From cowering to charging, Kathy’s story defies belief.

Kathy’s start to life is the stuff of nightmares. She was captured as a tiny street dog, and taken to one of Romania’s most notorious shelters, well known for its inhumane treatment and unspeakably cruel and barbaric euthanasia methods to animals.

Kathy was in a cage with a number of other dogs, awaiting her fate. She was so small, and so scared, and was bullied by the much bigger dogs, who were also, of course, absolutely terrified. To make matters worse, the poor little mite had distemper, parvo and a range of more minor ailments, all of which were going untreated. She was in such a bad state, physically and emotionally.

Florentina, a devoted rescuer in the area, managed to gain access to the shelter, spotted little Kathy cowering in the corner of a cage, looking to be on the verge of death, and immediately took her home with her. It took the best part of a year for Kathy to heal from her ordeal enough to consider finding her a more permanent home, but because the distemper had left her with visible twitches, and she was still incredibly fearful and so spent almost all of her time hiding, it was impossible to have her adopted.

We heard Kathy’s story, and didn’t hesitate to have her at Paws2Freedom as a Forever Foster, where it took years to simply get her to stop barking at anything unknown, changes and most of all male people. The world felt very threatening to fearful little Kathy. She had to have major dental surgery due to the distemper weakening her teeth. Her post-surgery teeth are missing apart from some at the back which she still uses, and so unable to hold her tongue in place, resulting in the most unexpected and glorious side-effect – cuteness overload! Her tongue now lolls out of the side of her mouth at all times, and it makes her look utterly adorable!

It’s often the case with dogs who have endured unfathomable cruelty, that they are eventually able to help those who are suffering. They become both a comfort and an inspiration.

Kathy is one of those dogs! We started training her as an Emotional Support Dog last year, with one client so far, and it couldn’t be going any better. Kathy has a special training harness that she puts on when she’s going to work, and when she sees the harness being prepared for her, she goes absolutely berserk with joy! She runs and twirls, her tail wagging furiously, desperate to get going. When she nears the care home, she starts charging forward, pulling on the harness, keen to see her client as quickly as possible. Kathy truly has found her passion!

To know the scale of the trauma that Kathy has endured, and to see her silently lying on her Emotional Support client’s chest (a male, no less!), staring into his eyes, radiating love and understanding, is quite simply, awe-inspiring. We couldn’t be more proud of our little girl!

We hope you consider sponsoring Kathy, so that she can expand her client base (!), and continue offering unconditional love and support to the humans who need it most.

KATHY IS A PAWS2FREEDOM FOREVER-FOSTER DOGS AND CANNOT BE REHOMED.