A Day In the Life of Rescue

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Give Me That Dog Please... Right Now.

A woman was referred to us by another group to turn in her dog.  He is a 4 yr old, intact male Italian Greyhound.  She got him as a puppy but has since had 2 human children and just can't keep the dog.  That's really all I needed to hear because I was already envisioning the screaming kids chasing him around the house with some loud, musical toy.  If only he had been so lucky.  I asked if he was current on shots and heartworm preventive.  She said he was due for his shots and had never been on heartworm preventive.  No surprise.

I asked why she wanted to turn him in.  She says that he's been jumping the 4-ft chain link fence. Since she has 2 small kids, she just can't keep going after him. I tell her I will have him picked up as soon as I can.  She asked me to hurry because she "needs to get rid of him because of the emotional attachment."  Always a good clue. 

Two of our amazing volunteers come through with less than 24 hours' notice and meet the owner and her boyfriend to collect the dog.  The woman, who was so broken up over this, gives up the dog without the slightest hug, as if she were handing over a section of the Sunday paper.  The dog is emaciated and covered in scars.  You could pick your teeth with the poor guy's hip bones.  He has what looks, at first glance, to be some sort of abscess on his shoulder blade, about the size of a dime.  All of the hair around the spot is missing.  His belly is torn up because of scraping it on the top of the fence.  He has a hairless stripe on his neck from where the rope was tied.  He is crawling with fleas. 

Our volunteers tried to get as much information as possible but could not have been prepared for what they heard.  They asked for vet records but there were none.  When the owner had taken the dog to get his first puppy shots, he had a bad reaction.  (At this point, they motioned to the abscess on his back.)  Since that didn't go well, they never gave him shots or took him to the vet again. 

It seems that the dog never jumped the fence until his brother died recently.  (They couldn't remember exactly when the dog died.)  When asked how the brother died, the boyfriend replied, "I don't know.  He just died."  Four-year-old dogs, IGs or otherwise, don't "just die."  It was obvious that these boys had been living outside so, when his brother died, the little dog went looking for him.  To solve that problem, the man staked him out in the yard.  They woke up this very morning to find the dog hanged from the other side of the fence.  The man "figured if he was stupid enough to jump the fence when he's staked out, then he deserved to hang there." 

My theory has always been that every dog is better off the moment we get them.  While there are countless cases that are more severe, there is no better recent example for us than this one.  We have named this beautiful boy Micah.  He has had a flea bath and got some nice ointment rubbed on his belly to help it heal.  He is lying on soft blankets in a loving lap.  He has a full tummy and a warm bed waiting for him.  Indoors.

Thank you SO MUCH to all of the rescuers and volunteers that make these little miracles happen.  Thank you for allowing yourselves to be moved to action so that you can be touched by these innocent creatures.  Thank you for never leaving one behind.  I think all of you will agree that, no matter what we do for them, it can't compare to what they do for us.  I feel truly blessed to be a part of Rescue.

Kari Donald
IGCA Rescue Rep - TX & OK
www.imakenews.com/igcarescue
www.myspace.com/igcarescuetexasoklahoma
www.italiangreyhound.org

If you would like to have the story of your Texas or Oklahoma foster dog printed in this section, please put it into an email and send it to: ckdonald@sbcglobal.net.