Wednesday evening as I was perusing around Facebook I came across a post from a friend of ours that read “Can anyone foster a Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever mix till Monday?”. Since Jason and I have been kicking around the idea of adopting another dog for several months we thought it might be a good opportunity to help out and to see what life would be like with four dogs in the house.
What we weren’t aware of was the reason the dog needed to be fostered and the condition he would be in when he got to us. On June 30 there were 37 dogs removed from a mobile home in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky. Every dog was severely emaciated and covered in fleas. There were dogs from chihuahuas to great danes, young and old. They were living in filthy conditions where they were standing in up to 6″ of feces in some areas. Every single dog was removed from the home and sent immediately to the vet. Currently all of the dogs are in foster homes, apart from the ones that are still too bad off to leave the veterinary office. For the full story and photos visit the United Rescues of Kentucky web site. There are updates, news videos and press videos linked from this page. (If you are sensitive to photos of starved dogs, you may want to refrain from going past the first page.) There is also a donation form to help out with the vet expenses for this group of dogs – if you can help out any at all it would be greatly appreciated. If you do donate, please leave a comment and let me know!
So Buddy came to stay with us from Thursday until Monday, when he would then be transported to Great Pyrenees Rescue in Indianapolis. In the first day alone we realize how sweet and gentle and how starved for attention and food Buddy was. They marked him as a Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever mix, however we fail to see where the Golden Retriever is. At any rate, he came to us weighing 55 pounds when he probably should average about 100 pounds. He looks big and healthy but one pet down his back and you can feel ever vertebrate, every rib and every bone in the poor guy.
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By day two of Buddy being with us we started pondering on either fostering him longer or outright adopting him ourselves. The more time went by, the more we wanted to keep him. So finally last night we submitted our application to adopt him. Last night we got an email ending with “Congratulations on becoming pyr’ents!” so we’re assuming we’re good to go. 😉
We’re working on fattening him up, grooming him, house training him and he’s scheduled to be neutered on Saturday. He’s a little food aggressive with our dogs (who could blame the poor dog) but other than that he gets along wonderfully with all of them. And he LOVES kids – it’s really cute! So needless to say, you’ll be seeing a lot of Buddy photos in the coming months as he heals and transitions into our family.
As for updates on the other dogs, Lois Lane had another seizure and has been officially diagnosed with epilepsy. The vet put her on phenobarbital which she’s been on since Thursday and so far so good. The meds make her a little drunk acting, however the vet said that would diminish after a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed that she continues to do well.
Blue is, well, Blue. He’s put out with Buddy being here and stealing all of his attention, but he’ll get over it once things calm down. And Hardy is deaf as ever, but still going strong. Happy Dogs = Happy House! And a really bad photo taken with my phone, but it shows Buddy’s size – imagine when he’s gained 40 pounds! 😛
