August 20, 2026 • 61 mins
For Emily and Dave, family isn't defined by blood. It's defined by loyalty, love, and showing up when it matters most. When a beloved dog becomes the center of a growing conflict with someone they trust, their lives are turned upside down.
To learn more about Emily & Dave's story, you can visit their website: the-oscar-project.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I just remember feeling gutted, completely gutted. This was my
darkest here that he wouldn't come back.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is betrayal. I show about
the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
change everything. This is one of the most unique betrayal
stories we've ever heard where the betrayal centers around an animal.
Many of us know how important pets are because to
(00:51):
many they are family. For our storyteller, this is a
betrayal of friendship and chosen family.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
My name is Emily McLeod.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
The biggest thing you have to understand about Emily is
that she loves animals.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
To look into the eyes of an animalist, to see
their soul and to see beyond the fact that they
are just a four legged, furry being, and animals do
feel sadness and hope and joy and happiness and delight.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
As far back as she can remember, animals have been
part of her life. Emily grew up with her parents
an older brother in northern Alberta, where the Canadian winters
are long. As a kid, she'd roam around outside in
the snow, enamored with the wildlife.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I would always find injured animals and bring them home
and bottle feed the baby bunnies and the baby squirrels
and the birds.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Emily's parents kept a full house with an ever expanding
cast of furry, feathered, and four legged animals.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
We always had a dog growing up, and she was
a Springer Spaniel. My brother always had snakes and lizards
and toads and frogs.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Emily's parents taught her that each creature deserves special care
and attention, and years later she carried that lesson with
her to Kansas City, where she studied to become a chiropractor.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Even my chiropractic career has had a trajectory toward caring
for animals. I became certified in animal chiropractic.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
It's a unique career. There are only about sixteen hundred
animal chiropractors in the world, and Emily is one of them.
She runs her own practice where she spends her days
treating race horses, pigs with hip dysplasia, and cats with arthritis.
But there's one animal that will always have her heart.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I love big dogs, and I had a couple of Labradors.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So she was excited when in twenty twelve, a local
dog breeder reached out to her.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I get a call from this really nice person who
had a lot of very hard questions for me. She
had a dog that was called a Connie Corso dog,
and she asked me if I knew what a Connie
Corso was, and I did not.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
The woman explained Kane Corsos are special dogs. They are
muscular Italian guard dogs with enormous heads, gentle in nature,
but a fierce looking exterior.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And she very kindly called and wanted to make sure
that I wouldn't have any troubles interacting with this dog.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
The voice on the other end of the line was
Betsy's Shock, a woman who raised show dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
She had a young Kannate Corso that she was getting
ready to show, and she wanted her to be in
top shape.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Emily assured her that she was up for the job.
So Betsy's Shock showed up at the clinic with her puppy.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
A super sweet, beautiful Cunne Corso, just stunning.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And Emily immediately connected with Betsy.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
She's just very easy to talk with. She was all
about her dog.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
For Betsy's Shock, this dog was more than a pet.
Soon she'd be traveling around the country with her competing
in dog shows, so she brought her dog back to
Emily's clinic regularly. Emily had tons of clients, but there
was something about Betsy's shock. She was warm and unpretentious.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And I always saved extra time for their appointments because
I genuinely enjoyed visiting with Betsy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Emily fell in love with her cone Corso too.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I loved her so much, and I remember one day
I was taking care of her and I just made
the offhand comment, man, if she ever had a litter
of puppies, I would love one of her puppies.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Over time, Emily got to know Betsy well. Whenever she
came to the clinic, Betsy spoke passionately about how well
her dog was doing in the ring.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
She was very proud of her work, and it was
just nice to learn from someone who was very confident
in what they did.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Betsy gave her insight into the strange world of the
American kennel Club, a scene Emily knew very little about.
Emily was surprised to learn that people don't usually win
any money at dogshit. For Betsy, it was truly a
passion project.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
The idea behind AKC Dog showing is preservation of breeds,
and so the people that show their dogs that go
to this great expense are generally very passionate about preserving
historic breeds.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Betsy was passionate about Corso's in particular.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Betsy's ultimate goal was to become an AKC judge.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
A person trusted to decide which dogs best represent a breed.
If Betsy brought enough corsos that reached championship status, she
could get there. But shows were a huge time investment,
and it often meant sending her beloved pup away with
a handler for the weekend.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
She loved having her at home, hated when she was
on the road being away from her to show.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
One day, Emily decided to invite Betsy, her husband, and
their dogs over to her place. At the time, Emily's
house was connected to ten acres of wooded land.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
A couple times they even came out and brought their
other dogs to let them run my acreage where I
had trails carved through, just to let them run off leash.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
As the seasons changed, Emily and Betsy grew closer. It
was an organic kind of friendship, the kind where you
don't even notice it. Happening. And then in twenty thirteen,
Emily met someone.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
My name is Dave Jennings.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Dave is also a chiropractor, and as soon as they
met it was clear they had a connection. In two years,
they were married. For the rest of this episode, Dave's
going to tell this story along with his wife. From
the start, Dave embraced Emily's love for animals.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So, I've always liked dogs and cats, and then with Emily, well,
definitely more than I would have ever thought. Animals in
the house, for.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Sure, those are some of the real everyday sounds at
Emily and Dave's place, a seven acre property they bought
to build their new life together.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
We walked out into the backyard and we said, this
is it. We're buying a dog park. And so we
bought the house literally for our dogs.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It became more than just a space for dogs. Their
family grew into a motley crew comprised of cats, dogs,
and several one hundred pound rescue pigs, including one who
uses a wheelchair. Yes, you heard that correctly.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
So this is Maxwell. He came with a spinal cord injury.
He knows how to navigate his wheels to turn and
go backwards. He's really fast. He's living his very best
wheelchair pig life.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Emily and Dave were in their early forties when they met,
and having kids just wasn't in the cards for them,
but that didn't stop them from building their own kind
of family.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
We can't have children, so we pour our love and
college funds into the animals that we have. To some people,
they're just dogs, but to us they're family members.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Emily and Dave knew they lived an unusual lifestyle, their
self proclaimed introverts whose ideal evening is spent playing fetch.
Not everyone could relate, but Emily's friend Betsy's Shock did.
Betsy's life was all about her Kanye Corso's. As soon
as Dave entered the picture, they introduced him to Betsy's husband,
(08:21):
Toby's Shock. Toby was a retired bull rider, and Dave
appreciated his wisdom and good humor.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean, boy, talk about great stories and he has
this gravelly voice that was just it's like an old
Western well gosh.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I think he got Gordon in the neck by a
bull when he was a bull rider, and that's why
I had a real gravelly voice.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, he's like an old cowboy. You know, that was Toby.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
The four of them became fast friends.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I think it's safe to say Betsy and Toby were introverts,
just like Dave and I didn't really like a lot
of people, but the people that we did like, we
really liked.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It was special to meet people on the same wavelength.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Dave and I don't like to go on work on
a homebodies, and they were too.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
They started getting together more often, but never without their pets.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Our friendship really revolved around the dogs.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
He usually involved us hanging out in their big backyard
and the picnic table, just with dogs running around and
just kind of shooting the breeze.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Around this time, something exciting happened. The Shocks prized Kane
Corso gave birth to a litter of puppies.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Def Dave, when I come over the day after and
let us enjoy what we call the puppyvortex.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Dave and Emily spent long afternoons helping the Shocks tend
to the litter.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Bottle feet or change sheets or clean puppies or whatever
they need to help with. Is just giving them a
little bit of a respite, because raising puppies it's a
big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
The Shocks were so grateful for the extra hands.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
They offered us a puppy from the litter as a
gift as a thank you for all that we had done.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Toby's Shocks said he knew just the right puppy for
Emily and Dave. He pointed to her in the litter.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
He had away with animals. He could gree to animals
better than anybody, and he goes that dogs are going
to be a great one. You know, that's that gravelly
voices shotten.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, yeah, that's just what he would say. You know.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
At the time, it was the most generous gift Emily
and Dave had ever received.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
We saw how much they financially put in with the
vet care and the food, so we gave them an
envelope filled with money. We said, you're going to take this.
We don't want you guys to be out money for
a dog you're gifting us.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But the Shocks would just hand it back.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
A couple weeks later, I was getting ready to go
on a mission trip to Africa, and they gave almost
all of that money back to me as a donation
to the mission trip.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Their friendship was like a gift passed back and forth,
over and over, and after a year spent in the
puppy vortex, the Shocks started to feel like family. In
twenty seventeen, Toby's Shocks health took a grave turn. He
had liver cancer.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He had already battled cancer previously and gone into remission,
and as we all know, cancer, when it comes back,
it does come back with a bit of a vengeance.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Suddenly things that had been easy for Toby became harder.
Toby was really sick.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And he was in and out of the hospital during
those months.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Betsy was stretched that working long hours to provide for
her and Toby and pay for his medical expenses. She
had to put dog showing on pause.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
They were in.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Survival mode, so Emily and Dave stepped up wherever they could.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Just going over and stopping it and helping clean up
the pen where the dogs are out so he doesn't
have to go out and do that little physical things that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Wrphed into Dave's running errands or taking him to appointments. Occasion,
we would take meals over.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
The Shocks had been so giving, Emily and Dave never
hesitated to return the favor.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
When friends are in a time of need, You're just
there to help how you can.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It was a trying time, but the couples still managed
to share moments of joy. In the fall of twenty seventeen,
the Shaks Kane Corso was pregnant again. They invited Emily
and Dave over to their house just before the birth
of the new litter. Emily was sitting next to their
dog when she went into labor.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And Betsy said, that's a puppy. Catch it. So I
caught it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Emily looked down at the squirming little creature. He was
so precious and fit into the palm of her hand.
And soon that puppy had a name.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And it was Oscar.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Just like last time, Emily and Dave helped care for
the litter, and they noticed Oscar always needed a little
extra love.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
He was a young, growing puppy and he needed so
much attention, and he was very vocal, and sometimes we
would just get the sos text from Toby or Betsy
saying can you just come pick him up and take
him with you.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Emily and Dave felt a special connection to Oscar. Their
bond was instant, and the Shocks saw it too.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
October first, twenty seventeen, we met Toby and Betsy at
a lake to swim the dogs.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Just as they were about to head home, the Shocks
asked them something.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
They said, Hey, we would like for you to consider
taking Oscar and making him part of your family.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Even at five months old, Betsy could tell Oscar would
grow into a gorgeous dog, but she said with her
husband sick, she didn't have time for another pet. She
just had one ask.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Betsy said, if I get back into showing, I would
like the opportunity to show him and get his champion,
because that's what helps me earn my metrics to be
an a cacy judge.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Show dogs can't be neutered, so Betsy also wanted to
make sure he was left intact. This all sounded Dave
just wanted to clarify one thing.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I asked Betsy. I just want to make sure if
we do this, he's my dog, and she goes, yes,
he's yours.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Emily and Dave were honored the Shocks would trust them
with another one of their corso's. They gave it some thought.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
We're not looking to add another dog, but like these
are such good friends of ours, we want to help.
We want Betsy to be able to get her akc
Judge goals met, especially with Toby sick. We want her
to have something to look forward to.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They slept on it, and the next day we said.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That we would add Oscar to our family.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
They picked him up right away. Emily and Dave had
lots of other dogs in their life, but immediately they
could tell Oscar was special. He had gigantic, soulful eyes.
He trailed Emily and Dave around the house and laid
down at their heels.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
As a puppy. He was sweet. He's just the happiest dog.
