Wendy Holden - Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog

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Contents

Authors Note: For our American friends, here is a list of some of the animal advocates and childrens charities that are great resources in the States and could do with your support.

HAATCHI & LITTLE B:

American Animal Advocacy and Childrens Organizations

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

424 East 92nd Street

New York, NY 10128

212-876-7700

http://www.aspca.org

Believe In Tomorrow Childrens Foundation

6601 Frederick Road

Baltimore, MD 21228

800-933-5470

http://www.believeintomorrow.org

Best Friends Animal Society

5001 Angel Canyon Road

Kanab, UT 84741

435-644-2001

http://www.bestfriends.org

Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals

205 West 700 South

Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

801-214-7400

http://www.childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org

Doris Day Animal League

2100 L Street NW

Washington, DC 20037

202-452-1100

http://www.ddal.org

The Humane Society of the United States

2100 L Street NW

Washington, DC 20037

202-452-1100

http://www.humanesociety.org

International Fund for Animal Welfare

290 Summer Street

Yarmouth Port, MA 02675

508-744-2000

http://www.ifaw.org

The MAGIC Foundation

6645 West North Avenue

Oak Park, IL 60302

800-362-4423

http://www.magicfoundation.org

Make-A-Wish International

4742 North 24th Street, Suite 400

Phoenix, AZ 85016

602-230-9900

http://worldwish.org

Mayo Clinic

Medical Genetics in Minnesota

200 First Street SW

Rochester, MN 55905

507-284-2511

http://www.mayoclinic.org

Medical Missions for Children, Inc.

35 Getty Avenue, Building 400

Paterson, NJ 07503

973-754-4971

http://www.mmissions.org

National Organization for Rare Disorders

55 Kenosia Avenue

Danbury, CT 06810

203-744-0100

https://www.rarediseases.org

North Shore Animal League America

25 Davis Avenue

Port Washington, NY 11050

516-883-7575

http://www.animalleague.org

Petfinder Foundation

4729 East Sunrise Drive, #119

Tucson, AZ 85718

520-207-0626

http://www.petfinderfoundation.com

St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital

262 Danny Thomas Place

Memphis, TN 38105

http://www.stjude.org/

Shriners Hospitals for Children

http://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org

Starlight Childrens Foundation

2049 Century Park East, Suite 4320

Los Angeles, CA 90067

310-479-1212

https://www.starlight.org

This book is dedicated to those who are different and to the humans and animals who love them all the more because of it

Authors Note

O NCE IN A while in life if were lucky we come across those who leave footprints (or pawprints) on our hearts and we are never quite the same again. Haatchi and Little B touched me that way from the moment I was first alerted to their story in late 2012.

There was something about the expressions on both their faces that tugged at my heart and demanded my attention. A lifelong animal lover and a champion of the underdog, I was intensely moved when I read more about their extraordinary experiences and how fate had brought them together. That would make a great book, I told myself.

A few months later, I was unexpectedly asked if I would consider writing that book by Haatchis adoptive mother, Colleen, and her future husband, Will, the father of Little B. A difficult project Id been working on for months had fallen through and I was not only available but in need of fresh inspiration. Fate, which had already played such a hand in the experiences of one dog and his boy, drew me to one of the most life-enhancing families I could ever hope to meet.

This is so much more than just a story of unspeakable cruelty to a defenceless animal. It is the redemptive tale of what happens to the spirit in the face of unconditional love, trust and forgiveness. It shows how the worst of human nature can bring out the best.

A remarkable little boy and his family rescued a three-legged dog who then paid them back a thousandfold, changing all their lives for ever.

Their story is far from over, and it will continue to inspire and change the lives of everyone who is lucky enough to meet them in the years to come. I know, because it changed mine. And my heart is covered in their prints

Wendy Holden

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

Marcus Aurelius

Prologue

L IFTING HIS HEAD , he sniffed the chill night air with his wet black nose. He tried to move but the pain was too severe, so he slumped back down where he lay between the railway tracks. Peering right and left through amber eyes, he wondered where his human had gone and why hed been abandoned there in the dark. Had he done something wrong? Would someone come to help him?

He sensed the train long before he heard it.

The metal tracks began to vibrate almost imperceptibly at first. The vibrations increased until they pulsed like an electric current through his body, making him quiver from top to tail.

Wriggling, he tried once more to raise himself, but still he couldnt move. The more he struggled, the more the pain shot through his lower body.

Cocking his head to one side, his finely tuned hearing picked up the rumbling of the approaching train as the tracks shivered and shook beneath him. Then the spotlights of the freight locomotive were looming towards him like the oncoming headlights of a car. An unstoppable machine, its destination was the massive goods and marshalling yard adjacent to New Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market in East London.

Still straining and trying to use his size and strength to overcome the pain that pinned him in the path of the monster, the big dog billowed clouds of steamy breath. But no matter how much he wrestled, he couldnt escape.

Whimpering, he turned his head quizzically to look up at the driver illuminated high in his cab completely oblivious to what was about to happen as his chain of thirty-ton wagons sped closer and closer to where the creature lay.

The driver couldnt say later what it was that made him glance down on to the tracks at the last minute. Maybe it was the look in the dogs eyes, or could it have been a final, desperate bark?

Either way, there was nothing he could do but let out a small cry as he felt the train give a slight jolt before rattling on into the night.

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

St Francis of Assisi

N OBODY CAN BE certain how the dog who was later designated Stray: E10 came to be on the railway tracks that bitter night of 9 January 2012. Few could fathom what kind of human being would abandon a five-month-old Anatolian Shepherd in a securely fenced-off area on a busy railway line with no means of escape. Those who found him thought he may have been clubbed around the head and face with a blunt instrument and thrown on to the line. Some reports claimed that he may have been tied to the tracks and speculated that the wheels of the train severed his bonds, allowing him to escape further injury.