Polka Dot

Polka Dot came to our house somewhere around March 1, 2018.  She was picked up as a stray with another dog and taken to the animal shelter.  Both dogs were severely emaciated. At the shelter, the dogs are evaluated and their bodies are rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being severely thin and bones and in poor shape while 10 is very healthy and a proper weight.  Polka Dot was a zero on that 1 to 10 scale. Both dogs were covered in feces and full of fleas and ticks.  They were in really bad shape.  Had they been picked up a day later, animal control would have picked up their dead bodies.  After a three-day stray hold at the shelter, they were ready to be released. Thing is, the shelter was full and space was needed to bring in more dogs.  And Polka Dot and her companion (named Pansy) were in such poor shape that they were un-adoptable.    They deserved a second chance.  I volunteered to foster Polka Dot; Nicole volunteered to foster Pansy. 

Polka Dot immediately went to the vet's office.  She was heartworm negative but positive for erlichia, which is a tick-bourne disease.  It makes the dogs feel like they have the flu.  It makes them feel very weak.  The standard cure for erlichia is a month of antibiotics.  Upon exam, we learned the following:  she had recently had puppies but not too recent.  In fact, the dog with her might have been her puppy.  Pansy looked to be about 6 to 10 months old with a severe overbite. Back to Polka Dot, her nails were exceptionally long, so long that it was almost difficult for her to walk.  It gave us the impression that she was kept confined somewhere with no ability to move about.  She had sores on the parts of her body that would touch the ground, giving us the impression that she was kept on a cement, or very hard, floor.  The fur on her neck was rubbed off. Her neck was raw, giving us the impression that she recently had a heavy and tight collar around her neck.  And there was a vertical line down her neck where perhaps a chain had rubbed the fur off her body.  We speculate that she and Pansy were "thrown out" during a cold snap in the weather.  They were both so submissive and scared, they were too sick to run away.  Perhaps Polka Dot was "breeding stock" that grew too sick to be impregnated and Pansy, due to her overbite, was not sell-able.  This is speculation, of course.  We don't really know.  At any rate, after her visit with the vet, she got the medicine and vaccines needed and was brought to our house.

Because of the cold, we didn't immediately bathe her.  I know that sounds mean, but it was really cold and she was in bad shape.  We just fed her. And fed her.  And de-wormed her. And gave her medicine to get rid of the fleas and ticks.  And, of course, the antibiotic for the erlichiosis. We fed her a lot.  And then, after about three days, we bathed her.  She was in such a bad state that we had to bathe her a couple of times to get all the poop off her.  She just stunk.  It wasn't just poop.  It looked like perhaps she was lying in urine - she had urine burns on her legs and belly. 

She was also very scared.  It was evident that she was abused. She was terrified of all of us.  She hid. She curled into her dog house and wouldn't come out.  She behaved like she thought she was going to get beaten.  She was afraid to come into the house.  I'd have to pick her up and carry her in.  Day-by-day, her health improved.  After two weeks, her emotional state still hadn't improved.  I started to leash her to me while we were inside the house.  That way she couldn't run away.  Tethering worked.  Little-by-little, she became less afraid.  She and I began to sit and cuddle at night.  I'd rub behind her ears and tell her stories.  I'd tell her how the bad ol' days were behind her and this is her new life.  Her new life is full of love and good food.  And little-by-little, she got more comfortable. And as her body healed, her natural beauty emerged.  She's spectacularly beautiful.  She's a lemon-walker hound. About 35 lbs right now, with strong hind legs and stoutly front ones.  She has soft silky ears and a sweet face.  Maybe I'll post a picture, but since Ana can't see it, maybe I'll just stick to written descriptions.  Ana, what do you think? 

In my next post, I'll describe what Polka Dot is like today.  She's much different than the way I just described her. 

Starting this new blog

Hello World!

I'm starting this blog for my little sister, Ana.  Ana lives far away from me and she wants to hear stories of our foster dogs.  I have promised Ana that I'd write some stories for her.  So, without further delay, here we go...