He loves people and he'll the attention he gets, and
he just wants to cozy up to you.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
As the weeks turned two months, Oscar grew and grew
and grew, until pretty soon he was one of the
largest dogs either of them had ever seen, weighing over
one hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
And he just turned into this massive dog. I mean,
his head was like twice the size of the human head.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
As Oscar grew, so did their love for him.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It was so fun to watch him grow into this
amazing personality, like you've never met a bigger bundle of joy,
and everyone who's ever met him will tell you that Emily.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And Dave adored Oscar. He made their family feel complete.
In the summer of twenty eighteen, they received devastating news
Toby's shocks chemo had stopped working. He decided to stop
treatment altogether. Emily and Dave were completely got it. They
(16:02):
started mentally preparing to say goodbye.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And it's just so sad. It's so sad for all
of us.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Toby knew he didn't have much time left. In a
quiet moment during one of Emily and Dave's final visits,
Toby asked them something.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Please promise me, you guys will take care of Betsy
when I go.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Sorry, Even when he was on his last day, his family,
his kids were there at his house, and Dave and
I were the only two unrelated people that Betsy let
come over and say goodbye to him. And I just
remember leaning down and I just told him, I whispered,
it is here. I said, Toby, you're okay to go.
(16:46):
We're gonna help take care of Betsy.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But keeping that promise would prove far more difficult than
they ever could have imagined.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
The world shifted on its axis when Toby passed. Everything changed.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Toby's death weighed heavy on Emily and Dave. His friendship
was one they cherished.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
The world shifted on its axis when Toby passed.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Everything changed, most of all for Betsy.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You just don't know how somebody is going to respond
to such a profound loss. We saw her spiral lying,
just having to deal with everything by herself for the
first seven years. All of a sudden she found herself
a single mom of five dogs without anybody there to help,
and I think very understandably she was just lost for
a while.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Keeping up with her day job as a railroad engineer
plus the animal care became overwhelming for Betsy. She worked
long hours, and Emily and Dave grew increasingly concerned. It
didn't seem like she was sleeping much.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
She was so tired she actually got into a couple
of car wrecks all the way to and from her
Lake comb.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but that didn't stop
Emily and Dave from worrying that something like this could
happen again, or something worse. This was Emily's friend of
six years. She knew she needed to help Betsy through
her grief.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It was important to us to help care for Betsy
and the dogs.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Emily and Dave's property had a guest apartment outside the
main house. They knew they'd have to fix it up,
but they approached Betsy with an invitation.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
She could live in our apartment if she needed to
for however long.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Betsy said yes and was grateful. Emily and Dave got
to work renovating.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And got her apartment to the point of being livable,
so she and all of her dogs moved in.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Emily and Dave agreed to help out with animal care
when Betsy was working. It was a lot to juggle,
but they thought it was the least they could do
to help Betsy get back on her feet. She'd given
them a lot, including Oscar, the dog who'd since become
the center of their family.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
He just turned in just to the most remarkable dog
and just an absolute sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Oscar was a gentle giant, over one hundred and fifty pounds,
but still somehow unassuming, the kind of dog you could
bring to work with you, that would rest quietly at
your feet. When Dave opened his own clinic, Oscar became
the office mascot.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I have so many pictures of him with patients and kids,
just sitting next to him, Petnam.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Betsy was right. He'd grown into a magnificent creature coat
unlike anything they'd ever seen.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Oscar is a black chestnut brindle. There are two colors intertwined,
and it looks a little bit like tiger striping.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But they didn't care that he was show dog quality.
They loved Oscar for the way he clowned around their
house and curled up at the foot of their bed.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
If he didn't brighten your day, there was nothing going
to brighten your day.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oscar endeared himself to everyone. He was a playmate to
their other corso and a protector to their rescue pig, Polly.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Polly and Oscar were the best of friends. It was
like he just knew that she needed him for warmth
and protection. We have hundreds of pictures of Oscar and
Pollie sleeping together.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
In another life, they could have gone viral on social
media as an unlikely animal friendship. Eventually, Betsy said she
was ready to start doing dog shows again, and she'd
loved to borrow Oscar for a long weekend now and
then Emily and Dave were over. They wanted their friend
to get back to all the things she loved again.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We were very happy for Betsy because this, to us
was us helping her realize her dream after the substantial
loss of her husband.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Of course, they'd miss Oscar while he was away, but
they got him ready for his adventure. They dropped Oscar
off with a handler Betsy hired.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The first weekend that Oscar went away. We packed his
little to go bag and he went away with a handler,
and he was in a kennel as he is, and
he ate one of his toys. So after he got
back from that weekend, we had a very sick dog
and had to rush him to emergency abdominal surgery to
remove a toy that was basically in his colon.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Emily and Dave were shaken and were relieved when Oscar
pulled through. It was a horrible accident, but they knew
it was just that an accident.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
The handover was good. He's an AKC registered handle or
he is a good person, and you know there's no
ill intent anywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But that was shocking to us. And also it was
a very expensive surgery for us because he was our dog,
so we covered the cost of that surgery, even though
it wasn't our mistake.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Betsy assured them it was a fluke and dog shows
were usually very safe. Emily and Dave kept an open mind.
Over the next several months, Betsy took him to more shows,
and Oscar performed surprisingly well, bringing home all kinds of accolades.
Betsy was beaming. She was always excited to share the news.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And it was like yay. And we always had text
messages floating back and forth like hey, Oscar got this,
he got that, congratulations, it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
When Oscar was for showing me was winning, we were
very excited for Betsy and very proud of Oscar. We
worked really hard to make sure he was happy and
healthy and in show shape.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Emily and Dave went to a handful of dog shows,
cheered from the stands and watched him rack up wins.
But the deeper they got into that world, the more
worried they became, because every time Oscar left for a show,
he seemed to come back worse for it. Wherever large
crowds of animals gather, germs can spread.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
If one dog has a parasite or a virus, it
spreads like wildfire. From our perspective, every time Oscar would
go to a show, he would get sick.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Oscar often came home with giardia, kennel cough and various parasites,
and he'd infect their other pets.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And we were the ones on the backside dealing with
the vet bills.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Most shows took place over a long weekend, and in
just a few days Oscar would lose weight from the stress.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
And he comes back dropping fifteen pounds over a weekend.
We're like, WHOA. That for us is a concern because
you know, he's a big dog that is very stressful
on their body.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Oscar wasn't a puppy anymore. He was two, and this
was starting to take a toll on him.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Those are known to get very close to their people,
and it was very stressful. Oscar did have some separation anxiety.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Oscar had really specific needs. He had allergies and was
on a special diet.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
And there were times where he would come home with
a lot of his food and or we could tell
it had been prepared in a way that we would
never have prepared it.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
The care Oscar was receiving on the road wasn't what
they'd like it to be.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
He's business for the handler. So when the handler has
five or ten or fifteen other dogs that are created.
He's not giving our dog one on one attention. He
was somebody's job and he's our family member.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
For Emily and Dave, Oscar's show dog career was secondary
to his well being. This led to some tense conversations
with Betsy, and she sympathized. She loved Oscar too, but
urged them to stick it out. Oscar was gaining more success,
but around this time they started noticing some changes in Betsy.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
She was exhausted the time, She was snappier, and she
used to be understandably, you know. We just kept chalking it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Up to grief, and she seemed less a tenant.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
The care we thought she would want for her dogs
to have suddenly was changing. Where we were saying, Betsy,
do you want us to go let the dogs out
like they've been in their crates for hours? Her replies
became more and more callous. No, they're fine, they're finding
being their crates all day. They're fine to go potty
in their kennels. Just not what we thought the standard
(25:32):
of her care was.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
For years, Betsy's dogs had been her top priority, but
now Emily and Dave watched as she spent more and
more time away from them. They were left scrambling to
care for her dogs on top of their own.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
We got to a point we were overextended.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Betsy and her dogs were still living with them. She'd
leave her dogs for days at a time.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
All of the care we provided for her dogs, I mean,
it was just never acknowledged. There was never like thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And we had conversations with her that were just very forthright.
We wanted her to have a social life, We wanted
her to heal and get back up and do things,
but at some point it just became expected.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Emily and Dave didn't think Betsy meant to take advantage
of them.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
She seemed distracted, and she was starting to forget conversations,
and she was really starting to act like not herself.
And we were starting to say to her during the
summer of twenty nineteen, like are you okay you've been
not acting yourself lately, or is everything okay? Is there
anything we can do? And she had said, no, I
haven't been myself.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It had been almost a year since Toby passed. There
was still a lot of pain there. Betsy had finally
brought herself to sell Toby's old truck. She explained she
made arrangements for someone to pick it up, and it
was hard to say goodbye to something her husband treasured.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And she did sell Toby's truck that night and just
was sobbing.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Dave and Emily tried to comfort her as they sat
with their dogs. When Betsy calmed down, the conversation turned
to Oscar. She talked about his potential as a show dog.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That is when she first used the word campaign. I
want to campaign him, and we were like, what do
you mean? And she said, I want to put him
on the road for like a year.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Emily and Dave are caught off guard. Campaigning was something
only top show dogs did. It was like being a
musician on tour. It would me and Oscar would be traveling,
competing in dog shows full time.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
We're like, whoa, Like that's whoa. No, that's not that's
not something we ever talked about.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Oh, we're not comfortable with that at all.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Dogs at dog shows they could spend eighteen to twenty
hours a day in a crate.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Being a campaign dog is not being a family dog.
It's literally being in a crate for hours a day
on the road and we just said to Betsy. Betsy,
like we never agreed to having him campaigned. We don't
want him on the road for weeks and weeks and
weeks at a time, let alone a year away from
us and us from him.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Emily and Dave couldn't even wrap their mind around it.
For the past two years, they rarely let Oscar out
of their sight.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
They go to work every day with me, ninety eight
percent of my week. My dogs are with.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Me, and they're very sensitive. For as big as they are,
they're very emotionally sensitive dogs.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So Emily and Dave said no, they wouldn't allow it.
Betsy didn't take it well.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
She accused us of not supporting her dreams by not
allowing her to camping Oscar.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
The air in the room felt heavy. Betsy was clearly hurting.
They didn't want to upset her, but they couldn't do
this to Oscar. Emily and Dave hoped they could find
some kind of middle ground. They told Betsy, give us.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
The top five shows you want him at, the ones
that are the most important. We will personally take time
out of work and incur the expense of getting him
to the important shows you want him at. So that
he doesn't have to be campaigned.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Betsy seemed to appreciate this. She'd be going with Oscar
and a handler to a show soon in Colorado and
invited Emily and Dave to come.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And then a week or two before the show, she
uninvited us to go to Colorado, saying that he would
focus better if we weren't there, he would be less distracted.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Betsy said they'd work out an arrangement for oscar show schedule.
When she got back, Oscar left for Colorado, Emily and
Dave stayed home. Betsy texted them updates like always, Oscar
won Best in Breed.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
We got a picture of Betsy and Oscar in the hotel.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
It should have been a happy moment, but in the photo,
Betsy didn't look happy.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
And there's just something looking off, you know, you can
just tell things looked a little off.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Emily figured she talked at Betsy when she got back
from the show. But suddenly Betsy started sending messages that
were convoluted and long winded. It gave them pause, and
every message was sent in a group chat with her
handler Sean.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
That was odd, and everything was paragraphs. It was like
really long text. You can read them, and you can
just see a difference in tone and.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Everything, until one message made them freeze.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
This hard less turn of here's a change of plans.
He's not coming home. He's going to stay with Sean.
