Last Hope Stories Of Hope

Bentley, the Big Mastiff

Bentley was living a life of a guard dog; or that is what he was told he was supposed to do. In a very rural area, he lived in a 4’ x 6’ kennel and was suppose to bark when someone came because his owners produced Meth and they wanted to know when strangers came. Bentley could smell the fumes, got very sick and lost his appetite for life. He no longer wanted to bark or to live.

When we got him at about 1-½ years old, he was about 90 lbs and should have been at least 140 lbs. He was weak and did not want to eat; he just wanted to die. Lorin, one of a large breed fosters took him in. Bentley sat for hours on the kitchen floor without moving. He could care less.

Every few hours, even at night, a family member would try to hand feed him anything he would eat. The first week he would eat about a cup of food a day. That wasn’t enough. They would take him out to walk. He was so scared and hated doors and noises. He would have to be pushed with all the family members to go outdoors thru the door.

After about a month he started eating about 3 cups a day. Still not enough to gain weight, but he wasn’t losing weight anymore. He once in a while started to wag his tail and was curious about what was happening.

After about 7 weeks from the time Lorin got him, he was eating 5-6 cups a day, which made him start gaining weight. He actually started to initiate play with their own dog and wagged his tail all the time. He was about 115 lbs. Although he was still thin, his personality finally came out. He enjoyed a walk, was no longer scared of noises and cars and started to understand stairs!

He was ready for adoption. He went to the first adoption day and almost crawled under a chair. Adoption was too scary. He stayed for an hour and went home. The next time he started to enjoy the pet adoption day and did not get scared for 2 hours, then he wanted to curl into a ball again. He was making progress just being with strangers, and going out in public.

A wonderful family saw his picture on Petfinder.com. They had rescued a dog similar to Bentley and were excited to meet him. Their other dog was still shy but nothing like it was a year ago. They were up to the challenge and adopted him.

Bentley now knows love that he never had as a young dog. He also jumps up on people and even play bites for fun. That is good… he is now a dog who is housebroken, great with their other dog and enjoys new people!

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