Peter and "Molly" Hillenberg, Carmel, Indiana
Dear Best Friends Pet Care,
About two years ago, my wife and I visited animal shelters with the intention of rescuing a dog. We searched on the internet and found a cute dog named Midnight at the Humane Society in Brown County, and we drove 75 miles to see her. Midnight was a very affectionate dog and seemed to have a great disposition. She looked like a Black Lab puppy with a bushy tail, but she was about 3 years old and weighed 29 pounds. Midnight was a stray, she was brought to the shelter covered with burs and ticks. She had been at the shelter for over a month and was in danger of being put to sleep. We took Midnight home with us the same day we met her. My wife renamed her Molly.
On the way home from the shelter, we bought Molly a new bed and a steel cage made to hold dogs up to 70 pounds. We didn't want her loose in the house until we were sure she was house-broken.
The first night in her new home Molly slept like a baby in her new bed, on the floor next to our bed. She seemed perfectly content. The next morning I took her for a long walk, then put her into her cage before I went off to work. I returned home 4 hours later to check on her and she was sitting on the other side of the door waiting for me! Never has anyone been happier to see me. Molly somehow bent the steel bars and squeezed her 29-pound body through a 2-inch gap! She then tried to chew her way out of the house. She chewed up 2 doors, 10 windows, and all the wooden blinds in the windows. We began to realize that Molly wanted her new human companions by her side 24 hours a day, and she would go through doors and drywall to find us. Molly had a bad case of separation anxiety and she didn't want me or my wife to be out of her sight.
The second night in her home, Molly slept like an angel, but I wasn't about to leave Houdini (her new nickname) in the house. I took Molly to the vet to get all her shots, so she could stay at Best Friends in Carmel during the day, at least until we could figure out what to do with her when my wife and I were both working. The vet discovered a lump the size of a tennis ball. Molly had been spayed three weeks earlier and had developed a severe internal infection. She needed emergency surgery or she would die. We also learned that Molly woke up alone after being spayed three weeks earlier, and she destroyed the recovery room trying to get out. That was no surprise to me, she hates being alone. While Molly was being prepped for surgery, her heartworm test results came back positive. Molly also had heartworms! Two days after the surgery, there were complications that required a second surgery, and the second surgery was much harder on Molly than the first. We were relieved to hear that Molly had chewed the doctor's clipboard to shreds, and chewed through her IV during the night, that was the same Molly that we knew and loved, she wasn't giving up.
Molly came home from the animal hospital with 12 surgical staples in her tummy. She stayed at Best Friends during the weekdays, with a lampshade on her head to keep her from pulling out the staples with her teeth. Molly recovered form her surgery quickly and she then began heartworm treatments. Molly's doctor warned us that the treatments would make her tired and sick for weeks, and she could even die, but the only change in Molly we noticed was an increased appetite! Molly was thriving. She was being pampered at home, and when she wasn't home, she was being pampered at Best Friends, she was never left alone.
Molly has now fully recovered from all her physical problems. She is the sweetest and most destructive dog I have ever known, but you have to take the good with the bad (or the best with the worst, in this case). Molly still has separation anxiety, sometimes worse than ever, so we still leave her at Best Friends during the weekdays. Molly is terrified of loud noises, shy with strangers, afraid of kids, and avoids other dogs, but she loves the people at Best Friends in Carmel, and even plays with some dog friends there. Most people never see Molly's affectionate side, you first have to earn her trust. Molly shows you affection by putting her front paws on your stomach and stretching. It is her way of saying "Hello", "What's up?", "Let's go!" or "I have to pee!". Molly stretches on all the people at Best Friends (whether they want her to or not) and that speaks volumes about the people working there.
Peter and "Molly" Hillenberg
-Carmel Pet Inn