He's going to go breed her bitch, and you can
pick him up in Lexington, Kentucky, on Labor Day.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Labor Day that was weeks away. At first, Emily and
Dave didn't understand what they were reading. Dave picked up
the phone and dialed Betsy. He was sure this was
a misunderstanding.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I called and I go, what are you saying? What's
going on?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Betsy said, Oscar was staying on the road. There were
several shows that were too important to miss. They could
see him in a few weeks. Dave was blindsided. This
wasn't the plan.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
You made a promise to me that you were going
to return him, and then we were going to further
discuss this new plan you had or want, or your
new goals, what it looks like, and then how we
can all come to an agreement of what we can do.
But that all went out the door.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Dave saw red. He says he's not proud of what
happened next.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
I admittedly lost Michael, and I might have dropped some
foul words, and I was hot headed for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Betsy hung up the phone, and soon she stopped communicating
with Emily two. Betsy told them if they wanted updates
about Oscar, it'd have to go through her handler, Sean.
Dave texted Betsy apologized for losing his temper, but she
didn't reply.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
That was the point when all communications stopped.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Emily and Dave began to panic. They didn't even know
what city Oscar was competing in next days past.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
It was hard to eat, it was hard to sleep,
and to think of him sleeping in a basement kennel
with other dogs all around versus in our house. I mean,
everything about it was just everything we didn't want for Oscar.
And I just remember every night praying for Oscar, just
for him to be safe and for him to know
that we loved him, than just for Sean to be
taking good care of him.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
No matter how many times they called, Betsy didn't answer.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I kept thinking, the phone's going to ring and Betsy's
going to call and say, you guys, I'm so sorry
I lost my mind for a minute. I'm bringing Oscar home.
Let's talk about this. Everything's going to be okay. We
were waiting for that, because that's the Betsy we had known.
That's a Betsy I'd known for seven years. That phone
call never came.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Emily and Dave waited anxiously.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
We were told we could pick him up Labor Day
Monday in Lexington, Kentucky, at a dog show he was
supposed to be at.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
It was a grueling two weeks of sleepless nights and
radio silence. When Labor Day weekend finally came, Emily got
ready to make the drive, but her doubts had grown.
Before leaving, she checked the show's website for Oscar's name, and,
to her dismay.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
He was marked absent from the show. He was marked
absent from the show, and I remember feeling like the
bottom just dropped out.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Emily began to stop. If Oscar wasn't in Kentucky, where
on earth was he? Betsy had lied to them.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Oh my gosh, this is what I feared. This is
what I feared. A member of my family had been taken.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
They'd been waiting for Betsy to come back to her apartment.
This was one of their closest friends. They knew if
they could just talk to her, they could work things out.
But when they unlocked the front door to her apartment,
they found she.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Had come home on a day we weren't there, and
she moved her stuff out.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
All her dogs were gone. To Emily and Dave stared
at the empty walls, astonished. How could she move out
without saying goodbye. That's when it dawned on them she
wasn't planning on coming back with Oscar ever.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I just remember feeling gutted, completely gutted. This was my
darkest year that he wouldn't come back.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
They replayed the past year with Betsy, and.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Now we think was it a plan all along? When
did this plan to take Oscar start? Can we continue
thinking the best of her? Or is everything we've known
of her since Toby's death? Has that all been a lie?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
When you think you know somebody and then they do
something so out of character, it really throws you for
a loop. You don't even understand what's happening. You wonder
was anything true?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Were they just a way to support her AKC career.
Betsy promised to bring Oscar home, that she was just
leaving for the weekend that they'd have a conversation about
his show dog career, and instead she disappeared with him.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
If you talk to someone and you find out a
story was a complete fabrication, then was everything a fabrication?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
The panic sets in and I think I went dark
pretty fast.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
They had no idea what Betsy was thinking, and she
wasn't communicating. She'd take an Oscar would she tried to
take their other Courso next she had a key to
our home.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
She knew where everything was, She knew how to get
through every gate and into our backyard. So it was
a matter of quickly calling a locksmith, having all of
our locks changed, padlocking gates between our yards, which we
had never done before.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
All the while, they knew they needed to low kate Oscar.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
We kind of work on track and down where he
might be and just try to use a resource we
can't to maybe figure that part out.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
The next few weeks were an anxious blur. They posted
on Facebook and as their friends in the dog show
world to keep an eye out. No one had seen Oscar.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
It was an awful time. Neither of us ate well.
I think I lost like twelve pounds. We started getting
even more concerned about his well being because we didn't
know who he was with, we didn't know where he was,
we didn't know how he was being cared for.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
With no updates on his well being, their minds jumped
to dark places.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I think silence has a way of assuming the worst.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Betsy had never put any expectations about Oscar show career
in writing, and Emily and Dave never asked her to.
Why would they. Betsy had never campaigned a dog before,
and she was their friend, but now they saw things differently.
The trust that had felt natural suddenly felt like a mistake.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And we also started interviewing lawyers because Betsy, he'd stopped
talking with us. She'd never given us a contract. She
was unwilling to work things out with us, so we
started looking for lawyers because we knew we needed help.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Six weeks passed that way. They didn't have any leads,
but Dave had a hunch there was a large jog
show happening in Virginia. Since Sean, the handler, lived nearby
in Maryland, they might try to enter Oscar.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
We weren't sure first of all, that he would be there.
It was just a twenty four hour drive in hopes
that he would be there.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
But they were desperate. If there was a chance they
could bring oscar home, they had to try. So Dave
hugged Emily, jumped in his car and set out on
a rescue mission.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
My buddy, Now we drove. We left here midday and
we drove straight through.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Dave and his friend drove all night, taking turns at
the wheel. When they arrived at the Virginia Dog Show,
the sun was rising. They parked outside and made a
game plan. Dave knew he had to be strategic. The
handler wouldn't just hand oscar over.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
I never wanted to be shady. We tried to do
things the right way at Lexington, and he just didn't
show up. If I go to a show, Superintendent, and
then words starts spreading, then she's gonna get word, and
she's gonna go in a band, she's gonna roll, she
gonna take off, and then I don't know what the
future will hold after that. But I just wanted my
dog back, So my best avenue is to get him
and get him in the car and then go.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
They started by peering through the windows for any sign
of the handler.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
We scoped the place out us trying to see where
is she located.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Finally, Dave spotted the handler and pointed her out to
his friend, who agreed to follow her inside. He texts
Dave if he saw Oscar.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
And we just wait and wait and wait. It was
probably two hours and waiting for kind of things to
settle in.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Suddenly, Dave's friend saw the handler make her a way
back to the kennel's.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Oscar's in a kennel with a blanket over it, and
she finally flips that blanket off of him. And then
my buddy sent me a picture, and I'm like, yep,
that's him, okay.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
In the picture, Oscar was curled up in a crate.
Dave couldn't believe it had come to this, but he
didn't hesitate. When his friend texted that the coast was clear,
Dave rushed in.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
I walked around with a lead, I opened the crate,
and as soon as he realized it was me, he
was just so excited and so happy. I was like,
come on, buddy, we're going home. And I put my
lead right around him and we walked out the door.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
But when the handler found Oscar's crate empty, she dialed
nine one one to report a robbery. Emily and Dave
(40:08):
had come to a painful realization Betsy wasn't bringing Oscar home.
Running out of options, Dave drove to a dog show
in Virginia and hopes that Oscar might be there. He was,
and once Dave found him, he wasn't leaving without him.
He slipped inside and unlatched Oscar's crate.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
I was like, come on, buddy, we're going home. And
I put my leader right around him and we walked
out the door. And as soon as he realized it
was me, he was just so excited and so happy,
and he couldn't get in the car quick enough. My
buddy's driving. I'm in the pastor seat. He comes up
and lays his head on the headrest and he just
is like, oh, thank you, you're here. You know my family,
My guy's here.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Dave messaged Emily. She'd been waiting nervously by her phone.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
The relief, the profound relief when Dave texted and said
I've got him.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Next, they texted Betsy.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
We did a group text that I just said, Oscar
safely back in our care and you're welcome to contact
our lawyers.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Dave hugged Oscar tight and when the adrenaline settled, he
finally looked closely at Oscar.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
I was just aghast at the condition he was in. Dirty,
this giant hotspot on his cheek that was untreated. His
ears were dirty, and they're just gunky as anything. And
he's thin, and he's skinny, and all these things. Now
it broke my heart. It breaks my heart that he's
in that condition.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
The handler immediately noticed Oscar was gone and called the police.
It caused a commotion at the dog show. Dave was
still in the car when his phone rang. When he
picked up, an officer demanded he explained himself.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
I explained to the police officer what was going on?
I says, the civil matter. I go, he is my dog.
I sent him a text message with the AKC paperwork
to show that my name's on as registration. And then
he was like, okay, well, we don't have anything to
do with this. So the police were done.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
When they finally reached Kansas City, Dave rushed Oscar to
the vet.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
He had six hot spots, he had hookworms, which is
an intestinal parasite. He had explosive diarrhea, he had double
ear infections. He had lost fifteen pounds. And he was
hypothyroid clinically on blood work hypothyroid.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Emily and Dave were devastated, and then the sorrow that
came with knowing what terrible shape he was in, you know,
for him to be so sick, it was so heartbreaking.
They hugged Oscar, tears dwelling in their eyes. It was crushing,
not just that Oscar was so sick, but that Betsy
had let this happen.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
They felt betrayed to think that our dog, a dog
that Betsy climed to love and what the very best for,
was allowed to be in such deplorable condition. It's so
sad and so unnecessary.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
I still, to this day, I still cannot accept that.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
That's not the Betsy we knew and loved. Yeah, if
the Betsy that we knew would have seen him with
hotspots and weight loss, with dirty ears.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Yeah she would have put him in the car and
brought him back to Kansas City. But that's not what happened.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Emily and Dave focused their energy on nursing Oscar back
to health. They were so relieved to have him home.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
We treated all the hookworms and air infections, and we
rechecked the thyroid, and we got him back on his
healthy diet. It was wonderful to have him home. It
was so great.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
They never wanted to be away from Oscar again. But
Betsy was actively trying to bring him back on the road.
She hired a lawyer of her own.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It was still tumultuous. We kept hoping and thinking we
could just meet with Betsy and work something out.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
But through their attorney, Emily and Dave found out that
their friendship with Betsy was over when they were served
with the restraining order.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
She filed a restraining order against us.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Not only that, Betsy was determined to become Oscar's legal owner,
but Emily and Dave weren't willing to accept that this
was their dog. They'd raised him, he was part of
their family, and they couldn't just sit by and watch
Oscar's health deteriorate.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
I will never not fight for my dog. If my
dog is mistreated like that, I will fight.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
They didn't have a contract, but they were determined to
fight Betsy for ownership. Here's where things get difficult in
the eyes of the court. This is not a custody dispute,
it's a property dispute, and there wasn't much legal precedent
for a dog ownership case like theirs, but their lawyers
told them not to worry. Emily and Dave had a
(44:42):
paper trail, hundreds of documents and photos proving they had
raised Oscar.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
We had given our lawyers a lot of evidence of
ownership that bills, training, receipts, care and feeding, microchip information,
a CAC registration that Betsy had filled out listing as
his owners.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
They filed for ownership, still holding on to hope that
they might be able to settle things without going to court,
but that hope evaporated in an instant.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Really out of the blue, we got the junction fialing.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Betsy filed what's called a preliminary injunction. Basically, what that
means is she had a specific request. She wanted the
opportunity to bring Oscar to an important show before the
ownership trial began.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
And David and I didn't oppose that. The idea of
the temporary junction would be that she would have Oscar
through the show and then he would return to us
and we would then establish a court date for an
ownership trial, which was fine.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
With us, even though ownership wouldn't be decided at an
injunction hearing, both sides would still need to give an
overview of their claim to ownership. Emily and Dave appeared
at the court hearing. It was twenty twenty, so everything
was on zoom right away. Things felt off. It seemed
(46:04):
like the judge was rushing parts of the hearing.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Dave and I sensed the way court was going and
the types of questions the judge was asking Betsy and
how he handled my limited testimony time, and how he
took a phone call during my testimony. It was the
strangest thing ever.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Other points of the hearing were heated. Oscar's health became
a major point of contention. Emily and Dave's veterinarian testified
that he was in poor condition. Betsy's attorney argued his
hotspots were being managed by the handler and his ailments
were all typical for a traveling show dog. They had
proof that an AKC judge said Oscar was in beautiful shape.
