On my way to the vet clinic (with Nikki for blood work to check the progress of her heartworms and Henry, whose jaw infection is still not completely well, for a checkup) I saw a mother dog with one pup along the side of the road. I was going to stop, but then I realized that we don't have any empty kennels, and also there were two cars right behind me, so I kept on going toward the clinic. Then I called Bill at Straydog to ask him what I should do. Bill said we'd just have to pray someone else might pick them up, so I hung up the phone and kept going. Twenty seconds later Bill called me back and said to turn around and go back to try to rescue the two.
The mom and pup were still near the same spot in the road, and it was pretty easy to get the puppy as he came running to me, so I secured him in a crate in the back.
The mom, however, ran away. I followed her and called to her and got on my knees with a cookie in my hand, but she seemed very scared and kept moving farther and farther away, and soon she disappeared into the woods.
I went back to the van and drove on to the clinic, where the pup got his new arrivals checkup. The doctor said Robbie (whom I had to give a name to establish him as a patient) is a very weak little pup with a terrible infestation of hookworms that would soon have killed him if he hadn't been rescued, so he won't be getting any shots for a couple of weeks till he gets his strength back and his immune system built back up.
