I was rushing around on 7/5/23 trying not to be late for a concert and opened my phone and saw the Fido alert.
The post stopped me in my tracks. Sometimes particular animals just pull at you like nothing else and that's what occurred. I couldn't leave it alone. I posted a response that was a bit of reality and far from sugarcoating as I don't believe for a second that this dog wasn't dumped there. I've been rescuing for 9 years, and "lost" didn't make sense to me.
Anyway, the brave person who was told about the dog AND physically went to find the dog saw my comment. She is an amazing selfless person named Arline. This woman is the real deal and a true rescuer.
She climbed down into the ditch where he was and thought he was dead, but feet from him he looked at her pleading for help. He was in very bad shape and probably days or hours from death. He was shockingly thin, with puss in his eyes and bee's all over him. He had been eating the mossy scum off the top of the nasty puddle near him.
We had a very emotional conversation about what occurred next and how she was able to help him out of that death trap.
When Animal Control showed up, the officer was equally concerned about his well-being or if he would even survive the ride to the shelter. He did survive the ride and arrived at the shelter. The shelter medical team sprang into action.
They got him stable and were very optimistic that he would survive the night. Simultaneously, I started reaching out to every contact I had to see if he survived and make our intentions known that we wanted him.
He did survive and began his re-feeding process, which is how to safely reintroduce food to a severely starved animal.
I had a long chat with the vet yesterday and am preparing to bring him home. In fact, I will be picking him up after work today.
This is what we know:
That dog didn't walk into that ditch, because he would have walked out. That dog didn't fall into that ditch, as he has no significant injuries.
And NO ONE CAME FOR HIM OR WAS LOOKING FOR HIM.
A human is responsible for his condition and that is a fact.
I will be making a trip to where he was trapped and will update on that information in a few days, but know that he could see the road and people driving by as he slowly starved almost to death.
This is the horrible side of the neglect and abuse people do to animals. People want to say, "Always think lost," but let's be real, a situation like this........I'm just not going to sugarcoat it, it is what it is.
Thank goodness for Arline, who didn't just report or share. She got in her car and found him and absolutely saved his life. We appreciate people who report and share, but very few people act.
I will update you later today when I have him (I hate it when work gets in the way of rescuing). I have not seen him yet, so I'm sure I will be emotional. This will be a huge project, but I want to ensure that he has the best life possible, as he has been through something so horrible most of us, rescuers included can't wrap our heads around it.
I just picked him up, shelter staff was so kind and everyone said goodbye to him. He already has a fan club.
BTW, I decided on MERCY for his name. I knew it would come to me and when I saw it when I googled "Second chances," and there it was.
