Straydog UPDATE posted FRIDAY 12/27/02 at ~5:00 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

FRIDAY DECEMBER 27 2002

Call from Melissa's new family: They want to keep trying with Melissa

     Melissa's new dad called late this morning saying they had had to have their 20-year-old cat put to sleep as she wasn't improving at all after her stroke. The whole family is understandably feeling very sad over the loss of their cat, and they want to wait another day before they make any final decisions about returning Melissa. We certainly know how they feel and will wait to hear from them.

Emergency rescue of three starving pups under an abandoned home across from us

     The morning had started out fairly routine for us all today until we heard the sound of someone honking their car horn just outside the wood fence that encloses our shelter campus. There was someone outside the fence who was urgently trying to get our attention. Randy, Guy and I all headed toward the gate at the same time.

     It was our neighbor from across the road, who had come to tell us about three starving puppies who had been abandoned at the rental trailer on her property. The neighbor said that she just found out that the pups were still there after the owner of the pups had moved away a month ago abandoning the three, five-month-old puppies, leaving them behind to fend for themselves, and the poor little pups were nearly starved to death and covered from nose to tail with mange. The neighbor went on to say that she had tried to catch the pups a few days ago to take them to the pound but the puppies were so frightened they were afraid to come to her, and one pup barked so aggressively at her that she was afraid the pup would bite her. Today she had seen only one pup and thought the others might have died of starvation, and now she was asking for our help.

     Randy, Guy and I hurried into Guy's truck (since is was the quickest and easiest vehicle to get too), and we followed our neighbor to the property so we could see what we could do to help.

     When we arrived (just a couple of hundred yards up the road from us) we found only one mangy black pup, and the poor little thing barked at us when we knelt down to talk to her. She eagerly grabbed the small dog treat that I handed to her, tho, and she ran under an old shed to eat it. She had hardly any hair because of mange that had ravaged her body from her nose to the tip of her tail, and she was so pathetically thin we could see every bone in her tiny body. It was a wonder she could even stand up.

     Guy, Randy and I searched all over for the other two pups, but we couldn't find them. The neighbor kept saying she thought they were probably dead from starvation. Seeing how frightened this one pup was we knew we wouldn't be able to even get close enough to her to pick her up, so we drove back to the shelter to get some puppy rescue supplies.

The rescue of the starving puppies

     It took Randy, Guy and me only minutes to get what we needed for this rescue: a large traveling crate in which to "catch" the pup (or hopefully all three pups) and an open can of good smelling puppy food spread out in a pan to entice the pups to get into the crate plus pockets full of dog treats. Then off the three of us went to our neighbor's for a second time. We again took Guy's truck because it was the easiest and quickest to get to.

     When we arrived back at the trailer no pups were to be found. We searched inside the shed and beneath it and looked under the trailer and couldn't even find the one pup anywhere. But we weren't about to give up. Randy unloaded the big crate and set it down near the shed while I walked near the crate with the pan of food, and suddenly from out of nowhere came the three starving pups running as fast as they
could toward me (toward food), and as I hurriedly set the pan of food on the ground for them, they began gobbling it up as fast as they could. Guy quickly opened the crate door and I slid the pan inside the crate with the pups still eating from it, and in they went right along with the food. It was such a pathetic sight to see how hungry they were. They were so busy eating they had no idea they had been captured.

Off to the vet we go

     What a huge relief this was to catch all three puppies, and it was so much easier than we had anticipated.

     Guy and Randy had to stay at the shelter to help get caught up with the kennel work, so after we transferred the crate from Guy's truck into our dog van, placing it right behind the drivers seat, I drove to the clinic with the pups.

     All the way to the clinic the little red puppy sat in the crate staring at me while the other two black pups huddled in the corner. Every time I'd glance over to look at the pups, she'd be sitting at the "window" of the crate with her mangy, hairless little muzzle up close to the bars, her big brown puppy eyes watching every move I made. Her eyelids were caked with scabby, peeling skin, as were the faces of her siblings, and she had hardly any fur on her face or ears, as well as the rest of her body, just like the other two pups. How sad I felt for these precious puppies.

     Two vet techs helped me carry the large crate into the clinic and into the examining room, and when I opened the crate door and out came the three emaciated pups, it was a pathetic sight to behold. The doctor came into the room, and his first words were, "Oh, dear, . . . what do we have here?"

