What's The Story Behind "Death Row Dog" With Lipstick Kiss Mark On His Forehead?

My husband Jeff showed me this sad story about an abandoned pit bull which really made me wonder about this dog's back story.

Dutch with the lipstick mark
from the woman who kissed him goodbye forever
Let's hope Dutch was saved and adopted
and the woman is OK.  

I also pray and hope that he is still alive.

His name is Dutch. Reportedly, a woman in New York City was seen tenderly kissing the 18-month old pit bull on the forehead and sadly walking away.  The woman said something about having personal problems.

With her goodbye kiss, the woman left a big pink lipstick print on Dutch's white forehead. 

This feels so tragic.

Dutch was checked out and it was clear he was well cared for, had been trained and is good with people, including children. Somebody loved Dutch, but had to give him up.

It makes me think something terrible happened to the woman who gave him up. Was she sick? Completely out of money and hope? Did somebody force her to get rid of the dog? Was she suicidal and giving up everything that she loved, or loved her?

We all rail against people who abandon dogs. It's infuriating, of course. But in some cases, there's a good but tragic reason why the dogs were abandoned. It's just that we, as a society, need to figure out why people have to give their dogs up. That way, we can do a twofer: Find a good home for a deserving dog, and help a human who is clearly at the end of his or her rope.

It looks like nobody knows how to find the woman who had to leave Dutch behind. And, since there's so many dogs up for adoption in New York, Dutch was scheduled to be put to death this week, because there was no room for him.

I hope somebody adopted him at the last minute. Dutch seems like such a sweetheart.

Dutch was among dozens of dogs featured on a sob-inducing Facebook page called Urgent Death Row Dogs. The proprietors of the Facebook page find out which dogs at which New York shelters have been there too long been and will be put to death within hours.

Urgent Death Row Dogs puts photos of the dogs and little bios of them on the Facebook page, begging people to adopt the dogs that night, before they are killed the next day.

I couldn't look at the page for more than 30 seconds. I wanted to cry, because I knew some of these gentle, innocent dogs are gone now. Despite the heroic efforts of the people behind Urgent Death Row Dogs, I know that not all of the dogs could be saved.

I want to adopt them all. Of course, I can't. I can't save the world. Or every dog in it.

But this is a reminder: If there's any way you can give a dog a loving, warm home, please do it. If you can't, please give to or volunteer at a reputable organization that can keep a dog safe and alive until somebody gives him or her a home.

If Dutch is alive, or even if he's not, he'll thank you for it and give you a big kiss. And he won't even leave a lipstick mark behind.