08:29 AM CDT on Monday, May 15, 2006

By Leslie Contreras / Galveston County Daily News

TEXAS CITY — A schoolteacher and the operator of an animal sanctuary will meet in small claims court this week over the fate of a Labrador retriever named Amy.

The women disagree about whether teacher Deborah Rashell asked Whiskerville Animal Sanctuary to put the dog on its adoption list in July 2004. Whiskerville recently adopted the dog out to a third party, which Rashell claims was done without her consent.

Justice of the Peace Darrell A. Apffel of Precinct 5 will hear the case Tuesday.

Rashell, a fourth-grade teacher at Goforth Elementary School in the Clear Creek District, said she rescued the dog from the streets three years ago. After spending hundreds of dollars on veterinarian care, Rashell learned the dog was heartworm positive and asked Whiskerville for financial assistance in getting treatment, she said.

“She just did a wonderful thing for this dog,” Whiskerville operator Wydell Dixon said. “She could not afford the heartworm treatment . . . [and was] interested in taking the dog into our [adoption] program. We said, ‘well sure.’”

Dixon said Rashell had a verbal contract with the group to put the dog on its adoption list, and was allowed to keep the dog as its temporary foster caretaker.

Rashell, meanwhile, said that she never agreed to adopt out Amy.

The dog received heartworm treatment from Whiskerville, and was microchipped — identifying the group as the owner — Dixon said.

The case came to a crux, Dixon said, when Rashell failed to keep in contact with the organization as it worked to find a permanent home for Amy.

Dixon said that Rashell once called her to ask if she could adopt Amy but never arrived to file the proper paperwork.

Dixon said she didn’t hear again about Amy until Pearland Animal Control called her in October to report they had found the dog.

Dog On ‘Loan’

How did the dog end up with Pearland Animal Clinic?

Rashell said the dog escaped from the back yard of a family to whom she had loaned it.

She loaned the dog to John and Danna Henry for companionship because Danna was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, she said.

The Henrys’ daughter, Paula McIntrye, said the family met Rashell through a friend when the family was looking for a companion dog for her mother.

Rashell told her the family could keep the dog for as long as they liked and return it later, McIntrye said.

Rashell also said she would come back to offer the dog training, she said.

“I never heard a word from her,” McIntrye said.

Pearland Animal Control found the dog on the streets and then turned over the animal to Whiskerville officials because of the microchip identification.

It was a surprise to the Henry family, who believed Rashell was the owner, McIntrye said.

“It was not hers to give,” McIntrye said.

After Dixon picked up the dog, she said, she took steps to adopt out the dog to the Henry family. The family signed Whiskerville paperwork and had a house assessment by shelter officials.

But Rashell said Amy is her dog and that Dixon “took Amy over there with the sole purpose of making money.”

“I think it’s very sad that she took advantage of an elderly couple like she did, when she knew exactly how to get a hold of me,” Rashell said. “She went up there and she took Amy and she had no right.”

McIntrye said she would speak on behalf of Whiskerville in court and hoped her father can keep the dog.

A Missing Dog

Dixon is also filing suit against Rashell for the return of a small black Labrador retriever-mixed dog, Iteeka, who she said Rashell was fostering for Whiskerville and has refused to return.

A month after Rashell filed a lawsuit against Whiskerville for the return of Amy, Dixon responded with her own lawsuit for the return of Iteeka.

In November, Justice of the Peace Apffel ordered the dog to be returned, but when a constable went to Rashell’s residence to take the dog, Rashell said Iteeka had been stolen from her back yard.

A claim has been filed of her account of the dog’s theft with Santa Fe Police, Rashell said.

Dixon said she just wants Iteeka back and is ready for the case to be over.

“This has taken money away from rescued animals and lots of my time,” she said.