Adopt-a-Pet: Rose

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Rose, a 2-year-old female German shepherd, was brought into the Baldwin Park shelter as a stray in November. Shelter workers quickly gathered that, before becoming a stray, she’d already been used extensively for breeding (perhaps at a puppy mill) -- and she was in pretty bad shape.

Her hip was calloused as a result of lying on hard concrete (a common trait among many dogs used as puppy machines by unsavory breeders), and some of her teeth seemed to have been filed down. Plus, she had myiasis, or fly strike, the infestation of tissue with fly larvae. The larvae hatch and then burrow into an animal’s flesh, which resulted in the lesions visible on her ears in the photo here.

After nearly two months at the shelter, Rose’s time was running out; luckily for her, volunteers at Coastal German Shepherd Rescue intervened and hope to place her in foster care shortly.

‘She is a very friendly girl who used to be happy.... She loves people, gets along with other dogs and deserves a second chance to live a happy life and blossom,’ says the group’s founder, Tiffany Norton.

For more information on how to adopt Rose or another shepherd or shepherd mix, check out Coastal German Shepherd Rescue online or contact Norton via e-mail.

-- Lindsay Barnett