Straydog UPDATE posted FRIDAY 2/28/03 at ~10:00 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28 2003

Found in a box at the road side another puppy has joined our Happy Home for Strays

      It is hard to believe that anyone could be so cruel as to leave a puppy to most probably die inside a sealed box along the roadside. But this is what happened to our newest little arrival, who is now at our clinic.

A vet clinic in a nearby town called us about the puppy

      The staff member from the nearby clinic called me this afternoon about a puppy who had been in their care for the past seven days. She said that the puppy had luckily been found by a passerby driving home from work. The driver became suspicious when she noticed a closed box at the side of the road, so she stopped to investigate, and hearing the muffled sounds of the puppy's cries she immediately opened the box and saved the puppy's life.

      She couldn't keep the puppy, so she took it to a nearby vet clinic. The puppy is covered with sarcoptic mange (which is very contagious) and the vet agreed to keep the puppy for a week and begin treatments for mange while they all tried to find the puppy a home. What made finding the pup a home impossible, the vet tech told me, was the little fellow's severe case of mange. People want healthy pups and dogs. They see mange as a problem and an expense they don't want to deal with. The vet tech went on to say that no home could be found for the puppy and the pup's week was up and the little fellow was scheduled to be euthanized today. Then fortunately for the little pup the vet tech somehow heard about Straydog, and she called me. We're full (and are still going to have to squeeze in the three remaining Tenison Golf Course Strays when they are rescued), but I did some quick figuring and found a spot for the pup.

We'll take care of the little tyke

      We can't let this puppy die because he's ravaged with mange, causing no one to even consider adopting him, so I told the staff member at vet clinic that we would come get him. Guy went to the vet clinic this afternoon and picked up the little pup and took him to our vet clinic, which isn't very far from the other clinic.

      The paperwork from the pups clinic says that the pup is a male about 10 weeks old. Guy said that the pup doesn't have much fur, but what little fur he does have is black and he looks exactly like Brigitte and Gidget when they were little and covered with mange.

      Our tiny puppy kennel is vacant, since Chubs and Cassie have moved to the bigger puppy kennel (Helen and Sweetie's former kennel), so the new little pup will have a place ready for him when our doctor says he can come "home." We'll get his mange cleared up and find him an adoptive home within a couple of months.

We repeat the following "before and after" photos of Justin, who was adopted yesterday, to show how mange, as horrible as it looks, is curable within a fairly short period of time:

We'll get some pictures of the new fella Monday at the clinic

And here are the photos from the following Monday: