New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Saving Stanley
Hamden couple rescues three-legged dog after it was thrown out of moving car
When Melissa and Michael Capone set eyes on Stanley in November 2022, it was a lot to take in. The five-month-old puppy had been thrown out of a moving car and hit by another in Texas earlier that fall. The owner of the second car took him to a local shelter in San Antonio, where he was treated by the veterarians, Melissa said.
When he arrived in November at Where The Love Is, a nonprofit, no-kill animal shelter in Hamden, Stanley’s back left leg had been amputated. His front left leg was dangling, severely broken and wrapped in a temporary cast. Stanley also had a cone on his head because he developed ringworm on his face and body, and he also had ailments affecting his stomach.
The Capones, who live in Hamden and volunteer at the shelter, took the golden-haired, husky/shepherd mix home and upended their lives to nurse him back to health, before adopting him in August. They quickly learned that the wounds seemed to have little affect the pup’s energetic disposition. The vocal puppy would jump up and down with his leg dangling and clumsily knock over his water bowl, they said.
“He was so spunky,” Melissa said. “He just had so much life in him ... and was just full of p—- and vinegar.”
“We attribute that to him being so successful in his recovery and his will to live,” she added.
In Texas, Stanley faced the possibility of being euthanized and needed reconstructive surgery on his front leg, according to a video by Where The Love Is.
Gabrielle Scirocco, founder of Where The Love Is, saw a video of Stanley on Facebook and contacted the shelter in San Antonio to have him transferred to Hamden, said Janice Murphy-Wallace, a longtime volunteer and organizer for the shelter.
“This was a special case, and we wanted to do whatever we could to have him come up here without being put down,” Murphy-Wallace said.
Stanley was set to be adopted
by another family in Connecticut, but he needed to heal in a foster home with no kids and pets. The Capones, who had experience fostering dogs for the shelter, expected his stay with them to last nearly three months, Melissa said.
“We were apprehensive to think of what the responsibility was going to be. But we decided to take on the challenge,” Melissa said.
His recovery lasted until July, they said. Michael took five weeks off from his job at a utility company to care for Stanley, building ramps into the house and using a special harness to help him walk outside.
Since Stanley’s injured leg couldn’t get wet, they wrapped it in a bag every time he went outdoors and built a tent and fence for Stanley in their backyard. The couple covered all the hardwood floors in carpet to prevent him from slipping and moved their bedroom downstairs because he couldn’t use the stairs.
They even helped Stanley overcome his fear of car rides.
“Now he’ll jump in the car,” Melissa said. “And it’s kind of funny, because if you drive about 25 miles per hour, he’ll even put his head out a little bit now. But after that he just sits in the back, for good reason.”
Stanley had two surgeries on his leg, which were sponsored by anonymous donors, and his fixator was removed from his leg in April. Around that time, they learned his planned adoptive family would not be able to take him in.
By August, the Capones had grown to love Stanley and they agreed that they couldn’t let him go; they adopted him at the end of the month.
“Not that we didn’t love the other (dogs we fostered), but I don’t think they needed us as much as Stanley (did),” Michael said.
“Or maybe we needed Stanley,” Melissa added.
The couple hopes their story will encourage others to adopt rescue dogs and open up more spots in their local shelter.
“There are so many wonderful animals, just like Stanley, that just need a chance,” Melissa later said over text.
Shelters in Connecticut and across the United States have been struggling with overcapacity and fewer adoptions since the end of the COVID-19 lockdown, when many saw an increase in adoptions. According to Shelter Animals Count (SAC), a nonprofit that surveys nearly 7,000 U.S. shelters, the number of dogs entering shelters, minus transfers, increased by 10 percent nationwide from 2021 to 2023.
While those intake rates are lower than in 2019, fewer dogs are leaving the shelters and the trend is “perpetuating this national capacity crisis,” Stephanie Filer, executive director for SAC, said in a release. More dogs were euthanized in 2023 than in the past five years and adoption rates were lower than pre-pandemic levels, according to the report.
Murphy-Wallace said Where Is The Love experienced an uptick in adoption rates during the COVID-19 pandemic because people were spending more time at home. She’s unsure whether their adoption rates changed since then, but people have requested to return the dogs over the past couple years since the end of the lockdown. The shelter recently matched nearly 40 families with dogs for “sleepover pawties” between Christmas and New Year’s Day to give them a trial run with a new pet.
“We will always take (the dogs) back and find another home,” she said.
The Capones want Stanley’s story to discourage people from dismissing special needs dogs and underestimating their abilities. Because of Stanley’s agility, most people don’t notice his missing leg at first glance, they said.
“If you saw Stanley running in our yard, you wouldn’t know that he’s missing that leg. Don’t feel sorry for him or judge him,” Melissa said.