FOR HOPE INC
WE ALL HAVE HOPE IN US
"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us."
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
MR. HOPE'S STORY
Mr. Hope has had a difficult time so far in his short life. He is only 3 years old and has already had enough pain, confusion, and fear to last 5 dogs a lifetime. His story started down in IL.
Mr. Hope belonged to a man that took great pleasure in hurting him. I don’t think he had any idea of what kindness was. He defiantly did not know what a treasure he had in Mr. Hope. Some of the things we know he did were to cut off Mr. Hope’s ear, give him numerous scars on his body, scars on his tongue from being hit or kicked in the mouth, a broken tooth and the best was to break his leg. And of course no medical treatment for any of this. Mr. Hope was removed from this environment and taken to a shelter. (Rumor has it the owner greeted the rescue people with a shot gun). At the shelter Mr. Hope was not adopted, he was scheduled to be euthinized. On April 9th, two days before he was to be put down, a local rescue group took him and placed him with a wonderful lady to foster. She named him Mr. Hope because he was an intact male. I think there were other forces behind the name, Hope for a better life, Hope for happiness, Hope for no more pain, just plain hope. The problems didn’t stop for Mr. Hope. After going to his fosters home she noticed he had blood in his diarrhea. Mr. Hope had whipworms. He was treated and over the next few days his appetite began to come back and he relaxed and started to become happy. It was decided to have him neutered since he seemed to be doing better with the exception of the terrible limp. Mr. Hope got neutered and the vet did an x-ray. He discovered a non-union fracture of the right elbow. A cast was put on in hope that in 30 days it would begin to heal. That was not going to happen. The rescue decided it would be best to get Mr. Hope out of the county to prevent the previous owner from finding him and try and get him the help with his leg he needed. That is when a local rescue stepped up. An e-mail was sent out requesting the help and the group took up the challenge and ran with it. A lot of coordination was done to get Mr. Hope here. A group of air pilots donate Mr. Hope got more x-rays and seen a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Timm on May 14th. On May 19th, Mr. Hope got the surgery he needed to walk. Dr. Timm worked a long time on his leg to give him the best chance of walking and running. The doctor put in a pin and wires to try and pull the bones together. Mr. Hope spent the next weeks healing. He needed to heal his body, his mind, his soul and his heart. He began to smile, tease the other dogs and us, eat normal dog food instead of garbage and table scraps and most importantly he is beginning to play. Along the way Mr. Hope has met some great people. He has touched everyone he meets. If it were me I would want to rip off any person’s head let alone let them touch me. Not Mr. Hope. He just falls into your arms and lets you love him and gives you all his love back. I look at amazement at how forgiving and gentle this boy is Mr. Hope began using his leg more and more each day. It has been eight weeks since his surgery and we were hoping he could get the pin removed from his leg. He went in for x-rays on Wed, July 15th. Dr. Timm reviewed the x-ray and decided that no Mr. Hope needs more time. It is not healing as fast as he would like to see. Mr. Hope had x-rays in another 4 weeks to determine if the pin can come out or if additional surgery is needed. Dr. Timm mentioned that possibly he would have to take a graft from Mr. Hope’s hip and place it on the elbow with a plate to hold it. During the time that Mr. Hope was healing a wonderful thing happen. He went to an adoption day with me and the angels were at work that day. He met his forever Mom and Dad. He fell into his mom’s arms and gave me a look that said “They are the ones!” Mr. Hope was not up for adoption that day and his forever family were Our Journey with Mr. Hope We walked into Pet Smart that day with no intention of adopting another dog. We had adopted Rosco three years earlier and he is a very particular fuzzy man. He always seemed to shy away from other dogs especially the wild and crazy ones. We never thought that we would be able to find another dog that would fit in with our baby. We were wrong. We fell in love with Mr. Hope the second we laid eyes on him. That one fuzzy ear was sticking straight up and he had a ridiculous smile on his face while his gigantic tongue hung out the side of his mouth. He limped right over to me and sat his big ole furry butt right in my lap. He thinks he is a 60 pound lap dog. Unfortunately he was not available for adoption that day. Michele filled us in on all the unmentionable things that had