Throw-Away Puppy Finds New, Happy Home

Friday, June 25, 2010

Bella is an 11-week-old boxer-Labrador mix with a golden-brown coat. She loves to run and play with other dogs, and she's always up for a good scratch behind the ears.

Bella is also a throwaway puppy. Her previous owner placed her in a trash bag and threw her into a pond in a heavily wooded area off Stanton Hill Road in Cameron.

Nearly a month ago, William McIntosh was taking a walk around the pond when he heard the cries of an animal coming from a trash bag in the water. He pulled the bag out of the water and discovered an 8-week-old puppy inside.

"That is sad someone could do something like that," McIntosh said.

McIntosh couldn't keep the puppy because he has two dogs of his own. So he took the dog to the Moore County Animal Shelter, with hopes that someone would adopt the dog and give it a good home.

Lisa Bridge, of the Moore County Animal Shelter, remembers the dog well.

"We all just carried that baby around," Bridge said. "We just fell in love with her."

Animal shelter attendant Craig Rogers handled the dog's case.

"We gave it fluids to help it re-hydrate itself," he said.

Originally, the dog stayed in the cat room because she was too small for the larger dog kennels at the shelter.

Rogers remembers the dog as a "very sweet little character."

"I knew I could get it adopted within minutes," Rogers said. "But we still had to keep an eye on it to make sure it was healthy when we let it out of here."

A day after the dog came to the shelter, Tina Kissell, administrator for student services with the Moore County school system and wife of U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell, walked into the office looking to adopt a dog.

The Kissells have always enjoyed a house full of dogs - mostly golden retrievers and Labradors. Two of the family's black Labrador retrievers died earlier this year, and Tina Kissell was hoping to adopt a puppy for her 17-year-old daughter, Aspen.

"There were pups, but I knew my daughter wanted something tiny - for a while at least!" Kissell said.

After she finished looking through the kennels, Kissell still wasn't convinced she had found the right dog.

"Honey, I've got the perfect one for you," Rogers says he told her.

He left the office and soon returned with a small brown puppy peering out over his arm. Kissell remembers the dog shaking in fear when Rogers brought her out.

"She was so afraid," Kissel said. "She was afraid they were going to throw her again."

Kissell and her husband adopted the dog a few days later. Their daughter named the dog "Bella," inspired by the character from the popular "Twilight" series.

Tina Kissell says the dog lives up to its name with its pointy teeth that love to chew.

"Bite, bite, bite! Just like a vampire," she laughed.

Larry Kissell remembers picking Bella up from the shelter.

"It was love at first sight," he said. "With a puppy face like that, we instantly knew who was in charge."

Now, a few weeks later, Bella loves playing with the family's other dogs - Snickers, a dog that Larry Kissell recently adopted from a Guilford County shelter; Oreo, a Jack Russell terrier; and Bubba, a golden retriever.

With a sweet face and a lot of spunk, she has captured the hearts of her new family.

"Bella's a little dream come true," Tina Kissell said. "She's become an integral part of our family."

Bella's rescue is a happy ending to a potentially sad story of animal abuse.

While Moore County Animal Control has no leads on who threw the dog into the pond, larger forces are creating tougher consequences for those who are caught abusing animals. Gov. Bev Perdue this week signed "Susie's Law," which toughens penalties for individuals charged with killing, starving, torturing or maliciously abusing animals.

The law was inspired by the story of an abused pit bull-shepherd mix named Susie. A year ago, a Greensboro man beat the dog, set it on fire and left it to die. The man only received probation for the act.

The law elevates starving an animal to death from a misdemeanor to a felony and makes animal torture a higher-grade felony.

McIntosh was happy to learn that the dog he rescued from the pond has found a good home.

"To know someone got it that would take care of it feels good," he said.

He says that he sees many -animal abandonment or "throwaway" cases in the area, often in the form of people dropping dogs off on the side of the road.

"I pick every one up and take it to Animal Control," he said.

Contact Hannah Sharpe by e-mail at hannah@thepilot.com.