(46:48):
Emily and Dave left court feeling uneasy. Then a few
days later.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
I was at work and I saw the email from
our attorneys pop through.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Emily and Dave were expecting a ruling on whether Betsy
could take Oscar to one dog show.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
I remember reading a few lines into the decision and
my entire body felt like hot lava had just been
poured over it.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
The judge ruled that Oscar belonged to Betsy, not for
a few weeks or a few months forever.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
And the judge said, by five o'clock on Monday, November thirtieth,
Oscar is to be transferred into Betsy's care.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Emily was stunned. They weren't supposed to be ruling on ownership.
There hadn't been a review of evidence or a trial.
How could this have happened.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Unbeknownst to us behind closed doors. Apparently our lawyer and
Betsy's lawyer, and the judge all agreed that there was
no more evidence to be heard for ownership of Oscar.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Without this documentation, the judge decided Betsy had substantial likelihood
of winning the trial on merit. Emily didn't understand how
their attorney could have agreed to this.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Because they had hundreds of pages of ownership evidence, and
they kept saying to us, this is a temporary injunction.
We don't want to overwhelm the court with ownership evidence.
That's not what this case is about.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Emily broke down in tears.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
I can't even describe how absolutely devastated and gut it
I was. It felt like such a bad dream.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
I was at work as well, and I checked my
email and it popped up, and your heart just drops
and your stomach's in a nood.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Here's an excerpt from the judges ruling, which we've had
read by a voice actor David.
Speaker 6 (48:40):
Emily may treat Oscar as a family member, but he's
still a dog, and a champion showed dog at that.
Betsy has spent years developing the Courso breed, and Oscar
is one of her best opportunities for success in showing
and continued breeding. Dave snatched Oscar during a competition. This
is not the action of someone who thinks they are
in the right. It does not matter that there is
(49:03):
no written agreement. It is therefore by the court ordered
that the Connie Corso dog, Oscar is owned exclusively and
solely by Betsy Shock.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
It never once cites a Kansas law. It never cites
a law.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
But the ruling was clear Oscar would have to leave.
In the eyes of the state, he was Betsy's property.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
It was just the culmination of a massive amount of
deceit and just untruths that led to that.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Emily and Dave had five days before they had to
hand Oscar over to Betsy. They tried to savor every
last second with him.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Every night when he was home, I would kiss him
on his big forehead, right between his eyes and say,
you're my very favorite Connie Corso boy.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
They decided to throw Oscar a going away party.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
We wanted him to be surrounded by love and care.
And it was a cold, windy Sunday afternoon, and we
invited people that knew and loved us in Oscar to
a park and friends that came out brought toys and treats,
and one of our friends who's a photographer was there
and she took some She took some creat family pictures
(50:17):
of us, and it was a really nice afternoon.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
That would be the last day they'd ever spend with Oscar.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
On Monday, Monday night, at seven, his handler came to
pick him up. Betsy, he didn't even come. It was terrible.
We had to put him in the back of his
handler's car and a crate. It was too small for him,
and of course I was crying and Dave was crying.
I just remember hearing Oscar cry all the way up
the driveway.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
It was gut wrenching, absolutely gut wrenching.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Oscar left on November thirtieth, twenty twenty, but Emily and
Dave weren't ready to accepit that he was gone forever,
so they hired a new attorney.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
We immediately filled an appeal.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
This was the start of a year's long legal battle
trying to get Oscar home. The case was elevated at
the Kansas Court of Appeals in January twenty twenty three.
We got audio from that hearing.
Speaker 7 (51:19):
This is a litigation over the ownership and control of
a prized show animal and family pet by the name
of Oscar Oscars Acane Corso and Enjoys.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Emily and Dave's attorney presented their case arguing that they
should be considered as Oscar's right flowners, that their evidence
for ownership was never properly reviewed.
Speaker 7 (51:42):
I can't help with clothes but to think and remember
the condition that Oscar is suffering from at this point,
and that is that dogs love, dog's grieve and to
recognize the death sperate pain that Oscar is in and
for him to have a fair chance for Dave and
Emily to lay out their case and they cannot rest
(52:02):
until that happens.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And the judges agreed Emily and Dave's due process had
been violated by the district court they should be considered
co owners of Oscar. At first, it felt like a
glimmer of hope, but Betsy appealed and the court ordered
he would stay in her care while the appeals process
played out. Oscar didn't come home, and to Emily and
(52:25):
Dave that was all that mattered.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
You just leave there, and you're like, I even live
in the twilight zone. I just want the truth to
come out, and I want Oscar back. That's the two things.
I want the truth and I want Oscar. And beyond that,
I'm fine.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Emily and Dave's account of this story is detailed in
district court records and the lawsuit they filed against Betsy,
But started as a very simple question who owns Oscar
proved to be difficult to answer under the law. Eventually,
the case was escalated to the Supreme Court of Kansas.
In May of twenty twenty four, the Supreme Court ruled
(53:00):
that they couldn't decide. They agreed that the case wasn't
properly evaluated, but it wasn't in their jurisdiction to rule
on ownership disputes. That was the district court's job. They
would have to start the process over. For Emily and Dave,
it was another heartbreak. They'd been waiting years, and now
(53:21):
they'd have to wait more.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
It's a shame that this whole process is dragged on
this long.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
There was one more thing Emily and Dave's original lawyer
didn't tell them. If they'd filed a stay, they might
have delayed handing him over to Betsy until the appeals
process was finalized. All these years, Oscar could have been
at home with them.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
It was just one betrayal on top of the next,
on top of the next, on top of the next,
and they continue still.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
This is the limbo they're still living in. It's been
six years. They're still waiting for the next legal step. Meanwhile,
Oscar has spent years on the road. He's become the
winningest Kane Corso in AKC history. He's won Best in
Show twelve times. Emily and Dave have been stuck in
(54:10):
the grieving process for years. It's been harder than when
they've had dogs pass away.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Death is hard and it's final. If Oscar had passed away,
we wouldn't worry about his well being every day. We
wouldn't worry about him being in a kennel for twenty
three hours a day. We wouldn't worry about him having
enough food or not having enough food. He would not
be lonely or sad or cold or hot, or painful
or neglected or bored. Knowing that he's out there, but
(54:38):
not knowing how he's being cared for. That's the hard part.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
This betrayal is layered. Emily and Dave didn't just lose Oscar.
They also lost a close friend.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
This wasn't just some crazy person doing a terrible thing.
This was a seven year friendship that got turned on
its head unexpectedly. It was a genuine friendship. We do
mourn the loss of Oscar, and we mourn the loss
of our friendship with Betsy and Toby. And of course
we mourn the loss of Toby because he passed.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Emily and Dave still hope that one day all the
hurt and anger will melt away to open the door
to a kind conversation with Betsy.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
We just used to be such friends, and it's so
sad that all of that's changed. I would love to
be able to sit in a room with Betsy and
agree to just go forward in kindness and love.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
We reached out to Betsy for comment. Her attorney informed
us that she was unable to give a statement at
this time given the ongoing litigation over Oscar. The trial
for Oscar's ownership is now set to take place in
December of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
There have been very few weeks that this hasn't taken
up time, resources, and finances. We have literally not been
on a vacation since this started. Every spare minute and
every spare we have has gone into trying to get
Oscar home for the last chapter of his life.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Oscar is nine and a half now. The average lifespan
of a Kane Corso is about ten years.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
Our greatest wish would just be to have Oscar home
for his last chapter and to allow healium restoration for
our family unit.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
I just want him to come home. I just want
him to have the joy of going to work and
seeing Patience like he used to, and him greeting with
his big smile and his waggy tail.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
A couple of years ago, he was competing at the
Westminster Dog Show in New York. Emily and Dave decided
to fly up and watch.
Speaker 3 (56:41):
We got to be at the show and watch him win.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
Which was bittersweet. At one point, I had gone to
the restroom and I was standing in a hallway behind
the arena.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Emily turned around and there he was.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
His handler had him, and she was literally six feet
away for me with her back turn to me, and
I so badly just wanted to call his name and
hug and kiss him, but it was before he went
into the ring, and I didn't want to upset Oscar
or ruin his focus. Wonderful to see him and heartbreaking
to see him.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
Since then, Betsy has stopped campaigning Oscar. He's been neutered
and can no longer compete today. Emily and Dave still
live in Kansas City. Emily went back to school to
become a veterinarian. She graduates next year. Dave still runs
his clinic. In the meantime, their family has grown. Their
home is filled with pigs, cats and dogs, but there
(57:44):
will always be a place for Oscar. They're not giving
up hope.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
I would love for our nightly prayers to change from
please Lord protect Oscar until you bring him home to
thank you for bringing him home.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
A few year years ago, Dave and Emily started the
Oscar Project, a site where people can find resources about
property law and fair contracts for animal owners. They don't
want anyone to be in the same position they were
in with a dog they loved and no papers to
prove ownership.
Speaker 3 (58:16):
This is a pain that no one ever needs to
feel again, because you can set the parameters from the
very beginning. They say contracts make for better friends, and
boy is that true. A written contract would have made
for a much better friendship.
Speaker 2 (58:33):
We end every weekly episode with the same question, why
do you want to share your story?
Speaker 1 (58:39):
I binge betrayal all of it and could resonate so
much with the betrayal trauma. And I had never heard
that expression before, but that so perfectly describes what we've
lived through. We have lived a life full of betrayal
trauma for the last several years on multiple levels. Ultimately,
I hope that we save other people from being in
this type of situation. I hope that we can use
(59:02):
our ignorance what we didn't know seven years ago to
prevent someone else from going through this heartache and trauma.
Speaker 3 (59:10):
The past is the past. We can't go back and
change any of the last six years, but we can
change what happens going forward.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
He is the epitome of evil.
Speaker 8 (59:30):
He loved that people thought of him as this boring economist,
and at night on weekends, whenever he had the opportunity,
he was living this wild life that nobody knew about.
When this did start unraveling, he actually used the words
I've been unmasked.
Speaker 2 (59:56):
If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please
email Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That is Betrayal Pod
at gmail dot com. Please note that we are not
a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or
currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local
(01:00:18):
help or dial nine to one one. Please contact organizations
that offer immediate support and our show notes, we've included
a list of US based resources. You can follow us
on Instagram at Betrayal Pod or find me at It's
Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter and additional content, and
to connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack at
(01:00:41):
Betrayal dot substack dot com. We're grateful for your support.
One way to show support is by subscribing to our
show on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to rate and
review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. Big
thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a
production of Glass, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
(01:01:02):
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Leah Jablo and Olivia Hewitt.
Our story editor is Monique Lebord. Also produced by Ben Fetterman.
Production management by Kristin Melcurie, Booking support by Curry Richmond.
