When Eleanor first stepped into a home, the puppy-mill dog was so overwhelmed by wide open spaces that she sought out the smallest room in the house. Having been kept in a tiny cage her whole life had left her afraid and uncertain. Her foster mom, Jill, said Eleanor was too afraid to even walk. But one day she introduced a toy to her. The Golden Retriever immediately treated the toy like a puppy. Her puppies had always been snatched away from her so Eleanor took great comfort in having the toy with her.
Eleanor would take her “baby” everywhere with her. One morning, Jill noticed something “clicked” with Eleanor. It was like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she was so excited. She began to take such joy in being alive and her tail wagged all the time.
“Her transformation has been incredible,” says Jill, adding that “She makes her laugh every day.”
Eleanor has come such a far way from when she arrived at HavaHeart Rescue. Her treatment at the puppy mill is so much worse than one could imagine. HavaHeart Rescue revealed on Facebook, “The injustice that brought her into our care was when her breeder disclosed to our volunteer that he had removed her uterus, artificially inseminated her, and then sewed her back up.”
The rescue volunteer discovered this while at a dispersal auction over a commercial breeder that had over 300 dogs up for sale, Eleanor being one of them.
“The breeder was closing operations because living and care conditions were not meeting even the (subpar) requirements of USDA licensure. HavaHeart Rescue attends dog auctions to save as many dogs as possible from a life of commercial breeding by interrupting breeder to breeder sales,” the group explained on Facebook.
After the volunteer heard about Eleanor’s horrific artificial insemination, “she pursued Eleanor with a vengeance and, thankfully, was the successful bidder.”
That was only the first step in Eleanor’s recovery. The amateur operation not only left a big belly scar (which was infected), it caused a series of life-threatening health complications. Not only did the dog develop large fluid mass that caused pyometra which required emergency surgery, the surgeons found 20 fluid-filled sacs attached to her uterus and that the sutures on her belly were made from fishing line!
Thank goodness Eleanor was rid of her abusive breeder and would never go to another breeder and have a litter of puppies snatched from her again.
After her stay with Jill, Eleanor found a loving forever home with Mindi.
Eleanor now has her very own Facebook page @Eleanorthesurvivor
You can listen and learn more about Eleanor’s rescue in the video below: