ARE YOU MY MOMMY?

More Rescues Seeking Forever Homes

BY STEVE DICKERSON | PHOTOS BY DANNY FULGENCIO

Shasta Needs Some Stability

When you picture a dog, odds are you imagine Shasta. Looking at the 45-pound, yellow lab who loves to run and play, you don’t see the puppy found in a ditch just off of Interstate 30 on a cold, rainy October day.

Lilia Hollis, Shasta’s foster caregiver through White Rock Dog Rescue, says an older lady drove by and thought she saw something moving in the ditch. Ignoring the ‘80s horror movie setting she found herself in, the woman pulled over and found a 3-month-old puppy.

“She was just sitting there,” Hollis says, recalling the story as it was told to her. “I don’t know how she ended up there, but she was reasonably well fed. She was just a little wet and dirty.”

A picturesque family promptly adopted the picturesque dog. The mother, father and two not-too-young children fell in love immediately. But when the mother of the family suffered what Hollis describes as a “catastrophic health crisis,” they no longer had time for a puppy, and Shasta was returned to WRDR. Now she lives with Hollis again while they wait to find the right family.

“She’s a beautiful dog,” Hollis says. “I don’t think she fully realizes her size, but she’s so playful and loves people.”

KNOCKED DOWN, BUT SHE GETS UP AGAIN

Lolita looks like a bit of a pushover. After all, the Chihuahua mix maxes out at about 15 pounds on a good day. But she’s tougher than you might think.

When rescuers with WRDR located Lolita, she had a terrible limp.

“The foot was turned and she couldn’t put any weight on it,” Hollis says. The veterinarians said Lolita had been hit by a car and it had broken her front leg in three places. “They wanted to amputate,” Hollis says, but she wanted a second opinion. “I wanted to try to see if they would set the bone at another vet.”

Hollis found the right vet. Lolita’s surgery was a success, but she needed to

White Rock Dog Rescue

ABOUT: White Rock Dog Rescue is dedicated to saving homeless dogs found in East Dallas and around White Rock Lake. Volunteers are needed to provide foster care for dogs until a permanent home can be found.

HOW TO HELP: If you don’t think you have the space or time to foster a dog, you can still help White Rock Dog Rescue. The nonprofit is in need of supplies to help them take care of animals while they wait to find a new home. They will always take food for dogs and puppies, plastic and folding crates, and all sizes of dog beds, treats and harnesses.

CONTACT: 214.507.4016 whiterockdog.org stay in for a month, and there was a pin left in her leg for two months after that.

And now? “The dog is perfect. She runs, she plays. She’s great,” Hollis says.

Lolita isn’t as timid as a lot of Chihuahuas, Hollis says, which makes her great companion.

Spencer Is Content To Chill

Spencer is an old soul. Sure, the 55 pound black lab and shepherd mix likes to run and play. He is a dog after all. But at the end of the day, he wants to find a good spot on the couch with his people.

“He will get laid back,” says Basil Timmons, Spencer’s WRDR foster. “I think part of that is the lab in him. For a family dog he’s great.”

Ideally, that family might already have a dog, Timmons says, especially one that is about his size. “He loves to play and he loves to play with other dogs.”

But once the day is done, Spencer is a bit of a couch potato. “You get him to where you’ve burned out his energy and he gets a little bit of sleep in him. He’ll put his paws on your lap and then you can scratch him behind his ears. It’s great.”

Cassidy Is Looking For Love

If you’re a pitbull-terrier mix with a lot of energy, sometimes the world’s perception of you is different than the reality. That’s the world in which Cassidy lives. The 50-pound white dog has energy to burn, which can scare some people. But Cassidy is a lover, not a fighter, according to Timmons.

A few years ago WRDR set up a dog-kissing booth at an adoption event. Cassidy was there, and people that ended up on her side of the booth got their money’s worth, Timmons says. “She was just there as a small pup, and she would just kiss everybody.”

Cassidy is a dog that is going to have to find the right fit with a family before she is adopted, Timmons says. Because of her high energy, she probably wouldn’t work well in a family with young children. “She’s a runner, so she’ll need somebody who does activities like running” to work out some of that extra vigor.

NTGD has raised $118,600,000 in seven years