(01:01:26):
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Treessica Crincheck. Audio
editing by Tanner Robbins, with additional editing and mixing by
Matt Albecchio. Voice acting by Todd Gans. Betrayals theme composed
by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by my Music And
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(01:01:48):
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I just remember feeling gutted, completely gutted. This was my
darkest here that he wouldn't come back.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is betrayal. I show about
the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
change everything. This is one of the most unique betrayal
stories we've ever heard where the betrayal centers around an animal.
Many of us know how important pets are because to
(00:51):
many they are family. For our storyteller, this is a
betrayal of friendship and chosen family.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
My name is Emily McLeod.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
The biggest thing you have to understand about Emily is
that she loves animals.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
To look into the eyes of an animalist, to see
their soul and to see beyond the fact that they
are just a four legged, furry being, and animals do
feel sadness and hope and joy and happiness and delight.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
As far back as she can remember, animals have been
part of her life. Emily grew up with her parents
an older brother in northern Alberta, where the Canadian winters
are long. As a kid, she'd roam around outside in
the snow, enamored with the wildlife.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I would always find injured animals and bring them home
and bottle feed the baby bunnies and the baby squirrels
and the birds.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Emily's parents kept a full house with an ever expanding
cast of furry, feathered, and four legged animals.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
We always had a dog growing up, and she was
a Springer Spaniel. My brother always had snakes and lizards
and toads and frogs.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Emily's parents taught her that each creature deserves special care
and attention, and years later she carried that lesson with
her to Kansas City, where she studied to become a chiropractor.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Even my chiropractic career has had a trajectory toward caring
for animals. I became certified in animal chiropractic.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
It's a unique career. There are only about sixteen hundred
animal chiropractors in the world, and Emily is one of them.
She runs her own practice where she spends her days
treating race horses, pigs with hip dysplasia, and cats with arthritis.
But there's one animal that will always have her heart.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I love big dogs, and I had a couple of Labradors.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So she was excited when in twenty twelve, a local
dog breeder reached out to her.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I get a call from this really nice person who
had a lot of very hard questions for me. She
had a dog that was called a Connie Corso dog,
and she asked me if I knew what a Connie
Corso was, and I did not.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
The woman explained Kane Corsos are special dogs. They are
muscular Italian guard dogs with enormous heads, gentle in nature,
but a fierce looking exterior.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And she very kindly called and wanted to make sure
that I wouldn't have any troubles interacting with this dog.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
The voice on the other end of the line was
Betsy's Shock, a woman who raised show dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
She had a young Kannate Corso that she was getting
ready to show, and she wanted her to be in
top shape.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Emily assured her that she was up for the job.
So Betsy's Shock showed up at the clinic with her puppy.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
A super sweet, beautiful Cunne Corso, just stunning.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And Emily immediately connected with Betsy.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
She's just very easy to talk with. She was all
about her dog.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
For Betsy's Shock, this dog was more than a pet.
Soon she'd be traveling around the country with her competing
in dog shows, so she brought her dog back to
Emily's clinic regularly. Emily had tons of clients, but there
was something about Betsy's shock. She was warm and unpretentious.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And I always saved extra time for their appointments because
I genuinely enjoyed visiting with Betsy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Emily fell in love with her cone Corso too.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I loved her so much, and I remember one day
I was taking care of her and I just made
the offhand comment, man, if she ever had a litter
of puppies, I would love one of her puppies.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Over time, Emily got to know Betsy well. Whenever she
came to the clinic, Betsy spoke passionately about how well
her dog was doing in the ring.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
She was very proud of her work, and it was
just nice to learn from someone who was very confident
in what they did.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Betsy gave her insight into the strange world of the
American kennel Club, a scene Emily knew very little about.
Emily was surprised to learn that people don't usually win
any money at dogshit. For Betsy, it was truly a
passion project.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
The idea behind AKC Dog showing is preservation of breeds,
and so the people that show their dogs that go
to this great expense are generally very passionate about preserving
historic breeds.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Betsy was passionate about Corso's in particular.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Betsy's ultimate goal was to become an AKC judge.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
A person trusted to decide which dogs best represent a breed.
If Betsy brought enough corsos that reached championship status, she
could get there. But shows were a huge time investment,
and it often meant sending her beloved pup away with
a handler for the weekend.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
She loved having her at home, hated when she was
on the road being away from her to show.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
One day, Emily decided to invite Betsy, her husband, and
their dogs over to her place. At the time, Emily's
house was connected to ten acres of wooded land.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
A couple times they even came out and brought their
other dogs to let them run my acreage where I
had trails carved through, just to let them run off leash.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
As the seasons changed, Emily and Betsy grew closer. It
was an organic kind of friendship, the kind where you
don't even notice it. Happening. And then in twenty thirteen,
Emily met someone.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
My name is Dave Jennings.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Dave is also a chiropractor, and as soon as they
met it was clear they had a connection. In two years,
they were married. For the rest of this episode, Dave's
going to tell this story along with his wife. From
the start, Dave embraced Emily's love for animals.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So, I've always liked dogs and cats, and then with Emily, well,
definitely more than I would have ever thought. Animals in
the house, for.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Sure, those are some of the real everyday sounds at
Emily and Dave's place, a seven acre property they bought
to build their new life together.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
We walked out into the backyard and we said, this
is it. We're buying a dog park. And so we
bought the house literally for our dogs.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It became more than just a space for dogs. Their
family grew into a motley crew comprised of cats, dogs,
and several one hundred pound rescue pigs, including one who
uses a wheelchair. Yes, you heard that correctly.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
So this is Maxwell. He came with a spinal cord injury.
He knows how to navigate his wheels to turn and
go backwards. He's really fast. He's living his very best
wheelchair pig life.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Emily and Dave were in their early forties when they met,
and having kids just wasn't in the cards for them,
but that didn't stop them from building their own kind
of family.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
We can't have children, so we pour our love and
college funds into the animals that we have. To some people,
they're just dogs, but to us they're family members.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Emily and Dave knew they lived an unusual lifestyle, their
self proclaimed introverts whose ideal evening is spent playing fetch.
Not everyone could relate, but Emily's friend Betsy's Shock did.
Betsy's life was all about her Kanye Corso's. As soon
as Dave entered the picture, they introduced him to Betsy's husband,
(08:21):
Toby's Shock. Toby was a retired bull rider, and Dave
appreciated his wisdom and good humor.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean, boy, talk about great stories and he has
this gravelly voice that was just it's like an old
Western well gosh.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I think he got Gordon in the neck by a
bull when he was a bull rider, and that's why
I had a real gravelly voice.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, he's like an old cowboy. You know, that was Toby.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
The four of them became fast friends.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I think it's safe to say Betsy and Toby were introverts,
just like Dave and I didn't really like a lot
of people, but the people that we did like, we
really liked.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It was special to meet people on the same wavelength.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Dave and I don't like to go on work on
a homebodies, and they were too.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
They started getting together more often, but never without their pets.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Our friendship really revolved around the dogs.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
He usually involved us hanging out in their big backyard
and the picnic table, just with dogs running around and
just kind of shooting the breeze.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Around this time, something exciting happened. The Shocks prized Kane
Corso gave birth to a litter of puppies.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Def Dave, when I come over the day after and
let us enjoy what we call the puppyvortex.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Dave and Emily spent long afternoons helping the Shocks tend
to the litter.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Bottle feet or change sheets or clean puppies or whatever
they need to help with. Is just giving them a
little bit of a respite, because raising puppies it's a
big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
The Shocks were so grateful for the extra hands.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
They offered us a puppy from the litter as a
gift as a thank you for all that we had done.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Toby's Shocks said he knew just the right puppy for
Emily and Dave. He pointed to her in the litter.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
He had away with animals. He could gree to animals
better than anybody, and he goes that dogs are going
to be a great one. You know, that's that gravelly
voices shotten.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, yeah, that's just what he would say. You know.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
At the time, it was the most generous gift Emily
and Dave had ever received.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
We saw how much they financially put in with the
vet care and the food, so we gave them an
envelope filled with money. We said, you're going to take this.
We don't want you guys to be out money for
a dog you're gifting us.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But the Shocks would just hand it back.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
A couple weeks later, I was getting ready to go
on a mission trip to Africa, and they gave almost
all of that money back to me as a donation
to the mission trip.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Their friendship was like a gift passed back and forth,
over and over, and after a year spent in the
puppy vortex, the Shocks started to feel like family. In
twenty seventeen, Toby's Shocks health took a grave turn. He
had liver cancer.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He had already battled cancer previously and gone into remission,
and as we all know, cancer, when it comes back,
it does come back with a bit of a vengeance.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Suddenly things that had been easy for Toby became harder.
Toby was really sick.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And he was in and out of the hospital during
those months.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Betsy was stretched that working long hours to provide for
her and Toby and pay for his medical expenses. She
had to put dog showing on pause.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
They were in.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Survival mode, so Emily and Dave stepped up wherever they could.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Just going over and stopping it and helping clean up
the pen where the dogs are out so he doesn't
have to go out and do that little physical things that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Wrphed into Dave's running errands or taking him to appointments. Occasion,
we would take meals over.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
The Shocks had been so giving, Emily and Dave never
hesitated to return the favor.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
When friends are in a time of need, You're just
there to help how you can.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It was a trying time, but the couples still managed
to share moments of joy. In the fall of twenty seventeen,
the Shaks Kane Corso was pregnant again. They invited Emily
and Dave over to their house just before the birth
of the new litter. Emily was sitting next to their
dog when she went into labor.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And Betsy said, that's a puppy. Catch it. So I
caught it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Emily looked down at the squirming little creature. He was
so precious and fit into the palm of her hand.
And soon that puppy had a name.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And it was Oscar.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Just like last time, Emily and Dave helped care for
the litter, and they noticed Oscar always needed a little
extra love.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
He was a young, growing puppy and he needed so
much attention, and he was very vocal, and sometimes we
would just get the sos text from Toby or Betsy
saying can you just come pick him up and take
him with you.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Emily and Dave felt a special connection to Oscar. Their
bond was instant, and the Shocks saw it too.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
October first, twenty seventeen, we met Toby and Betsy at
a lake to swim the dogs.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Just as they were about to head home, the Shocks
asked them something.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
They said, Hey, we would like for you to consider
taking Oscar and making him part of your family.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Even at five months old, Betsy could tell Oscar would
grow into a gorgeous dog, but she said with her
husband sick, she didn't have time for another pet. She
just had one ask.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Betsy said, if I get back into showing, I would
like the opportunity to show him and get his champion,
because that's what helps me earn my metrics to be
an a cacy judge.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Show dogs can't be neutered, so Betsy also wanted to
make sure he was left intact. This all sounded Dave
just wanted to clarify one thing.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I asked Betsy. I just want to make sure if
we do this, he's my dog, and she goes, yes,
he's yours.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Emily and Dave were honored the Shocks would trust them
with another one of their corso's. They gave it some thought.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
We're not looking to add another dog, but like these
are such good friends of ours, we want to help.
We want Betsy to be able to get her akc
Judge goals met, especially with Toby sick. We want her
to have something to look forward to.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They slept on it, and the next day we said.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That we would add Oscar to our family.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
They picked him up right away. Emily and Dave had
lots of other dogs in their life, but immediately they
could tell Oscar was special. He had gigantic, soulful eyes.
He trailed Emily and Dave around the house and laid
down at their heels.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
As a puppy. He was sweet. He's just the happiest dog.
