Connie Jean Eicher - The Promised Land Dachshund Sanctaury: A Story of Rescue and Redemption

To all the dogs across this country still waiting to be rescued and to my husband, Rick, who intends to help get it done.

By Jessica J.E. Smith

What if this week never ends? Barking, barking, and more barking. The dogs would bark, and we would say, How high? We trudged through morning chores, with permanent looks of misery upon our faces, and counted the minutes until we could escape to a more peaceful seclusion without the constant hounding of the hounds.

This quiet reverie would be short lived, as the mutts wait on no one. They all needed exercise, and medicine had to be given every few hours. Learning all of their names was not the hardest part, although it seemed the most frustrating. The most difficult of it all was certainly keeping our patience. Winston Churchill once said, When you are going through hell, keep going. We felt that this was the motto of our week, and that if we stuck to it there would indeed be an end to the madness.

One afternoon, I tried to take a nap, but soon discovered that this was much easier dreamed about than done. With each dog vying for a spot where they would be curled up next to me, I was shortly jilted from my efforts to rest.

As each day progressed to the inevitable dimness of evening, I wondered just when it was that my parents had lost their minds, and what, if anything, I could do to help them find their sanity once more. As I pondered this question, we dove into evening chores. Before putting the dogs to bed, we would retreat to the sanctity of the almost tranquil back porch.

And, at the end of the day it finally hit me: this was all worth it.

I looked up from my spot on the hanging porch swing, and I saw Charlie digging up his dirt. I remembered how many times Mom called me after he got Kennel Cough, and how worried she was. I remember her telling me how heartbroken Daddy was and how the vet wasnt sure that Charlie was going to make it. I knew that Charlie was one of his favorites, and if they lost Charlie from this disease, it would hurt him deeply. Daddy pulls each little critter he loves into a special place in his heart. This place holds them forever, with all the heartache and happiness they experience together. I have seen him lose a friend given to him in the form of a dog, and I have felt that same pain in my life. I knew the devastation it would cause, so I hoped and prayed that Charlie would recover.

And here I was, at the end of the day, watching Charlie dig the dirt from one end of the flower bed to the other, only to move it back once again. He recovered to regain his old pizzazz, and I couldnt help but grin at the serenity of it all. I finally saw that my parents had indeed found a happiness that is extremely rare and certainly unique. At the end of the day, I envied them their joy.

Our daughter, Jessica, wrote this in 2003 after taking on our sanctuary for a full week, allowing her father and me to take a much needed vacation.

Many earthly angels came into our lives over the years. One of the first and most important helped me put together a website. Kate worked countless hours creating, maintaining, and updating our online presence. We flooded that site with pictures and news of our residents. And just in the nick of time, we began to receive much needed donations. While these donations never covered our monthly expenses, they allowed us to continue our work.

Gaye began to make and send thirty to forty beautiful, crocheted blankets each year. To this day, fifteen years after we started, she still sends new blankets every year at Christmas time.

Our daughter Jessica and her husband Billy took over the entire sanctuary for the only week long vacation Rick and I have taken together in the last fifteen years. Our niece Jordon spent many hours after school and on weekends playing with the dogs and helping me clean. Charlotte helped me to coordinate transports and to build our network of rescuers and donors. She once coordinated a four part transport of a senior dog from New York State all the way to our sanctuary in West Texas. Cindy, Michelle, Greg, Misti, Linn, Pam, Kathy, Paul, Tammy, Shelly, Barb and Mike, Dee, Barbara, Ellen, Pat, Christine, Kathleen, Donna, Glenda, Mitzi, and Melle Belle make up the short list of additional people that made our efforts successful. Many more go unnamed but never forgotten.

The contributions of the many members of our support team included, but were not limited to, transport assistance, financial subsidies, equipment and food donations, fund raising efforts, dog sitting, bathing dogs, playing with dogs, cleaning yards, washing blankets, home checks, background checks, answering emails, and consoling Rick and me in times of loss.

A good veterinarian proved to be one of our biggest assets. We didnt strike gold with the first one we tried. The policies adhered to by our first vet did not match our goals and didnt allow any consideration of our charitable work. We all received a true blessing the day I found Dr. Jessica Todia at A-Z Vet Clinic. She and I sat down one day in her waiting room and discussed our efforts and our needs. She immediately offered easy access and considerations that allowed us to stretch our monthly budgets to cover the necessities.

We still use Doc Jess exclusively for our dogs. We are friends, and she lives right down the road. She runs a rescue of her own that specializes in birds and reptiles but takes in all sorts of creatures. Doc Jess not only grieves with us when we lose a dog, she also donates to many charitable causes that fund research of animal diseases. She does so in the name of the dogs that her clients lose. Once, she even came to our house at midnight, in her pajamas, to euthanize a badly injured dog in pain. Her dedication is limitless, and we love her. You will find her name sprinkled throughout the last fourteen years of our story.

Another very important character in our lives is Christy Vaughn Eicher. She is a beautiful, black and tan, miniature Dachshund. Rick had Christy I and II as a child. He remembers fondly the day his Dad brought his first Christy puppy home in his pocket. We acquired Christy III, early in our marriage. Sadly, she came to us with distemper and did not live past eight weeks of age. Christy IV became part of our family while we still lived in town. She remained with us for thirteen years. This Christy survived parvovirus as an adult dog only because of Ricks dedication over several horrible nights to keep her hydrated. Christy V came into our lives after we moved to the country, and she was nineteen years old when she succumbed to a brain tumor. Her picture is featured on the cover of this book. We currently have Christy VI, the undisputed queen of our sanctuary. She is nine years old, and we feel she is the culmination of all the Christy dogs that have come before her. Christys influence is the reason we rescue primarily Dachshunds.

God blessed our lives when He put the desire to rescue dogs into our hearts. His will and His love for all creatures has been our biggest inspiration.

Rescuing dogs has always come naturally to us. Most of the dogs we have owned came from local shelters or off the streets. Rick grew up loving Dachshunds, and I always had a German Shepherd by my side. Several dogs of both breeds shared our home and our lives while we raised our kids. Once we moved to our country home, the possibility to help more dogs increased dramatically. With our children both gone to college in 2001, we decided to begin an official rescue organization.

We named our rescue The Promised Land Dachshund Sanctuary. It was our intention to rescue senior and special-needs Dachshunds, who often fell through the cracks of the ever expanding rescue community. These dogs required specialized care and would take up a scarce spot in most rescuers capacity, with little chance of adoption. While we understood the need to rescue as many dogs as possible, our hearts could not bear the thought of some of the dogs most in need getting left behind.