As an autistic individual with substantial support needs, I am sharing this for both my dogs and…read moremyself, and to hopefully protect other neurodivergent and/or vulnerable pet owners from experiencing what I have.
While I am grateful for Charming Pets Rescue in Boerne, TX for promising to safely place my five shih tzus into 'excellent homes', I am devastated by the complete lack of empathy that they displayed towards me after I had surrendered my dogs. I honestly feel like I was misled by the owner of this business, because she acted kind and caring in text when I was considering surrender.
The fact is, keeping nine shih tzus longterm was literally not feasible on my low income with inconsistent housing. In an attempt to provide for their futures, I approached Hilary, in hopes she could do the only thing I could not do for them, due to my years of trauma and burnout.
But once she had my dogs that I had given everything to protect for years, Hilary became both hostile and began indirectly attacking me TikTok videos. For an autistic person, who expects people to be direct and honest, this abrupt change was completely devastating. When I tried to explain that my dogs were country/rural raised dogs and asked for her patience with them via text, she personally criticized me for how I had raised my dogs and I was forced to block her to protect myself. This resulted in me completely cutting me off from the updates she had promised she would give me when asked.
My surrendering my dogs was not something I ever wanted to do, but after 5 years of caregiving a dying father with Parkinson's and then living homeless in campgrounds for 2 years while my father's probate literally froze due to the executor dying and his lawyer's stalling, I didn't have a lot of resources and I was constantly struggling while making the utmost effort to make sure my dogs never felt like they were suffering.
I tried so hard to remain silent while Hilary was subtly shaming me on social media and by private texts, when I asked her allow my dogs time to adjust. I still have not addressed these issues on her social media accounts because I feel doing so is unsafe. But when she advertised a dog that I had repeatedly warned her is dog aggressive to assertive dogs, like one of his sons, I felt I had say something, somewhere.
Hilary literally advertised this dog as "good with other dogs and children" and "not snappy" when I had specifically told her, "he gets snappish with me when he's upset with other dogs." She has me fearing that she could possibly be endangering his and others lives by promoting my former dog this way. This dog had his eye injured and scarred, along with roundworms and ear mites, while under his original breeder's care. I vowed never to return him to his breeder. That eye later had to have surgically removed in an emergency surgery when it ruptured. This dog is precious to me but the home environment I provided for him was threatening his remaining eye sight due to his aggression.
I grew up around multiple toy poodles that my mother bred and raised, since I was at least 4 years old, and I have never once seen the symptoms in any of the dogs I lived and grew up with. Littermate syndrome has never been scientifically proven and the all the dogs I surrendered were strongly bonded to me because I was around them 24/7. They even slept next to me nightly.
I was trying so hard to be proactive and compensate for my daily executive functional limitations by networking with Charming Pets and Hilary to secure their futures. I really don't understand how a animal rescue that advertises compassion for animals can justify lashing out a humans, vulnerable neurodivergent people like me, who are just as often traumatized by society as the dogs they rescue. And I was in no way the overwhelmed pet owner as I was labeled.
I feel like Hilary was so busy playing savior to my dogs that she couldn't truly see me or them, and that hurt, a lot. I feel like once again, the system that has frequently and so often failed me, has failed me and my dogs yet again through Hilary.
And finally, to the new owners of Theo, Gimli, Sissy, Heidi and Suzy Q, please accept the precious gift I have given you and know that I deeply loved those dogs. I survived literal severe storms and forest fires to keep those dogs safe. They were my whole world and I hope they become your whole world too.
Theo, Gimli, Sissy, Heidi and Suzy Q, aren't victims. They are survivors--just like me. I taught them how to survive, so I can only hope the resilence I taught them eventually shines through.
