CHA CHA –
Dear NJAFA Supporters – Please join me in celebrating the life of one of our beautiful rescues and the wonderful people who took Cha Cha. We are very very sad about losing this little girl.
Losing two of our rescues in one month has been very devasting for us. We follow every single animal we take in from the day we rescue it, to the new owners, to the animals’ progress and on to their death. Losing Dottie and Cha is almost too much to bear.
We had next weekend planned for them to drive from VERMONT to the group home where Cha’s original owner is dying of AIDS for him to see her one last time..this will not happen now. I guess they will meet over the Rainbow Bridge.
Please spay and neuter your animals not only for the obvious reasons but to prevent breast cancer in the females and testicular cancer in the males.
This is from Cha Cha’s owners in Vermont:
It is with great sadness that I must tell you that we had to put Cha to sleep today.
After weeks of struggling, today she could barely manage to stand up.
John and I both knew that the time had come, and that we had to make this decision and not let her suffer any longer.
We will forever hold her in our hearts, and remember her for all of the happiness she brought to us over the past year.
Please say your prayers for Cha Cha tonight. She was just so exhausted, and now she will finally have rest.
We will love you forever our beautiful, sweet girl. Thank you for letting us love you.
Liz
CHA CHA
Update: BREED: American Pit Bull Terrier
SEX: Female AGE: 9 years
WEIGHT: 65#
This devoted dog was taken to a shelter after her owner was hospitalized in the terminal stages of Aids. Without the intervention of Kathy McGuire, a DCO who is devoted to pit bulls, she would most certainly have been euthanized because of her age. Because it is the older dogs who especially touch our hearts, we at Out of the Pits are hoping that someone will offer Cha Cha a chance to live out her years in peace and happiness. More information will be posted here as we get to know this lovely dog. So far she’s great with other dogs and ADORES people
Camden, New Jersey
December, 2006 NJAFA received a call from NJ Animal Rights that a dog had been left by its owner in an apartment in Camden, NJ. NJARA had pleaded with a couple of other rescue groups that do work in Camden, but they would not help. Because NJARA is headquartered in No. Jersey, NJAFA was asked to intervene because of their work in Camden.
Kathy McGuire, President of NJAFA, obtained the proper surrender information from the owner and forwarded it to animal control to have the dog removed from the property.
Cha Cha, had been left for several days without her owner. She was in good shape but scared and lonely. Her owner would not be coming back ever.Cha Cha went into heat the second day she was taken in. She also had a severely infected paw from trauma to it that had not been treated.. The paw was oozing and very swollen
The kind owners of Halo House in Franklinville NJ gave Cha Cha a home at their kennel while we searched for a rescue and/or a home for her to go to.
Cha Cha was spayed, had several tumors taken off her neck and chest and four mammary tumors taken off (all begnin). One nipple had a large tumor on the end and because of the weight was very severe and hanging down almost to the ground
All during the time Cha was at the kennel NJAFA went to visit her and play with her. On Christmas Eve, we took her presents and played with her, on New year’s Eve day, we also visited her and made sure she knew someone cared about her. NJAFA also took Cha to all her vet appointments, check ups and to our home for “day trips” and transported her to NY for final leg to a pit bull rescue in Northern NY
We were lucky the rescue group took Cha as she would never have had a chance at the local County shelter where they are very high kill and are already over burdened with pitbulls. Additionally, she had so many medical issues money would not have been available.
Kathy McGuire spoke to the owner who is terminally ill with AIDS. Cha was treated very badly before her new owner of the last ten years rescued her. She used to go to work with him and they were together 24/7. He was a wonderful person to take in Cha Cha and give her a good home. He said he misses her very much.
Cha spent her last night in NJ at the McGuires sleeping with Kathy McGuire. Cha Cha was let out for the evening to potty which she did immediately, and came back in and went to sleep promptly through the night with no disturbances and no crying. Cha Cha slept next to Kathy the entire night with no fussing, crying or problem. She felt a human body sleeping next to her for first time in weeks.
CHA CHA SNORES!!!!!
NEW PHOTOS of ChaCha 8/8/07
RETURN TO SUCCESS STORIES INDEX
10/07 Update on Cha Cha-pit bull rescued from AIDS patient in Camden City, NJ
WOW What a fabulous ending for this wonderful pit bull that we rescued from Camden City, NJ.
Last fall, Cha’s owner was taken to a hospital in Northern NJ due to serious complications of AIDS and through extenuating circumstances, poor little Cha Cha was left all alone in his apartment. NJAFA recieved a frantic call from the owner’s aunt asking someone to go and get the dog and take it to the shelter. We KNEW this poor dog would not stand a chance at the local shelter because she was older (over ten) and had serious medical issues (mammory tumors) so we took her in. We made arrangements to have the owner fax his surrender and permission to enter his premises from his hospital from N. Jersey to animal control in Camden. The dog was then surrendered officially to Kathy McGuire.
Our friends at Halo House kept her at their beautiful boarding facility for us and we raised funds to have Cha spayed and all her tumors removed. She spent almost three months recuperating from her surgery and from a severely infected paw. She was spoiled rotten and thank goodness her tumors were not malignant. Christmas and New Year’s she got a special meal and she was not alone.
Then through arrangements with a private rescue Cha was transported to Manhattan by Kathy McGuire and one of Cha’s benefactors where she was then taken the final leg of her journey by one of our friends at the Mayor’s Alliance in New York.
Here Cha Cha is almost one year later….living the good life on a 34 acre farm in Vermont and travelling the world. She and her new family have just returned from a trip to Nova Scotia … what a lucky little girl she is……don’t you agree?
Cha’s owner is still alive and we communicate with him quite frequently to let him know that his beloved dog is doing so well. The previous owner himself is a saint for taking Cha from people that were using her for fighting and giving her the best possible life he could give her with what little resources he had himself.
UPDATE 6/14/07
Cha Cha, the elderly pitbull that NJAFA rescued from Camden has a wonderful home!!! Cha was saved from people who wanted to fight her up in Trenton by the wonderful man who lived in Camden with her. When he was diagnosed with terminal HIV and taken to a hospital up north, she was left behind. He loved Cha Cha but knew she could not come with him. She would have ended up euthanized as she is older and had many medical problems.
NJAFA got her out of Camden and into surgery and a foster home. She then went to the AWESOME people at Out of the Pits where she has been placed with hopefully, her forever home on THIRTY FIVE ACRES in VERMONT!!