The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 Time for more "Shelter Snapshots".


The Good

I went to the Shelter today to straighten out paperwork for my teeny-tiny Chihuahua foster and things were crazy.  This GSD, a small, but very typey female, came in as a stray.  The woman who brought her in thinks she may have jumped out of a truck.  She was in good shape, just frightened.  No microchip.  We'll be lucky if anyone claims her.  If not, though, she'll be put into rescue or adopted quickly.


The Bad

No, this isn't "bad" because she is a pit bull.  It's bad because she came in as a stray, super skinny, obviously bred-to-bits, and bearing scars on her ribcage and ears.  This is our typical pit bull mama dog--a marshmallow personality condemned in a fighting body.  This girl probably has heartworms, along with at least one badly infected dug.  Her fate is uncertain.


The Ugly--WARNING:  THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE GRAPHIC

This train wreck of a dog was scooped up from the roadside by a good Samaritan.  He is a tiny boy Chihuahua who--more than likely--has spent his entire life being a stud dog.  He is not blind, but close to it, has no teeth, no lower jaw, and was covered with fleas and nearly bald, with exceedingly long, jagged toenails.

We thought at first that this would be an immediate euthanization case--he lay listless in an old towel.  But once he was on the floor, the little booger lapped up some food (we made it soupy) his tongue darting like a hummingbird's, then we we put him in a crate with an another dog (a Yorkie about twice the Chi's size), the little old man puffed up like a Rottie and dominated that poor Yorkie, standing with his studly equipment on full alert, and growling (although it sounded like snufffling).  The Yorkie cowered in the corner, terrified of this little banshee.

This guy's fate after the end of his stray-hold period is most likely euthanization--he has visible tumors, an abnormally swollen prostrate, a bellyful of worms and most likely is heartworm positive.  How someone can permit an animal to decline into such a horrible state is hard to fathom.  This dog's problems were almost all preventable with decent care, but clearly, his owner didn't consider them to be issues worth treating.

We've had a run lately with stray old dogs arriving in horrible shape--a blind, incontinent Pomeranian, an old Yorkie with half his coat gone due to mange, and a blind Cocker Spaniel with a coat matted to a dense carpet of flea-dandered fur.  We end up giving these weary seniors the pink injection, but the volunteers and Shelter staff would sure like to give a swift boot in the rear to the owners who abandoned these elders in their last days.