Three rescues, one family · Shoot the Dog, Volume Four, page 43
Rosie, Lily and Daisy: three rescues who taught each other
Three dogs, three hard starts, and one of the warmest pages in Shoot the Dog, Volume Four. It opens like this:
All three, despite a terrible start to life, are incredibly loving, gentle, and bonded as a real family.
Rosie, saved at the vet
Rosie is an American Bulldog, rescued in northern New South Wales. She was taken to the local vet, and her future mum happened to be volunteering there. "Saved from euthanasia, Rosie started the life she deserved."
Her family call her "the guardian": she "is a gentle soul who watches over the girls". They also report that her "ability to trust and love humans is incredible", and that she has started dancing when she is excited, a move "otherwise known as the wombat".
Lily and Daisy, four weeks old
Lily and Daisy are litter sisters, Lab Pei cross Mastiffs, who came to the family through the RSPCA at just four weeks old. "Over some weeks, these little bundles of joy thrived." Then comes the line that makes the page:
They taught Rosie how to be a dog and she gave them the much-needed mothering.
Two very different sisters
Their personalities, the page says, "were clear right away". Lily is "a delicate flower", relying on her sister, following Rosie everywhere and bringing everyone presents, "like socks". Daisy is "a little bulldozer, the brightest of the flowers". She is "always keen for a chat", she is "extremely intelligent", and she can open cupboards, which her family mention with what we suspect is mixed pride.
In the portrait above, Rosie sits on the left, big and pale and watchful, with the two dark sisters beside her, brows wrinkled, looking every bit the family the page describes. It ends simply: "All three are much loved."
Rescue at the heart of it
Every family photographed for Shoot the Dog paid a $100 participation fee, and all of it went directly to an animal rescue group. Where the $100 went tells that story, and names the five rescues.