He loves people and he'll the attention he gets, and
he just wants to cozy up to you.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
As the weeks turned two months, Oscar grew and grew
and grew, until pretty soon he was one of the
largest dogs either of them had ever seen, weighing over
one hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
And he just turned into this massive dog. I mean,
his head was like twice the size of the human head.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
As Oscar grew, so did their love for him.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It was so fun to watch him grow into this
amazing personality, like you've never met a bigger bundle of joy,
and everyone who's ever met him will tell you that Emily.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And Dave adored Oscar. He made their family feel complete.
In the summer of twenty eighteen, they received devastating news
Toby's shocks chemo had stopped working. He decided to stop
treatment altogether. Emily and Dave were completely got it. They
(16:02):
started mentally preparing to say goodbye.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And it's just so sad. It's so sad for all
of us.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Toby knew he didn't have much time left. In a
quiet moment during one of Emily and Dave's final visits,
Toby asked them something.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Please promise me, you guys will take care of Betsy
when I go.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Sorry, Even when he was on his last day, his family,
his kids were there at his house, and Dave and
I were the only two unrelated people that Betsy let
come over and say goodbye to him. And I just
remember leaning down and I just told him, I whispered,
it is here. I said, Toby, you're okay to go.
(16:46):
We're gonna help take care of Betsy.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But keeping that promise would prove far more difficult than
they ever could have imagined.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
The world shifted on its axis when Toby passed. Everything changed.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Toby's death weighed heavy on Emily and Dave. His friendship
was one they cherished.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
The world shifted on its axis when Toby passed.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Everything changed, most of all for Betsy.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You just don't know how somebody is going to respond
to such a profound loss. We saw her spiral lying,
just having to deal with everything by herself for the
first seven years. All of a sudden she found herself
a single mom of five dogs without anybody there to help,
and I think very understandably she was just lost for
a while.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Keeping up with her day job as a railroad engineer
plus the animal care became overwhelming for Betsy. She worked
long hours, and Emily and Dave grew increasingly concerned. It
didn't seem like she was sleeping much.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
She was so tired she actually got into a couple
of car wrecks all the way to and from her
Lake comb.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but that didn't stop
Emily and Dave from worrying that something like this could
happen again, or something worse. This was Emily's friend of
six years. She knew she needed to help Betsy through
her grief.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It was important to us to help care for Betsy
and the dogs.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Emily and Dave's property had a guest apartment outside the
main house. They knew they'd have to fix it up,
but they approached Betsy with an invitation.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
She could live in our apartment if she needed to
for however long.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Betsy said yes and was grateful. Emily and Dave got
to work renovating.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And got her apartment to the point of being livable,
so she and all of her dogs moved in.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Emily and Dave agreed to help out with animal care
when Betsy was working. It was a lot to juggle,
but they thought it was the least they could do
to help Betsy get back on her feet. She'd given
them a lot, including Oscar, the dog who'd since become
the center of their family.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
He just turned in just to the most remarkable dog
and just an absolute sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Oscar was a gentle giant, over one hundred and fifty pounds,
but still somehow unassuming, the kind of dog you could
bring to work with you, that would rest quietly at
your feet. When Dave opened his own clinic, Oscar became
the office mascot.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I have so many pictures of him with patients and kids,
just sitting next to him, Petnam.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Betsy was right. He'd grown into a magnificent creature coat
unlike anything they'd ever seen.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Oscar is a black chestnut brindle. There are two colors intertwined,
and it looks a little bit like tiger striping.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But they didn't care that he was show dog quality.
They loved Oscar for the way he clowned around their
house and curled up at the foot of their bed.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
If he didn't brighten your day, there was nothing going
to brighten your day.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oscar endeared himself to everyone. He was a playmate to
their other corso and a protector to their rescue pig, Polly.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Polly and Oscar were the best of friends. It was
like he just knew that she needed him for warmth
and protection. We have hundreds of pictures of Oscar and
Pollie sleeping together.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
In another life, they could have gone viral on social
media as an unlikely animal friendship. Eventually, Betsy said she
was ready to start doing dog shows again, and she'd
loved to borrow Oscar for a long weekend now and
then Emily and Dave were over. They wanted their friend
to get back to all the things she loved again.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We were very happy for Betsy because this, to us
was us helping her realize her dream after the substantial
loss of her husband.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Of course, they'd miss Oscar while he was away, but
they got him ready for his adventure. They dropped Oscar
off with a handler Betsy hired.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The first weekend that Oscar went away. We packed his
little to go bag and he went away with a handler,
and he was in a kennel as he is, and
he ate one of his toys. So after he got
back from that weekend, we had a very sick dog
and had to rush him to emergency abdominal surgery to
remove a toy that was basically in his colon.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Emily and Dave were shaken and were relieved when Oscar
pulled through. It was a horrible accident, but they knew
it was just that an accident.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
The handover was good. He's an AKC registered handle or
he is a good person, and you know there's no
ill intent anywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But that was shocking to us. And also it was
a very expensive surgery for us because he was our dog,
so we covered the cost of that surgery, even though
it wasn't our mistake.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Betsy assured them it was a fluke and dog shows
were usually very safe. Emily and Dave kept an open mind.
Over the next several months, Betsy took him to more shows,
and Oscar performed surprisingly well, bringing home all kinds of accolades.
Betsy was beaming. She was always excited to share the news.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And it was like yay. And we always had text
messages floating back and forth like hey, Oscar got this,
he got that, congratulations, it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
When Oscar was for showing me was winning, we were
very excited for Betsy and very proud of Oscar. We
worked really hard to make sure he was happy and
healthy and in show shape.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Emily and Dave went to a handful of dog shows,
cheered from the stands and watched him rack up wins.
But the deeper they got into that world, the more
worried they became, because every time Oscar left for a show,
he seemed to come back worse for it. Wherever large
crowds of animals gather, germs can spread.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
If one dog has a parasite or a virus, it
spreads like wildfire. From our perspective, every time Oscar would
go to a show, he would get sick.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Oscar often came home with giardia, kennel cough and various parasites,
and he'd infect their other pets.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And we were the ones on the backside dealing with
the vet bills.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Most shows took place over a long weekend, and in
just a few days Oscar would lose weight from the stress.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
And he comes back dropping fifteen pounds over a weekend.
We're like, WHOA. That for us is a concern because
you know, he's a big dog that is very stressful
on their body.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Oscar wasn't a puppy anymore. He was two, and this
was starting to take a toll on him.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Those are known to get very close to their people,
and it was very stressful. Oscar did have some separation anxiety.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Oscar had really specific needs. He had allergies and was
on a special diet.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
And there were times where he would come home with
a lot of his food and or we could tell
it had been prepared in a way that we would
never have prepared it.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
The care Oscar was receiving on the road wasn't what
they'd like it to be.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
He's business for the handler. So when the handler has
five or ten or fifteen other dogs that are created.
He's not giving our dog one on one attention. He
was somebody's job and he's our family member.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
For Emily and Dave, Oscar's show dog career was secondary
to his well being. This led to some tense conversations
with Betsy, and she sympathized. She loved Oscar too, but
urged them to stick it out. Oscar was gaining more success,
but around this time they started noticing some changes in Betsy.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
She was exhausted the time, She was snappier, and she
used to be understandably, you know. We just kept chalking it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Up to grief, and she seemed less a tenant.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
The care we thought she would want for her dogs
to have suddenly was changing. Where we were saying, Betsy,
do you want us to go let the dogs out
like they've been in their crates for hours? Her replies
became more and more callous. No, they're fine, they're finding
being their crates all day. They're fine to go potty
in their kennels. Just not what we thought the standard
(25:32):
of her care was.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
For years, Betsy's dogs had been her top priority, but
now Emily and Dave watched as she spent more and
more time away from them. They were left scrambling to
care for her dogs on top of their own.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
We got to a point we were overextended.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Betsy and her dogs were still living with them. She'd
leave her dogs for days at a time.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
All of the care we provided for her dogs, I mean,
it was just never acknowledged. There was never like thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And we had conversations with her that were just very forthright.
We wanted her to have a social life, We wanted
her to heal and get back up and do things,
but at some point it just became expected.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Emily and Dave didn't think Betsy meant to take advantage
of them.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
She seemed distracted, and she was starting to forget conversations,
and she was really starting to act like not herself.
And we were starting to say to her during the
summer of twenty nineteen, like are you okay you've been
not acting yourself lately, or is everything okay? Is there
anything we can do? And she had said, no, I
haven't been myself.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It had been almost a year since Toby passed. There
was still a lot of pain there. Betsy had finally
brought herself to sell Toby's old truck. She explained she
made arrangements for someone to pick it up, and it
was hard to say goodbye to something her husband treasured.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And she did sell Toby's truck that night and just
was sobbing.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Dave and Emily tried to comfort her as they sat
with their dogs. When Betsy calmed down, the conversation turned
to Oscar. She talked about his potential as a show dog.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That is when she first used the word campaign. I
want to campaign him, and we were like, what do
you mean? And she said, I want to put him
on the road for like a year.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Emily and Dave are caught off guard. Campaigning was something
only top show dogs did. It was like being a
musician on tour. It would me and Oscar would be traveling,
competing in dog shows full time.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
We're like, whoa, Like that's whoa. No, that's not that's
not something we ever talked about.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Oh, we're not comfortable with that at all.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Dogs at dog shows they could spend eighteen to twenty
hours a day in a crate.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Being a campaign dog is not being a family dog.
It's literally being in a crate for hours a day
on the road and we just said to Betsy. Betsy,
like we never agreed to having him campaigned. We don't
want him on the road for weeks and weeks and
weeks at a time, let alone a year away from
us and us from him.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Emily and Dave couldn't even wrap their mind around it.
For the past two years, they rarely let Oscar out
of their sight.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
They go to work every day with me, ninety eight
percent of my week. My dogs are with.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Me, and they're very sensitive. For as big as they are,
they're very emotionally sensitive dogs.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So Emily and Dave said no, they wouldn't allow it.
Betsy didn't take it well.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
She accused us of not supporting her dreams by not
allowing her to camping Oscar.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
The air in the room felt heavy. Betsy was clearly hurting.
They didn't want to upset her, but they couldn't do
this to Oscar. Emily and Dave hoped they could find
some kind of middle ground. They told Betsy, give us.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
The top five shows you want him at, the ones
that are the most important. We will personally take time
out of work and incur the expense of getting him
to the important shows you want him at. So that
he doesn't have to be campaigned.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Betsy seemed to appreciate this. She'd be going with Oscar
and a handler to a show soon in Colorado and
invited Emily and Dave to come.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And then a week or two before the show, she
uninvited us to go to Colorado, saying that he would
focus better if we weren't there, he would be less distracted.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Betsy said they'd work out an arrangement for oscar show schedule.
When she got back, Oscar left for Colorado, Emily and
Dave stayed home. Betsy texted them updates like always, Oscar
won Best in Breed.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
We got a picture of Betsy and Oscar in the hotel.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
It should have been a happy moment, but in the photo,
Betsy didn't look happy.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
And there's just something looking off, you know, you can
just tell things looked a little off.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Emily figured she talked at Betsy when she got back
from the show. But suddenly Betsy started sending messages that
were convoluted and long winded. It gave them pause, and
every message was sent in a group chat with her
handler Sean.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
That was odd, and everything was paragraphs. It was like
really long text. You can read them, and you can
just see a difference in tone and.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Everything, until one message made them freeze.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
This hard less turn of here's a change of plans.
He's not coming home. He's going to stay with Sean.
