Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Poor Puppy

A lost dog showed up at the doors of the library this morning looking for help. She had a bad infection on her rear, and she was dragging her backend. We were concerned she may have been hit by a car. She was a full-bred poodle (not a standard... the next size down. Miniature?)

Anyway, I wished my friend Susan had been close by, as she is the Queen of "what to do when you find an animal in distress," but we called Animal Control and they came VERY quickly. The woman who picked her up told us she was a girl and that it looked like the infection was a flea allergy that she had been chewing on. She also thought that the "injury" was actually the beginnings of a blown disc or hip problems... very common in this breed. She said it's hard to tell how old poodles are by their teeth, but she estimated this is an older dog who seems to have good teeth (that is, she is well taken care of).

So they said they would try to locate an owner, and they would treat the infection. If no owner is to be found, she said the dog would go to poodle rescue and would have no problem finding a home.

Quite a dramatic start to our day here!

4 comments:

Chris said...

:-(

A Girl From Texas said...

Awe. I love animals and I hate to see them suffer. I could never be a pet rescuer or work in an animal shelter. I feel the same way about children, too. I wouldn't be able to do social work for children.

I once came across an injured bird while I was showing houses to a customer. I made them detour while I took it to the wildlife coaltition. I think it survived and they were able to release it, I'm not sure.

Chris said...

Don't get me started on stupid fucking birds. My cats would bring them in weekly during the summer and I've had to dispose of far too many.

jen said...

Remember, a bird (or small rodent) left on the front porch (or thrown up on the carpet...) says, "I care."