Russianwolf
Member
first my background:
As many of you know, Lillian and I rescue dogs and give them forever homes. Most of ours are seniors (a couple even make our resident old farts look young :wink
. We currently have twelve in our house. That's all just to show how much we are willing to help a four legged friend.
Now the story:
A couple weeks ago, my Lillian was taking one of our pups to the vet for a glucose curve, yep she's diabetic, and while there ran into a man who had brought in friend's dog to be put down. Now, Lillian sees absolutely no reason to put any pup down as long as their quality of life can be good, so she found out more. The dog's owner had to move to North Dakota a year ago for work and wasn't able to take the dog at the time. He has had the dog for many years (want to say 12, but I could be wrong). He left the dog in his Sister's care. Well, the Sister didn't do a good job and the dog wound up with a yeast infection on his skin that turned into Mange. When I saw him a couple weeks ago he didn't have any hair on the back 3/4's of his body. The Sister, being the responsible soul that she is, dropped the dog off with her brother's friend and said he needed to be put down. The owner, getting third hand information from 2000 miles away, agreed as his understanding was that the dog was a lost cause.
Enter Lillian. On hearing the story so far, she goes into the exam room with the friend and waits for the doctor. Dr. Hess, seeing my wife with a strange man and dog, knew something was up. So after looking at the pup (all scared and not understanding what is going on) she asks the simplest of questions. "Is it treatable?" Dr. Hess explained that the treatment was once a week for a month and that there was no reason to put the dog down that he could see. So Lillian offered payment for the treatment (and wound up collecting funds from several other who had overheard the story as well) and said that she would find him a new home if needs be. She then got to speak with the owner by phone, who was very relieved that his long time companion wasn't gone and was getting proper care. He was willing to pay to have the dog flown out to him, but due to the dog's age we are all concerned that he may not handle the flight (old dog=weak heart add in tranquilizers and it can be a bad recipe).
So, why am I telling you all this?
The friend is planning on renting a car and driving out to meet his buddy with the dog. However, the friend has been unemployed until last week. I want anyone and everyone getting restarted in this economy to get off on the right foot with their bosses, so I'm trying to set up a chain to transport this old timer to his dad.
I thought this would be a great way to help the guy out and for us to meet up with a couple fellow IAPers. What's involved would be to meet up with someone along the route (usually done at a restaurant or gas station) meet and greet for 10-15 minutes while the pup answers natures call, and then drive to the next point down the road. How far you go is up to you and the next person in the chain. I will contact some rescue along the route to fill in any gaps, and hopefully we can get this guy where he belongs in a weekend.
He has a couple weeks of treatment left to go, and his hair is already starting to come back from what I hear, so we have time to organize this I think. I have to find out where the dad lives in ND, and the starting point will be myself in Martinsburg WV.
So what say you? Are we willing to help an old dog get home to his dad?
As many of you know, Lillian and I rescue dogs and give them forever homes. Most of ours are seniors (a couple even make our resident old farts look young :wink
. We currently have twelve in our house. That's all just to show how much we are willing to help a four legged friend.Now the story:
A couple weeks ago, my Lillian was taking one of our pups to the vet for a glucose curve, yep she's diabetic, and while there ran into a man who had brought in friend's dog to be put down. Now, Lillian sees absolutely no reason to put any pup down as long as their quality of life can be good, so she found out more. The dog's owner had to move to North Dakota a year ago for work and wasn't able to take the dog at the time. He has had the dog for many years (want to say 12, but I could be wrong). He left the dog in his Sister's care. Well, the Sister didn't do a good job and the dog wound up with a yeast infection on his skin that turned into Mange. When I saw him a couple weeks ago he didn't have any hair on the back 3/4's of his body. The Sister, being the responsible soul that she is, dropped the dog off with her brother's friend and said he needed to be put down. The owner, getting third hand information from 2000 miles away, agreed as his understanding was that the dog was a lost cause.
Enter Lillian. On hearing the story so far, she goes into the exam room with the friend and waits for the doctor. Dr. Hess, seeing my wife with a strange man and dog, knew something was up. So after looking at the pup (all scared and not understanding what is going on) she asks the simplest of questions. "Is it treatable?" Dr. Hess explained that the treatment was once a week for a month and that there was no reason to put the dog down that he could see. So Lillian offered payment for the treatment (and wound up collecting funds from several other who had overheard the story as well) and said that she would find him a new home if needs be. She then got to speak with the owner by phone, who was very relieved that his long time companion wasn't gone and was getting proper care. He was willing to pay to have the dog flown out to him, but due to the dog's age we are all concerned that he may not handle the flight (old dog=weak heart add in tranquilizers and it can be a bad recipe).
So, why am I telling you all this?
The friend is planning on renting a car and driving out to meet his buddy with the dog. However, the friend has been unemployed until last week. I want anyone and everyone getting restarted in this economy to get off on the right foot with their bosses, so I'm trying to set up a chain to transport this old timer to his dad.
I thought this would be a great way to help the guy out and for us to meet up with a couple fellow IAPers. What's involved would be to meet up with someone along the route (usually done at a restaurant or gas station) meet and greet for 10-15 minutes while the pup answers natures call, and then drive to the next point down the road. How far you go is up to you and the next person in the chain. I will contact some rescue along the route to fill in any gaps, and hopefully we can get this guy where he belongs in a weekend.
He has a couple weeks of treatment left to go, and his hair is already starting to come back from what I hear, so we have time to organize this I think. I have to find out where the dad lives in ND, and the starting point will be myself in Martinsburg WV.
So what say you? Are we willing to help an old dog get home to his dad?