He's going to go breed her bitch, and you can
pick him up in Lexington, Kentucky, on Labor Day.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Labor Day that was weeks away. At first, Emily and
Dave didn't understand what they were reading. Dave picked up
the phone and dialed Betsy. He was sure this was
a misunderstanding.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I called and I go, what are you saying? What's
going on?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Betsy said, Oscar was staying on the road. There were
several shows that were too important to miss. They could
see him in a few weeks. Dave was blindsided. This
wasn't the plan.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
You made a promise to me that you were going
to return him, and then we were going to further
discuss this new plan you had or want, or your
new goals, what it looks like, and then how we
can all come to an agreement of what we can do.
But that all went out the door.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Dave saw red. He says he's not proud of what
happened next.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
I admittedly lost Michael, and I might have dropped some
foul words, and I was hot headed for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Betsy hung up the phone, and soon she stopped communicating
with Emily two. Betsy told them if they wanted updates
about Oscar, it'd have to go through her handler, Sean.
Dave texted Betsy apologized for losing his temper, but she
didn't reply.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
That was the point when all communications stopped.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Emily and Dave began to panic. They didn't even know
what city Oscar was competing in next days past.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
It was hard to eat, it was hard to sleep,
and to think of him sleeping in a basement kennel
with other dogs all around versus in our house. I mean,
everything about it was just everything we didn't want for Oscar.
And I just remember every night praying for Oscar, just
for him to be safe and for him to know
that we loved him, than just for Sean to be
taking good care of him.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
No matter how many times they called, Betsy didn't answer.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I kept thinking, the phone's going to ring and Betsy's
going to call and say, you guys, I'm so sorry
I lost my mind for a minute. I'm bringing Oscar home.
Let's talk about this. Everything's going to be okay. We
were waiting for that, because that's the Betsy we had known.
That's a Betsy I'd known for seven years. That phone
call never came.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Emily and Dave waited anxiously.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
We were told we could pick him up Labor Day
Monday in Lexington, Kentucky, at a dog show he was
supposed to be at.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
It was a grueling two weeks of sleepless nights and
radio silence. When Labor Day weekend finally came, Emily got
ready to make the drive, but her doubts had grown.
Before leaving, she checked the show's website for Oscar's name, and,
to her dismay.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
He was marked absent from the show. He was marked
absent from the show, and I remember feeling like the
bottom just dropped out.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Emily began to stop. If Oscar wasn't in Kentucky, where
on earth was he? Betsy had lied to them.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Oh my gosh, this is what I feared. This is
what I feared. A member of my family had been taken.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
They'd been waiting for Betsy to come back to her apartment.
This was one of their closest friends. They knew if
they could just talk to her, they could work things out.
But when they unlocked the front door to her apartment,
they found she.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Had come home on a day we weren't there, and
she moved her stuff out.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
All her dogs were gone. To Emily and Dave stared
at the empty walls, astonished. How could she move out
without saying goodbye. That's when it dawned on them she
wasn't planning on coming back with Oscar ever.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I just remember feeling gutted, completely gutted. This was my
darkest year that he wouldn't come back.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
They replayed the past year with Betsy, and.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Now we think was it a plan all along? When
did this plan to take Oscar start? Can we continue
thinking the best of her? Or is everything we've known
of her since Toby's death? Has that all been a lie?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
When you think you know somebody and then they do
something so out of character, it really throws you for
a loop. You don't even understand what's happening. You wonder
was anything true?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Were they just a way to support her AKC career.
Betsy promised to bring Oscar home, that she was just
leaving for the weekend that they'd have a conversation about
his show dog career, and instead she disappeared with him.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
If you talk to someone and you find out a
story was a complete fabrication, then was everything a fabrication?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
The panic sets in and I think I went dark
pretty fast.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
They had no idea what Betsy was thinking, and she
wasn't communicating. She'd take an Oscar would she tried to
take their other Courso next she had a key to
our home.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
She knew where everything was, She knew how to get
through every gate and into our backyard. So it was
a matter of quickly calling a locksmith, having all of
our locks changed, padlocking gates between our yards, which we
had never done before.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
All the while, they knew they needed to low kate Oscar.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
We kind of work on track and down where he
might be and just try to use a resource we
can't to maybe figure that part out.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
The next few weeks were an anxious blur. They posted
on Facebook and as their friends in the dog show
world to keep an eye out. No one had seen Oscar.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
It was an awful time. Neither of us ate well.
I think I lost like twelve pounds. We started getting
even more concerned about his well being because we didn't
know who he was with, we didn't know where he was,
we didn't know how he was being cared for.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
With no updates on his well being, their minds jumped
to dark places.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I think silence has a way of assuming the worst.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Betsy had never put any expectations about Oscar show career
in writing, and Emily and Dave never asked her to.
Why would they. Betsy had never campaigned a dog before,
and she was their friend, but now they saw things differently.
The trust that had felt natural suddenly felt like a mistake.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And we also started interviewing lawyers because Betsy, he'd stopped
talking with us. She'd never given us a contract. She
was unwilling to work things out with us, so we
started looking for lawyers because we knew we needed help.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Six weeks passed that way. They didn't have any leads,
but Dave had a hunch there was a large jog
show happening in Virginia. Since Sean, the handler, lived nearby
in Maryland, they might try to enter Oscar.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
We weren't sure first of all, that he would be there.
It was just a twenty four hour drive in hopes
that he would be there.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
But they were desperate. If there was a chance they
could bring oscar home, they had to try. So Dave
hugged Emily, jumped in his car and set out on
a rescue mission.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
My buddy, Now we drove. We left here midday and
we drove straight through.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Dave and his friend drove all night, taking turns at
the wheel. When they arrived at the Virginia Dog Show,
the sun was rising. They parked outside and made a
game plan. Dave knew he had to be strategic. The
handler wouldn't just hand oscar over.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
I never wanted to be shady. We tried to do
things the right way at Lexington, and he just didn't
show up. If I go to a show, Superintendent, and
then words starts spreading, then she's gonna get word, and
she's gonna go in a band, she's gonna roll, she
gonna take off, and then I don't know what the
future will hold after that. But I just wanted my
dog back, So my best avenue is to get him
and get him in the car and then go.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
They started by peering through the windows for any sign
of the handler.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
We scoped the place out us trying to see where
is she located.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Finally, Dave spotted the handler and pointed her out to
his friend, who agreed to follow her inside. He texts
Dave if he saw Oscar.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
And we just wait and wait and wait. It was
probably two hours and waiting for kind of things to
settle in.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Suddenly, Dave's friend saw the handler make her a way
back to the kennel's.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Oscar's in a kennel with a blanket over it, and
she finally flips that blanket off of him. And then
my buddy sent me a picture, and I'm like, yep,
that's him, okay.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
In the picture, Oscar was curled up in a crate.
Dave couldn't believe it had come to this, but he
didn't hesitate. When his friend texted that the coast was clear,
Dave rushed in.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
I walked around with a lead, I opened the crate,
and as soon as he realized it was me, he
was just so excited and so happy. I was like,
come on, buddy, we're going home. And I put my
lead right around him and we walked out the door.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
But when the handler found Oscar's crate empty, she dialed
nine one one to report a robbery. Emily and Dave
(40:08):
had come to a painful realization Betsy wasn't bringing Oscar home.
Running out of options, Dave drove to a dog show
in Virginia and hopes that Oscar might be there. He was,
and once Dave found him, he wasn't leaving without him.
He slipped inside and unlatched Oscar's crate.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
I was like, come on, buddy, we're going home. And
I put my leader right around him and we walked
out the door. And as soon as he realized it
was me, he was just so excited and so happy,
and he couldn't get in the car quick enough. My
buddy's driving. I'm in the pastor seat. He comes up
and lays his head on the headrest and he just
is like, oh, thank you, you're here. You know my family,
My guy's here.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Dave messaged Emily. She'd been waiting nervously by her phone.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
The relief, the profound relief when Dave texted and said
I've got him.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Next, they texted Betsy.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
We did a group text that I just said, Oscar
safely back in our care and you're welcome to contact
our lawyers.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Dave hugged Oscar tight and when the adrenaline settled, he
finally looked closely at Oscar.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
I was just aghast at the condition he was in. Dirty,
this giant hotspot on his cheek that was untreated. His
ears were dirty, and they're just gunky as anything. And
he's thin, and he's skinny, and all these things. Now
it broke my heart. It breaks my heart that he's
in that condition.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
The handler immediately noticed Oscar was gone and called the police.
It caused a commotion at the dog show. Dave was
still in the car when his phone rang. When he
picked up, an officer demanded he explained himself.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
I explained to the police officer what was going on?
I says, the civil matter. I go, he is my dog.
I sent him a text message with the AKC paperwork
to show that my name's on as registration. And then
he was like, okay, well, we don't have anything to
do with this. So the police were done.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
When they finally reached Kansas City, Dave rushed Oscar to
the vet.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
He had six hot spots, he had hookworms, which is
an intestinal parasite. He had explosive diarrhea, he had double
ear infections. He had lost fifteen pounds. And he was
hypothyroid clinically on blood work hypothyroid.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Emily and Dave were devastated, and then the sorrow that
came with knowing what terrible shape he was in, you know,
for him to be so sick, it was so heartbreaking.
They hugged Oscar, tears dwelling in their eyes. It was crushing,
not just that Oscar was so sick, but that Betsy
had let this happen.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
They felt betrayed to think that our dog, a dog
that Betsy climed to love and what the very best for,
was allowed to be in such deplorable condition. It's so
sad and so unnecessary.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
I still, to this day, I still cannot accept that.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
That's not the Betsy we knew and loved. Yeah, if
the Betsy that we knew would have seen him with
hotspots and weight loss, with dirty ears.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Yeah she would have put him in the car and
brought him back to Kansas City. But that's not what happened.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Emily and Dave focused their energy on nursing Oscar back
to health. They were so relieved to have him home.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
We treated all the hookworms and air infections, and we
rechecked the thyroid, and we got him back on his
healthy diet. It was wonderful to have him home. It
was so great.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
They never wanted to be away from Oscar again. But
Betsy was actively trying to bring him back on the road.
She hired a lawyer of her own.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It was still tumultuous. We kept hoping and thinking we
could just meet with Betsy and work something out.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
But through their attorney, Emily and Dave found out that
their friendship with Betsy was over when they were served
with the restraining order.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
She filed a restraining order against us.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Not only that, Betsy was determined to become Oscar's legal owner,
but Emily and Dave weren't willing to accept that this
was their dog. They'd raised him, he was part of
their family, and they couldn't just sit by and watch
Oscar's health deteriorate.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
I will never not fight for my dog. If my
dog is mistreated like that, I will fight.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
They didn't have a contract, but they were determined to
fight Betsy for ownership. Here's where things get difficult in
the eyes of the court. This is not a custody dispute,
it's a property dispute, and there wasn't much legal precedent
for a dog ownership case like theirs, but their lawyers
told them not to worry. Emily and Dave had a
(44:42):
paper trail, hundreds of documents and photos proving they had
raised Oscar.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
We had given our lawyers a lot of evidence of
ownership that bills, training, receipts, care and feeding, microchip information,
a CAC registration that Betsy had filled out listing as
his owners.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
They filed for ownership, still holding on to hope that
they might be able to settle things without going to court,
but that hope evaporated in an instant.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Really out of the blue, we got the junction fialing.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Betsy filed what's called a preliminary injunction. Basically, what that
means is she had a specific request. She wanted the
opportunity to bring Oscar to an important show before the
ownership trial began.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
And David and I didn't oppose that. The idea of
the temporary junction would be that she would have Oscar
through the show and then he would return to us
and we would then establish a court date for an
ownership trial, which was fine.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
With us, even though ownership wouldn't be decided at an
injunction hearing, both sides would still need to give an
overview of their claim to ownership. Emily and Dave appeared
at the court hearing. It was twenty twenty, so everything
was on zoom right away. Things felt off. It seemed
(46:04):
like the judge was rushing parts of the hearing.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Dave and I sensed the way court was going and
the types of questions the judge was asking Betsy and
how he handled my limited testimony time, and how he
took a phone call during my testimony. It was the
strangest thing ever.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Other points of the hearing were heated. Oscar's health became
a major point of contention. Emily and Dave's veterinarian testified
that he was in poor condition. Betsy's attorney argued his
hotspots were being managed by the handler and his ailments
were all typical for a traveling show dog. They had
proof that an AKC judge said Oscar was in beautiful shape.
