Crumbs, Houston, TX

Hi, everyone! My name is Crumbs! My story is a little different — it is a story of the survival of my entire family.

Cupcake, my mom, and Jagger, my dad, were among nine dogs confiscated from a sheriff’s officer who was running a dog fighting ring. Nobody knew the officer was fighting dogs, he was arrested for his involvement in narcotics and then all the dogs were found.

My mom was mainly used for breeding, but my dad was used as a fighter. All of the dogs were taken to the shelter where they held for a month while the case went to court; all of them were flagged as dangerous. After custody of the dogs was released by the court, the shelter began euthanizing the “fighting ring” dogs.

Luckily, a volunteer from Treat ‘Em Right Rescue (TERR) was there and was able to pull the last three dogs before they could be put down. This was extremely lucky for me because my mom Cupcake was pregnant at the time. Not long after TERR took in the dogs, my mom gave birth but I was the only one of my litter to survive. They named me Crumbs, because I was the crumb of my momma! 🙂

I was adopted by a family as soon as I was old enough to leave TERR; unfortunately, the people that adopted me did not take any time to work with me and kept me in a kennel a lot. They thought that I was too hyper and aggressive and returned me back to the rescue.

My human mom and dad, who volunteer for TERR, offered to take me for a while so that I did not have to go back to the kennels — they knew it was important for my development and future placement for me to be in a foster home. Their plan was just to keep me for a few weeks until either a more permanent foster or forever home was available. They had just adopted my brother Reggie a few months before and they didn’t think adding another dog so soon was the best plan.

But, mom didn’t follow the plan — she fell in love with me!

I got along really well with my brother and sisters and really loved having siblings to run and zoom with. I started going to obedience classes and earned my Puppy Star rating really quickly. Mom and dad say I am a super-fast learner and should pass my CGC soon. I am also an amazing jumper, so dad is teaching me how to catch a Frisbee! But, my favorite thing to do is crawl up in mom or dad’s lap and just snuggle.

As for the rest of my family, my dad Jagger was adopted by an amazing family that takes him to events to tell his story, educate people about dog fighting and to show people that even fighting dogs can be family dogs. Jagger’s face was torn up really badly from fighting and he has lots of scars — but he is the perfect breed ambassador. He lives in a family with a pittie sister and two other little dogs. He even had his picture in a calendar!

My mom Cupcake was really timid and very shy. She wasn’t very excited about meeting people or other dogs. But Jagger’s new mom worked with her because she really wanted her to be adopted — and she finally found her forever home too! She has a family that loves her very much and spoils her like she deserves.

Our story is important because if it were not for amazing volunteers — none of would be alive just because Cupcake and Jagger were labeled monsters. But, we all proved this label wrong and now live the lives we all deserve.

Parents: LaChrystal & Michael