Cora is Three!

In 2005, FBRN asked to help with 10 puppy mill survivors from the kind of operation you think of when you think puppy mill. Packed three or more into rabbit hutches with wire floors, the only relief from the cutting metal was offered by inches deep accumulations of fecal matter where the dogs stood, slept and ate. Some dogs' eyes were injured and blinded by protruding wires or from fighting, they were all emaciated; most were sick.

This is Cora on her birthday last year




Rescuers found one Frenchie, Smeagol, almost accidentally when they took a last look around the back of the property and found the 11 year-old stud dog in a filthy pen, his nails curled deep into his paw pads, sick with heartworm and malnourished.






Smeagol puts up with a lot, now that he's a real dog.









The case is still dragging through the courts, as the man who was convicted of the charges against him continues to draw out the appeals process. The NC10 are, meanwhile, in foster-to-adopt homes living as adopted dogs by families who know they may yet lose their Frenchies, should the puppy miller prevail. We think that's courage: to take and love and give your home to a dog who may be returned to a life of suffering and neglect.

Here is Cora's third birthday portrait



Cora is celebrating her third birthday, though we don't know what her true birthday is. She's the most emotionally and mentally disturbed of the NC10. She won't allow anyone to touch her with two hands, for fear they will pick her up. It's almost as if she is a half-domesticated animal. She gets along well with the dogs in her home, and she has come a long way toward trusting her family, but she will probably always be a little "off."

Here's a note from her mom about what life with Cora is like:

"Cora is still in her own little world, but she is safe here with us and she knows that. Although at 3 a.m. today I was giving her a goodnight "pat" and noticed a scrape on her inner rear leg so I decided that she needed ointment on it . . . bear in mind that Cora HATES to be picked up . . . so I held her collar so she couldn't bolt on me and picked her up and off we went into the kitchen in search of the ointment . . . here come the rest of the dogs all wanting to know what is going on . . . Cora is doing her best impression of a greased pig the whole time, trying to get away from me . . . and I am digging for the ointment that I just *know* is on the shelf . . . and Curran is now dancing up my legs to see what Cora is getting that he isn't . . . and Cora is "swimming" in my arms . . . I am sure that if my neighbors could have seen me they'd have had me committed for sure!! I had ointment everywhere, it was on me, my pjs, my robe, the table, the chair, my glasses, my hair and then I finally managed to get some on her boo-boo!!!

"When I put her down, you'd have thought I had just freed her from a sure death--so all the dogs had to run around like maniacs, and we all went outside in the backyard. Around 3:30 a.m. we came back in and headed off to bed!!

Just another typical evening..."

Her family loves her. Can't imagine life without her. Please join us in wishing Cora a life of continued peace and in hoping for justice for the man who caused the NC10, and all the other dogs confiscated during the raid on his property, so much suffering.

Peace and justice. Those are good things to think about on such a day as this, believes

The Frog Princess