A New Addition to the Family

Last Friday around mid-afternoon, the dogs went to the gate in a state of frenzied agitation They kept alerting me to something out at the left of the door. Since they usually alert me to anything that is either moving, or new to them, I ignored it for a while. But their barking and unusual agitation got me a little curious, especially since they had moved from the left to the right side, and were scratching furiously under the middle of the gate.

I went but they rushed out ahead of me and Queenie grabbed a small animal in her mouth, which at first I thought was a small cat. I immediately got it out of her mouth and saw that it was a tiny puppy.  Emaciated, just skin and bones, it was so limp in my hands I feared it was at death’s door. I ran to the house leaving the dogs outside and put it down on the floor afraid that the shock might have precipitated its final hour. It did not react, even when I brought a saucer with milk and tepid water close to it. So I dipped my finger in the liquid and gently put it to its lips. Without opening its eyes, it reacted slightly. So I kept it up. My greatest fear at that point was that the one shake that Queenie  had given it could have broken its neck as it could not even hold its head up!

But my tenacity paid up. She (as by then I had noticed that it was a tiny German Shepherd female) slowly got up and came to the saucer, drinking all of the milk. I picked her up to get a feel of any wound anywhere. Thankfully I found nothing. I prepared an oatmeal mush and gave her a bit of it. She obviously had not drunk or eaten anything for quite a while. And the weather had been torrid. She was dehydrated and starved. I prayed. How I prayed that she’d make it! She was but just a pelt covering bones. Nothing else!

I kept giving her a bit of mush every hour as her stomach was distended like those of starving children in Africa. At night, I made her a cozy nest in the bodega and set up my alarm to wake up and feed her a bit every 3 hours. At 5:30 in the morning, I could no longer sleep. So I went and held her up to examine her more thoroughly. She was not only filthy but infested with fleas and looked to be about 5 to 6 weeks old. I took her to the veterinarian who is a fantastic woman, very caring, very gentle with all animals. Her love for them is obvious. She also has a grooming facility. Tisha (yep, I named her…) was given 3 gentle baths with a flea soap followed by two baby shampoos. The vet had been on home visits—a normal service here in Tequis—while Tisha was bathed. A wise precaution because of the flea infestation.

The vet declared that had she been discovered one hour later, she’d have died in the interim. She was too weak and debilitated to receive any vaccine for at least 3 to 4 weeks and only depending on her recuperation. The vet advised me to give her small helpings of home cooked food as there was the danger of bursting her stomach left without anything for long. I took her home.

That’s Tisha, two days later. She’s already noticeably improved since then.

Isn’t she adorable?

 

 

 

 

 

LiveJournal Tags: Starving puppy,Tisha