole other story) but sadly she passed away.
A couple of months later I was told about an ad in a vets of two unspayed Cavalier girls. I asked my local rescue if they could take them because they had been willing to take another dog that came from the same seller as Annie. It turned out that only one dog was left. I was going to be her foster mum and was going to collect her a year to the day that my lovely dad died so I named her after my grandma, his beloved mum: Nellie.
Nellie was from a horrible breeding place in Cheshire. My friend knew of it and had actually worked in the vets where a local man took the “retired” dogs. So she knew what a state they were in. Nellie was six when they “retired” her. She had horrific teeth and a small hernia in her back mammary area. She is still, after 20 months with us, learning to trust humans. She was always my dog from the start. We bonded quickly and I adopted her very quickly after falling for her. She had no top teeth and a huge callous, which is due to the automatic feeding systems favoured by puppy farms. She has now only five teeth as she lost 25 in her dental and the others were already gone.
Nellie was taught to be a pet by Bella, and is easing into life as a beloved friend aided by the other dogs. All my dogs have pet passports and I adore them. Sadly Bella went into heart failure back in May. She was still doing well on increased medication and I was resigned to the fact that I would have to let her go when the time came but she was still eating, tail wagging and little walks to the park behind us.
On sunny August day we had a lovely time all together including a photoshoot at my hubby’s studio. Bella was the consummate professional as usual, while the others were as chaotic as ever, trundling everywhere. We went to bed and I woke up the next morning to discover that my beautiful girl had passed away in her sleep, in her bed next to me. She died, aged eight, as she lived: quietly with dignity but on her own terms.
My darling Bella lived with us for over six years, welcoming many foster dogs going to rescue. Always calm and gentle, she taught me so much about how to look after a damaged little ex-breeding dog in order to watch their new chapter unfold. In Nellie’s case, we watched her open up petal by petal, to blossom into my beloved pet. Bella was my first love, my child and she set me on a road to help rescue many little dogs living hellish existences in horrific environments. She will never be forgotten and I will continue my journey in her honour.