More like this story

blondie4life 2 years, 11 months ago

I am so glad to see this puppy get a new home. It is so disgraceful and arrogant to see people mistreat animals like this. I'm sure the person that did this would love to be tied in a trash bag and thrown in a lake.

runorbike 2 years, 11 months ago

I love this picture! It's like she's striking a pose for this shot. She's a luck puppy.

babiehop 2 years, 11 months ago

I wonder if Susie's Law will protect hunting dogs that are turned into Animal Control nearly starved to death because they were not recovered by the hunters after running deer ?? Or are they going to just pay the dollar that it cost to get the dog back only to do the same thing ? How is dumping a dog out to chase animals and not reclaiming it any different than abandoning it ?? Oh, because you didn't mean for it to get lost ? Hunters certainly mean to put the dogs out to hunt so why aren't they held responsible when those dogs go missing and become emaciated and injured ?? It just makes me sick. Glad Bella found a loving home and a family of her own.

JoeGarrison 2 years, 11 months ago

I am so glad the puppy got a new home, every dog should have a home. Hannah, Your story was great, My family and I met you at Bob's Pizza while you were working a story. I enjoyed the piece you did, and well you did another fantastic job:)

GoldenDreams 2 years, 11 months ago

Thank you to Mr. Mcintosh for rescuing this wonderful dog and all the other dogs he has rescued in the past. I am delighted Bella has a good home and wonderful family to call her own.

Babiehop, you raise an excellent point. Most people don't think about the dogs hunters so easily discard after they have no use for them. Would they ever be able to reclaim them from animal control? Search "Susie's Law" in the Pilot and see the name of the woman heading up that cause in Moore County. She may be able to answer that question for you. Please post if you can. Thanks.

SANDHILLSK9 2 years, 11 months ago

@babiehop I'm not a hunter ... and not all Hunters acting this way. As in all groups of animal owners you have a few bad one in the bunch. Most hunters taking care of their animals, but you right not all of them! Not all Pit bull owners fighting dogs, as well not all pit bulls are fighters! There are good animal rescue groups and also bad ones! Animal Control does enforce the animal laws written in the State and County Law and has strict policies to do so. Moore County got one of the best Animal Control Department and Shelter in the state of NC, but has not the same finance fundings as Departments you seen on animal planet on TV.

babiehop 2 years, 11 months ago

GoldenDreams - I have not done that search yet, but will try. Thanks for the tip.

SandhillsK9 - I agree, most hunters are responsible with their animals. The problem I have is that even the ones that do take care cannot control where their dogs run and when the dogs wander onto property that hunters do not have permission to be on, it makes it impossible to retrieve all of the dogs. These lost animals wander lost for days or weeks becoming dehydrated and emaciated and often suffer from wounds that would normally be treated in their owners' care. At present, if I'm not mistaken, when they are taken in by Animal Control, it only costs a dollar to get them back, without penalty. I highly commend Mo. Co. Animal Control on the job they do. I could not do what they do. They are limited by funds, resources and politics. Hopefully, their report form has been updated since I last saw a copy so that it reflects how many animals the owner posesses and how many animals were observed during an investigation. I know of a hunter who was reported for dogs that were lost and starving, the report only said that the dogs (that were observed) were "ok". There was no mention that the person owned more dogs than were checked out by the officer. These were the poor animals that slipped through the cracks in the system. There is currently no protection in place for property owners whose land is trespassed upon by hunting dogs as that the dogs cannot be charged with trespassing. Things need to change.

babiehop 2 years, 11 months ago

This is part of the wording in Susie's Law. I suppose it could be interpreted in different ways, but if you dump a dog out of the back of a truck to chase deer and do not retrieve the dog in a timely fashion to provide it sustenance, how could that not be considered intentional ??However, if that same pack of dogs comes across land where the hunter has no right to be, the only course of action is to call animal control, you will no longer have the choice to dispose of them as nuisance animals no matter how often this happens to you as a land owner. Even if animal control came immediately the effort would likely prove useless. At least if hunters could be criminally charged with the pathetic condition of their dogs when they are turned in emaciated, it might be some small deterrent. The dollar that it costs them to pick the dog up certainly isn't, it's worth more than that to them to get back the tracking collars.

“If any person shall maliciously kill, or cause or procure to be killed, any animal by intentional deprivation of necessary sustenance, that person shall be guilty of a Class H felony,” says the wording of the bill. The following is paraphrased: Although the bill does not apply to the killing of game or farm animals, it could be used to prosecute anyone who shoots or kills stray domestic animals or non-game animals.