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The rescue story of Bear our own Christmas present!
Bear is a beautiful chocolate colored horsecoat shar-pei, he was rescued by my husband and I two years ago. We wanted to save an animal for Christmas instead of buying presents for each other or family. We first heard of Bear while we where doing an awareness day to save the Wolves from being slaughtered in Canada and Yellowstone. We where outside a pet store in the Bay Area with our posters and stuff, at the same time across from us where volunteers from the S.P.C.A. doing dog adoptions. The lady told us that they just picked up two stray Shar-pei's not long ago. We already had a dog, a Shar-pei Boxer mix (Spirit), my husband always wanted to get a Boston Terrier just like he had when he was a child. Two weeks went by so we went to the S.P.C.A. to find a small lap dog (Boston Terrier), but to our surprise one of the Shar-pei's was still there, sadly his brother was put down after just a few days after being in the shelter.
Bear only resembled a Shar-pei, he only weight about 30 pounds soak and wet. His body frame was big, he was so skinny that his ribs and hipbones were showing my husband kept on saying, "look how skinny he is", and his wrinkles hung almost to the floor. There wasn't much fur left on his body and none on his face. It was my husbands pick, he wanted to get him, specially after Bear was licking us like crazy through the kennel fence. The staff said that Bear was dog aggressive, so they brought another male dog out in the yard were Bear was to meet him. Of course they didn't get along, 2 male dogs in a shelter with all the stress and confusion will probably never get along. The Lady that worked there said it would be better if I would not take him since he was aggressive towards dogs. But I wanted to save him so I went home to get my female dog Spirit to let them meet They met outside in the yard; Bear ignored her after just one sniff. I went inside to get the adoption papers ready. Bear was neutered the next morning, I picked him up in the afternoon and off we went to his new home. Bear stunk pretty badly, a smell between dirt and sickness, but at the shelter he was checked and fine besides his entropian surgery that he needed.
When we got home, Bear ate everything in sight. He was very hyper and insecure for the first few weeks; he followed me everywhere I went for months to come. Bear would never leave my side. In the months that followed I nursed him back to health. Bear had colitis, skin and ear infections, mange, and separation anxiety and probably was abused before from his previous owners. Bear didn't and still does not like men very much, except for my husband, and that took a couple of weeks and a few pieces of cheese to bribe him.
Bear is now the alpha dog with 4 other rescue dogs, he's confident, happy and spoiled. Bear has a beautiful coat, his colitis is in remission, his eyes were fixed, he now weights between 60-65 pounds all muscle, he plays all day or goes for hikes on our 40 acres in the mountains. Bear really changed my live, I'm glad that we got to save his live, we all love him, Bear is a very special "mamas-boy".