happened to him in his short little life. It’s enough to make you sick. I couldn’t understand why this little creature would be so kind and gentle after all the pain he had endured. He wasn’t even scared. He was brave and kind and gave me the biggest stinky-est doggy kiss I had ever gotten. Mr. Hope’s foster mom told us that we should fill out an application online if we We went home that night and wasted no time in filling out the application for adoption of Mr. Hope. We already loved the little man and knew that he would be a fantastic addition to our family. Our only concern was if Rosco would approve. Mr. Hope’s foster mom got our application and got into contact with us and thought it might be nice for the two fluffy guys to get together and sniff each other out. She also wanted to see where we would be living. She had promised Mr. Hope a great life with no more pain and she wasn’t about to let just anyone adopt him. She wanted to make sure that Mr. Hope approved of his new parents and stomping grounds. My husband and I are building our new house out in the country so we thought that would be a good place to meet. It didn’t take long before Rosco and Mr. Hope were marking their territory all over the yard. There is not one bush or blade on grass on all 75 acres that doesn’t now belong to Mr. Hope and his big brother Rosco. They got along like long lost brothers. Rosco even let Mr. Hope drink out of his water dish, something he has never let any other dog do. It was perfect! I just didn’t know how Dan, Rosco, and I were going to wait another month or so until Mr. Hope Somehow Michele managed to convince the rescue group to let us adopt Mr. Hope early! This was the best news ever; we could not wait to bring him home. We took Mr. Hope to all of his vet appointments. When we went in for x-rays to see how his leg was healing, Dr. Timm was not optimistic. He told us that it didn’t look like there had been any progress with his leg. He asked us to schedule a date for him to have surgery. Dr. Timm wanted to remove the pin from his leg and take a bone graft from another bone and place it on his broken leg to help it heal. So we set a date. September 15 2009 at 8 am Mr. Hope was going to have surgery again. We were devastated. He had been through so much; the last thing we wanted was to put him through more. So, for three weeks we spoiled him rotten with treats and toys, lots of walks and a ton of love. Everyone was rooting and praying for him. We went in on September 15 for his surgery and Dr. Timm wanted to take another x-ray of his leg to see how it looked before going into surgery. He came out to talk to us and said he could not believe how much improvement he saw on the x-ray. Mr. Hope is doing great. He eats like a piggy and plays hard all day. He loves his long walks past the cows and every rabbit and squirrel within a ten mile radius is terrified of the one eared fluffy man. Mr. Hope went back in to see Dr. Timm a couple of weeks later and had the pin removed. He is doing great! I had trouble keeping up with him when he only had three good legs. Boy am I in trouble now! 
the time and gas to transport these dogs. Mr. Hope was lucky and found a pilot who coordinated a flight for him. Mr. Hope arrived here at 2 AM on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009. He walked right into the arms of his foster mom.
not set on getting an addition to their family. The angels were just at work. The next morning there was an application for Mr. Hope. They wanted him and he wanted them. If I would have made a list of all the things I wanted Mr. Hope’s forever family to be I could not have done as good a job as he did in picking the right people. Mr. Hope went to live with them just as he was meant to. I now know one of the reason’s Mr. Hope came to me. He came to find love, he came to find peace, and he came to find hope. He still had a few hurdles to go thru but he would do with his brother Roscoe and his Mom and Dad. The rest of the story is from them. 
were interested in adopting Mr. Hope in the future after he no longer had medical needs surrounding his leg. 
had surgery on his leg. Then we would have to wait even longer for his leg to heal before we could bring him home. We would pick Mr. Hope up for some day trips while he was still being fostered. We even kept him for an over night. Every time we had to give him back was harder then the last. We were so worried something was going to happen and we wouldn’t be able to a adopt him. We called or email Michele every day to see how he was doing and she would reassure us that no one else was going to take Mr. Hope that Dan and I are his mom and dad. 
Mr. Hope’s leg was healing all on its own. Dr. Timm said that he would not need any surgery on his leg. He wants to give him 3 more weeks to continue to heal and then he wants to remove the pin.
