Story by Jessica Chia
Photos by Justin Chatham
โI was 8 years old and I wanted to be a horse. I started showing dogs when I was 13 because I couldnโt have a horse in my backyard.โ
Donna Hurst, a 47-year-old Waco native, reveals her lifelong love of animals as three small black dogs and a very large black cat contentedly roam her living room.
Hurst and her husband, Randall Stuckey, 54, have lived in Waco for seven years and have spent the past two years volunteering as foster parents for the Humane Society of Central Texas.
โThey take very difficult cases,โ said Karen Froelich, the executive director for the Humane Society of Central Texas. โOne dog, we thought was basically just going to go and die at their home. He was in such bad shape. But they really helped him and heโs still with them now.โ
The dog nobody expected to survive was Elvis, a senior chihuahua and schipperke mix, who was rescued during a puppy mill raid in May 2009, the only survivor of four maltreated dogs that warranted felony charges against the owner of the puppy mill.
โHe was really an accidental,โ Hurst said of her decision to foster Elvis. โI just couldnโt turn him down, you know? They expected three months, maybe five months, there wasnโt a chance of him living. Heโs surprised everybody. Heโs been with us a year and a half.โ
Elvis suffers from congestive heart failure, anxiety attacks, heartworms, the loss of all but three teeth, various bodily scarring and a lack of social skills.
Because of the coupleโs dedication, Elvis has shown much improvement both physically and emotionally, but no amount of love and care can completely erase the damage from his many years in the puppy mill.
โHeโs learned that not everyone is out to get him,โ Hurst said. โBut something that didnโt bother him one day may cause him to take off the next. Heโs very unpredictable. Most people I donโt think would be willing to take that on.โ
Elvis is fed each day at 8:15 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. and requires several medications to be administered regularly, with the occasional addition of Valium, which prevents his sporadic anxiety attacks from becoming fatal.
โThe panic attacks kick off this tremendous coughing. With his congestive heart failure itโs awful. It sounds like he has COPD [Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease],โ Hurst said.
Far from considering Elvis a burden, Hurst and Stuckey regard the dog with fondness and accept his special needs as part of his individuality.
Hurst said, โWith all of his medical problems, he just couldnโt get adopted. Provided you take him on his own terms, heโs a really sweet boy. He was recently offered to us on a permanent foster. Heโs a foster, but heโs not going anywhere, and thatโs just fine. Heโs not going to be a normal dog ever, but the time he has left, he can be safe, happy and loved.โ
Their experience with Elvis only left them eager to foster more animals for the Waco Humane Society.
Ollie, an inky black 9-year-old oriental shorthair mix, became a new addition to their household in June 2010 after being surrendered to the humane society by his previous owner.
โThe most difficult animals to place in a home are the black cats, black dogs. I guess with black cats itโs, you know, the Friday the 13th bad luck,โ Hurst said.
One canโt help but link their concern for disadvantaged animals with the fact that all but two of the dogs and cats in Hurst and Stuckeyโs home are black, although Hurst said it was completely unintentional.
It seems that Ollie, however, beat the odds against him.
He was officially adopted by Hurst and Stuckey in mid-February and clearly holds a special place in the coupleโs hearts, even though he wasnโt exactly what they had in mind at first.
โHe was older than what I was going to bring home,โ Hurst said. โWe thought we were getting a quiet, laid-back, small cat. Here we get this big, black house panther. He is constantly talking. He talks and talks. When we first brought him here, most cats would just dive under the couch but he was just all over the room.โ
Ollieโs confident personality was evident as he lounged on a pillow, alternately gazing into the cameraโs lens or dramatically turning away as the photographer snapped photos.
Hurst was not surprised.
โHeโs very photogenic. He loves the camera. I have a blog for him called Black Cat Friday. I can always count on getting a good photo of him sometime during the week.โ
Hurst and Stuckeyโs newest foster, a 10-year-old black and tan miniature dachshund named Snickers, has only been with them since January.
Although he had little hope of being adopted in the neglected condition in which Hurst and Stuckey first received him, Snickers is now ready to be adopted into a loving home.
โYou could smell his teeth from about 15 feet away. I have never seen teeth this bad. The vet they have at the shelter examined him and his gums were bleeding. We got rotting teeth and rotting food,โ Hurst said of his health when they first met Snickers.
Snickers now has a clean, healthy mouth and a friendly, laid-back attitude to match.
โHeโs going to make somebody a really nice pet. Heโs ready to be adopted, but heโs a senior, which makes it harder,โ Stuckey said.
โHe acts like heโs closer to 7 or 8. Heโs very active, very playful,โ said Hurst.
Stuckey explained that any cat or dog above the age of six is considered a senior, although he is quick to point out that it really depends on the breed of dog how far along in their lifespan they actually are.
Despite the greater difficulty involved with placing senior animals, Hurst and Stuckey prefer to take in only adults.
Although they embrace many factors that make animals less desirable to potential adoptive families or other foster homes, there are some aspects of fostering animals Hurst acknowledges are challenging.
โNot knowing where the animal came from, even when you have an owner surrender. You donโt know what kind of a household they came from, what theyโre used to, what theyโre not used to.โ
Hurst also mentioned that one difficulty in the fostering experience is the emotional attachment to an animal that develops as she prepares the animal to be placed in another home.
โYouโve brought an animal in and youโve just so fallen in love that you canโt give it up. Thatโs the biggest challenge. It takes a certain kind of person to do it, because you know itโs temporary. But [if an animal gets adopted] youโve freed up a spot for another animal at the shelter because youโve made space.โ
Although she recognizes the emotional cost of fostering, Hurst did not consider fostering to be materially difficult since the Humane Society of Central Texas covers all medical expenses for the animals in their foster program.
โFinancially it really isnโt [a burden]. Youโre pretty much paying for their food,โ she said. โElvis is on a half a dozen medications and the shelter takes care of that. Snickers with his dental last month, the shelter picked that up. Time-wise, and emotionally, the more you work with an animal the more you get emotionally involved with them. The time involved really depends on the animal, but theyโre treated just like our own would be. This household has four or five animals steady, so itโs not really a burden.โ
For Hurst and Stuckey, animals are an integral part of their lives. Hurst spent her adolescence and young adulthood breeding and showing dachshunds, while Stuckeyโs family raised Chihuahuas.
Of fostering, Hurst said, โI donโt really think itโs been all that different. My showing and breeding days are long gone, but Iโve always had a large number of animals. It just takes different forms. Thereโs just not enough homes to around. Itโs really a sad thing. I love animals, so fostering is just one more way I can help out.โ