It's doubtful Titan brought himself to the sidewalk where Catherine Hedges, a shelter supervisor on the Gold Coast, found him near death on the morning of May 16. Hedges said the malnourished dog had 50 bite wounds around his head and neck and had infected swelling so severe that she mistook him for a Pit Bull-Sharpei mix."I thought he would have to be put down," said Hedges, of the Furry Friends Foundation at Animal Medical Associates. "But even as sick as he was, his tail would thump — a low-energy thump." Although Hedges has volunteered with shelters for six years, been a supervisor for about two years, and an area resident for seven, she said she was unaware of the prevalence of dog fighting here until recently.

Titan has taught Hedges and the staffers many things. But his condition comes and goes these days, she and the vets report. One day he'll have energy and the next day he'll slow down and his gums will turn pale and cold — a sign of shock or approaching death. As he continues to be treated with medication, the vet's best guess is that Titan is suffering from immuneamediated hemalitic anemeia. That means his immune system is attacking his own body. The vets say Titan's got a 50/50 shot at making it as staffers exercise him and get him aquainted with life outside of the hellish world of dog fighting.

Remembering Van Gogh

The day before we were to pick up our new charge, we got a distressed call from the shelter telling us that the night before, someone had broken into the outside kennel runs and stolen Van Gogh and another Pit Bull, Pinkie, who had been spayed only the day before. Everyone was devastated; police were contacted; newspapers and TV stations ran stories and pictures; shelter staff walked the streets searching. Animal Control Officer Kathy Thorpe joined the effort, and volunteers began to stand guard at the shelter nightly. We were haunted with the knowledge the Van Gogh and Pinkie were now almost certainly living a hellish life.

Three months later, on a frigid January morning, an auto mechanic at a Poughkeepsie, NY repair shop climbed into a customer's car to drive it into the garage. As he sat in the vehicle, two dogs leaped onto him from the back seat. Terrified, the mechanic jumped from the car and called police. The police in turn called Kathy Thorpe, who later told me; "I arrived and these two skeletons all slashed up were jumping up on me tails wagging like crazy. Only after I saw the stitches on her belly did I understand that this was Pinky. Never have I wanted to have a cell phone as much as I did during that drive back to the shelter. Van Gogh and Pinky were back!"

A vacationing businessman was walking along a beach when he saw a young boy. Along the shore were many starfish that had been washed up by the tide and were sure to die before the tide returned. The boy was walking slowly along the shore and occasionally reached down and tossed a beached starfish back into the ocean. The businessman, hoping to teach the boy a little lesson in common sense, walked up to the boy and said, "I have been watching what you are doing, son. You have a good heart, and I know you mean well, but do you realize how many beaches there are around here and how many starfish are dying on every beach every day? Surely, such an industrious and kind-hearted boy such as yourself could find something better to do with your time. Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a difference?" The boy looked up at that man and then he back down at a starfish by his feet. He picked up the starfish and, as he gently tossed it back into the ocean, he said, "It makes a difference to that one."

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