Hung from a tree.

We named her Chloe. She was found this morning hanging from a tree at Saunders and Durango near downtown San Antonio by a Good Samaritan who brought her to the Animal Defense League. She was literally hanging from a tree, a cord around her neck, tied in a slip-not so the more she moved the tighter it got.

The Good Samaritan told me, “She was crying very loudly. You could tell how scared she was. My friend and I cut her down from the tree and brought her to ADL.”

In addition to the rope burns around her neck Chloe is also covered with mange. She will be treated and rehabilitated by ADL’s veterinary staff and put up for adoption as soon as she is healed.

The Animal Defense League is the oldest no-kill shelter in South Texas and the only one with a full time veterinary hospital and staff. Part of ADL’s mission is to rescue and rehabilitate dogs and cats like Chloe so they can be adopted into forever homes.

I see animal abuse all the time. But I rarely meet the people who commit these obscene acts. Perhaps it is best we not meet. What kind of a person will hang a puppy from a tree? She is so small. So delicate. Just five months old. A Chihuahua mix who should hate humans. But as we see so often, no matter the abuse, no matter what a human has done to a dog or cat, they turn around and give us their unconditional love.

Looking into Chloe's eyes I could feel her pain. And yet I could also feel hope and love and more.

She should be fine. She will soon find a forever home. And we will share her story with her new adoptive family. They deed to know what she's been through. So they can love her even more.

Great News. Chloe went home on July 7 with a wonderful family who will foster her for a few weeks and then, if all works out, they will formally adopt her.

(c) Ron Aaron. 2008