Giving boxers a 2nd chance

COEUR d'ALENE - Steve Ducommun has seen, and helped, plenty of abused and unwanted dogs.

He has never forgotten the boxer named Woody, found in the woods between Tensed and St. Maries.

It had been stabbed and dumped.

"He was so afraid of people, I had to put him on a leash to get him to go to his food bowl," Ducommun said. "If he was in the house and you stood up, he would run."

It took more than two years to give Woody back his trust in people, and today, he's a member of a happy household with another boxer as a buddy.

It's those moments, when a neglected dog receives the kind of love it deserves, that drives Ducommun to operate North Idaho Boxer Rescue.

"The satisfaction of seeing the dog go from a really terrible situation where the dog is scared, emaciated, unhealthy, turn it into a dog that can be in somebody's home, be a good family dog, that is loved and cared for, that's the main thing," he said.

Thursday, Ducommun was at it again.

Two shelter boxers, courtesy of Dr. Peter Rork, president of the nonprofit Dog Is My CoPilot, were flown from Idaho Falls to the Coeur d'Alene airport, where Ducommun picked them up and took them straight to Lake City Pet Hospital.

The female boxers, an older one named Nana and a younger one named Timber, were actually in sound condition, said veterinarian Amoreena Sijan.

"Some of them come in pretty rough looking, and others come in ready to go off to a new home," she said.

The four that were delivered on Wednesday to Ducommun, a mom and three puppies, weren't so lucky. The mom, which had been in a puppy mill, showed signs of starvation, its ribs pressing against its thin layer of hair.

Ducommun will give the canines care and training at his home, before placing them with new owners.

"My dogs train them for me," he said, smiling.

Last year, he placed 30 unwanted boxers, some marked for death at kill shelters, in caring homes.

He recounted a story of an abused, deaf boxer he adopted when it was 3 years old.

"She was a horrible dog," he said. "It took us three years to turn her around. She was the most wonderful dog I ever had after that."

Ducommun has operated North Idaho Boxer Rescue with the help of other volunteers the past two years.

"You start getting involved with this, you see badly abused dogs," he said. "You go, 'Something's got to be done.'"

Rork joined the battle for boxers and other dogs about five years ago.

The retired orthopedic surgeon started Dog Is My CoPilot, based in Jackson, Wyo., to work with animal rescue organizations and pilots. He dropped off a rescued German shepherd in Hamilton, Mont., on his way to Coeur d'Alene Thursday.

He estimated he has probably flown more than 100 missions to place dogs, and cats, too, in new homes.

"It's unfortunate that I have to fly any," he said, adding that 10,000 animals a day are euthanized in this country.

Rork, whose co-pilot is his 9-year-old black lab, Doyle, once carried five dogs and nine cats in his Cessna 206.

"We don't want geographic distance to be an obstacle in placing an animal," he said. "We're available just about for any flight, any time."