(46:48):
Emily and Dave left court feeling uneasy. Then a few
days later.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
I was at work and I saw the email from
our attorneys pop through.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Emily and Dave were expecting a ruling on whether Betsy
could take Oscar to one dog show.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
I remember reading a few lines into the decision and
my entire body felt like hot lava had just been
poured over it.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
The judge ruled that Oscar belonged to Betsy, not for
a few weeks or a few months forever.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
And the judge said, by five o'clock on Monday, November thirtieth,
Oscar is to be transferred into Betsy's care.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Emily was stunned. They weren't supposed to be ruling on ownership.
There hadn't been a review of evidence or a trial.
How could this have happened.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Unbeknownst to us behind closed doors. Apparently our lawyer and
Betsy's lawyer, and the judge all agreed that there was
no more evidence to be heard for ownership of Oscar.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Without this documentation, the judge decided Betsy had substantial likelihood
of winning the trial on merit. Emily didn't understand how
their attorney could have agreed to this.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Because they had hundreds of pages of ownership evidence, and
they kept saying to us, this is a temporary injunction.
We don't want to overwhelm the court with ownership evidence.
That's not what this case is about.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Emily broke down in tears.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
I can't even describe how absolutely devastated and gut it
I was. It felt like such a bad dream.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
I was at work as well, and I checked my
email and it popped up, and your heart just drops
and your stomach's in a nood.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Here's an excerpt from the judges ruling, which we've had
read by a voice actor David.
Speaker 6 (48:40):
Emily may treat Oscar as a family member, but he's
still a dog, and a champion showed dog at that.
Betsy has spent years developing the Courso breed, and Oscar
is one of her best opportunities for success in showing
and continued breeding. Dave snatched Oscar during a competition. This
is not the action of someone who thinks they are
in the right. It does not matter that there is
(49:03):
no written agreement. It is therefore by the court ordered
that the Connie Corso dog, Oscar is owned exclusively and
solely by Betsy Shock.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
It never once cites a Kansas law. It never cites
a law.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
But the ruling was clear Oscar would have to leave.
In the eyes of the state, he was Betsy's property.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
It was just the culmination of a massive amount of
deceit and just untruths that led to that.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Emily and Dave had five days before they had to
hand Oscar over to Betsy. They tried to savor every
last second with him.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Every night when he was home, I would kiss him
on his big forehead, right between his eyes and say,
you're my very favorite Connie Corso boy.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
They decided to throw Oscar a going away party.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
We wanted him to be surrounded by love and care.
And it was a cold, windy Sunday afternoon, and we
invited people that knew and loved us in Oscar to
a park and friends that came out brought toys and treats,
and one of our friends who's a photographer was there
and she took some She took some creat family pictures
(50:17):
of us, and it was a really nice afternoon.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
That would be the last day they'd ever spend with Oscar.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
On Monday, Monday night, at seven, his handler came to
pick him up. Betsy, he didn't even come. It was terrible.
We had to put him in the back of his
handler's car and a crate. It was too small for him,
and of course I was crying and Dave was crying.
I just remember hearing Oscar cry all the way up
the driveway.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
It was gut wrenching, absolutely gut wrenching.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Oscar left on November thirtieth, twenty twenty, but Emily and
Dave weren't ready to accepit that he was gone forever,
so they hired a new attorney.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
We immediately filled an appeal.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
This was the start of a year's long legal battle
trying to get Oscar home. The case was elevated at
the Kansas Court of Appeals in January twenty twenty three.
We got audio from that hearing.
Speaker 7 (51:19):
This is a litigation over the ownership and control of
a prized show animal and family pet by the name
of Oscar Oscars Acane Corso and Enjoys.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Emily and Dave's attorney presented their case arguing that they
should be considered as Oscar's right flowners, that their evidence
for ownership was never properly reviewed.
Speaker 7 (51:42):
I can't help with clothes but to think and remember
the condition that Oscar is suffering from at this point,
and that is that dogs love, dog's grieve and to
recognize the death sperate pain that Oscar is in and
for him to have a fair chance for Dave and
Emily to lay out their case and they cannot rest
(52:02):
until that happens.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And the judges agreed Emily and Dave's due process had
been violated by the district court they should be considered
co owners of Oscar. At first, it felt like a
glimmer of hope, but Betsy appealed and the court ordered
he would stay in her care while the appeals process
played out. Oscar didn't come home, and to Emily and
(52:25):
Dave that was all that mattered.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
You just leave there, and you're like, I even live
in the twilight zone. I just want the truth to
come out, and I want Oscar back. That's the two things.
I want the truth and I want Oscar. And beyond that,
I'm fine.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Emily and Dave's account of this story is detailed in
district court records and the lawsuit they filed against Betsy,
But started as a very simple question who owns Oscar
proved to be difficult to answer under the law. Eventually,
the case was escalated to the Supreme Court of Kansas.
In May of twenty twenty four, the Supreme Court ruled
(53:00):
that they couldn't decide. They agreed that the case wasn't
properly evaluated, but it wasn't in their jurisdiction to rule
on ownership disputes. That was the district court's job. They
would have to start the process over. For Emily and Dave,
it was another heartbreak. They'd been waiting years, and now
(53:21):
they'd have to wait more.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
It's a shame that this whole process is dragged on
this long.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
There was one more thing Emily and Dave's original lawyer
didn't tell them. If they'd filed a stay, they might
have delayed handing him over to Betsy until the appeals
process was finalized. All these years, Oscar could have been
at home with them.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
It was just one betrayal on top of the next,
on top of the next, on top of the next,
and they continue still.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
This is the limbo they're still living in. It's been
six years. They're still waiting for the next legal step. Meanwhile,
Oscar has spent years on the road. He's become the
winningest Kane Corso in AKC history. He's won Best in
Show twelve times. Emily and Dave have been stuck in
(54:10):
the grieving process for years. It's been harder than when
they've had dogs pass away.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Death is hard and it's final. If Oscar had passed away,
we wouldn't worry about his well being every day. We
wouldn't worry about him being in a kennel for twenty
three hours a day. We wouldn't worry about him having
enough food or not having enough food. He would not
be lonely or sad or cold or hot, or painful
or neglected or bored. Knowing that he's out there, but
(54:38):
not knowing how he's being cared for. That's the hard part.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
This betrayal is layered. Emily and Dave didn't just lose Oscar.
They also lost a close friend.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
This wasn't just some crazy person doing a terrible thing.
This was a seven year friendship that got turned on
its head unexpectedly. It was a genuine friendship. We do
mourn the loss of Oscar, and we mourn the loss
of our friendship with Betsy and Toby. And of course
we mourn the loss of Toby because he passed.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Emily and Dave still hope that one day all the
hurt and anger will melt away to open the door
to a kind conversation with Betsy.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
We just used to be such friends, and it's so
sad that all of that's changed. I would love to
be able to sit in a room with Betsy and
agree to just go forward in kindness and love.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
We reached out to Betsy for comment. Her attorney informed
us that she was unable to give a statement at
this time given the ongoing litigation over Oscar. The trial
for Oscar's ownership is now set to take place in
December of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
There have been very few weeks that this hasn't taken
up time, resources, and finances. We have literally not been
on a vacation since this started. Every spare minute and
every spare we have has gone into trying to get
Oscar home for the last chapter of his life.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Oscar is nine and a half now. The average lifespan
of a Kane Corso is about ten years.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
Our greatest wish would just be to have Oscar home
for his last chapter and to allow healium restoration for
our family unit.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
I just want him to come home. I just want
him to have the joy of going to work and
seeing Patience like he used to, and him greeting with
his big smile and his waggy tail.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
A couple of years ago, he was competing at the
Westminster Dog Show in New York. Emily and Dave decided
to fly up and watch.
Speaker 3 (56:41):
We got to be at the show and watch him win.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
Which was bittersweet. At one point, I had gone to
the restroom and I was standing in a hallway behind
the arena.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Emily turned around and there he was.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
His handler had him, and she was literally six feet
away for me with her back turn to me, and
I so badly just wanted to call his name and
hug and kiss him, but it was before he went
into the ring, and I didn't want to upset Oscar
or ruin his focus. Wonderful to see him and heartbreaking
to see him.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
Since then, Betsy has stopped campaigning Oscar. He's been neutered
and can no longer compete today. Emily and Dave still
live in Kansas City. Emily went back to school to
become a veterinarian. She graduates next year. Dave still runs
his clinic. In the meantime, their family has grown. Their
home is filled with pigs, cats and dogs, but there
(57:44):
will always be a place for Oscar. They're not giving
up hope.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
I would love for our nightly prayers to change from
please Lord protect Oscar until you bring him home to
thank you for bringing him home.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
A few year years ago, Dave and Emily started the
Oscar Project, a site where people can find resources about
property law and fair contracts for animal owners. They don't
want anyone to be in the same position they were
in with a dog they loved and no papers to
prove ownership.
Speaker 3 (58:16):
This is a pain that no one ever needs to
feel again, because you can set the parameters from the
very beginning. They say contracts make for better friends, and
boy is that true. A written contract would have made
for a much better friendship.
Speaker 2 (58:33):
We end every weekly episode with the same question, why
do you want to share your story?
Speaker 1 (58:39):
I binge betrayal all of it and could resonate so
much with the betrayal trauma. And I had never heard
that expression before, but that so perfectly describes what we've
lived through. We have lived a life full of betrayal
trauma for the last several years on multiple levels. Ultimately,
I hope that we save other people from being in
this type of situation. I hope that we can use
(59:02):
our ignorance what we didn't know seven years ago to
prevent someone else from going through this heartache and trauma.
Speaker 3 (59:10):
The past is the past. We can't go back and
change any of the last six years, but we can
change what happens going forward.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
He is the epitome of evil.
Speaker 8 (59:30):
He loved that people thought of him as this boring economist,
and at night on weekends, whenever he had the opportunity,
he was living this wild life that nobody knew about.
When this did start unraveling, he actually used the words
I've been unmasked.
Speaker 2 (59:56):
If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please
email Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That is Betrayal Pod
at gmail dot com. Please note that we are not
a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or
currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local
(01:00:18):
help or dial nine to one one. Please contact organizations
that offer immediate support and our show notes, we've included
a list of US based resources. You can follow us
on Instagram at Betrayal Pod or find me at It's
Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter and additional content, and
to connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack at
(01:00:41):
Betrayal dot substack dot com. We're grateful for your support.
One way to show support is by subscribing to our
show on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to rate and
review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. Big
thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a
production of Glass, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
(01:01:02):
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Leah Jablo and Olivia Hewitt.
Our story editor is Monique Lebord. Also produced by Ben Fetterman.
Production management by Kristin Melcurie, Booking support by Curry Richmond.
(01:01:26):
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Treessica Crincheck. Audio
editing by Tanner Robbins, with additional editing and mixing by
Matt Albecchio. Voice acting by Todd Gans. Betrayals theme composed
by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by my Music And
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(01:01:48):
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Andrea Gunning
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