Charlie

This is Charlie. A four legged heap of scabs, fleas, worms, and dirt. We spotted him on the side of the road far from anywhere. (Normally I use any excuse not to pick up strays because otherwise I'd have a hundred dogs by now.) He was so emaciated, dehydrated, and anemic that he could only crawl in fear. He collapsed on the floor of my jeep and hardly looked at us the whole way home. Considering how loud and bumpy the ride was we actually checked to see if he was still breathing. He makes for a great palpation subject for anatomy, every bony prominence is readily visible from afar and any doubt of the elusive "floating rib" is gone.

We are still doing the "looking for an owner" routine and are not exactly hopeful. By the rules we have to give the owner 2 weeks to find the dog. But, in a case of extreme neglect, could anyone actually just give the dog back? Here there are no cruelty laws and the cultural attitude toward dogs is a far cry from what we are used to in the U.S. Thankfully, with Ross' presence this is slowly changing. Free spay/neuter surgery is preventing many unwanted litters and it is noticeably decreasing the number of dogs hit on the road.

Charlie is turning out to be an OK kid. I'm hoping the student rescue group will be able to find him a foster home. With his energy slowly returning more puppy antics are cropping up each day. I make a lousy playmate for a 3 kg pup so I hope we can find someone his own size soon =-)