Well, now we have another dog. About 3 weeks ago a stray followed my husband and our other dogs home from their walk. The dog was very sweet and so happy to see us. And he wouldn't go away! He didn't have a collar and we noticed there were marks around his neck where the hair was gone. He was very thin. He looked like he may have been neglected or abused. He had lots of small patches of hair missing all over him leg and face. One side of his muzzle was missing most of the hair. But he was a very pretty dog, other than being in really bad shape at the time.
We finally decided to take him into our back yard and bathe him and give him flea treatment. After we came out and he was laying very calmly on our front lawn. He really needed the bath and flea treatment. Especially since it looked like he might have some allergic skin problem, probably related to flea infestation. He did not appear to have mange. He only had patches of hair missing. Probably from chewing and scratching.
That was an interesting experience. Having a strange dog in our back yard, hosing him down. And basically not knowing anything about him. We were cautious. But he was wonderful. Not a bad vibe from him the entire time we were scrubbing and hosing.
I contacted several rescue organizations and no one had room to take him. Sharon at Mittens and Mutts did respond and say that if we would foster the dog she would let us bring him out to PetSmart or Petco and show him for adoption. We didn't even know if the dog was healthy or not. We didn't even know if he had a rabies shot. He had not even been checked out by a vet. Anyway, so we keep the dog for what we think will only be a few days.
They have a "wellness clinic" at Banfield in PetSmart on Tuesdays and Wednesday. So I had planned to take our new found friend and let them look at him and at least get him a rabies shot. Well, by the time Tuesday came, my husband had already started getting attached to the "big dog". So he went with me to the vet. By this time we had also found a vet that we could get a neuter certificate from and had made an appointment for the new dog to get neutered. It was only going to cost us about $20 after the lady at Two by Two animal rescue offered to help us with half the cost. We thought this would help him get adopted faster. We didn't know that big black dogs don't get adopted. : (
So, off to the vet we go. On the way there, my husband tells me that he thinks maybe we should just keep him. The big black dog, at our townhouse. My response was to just wait and see what the vet says about him and we will decide from there. Well, to cut this long story short. The new doggy was heart worm positive. We asked that they do x-rays to see how bad. It is not that bad, so we are having him treated and he is now the newest member of our family.
At this point I told my husband, "No more!". There will be no more animals coming into this house. I love them all dearly. Even the new guy. BTW, whose name is "Rocky". But I can only handle so many. And the 4 dogs, 2 cats and 50 fish are just about too many. I am up to my eyeballs in pets. We aren't even out of training with our first two and now we have to start training two more. We are going to try and start them with the basics on our own. They are both very smart. I knew that Jackie, the Jack Russell, would be very smart. But the new doggy is just as smart. And he is not as hyper. At least he isn't right now.
The picture above was taken on the day he found us. He does look much better now. His coat is starting to fill in nicely. He really isn't gaining much weight yet. But I think that has something to do with the heart worms and the fact that he is not "fixed" yet.
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