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Dogs
There are so many stories that have spanned over the last ten years, that have had positive endings. Looking back to the many rescue cases, I felt that this particular case highlights many of the problems that are still faced by animal rescues today.
In March 1998, myself and Dianne-now involved in reptiles- were called to a flat in Tillydrone. A member of the public has become concerned at the condition of a German Shepherd female. The owner was a known drug addict-those who have substance abuse problems can rarely care for an animal properly-who often left the dog to roam around the area.
We managed to gain access to the property and were deeply saddened at what we saw. The female dog was skin and bone and had mastitus-an infection of the teets-in the kitchen a bundle of under developed puppies cried and roamed around in their own mess. The female dog fussed around them, but was unable to feed them. After talking to the owner-who was coherent at the time-we managed to persuade him to part with the pups. They needed urgent veterinary treatment and handrearing. They were three weeks old, thin, eyes infected mucus coming out of their noses.
There were 8 pups in total, Dianne and I split the group four to each. The first stage was to get them to a vet urgently, they were given antibiotic injections and eye cream for infection. Then it was a gradual increase in small feeds firstly using a milk substitute, then adding soaked puppy biscuit mashed up in the milk product. I remember that I never slept properly for the 7 weeks i had them, as you find that they have naps rather than a long sleep. The feed were four a day. I had a dog cage that had a thick duvet in that they would cuddle up and sleep on, my living room floor was covered in polythene to help with the cleaning.
We didn't forget the mum, we dropped food off, cause the owner could barely afford to feed himself as so often the problem-the benefits go straight on drugs-we also arranged with our veterinary Centre for the Female to be treated for her infection. Which was done and paid for by ourselves.
We did after featuring the story in the local paper, find homes for all but one pup. Skipper had development problems causing deafness. Surprisingly he grew out of and once he was 10 months old we found a lovely family for him.
We realised some months later that their father must have been a Rhodesian ridge back, they grew to the size of a pony and had fine ridge line on there backs. Out of the 8 pups, we still keep in contact with 6 of the pups, either by visiting and /or phone calls, photos, letters as well, every year.
Two of the pups have moved and we have not had any word. "Bobby's" family moved down south and lost contact with us. "Hoover" was moved down to Stonehaven with Chris Hunt. Who left after a marriage break up. He has never called us. In these cases it is distressing to have handreared a pup and you just want a call once in a while to say they are doing fine. I often reflect on that.
In 2000, we received a call from a family member of the owner-regards the German Shepherd female- asking if our original offer made in 1998 still stood, for us to pay for vaccinations. Mr Smith had gone to prison and his sister had taken on the dog. We offered to take her into care but was told there was no need as she would be well looked after. We hope that it was a happy ending for the dog.
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