Help us help Hoby

Hoby was rescued at six months old and was really an accidental rescue.... CDANZ were rescuing three six week old puppies when a kind lady alerted them to her neighbouring property who were life chaining a 12 yr old Rottweiler, she had been repeatedly bred from and Hoby and the pups were some of the lucky ones.

While rescuing the younger pups, Hoby was seen tied and hanging from the back of a truck, she immediately caught him and he was included in the rescue. They had admitted that Hoby was being driven to be disposed of (shot).

Unfortunately his mum could not be rescued, his 'owners' reasoning was that she would die soon enough anyway.

It was only when Hoby went into his first foster home that the seriousness of his situation became apparent, he lay in fear in a laundry room, not even going outside to pee, he toileted on himself and froze in fear when people approached. He changed to a foster home with dogs and although still completely paralysed with fear he managed to come out of his shell ... Very slowly! We found he would willingly follow the other dogs but would completely withdraw from people.

He was hand shy, he cowered away from people, he was one of the most fearful, abused and unsocialised CDANZ had ever rescued.

We can't begin to imagine what his situation was for the first six months of his life as he had lost all trust in people. He didn't know how to play, or interact with anyone. One thing we did know from his original 'owners' was that children had docked the pups tails ... Using scissors.

It took weeks for him to go outside to use the garden, months until he would leave the house willingly for walks and even longer to be able to walk past people in the street.

Unfortunately this was not the end for Hoby's bad luck. In 2014 Hoby started to limp and lose power in his back end, he was diagnosed with possible hip dysplasia, however, after x Rays it was seen that both cruciate ligaments would need operating on with the right hind leg needing immediate attention. It has been a few months but it is now inevitable that Hoby will need his second cruciate repairing. He also seems to have an old spinal injury, which doesn't present any immediate problems.

It has been a long, unfortunate journey for Hoby with an extremely abusive past and repeated orthopaedic problems thought to have arisen from his poor nutritional/abusive start in life but he is improving so much daily.

He has the most gentle soul and deserves the chance to do what he loves the most... Swimming trips to Kakamatua Beach :)

Please help us help Hoby.