About Martha Grace

To Whom It May Concern: We have a dog, Martha Grace, who would benefit from your adoption services. She is a lab/pit bull mix and is sweet, loving, and intelligent. Unfortunately, she is also aggressive to other dogs. After taking her to see Dr. Luffman at Animal Medical Center (our usual vet) today, we have made the hard decision to have her re-homed. Her background: On May 23, 2015, a friend brought this dog to us. She was being starved in a small cage outdoors. The owners let her out of the cage when they decided to move and tried to kill her. When we first met her, she was nothing but skin and bones; her ribs were easily visible. We took her to our vet and then nursed her back to health. We've had her ever since. We live in a neighborhood and have a fenced back yard. We installed a dog door so she could come and go as needed. She was easily house trained. She has always been upset by dogs she has seen on the street and would run through the house barking and then out back where she could see the dogs from behind the fence. We installed a pet gate in the dining room doorway to keep her from getting in the living room where she could see dogs on the street. When we've had to be out of town, she has been boarded at Animal Medical Center and has spent her time there interacting with other dogs in their 'Barking Lot' facility. She has never gotten a bad report. They've always said she did great. In fact, the only problem she has had there was being nervous around larger dogs. Since she weighs 44 lbs., they let her play with the smaller dogs in their lot. In early spring, we took her to visit my parents and put her on a long leash outdoors for a period of time. A slow-moving hound went by on the edge of my parents' property and Martha Grace broke the leash to chase her. She nipped at the dog's hind legs but did not harm her. Later in the spring, I took her to run with our friend's bloodhound/lab mix dog who is nearly 100 lbs. and very tall. Martha Grace got along with her fine, but did nip at her leg one time. We have two other dogs and one cat. She has never been aggressive with them at all. One is a tea cup chihuahua we inherited after a neighbor died and the other is a Yorkie who quickly established herself as the 'top dog' in our home over the larger Martha Grace. She plays with both dogs very well and even shares a feeding dish with them despite her obvious issues with having been starved. When we took in Martha Grace, we had two chihuahuas who have since died; Martha Grace got along with them famously. She leaves the cat alone entirely. Last Sunday evening, she got loose from the front door and attacked two dogs and their owner who were walking by on the sidewalk. The owner is a neighbor and a friend and he was walking Lily, their approximately 20 lb. dog and Daisy, a new dog who is smaller. Martha Grace lunged for Lily and tore into both her shoulders. She bit the smaller dog once and bit the arm of our neighbor. Lily required surgery, but Daisy only needed one stitch. The owner was treated but despite having to have a shot and being on antibiotics, he's fine. As much as we love our Martha Grace, we fear for the safety of other animals and humans and need to let her go. Because she is generally so loving and always very intelligent, we believe that she could be trained and fostered and then re-homed to younger 'parents'. We are both in our mid to late 50s and I'm handicapped. The best thing in the world for Martha Grace would be a guard dog or live on a farm. We would really prefer not to have her put down because she is so full of life and would make a great dog to someone who has the time to devote to her and her needs. I look forward to hearing from you either by email or phone. Sincerely, Todd Helms

Pittsylvania County
Danville, Virginia 24541