So this morning I followed my vet's advice and surrendered the blind, obese, tagless, heaving, manically shedding dog I found outside my house late Saturday to the Lied Animal Shelter and sent an email to Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, asking them to consider helping this very involved animal. Then I went about my day in a funk, getting my hair-coated car cleaned and trying to stop thinking about this sad thing waiting for the 72 hours to run out before the shelter puts him down all because we couldn't afford thousands of dollars for the fixer-'em-up.And then, 20 minutes ago, the OWNER CALLED.
He's a trucker who had been on the road and his wife or something didn't even notice the dog had wandered away from their home yesterday on the other side of our complex. He got home this afternoon, spotted my signs, called and described the animal to a T. Well, he didn't mention the bulging tumors or the freakshow teeth, but he got the blind part right.
His name is -- commence gagging -- Renegade. He's 15. The owner says he does have a microchip. My vet scanned him for it but didn't find it.
Mr. Trucker was very friendly and grateful. I explained that my vet said (gag!) Renegade had a litany of health problems and that I couldn't afford to handle it so I gave him to Lied. Mr. Trucker has 72 hours from 9 a.m. this morning to claim (gag!) Renegade; he said he would call right away and I gave him Lied's phone number. Mr. Trucker claimed he took on this dog from a neglectful owner when (gag!) Renegade was 8.
I was in no mood to lecture the guy on how he could have allowed this creature become a huge flab of disease and decay. I didn't really see the value in that and I was glad he offered to go around and take down my fliers. I'm just happy that the dog won't die alone in the shelter.
That said, I also have no intention of taking Mr. Trucker up on his offer to come by for a beer. I sense it would just be too depressing.
3 comments:
I such a sad story but the way you write it... It's so damn funny!
Well done!
Major Karma points!
When dogs get to be that age, there isn't a lot you can do for them. Well, you can, as you found out, spend thousands of dollars, but people are often reluctant to do that for a young dog with more potential for longer life. The other option is to put the dog down, but if he's still walking around and enjoying life, even if not to the fullest, who are we to say? We don't put people down, do we? The main thing is the doggie is back with his owner, who will make the dog's days happy again. That dog thanks you for doing that, as well as the owner.
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