Maltese Only News
January 2002

Maltese Dog Rescue News

I am sure many of you will remember Tigger the ten-year-old male we had in rescue. I posted him in a baseball glove. Well his story is so strange I think you all will be interested to hear it. Tigger was taken out of a kill shelter in Indiana some time after the first of the year. He was placed there very ill and it was a Friday. The shelter only kept dogs for 3 days and then put them down. But being Friday he was given an extra day, since they where not open on Sunday. On Monday a member of a purebred rescue found him sick and thin and dirty. She contacted me and we made arrangements for me to get him. We latterly met on the side of the interstate. I brought him home and got him to the vet right away. His mouth was so infected he ended up loosing his teeth. The infection went down his throat and into his upper chest cavity. He was one sick dog. There where days in those weeks I had him here I thought he would surly not survive. But to my amazement he did and was quiet a little man. Full of energy even with the cataracts on his eyes and the glaucoma on one. He was so full of what every real Maltese should be full of. He ran with my 3 dogs all over the house. Many wonderful people wanted to adopt him but we needed to find a really appropriate home for him. When Alice called me from Indiana and told me about herself I was very impressed. She worked in a vet office part time and Tigger would go to work with her as would her other Maltese a young male. She assured me he would get all the care he would need. Given his health problems, he also had a slight heart murmur; I felt this was a match. Not to mention how impressed I was with Alice. Alice and her husband came to visit Tigger twice, this told me a lot too they traveled hours to visit with him. I could see the devotion in Alice’s eyes and just knew this was a match. After all most 2 months he was off to his new home. Hard to say good bye but I knew Alice would keep me informed about him. After a few months went by Alice told me how people came in and asked at the office to see the Maltese rescue. We where so impressed he was a spokes dog for NMR. A few weeks went by. Then I received a phone call. It was a female wanting to know if there was a female Maltese with Tigger when I got him and where I got him from. This might all sound strange but it all pieces together. I told her there was only one Maltese that I knew of. Then a few weeks go by and I get another phone call. This time it is the former owner of Tigger. She had heart surgery and had to place all of her dogs. She placed Tigger and his little girl friend in a home of a friend of a friend. Tiggers owner was a breeder of some very nice Matlese dogs. It seems Tigger had been the foundation Stud dog in her kennel. She was devastated to hear her beloved dog ended up in a kill shelter. Well after some time she was able to tell Alice she had been Tiggers owner. Now what are the chances of this happening, people wanted Tigger from all over the United States. But I sent him there and this woman heard of him in there and it had been her dog. But the best is yet to come in this story. The owner could not nor did she ask for him back as her health would not allow it. But now she and Alice can share Tigger. Another stranger than strange fact came out. Tigger is living happily in Alice’s home with one other malt. That Maltese just so happens to be. Tiggers Son!!!!!! In the years I have been in rescue I have seen some strange things go on and cannot help but wonder that there has to be some higher power looking after these dogs how could this possibly happen?

Mary Palmer, President/Rescue Coordinator
Northcentral Maltese Rescue, Inc.
malteserescue@hotmail.com