     The pups showed no aggression now. They all came to me for loving and petting--actually, probably, for more food. I opened one of the small "sample" bags of Science Diet food that was on the counter in the examining room and sprinkled the kibbles on the floor and the pups devoured them in seconds. Then one of the black pups found a corner of the room and had a BM. At first the vet tech thought she could get a stool sample from this but when the small amount of stool touched the floor it crumbled into flakes of what looked to be ashes and sand. The "feces" was just sand and flakes of ashes or gravel, which had probably been their only source of "food" for weeks. These pups would not have survived much longer.

There is good news

     The good news is that the starving puppies should be okay. They are terribly emaciated with horrible cases of both sarcoptic and demodec mange, but these diseases can all be treated. They will be at the vet clinic for at least a week, during which time they will receive good, nutritious food and treatment for mange, with more treatments to come. It will be quite a while before their fur grows back, but they will be okay, and they will be beautiful little puppies again, and we will find them good homes.

     We are all relieved that we found out about these little pups, and we wish we had known about them much sooner.

     If owners could just see what horrible suffering they put their animals through when they abandon them, maybe more people would stop and think before abandoning them.

Another vet visit yesterday after the original Friday update was already completed

     Ol' Pup (or "Puppy" as we usually refer to him) had to see the doctor too Friday evening. Puppy is a big fellow about nine years old who was diagnosed with hip, leg and back problems when he was a young dog--hence no one ever wanted to adopt him.

      A few days ago Pup began limping on his right front leg, and then late Friday afternoon Pup's caregiver radioed me that Pup was beginning to favor his right hind leg too, so it was time for Pup to see the doctor.

     Several years ago Puppy had two major surgeries on his back left knee, he has severe hip dysplasia in his right hip and he has back problems too. In spite of all this (with his special diet and supplements) the fellow has done remarkably well for his whole nine years of life. He is a beautiful, very loving, affectionate, mixed breed dog with a kinky tail, but his "health issues" are the reason people pass him by when they're looking to adopt a big dog. Puppy would have made the most wonderful pet in the world if someone had accepted him into their family years ago, and he would have brought that family much joy and happiness. Upon seeing Pup one would never guess that he has these "health issues." He gets around as well as every other dog here!

     After the late afternoon caregiver told me Pup seemed to be limping even more now, I didn't want Puppy to wait the whole weekend before seeing the vet, so I called the clinic and they said to bring Pup right in.

     We arrived at the clinic a short time before they were scheduled to close and went right in to an examining room. The doctor carefully examined Pup's legs, and although he thinks the limp is due to arthritic change in his leg and back hip, he wanted to take x-rays. It was then almost 5:00, and the x-ray session would take at least a half hour because of having to give Pup a relaxant to make the procedure easier on the dog. Then there'd be another wait before seeing x-rays which would have caused me to have to drive home in the dark, and I do not handle night driving well at all, simply because I can't see well enough, especially at dusk. So I rescheduled the x-ray appointment for Monday morning.

I visited the starving little pups, "Gidget," "Bridget" and "Lilly"

     Knowing the pups would be at the clinic for a while I needed to give them names. The two pups with bits of black fur are now named Gidget and Bridget, and the little pup with red fur is named Lilly.

     Before leaving to come home with Ol' Pup I wanted to visit the three new puppies, so Dr. Morton took me to their kennels. The pups had had everything required of the initial thorough checkup, plus their baths and dips for mange, and although they are practically hairless and bone thin, they looked so much better to me, and what really surprised me was that all three puppies had a bowl FULL of food in their separate kennels.

Puppies have full tummies now!

     Upon noticing my surprise at the full bowls of food in the kennels Dr. Morton explained that he wanted to keep each pup separate while eating so he could check their appetites. I couldn't believe the bowls still had food in them because of the way the puppies had gobbled down the food after we'd first rescued them, but the doctor added that the pups had had several more small meals throughout the day and now they were full.

Three little sisters will share a kennel together now

     I asked the doctor if the pups could all be put together again, or as soon as possible, because these siblings had been through a horrific experience, and the only security they had left was being together. He had the vet tech move the pups together in a big kennel right then.

Our vow to every puppy and dog we take in is that they shall never suffer again

     It's hard to explain the anguish we feel for the pups and dogs we rescue who are found like these starving fellas, because it hurts us to know about and to see the suffering they've gone through. Our vow to every puppy and dog who comes to our shelter is that they shall never suffer again.