BarkingProse

I am alive, thanks to Old Dog Haven. I had been scheduled to die, but at the last minute the superior court of kindness intervened and I was saved.

Why anyone thought I was worth saving is beyond me. I had lain in my own urine for days. It saturated an enormous hair ball attached to my leg. People were sickened by the smell and would not come near me.

The volunteer who drove me from the shelter to meet my foster mom said I was incontinent and would not live long. I could barely stand or walk.

My next stop was at the Old Dog Haven vet where very nice people examined me. I was so relieved when they removed the horrible hair mass. Deaf, poor eyesight, possible injuries, arthritis, terrible teeth. The list went on and on.

My foster mom put me back in her car. After another long drive we came to a stop and I was lifted out onto the grass. Grass! Not a concrete pad like at the shelter. And smells. Wonderful smells of other dogs and rabbits and birds and squirrels.

I was so confused I hardly knew how to behave. A kindly man came out to greet me followed by a handsome boy dog named Asher, his beautiful girl Tess, and another worn out old mutt like me named Jack.

They were appalled by my stench. All three dogs sniffed my pee trap endlessly until the woman finally told them to stop.

We walked through the wet grass for a long time. All I could do was sniff. Finally everything in my body let go at once. Urine poured out and I voided until there was nothing left.

I staggered back to the house where a small but delicious meal was served. I received a light rub down with a damp towel and was tucked into a soft bed on a warm floor.

I did not dream that first night. Dreams are for those who expect to live another day. Yet here I am. I will bark more later. For now I am grateful to be alive.

 

 

Mom says life is never fair. Some dogs get all the breaks. Then there’s Nellie.

Old Dog Haven put out the word that a little Aussie was on death row at a local shelter. Mom and dad talked it over and decided there was room for one more mutt in the pack.

Mom picked up Nellie on Monday. The prognosis wasn’t good. The shelter volunteer said Nellie didn’t have long to live. She was all stoved up, could hardly walk and was incontinent. Worst of all she smelled like a garbage dump.

Nellie’s first stop was the Old Dog Haven vet. He said Nellie was mostly deaf, doesn’t see well, has terrible arthritis, rotten teeth and definitely leaks out of her pee trap.

Nellie also came with an alien hair ball attached to her back leg that was the size of a grapefruit. That came off at the end of the exam. I wanted mom to bring it home so we could all see it but she said it was so hideous she couldn’t stand to look at it.

When mom drove up with Nellie we could smell her through the car. We all realized Nellie was weak and we kept our distance.

Nellie staggered out of the car. She did her business standing up because her back is so sore she can’t squat. She drank a bucket of water, ate a little meal and fell asleep for hours.

I’ll bark more about what we’re doing with Nellie, but for now I gotta bark about how this could have happened. I mean, how could somebody let her get in such bad shape? How could somebody not want to cut that horrible stinky hair ball off her leg?

It’s like nobody cared. Like Nellie was just some dirty old rag that wasn’t useful anymore. When she got old and stinky the people she belonged to stopped taking care of her. Or maybe they never took care of her.

If it weren’t for Old Dog Haven Nellie would be dead. She would have been sent across the rainbow bridge, not because it was her time, but because nobody cared enough to take her in.

Well Nellie’s luck just changed. She’s at Asherpark now. We’re gonna help Nellie feel better. She has to take some pills, eat good, walk around in the grass and get her strength back. We already told her she can join the pack.

If Nellie gets strong enough maybe somebody will want to adopt her. That’s okay too. If she goes to a good home we’ll have another spot for some poor mutt on death row.

One last thing you should know about Nellie. Even though people let her down she’s not bitter about it. She’s just grateful her life suddenly got a whole lot better. Too bad we can’t all be that way.