Paws and Prayers Rescue Blog

There is no way to tell the story of Russell from beginning to end as a short story. His story is far too long; and far from over. So I will do my best to keep it as short as possible. I'll divide it into chapters so it doesn't have to be read all at once. The 7 chapters of Russell's Story will be posted semi-monthly.


In the early afternoon of September 26th I brought Russell back to our house for the third time as a foster dog. I introduced him, yet again, to my Beagles, Mandy and Buddy for the third time also. They gave each other a courtesy sniff and walked away from each other. It seemed that Mandy didn’t care to fight with Russell any more. Maybe she felt sorry for him. The introductions that day took place in our front yard. Since Russell was completely unable to run, I let him loose in the front yard with my two dogs. As my two ran around sniffing and doing their business, all Russell could do was pant and watch. After several minutes, he waddled over to a bush and attempted to lift his leg to pee where Buddy had a few minutes earlier. He couldn’t do it on the mildly slopping ground. Despite his obvious discomfort, Russell’s tail slowly wagged as he tried to follow me down our 50ft. long driveway so I could get the mail. He made it about half way and stopped. I walked back up the driveway to our walk that led to the front porch. Russell followed along. When I stepped the one step to the porch, I saw Russell staring at it like it was a mountain. He crawled up slowly and had to take a break before crawling up over the front door threshold and into the house. I’m the kind of person who tries to find humor in just about anything. The only humorous thing that came to mind at this point was: “At least he can’t run away!”

In the late afternoon my wife Vicki returned home from work. She knew Russell would be there, of course, so it was not going to be a surprise. As she opened the door to come into the house, Mandy and Buddy did their normal barking and running to the door to greet her. Russell, who had been sleeping in a dog bed, struggled just to get up. When Vicki first saw Russell, her mouth dropped open. Nearly in tears, she couldn’t believe his condition. The Beagle that she had not really cared all that much for last year, was now just a pitiful sight that she couldn’t help but feel sorry for.

Shortly after Vicki got home, we fed the three dogs. Afterwards we led them to the sliding glass door that opened up to the back yard. This is where we normally let them out to go to the bathroom. There are ten steps that lead from the door down to the yard. Mandy and Buddy raced down the steps and into the yard. Russell put his front paws down one step and stopped. He couldn’t get down the steps. I went down the steps past him and tried to help him down. He methodically went down each step by dropping his two front paws down first. He would then have to shift his body weight to one side because his rear legs would start to spread apart. As he shifted sideways, his back end would slide around and drop down to the lower step. He would then have to twist his whole body to get his two front legs back in front of him so he could lower them to the next step. It was a grueling process for him to do and even more torturing for us to watch. Russell would be going out the front of the house for a while because there were only two steps down to get to the yard and each had a larger surface to land on.

That evening we prepared to take Mandy and Buddy for their evening walk. It was obvious that Russell was not going to go for the normal 1-2 mile walk we go with our dogs. Mandy and Buddy went nuts when we got their leashes ready for their walk. Much to our surprise, Russell was showing some excitement to go also. We knew he wasn’t going to be able to go very far (maybe to the end of the driveway), but we had to admire his enthusiasm. Vicki decided to take Mandy and Buddy and I would try to follow with Russell. I didn’t need a leash as we started on the walk. Vicki quickly disappeared as she walked off with Mandy and Buddy. Russell tried his best to follow, but after about 100ft. down the street, he stopped and laid down on the concrete. After a few minutes, I convinced him to get up and follow me back to the house.

Over the next couple weeks we tried to put Russell into a routine of eating healthy and moderate exercise. By the end of the two weeks, Russell still could not go down the back steps. We did, however, find out that he could go up the steps. We got into a routine that would allow him to get some exercise by letting him out the front door, force him to go around the house to the back yard and up the steps to get back into the house. We also continued to let him follow Vicki or I walking the dogs in the evening. He slowly was able to go farther and farther down the street. One night when I was walking Mandy and Buddy and Vicki was following behind with Russell, he suddenly decided that he wanted to come too. It didn’t take long for Mandy, Buddy, and I to get far ahead. After I was far enough away to be out of sight, Russell started barking. For the next 30 minutes or so I could hear him bark as I went through the neighborhood. We walk the dogs in a big loop through the neighborhood leaving the house from the south and returning from the north. When I was about 200ft. or so from returning to our house, Mandy and Buddy started barking at one of our neighbor’s dogs. I noticed that Vicki and Russell were not in front of our house, but I could hear Russell barking. When I got to our house, I noticed Vicki and Russell coming from the south. It seems that Russell had tried to follow us and had gotten almost a quarter of a mile before he heard Mandy and Buddy barking. He turned around and headed to the barking which brought him home. Vicki said Russell was very determined to follow me despite it being so physically difficult. It was a major sign of improvement for Russell in terms of his health and his personality. He was getting in better shape and was also beginning to bond with us.

Russell had only lost a few pounds in the first couple weeks he was with us. I decided it was time to get a better physical check up and blood work done. I made an appointment with my vet. A thorough health evaluation would reveal many things.

To be continued . . .


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Content By:  Beagle Bob

"Beagle Bob" Dietrich is a foster parent for dogs along with his wife Vicki and son Robert.  Bob is a full time Fire Fighter/Paramedic, Vicki is a high school math teacher, and Robert is a full time college student.  They have two Beagles, Mandy and Buddy. 

Images: Provided by Beagle Bob