How Belle got a Hollywood Home . . .

When Virginia Madsen and her son Jack lost their shepherd mix dog Dixie, everyone including Spike, their remaining doggie companion, needed some time to grieve. After a while, Virginia started to feel that the time was right to bring a new dog into their life so she called her friend and ours Cesar Millan. Cesar, always ready to help his human and canine friends was happy to assist Virginia and Jack in choosing the right dog with the right energy.

United Hope for Animals was called upon to ask if we could get a few of our rescues ready for their big break. One of our volunteers and one of the founders of our group, Laura Sandoval, along with her daughter Angie, packed up the United Hope for Animals van with dogs that fit Cesar's description of those that might work for Virginia. Laura, Virginia, Jack (and let's not forget Spike) were guided by Cesar in evaluating the dogs and making the best choice for energetic Jack and still peppy, but aging Spike. In the end, Belle won their hearts and a found herself in a new, loving home. Of course it didn't hurt that Belle, the little Chihuahua mix, was sweet as pie and cute as can be.

But where did Belle come from . . .

Many of our friends who watched the show about Belle have asked, "Where did you find Belle? Where did Belle come from?"

During the summer of 2006 Belle was alone and unwanted, at the perrera (pound) in Tijuana. Belle was just hours away from being euthanized via electrocution, when Laura and Mary Ann Foster (another dedicated UHA volunteer) swooped her up and decided that she was one of the lucky ones that we could rescue. The sad fact is that we can only rescue a small percentage of the dogs on death row at the perrera, but the good news is that now dogs are NOT euthanized via electrocution. In August of last year, after years of effort and fundraising, we were able to initiate our program to stop the electrocutions at the perrera in TJ. With the support of our friends like Cesar, and YOU we can continue our work at the perrera and prevent the needless suffering of beautiful dogs like Belle.