The word must be out around the neighborhood: if you are a down-and-out or hurt little animal, come to our house and you will be saved! Over the last few weeks we’ve saved four little puppies; a few weeks ago a hurt kitten.
Three of the puppies were found barely alive by my mother-in-law. We have a large part of our yard fenced-in so that we can let our dogs have a good run. Behind the fence is a small overgrown field and behind that some woods. We put a small pond on the outside of the fence so that various critters – deer, groundhogs, possums, snakes, rabbits, etc. could come for a drink without coming into the fenced-in area (where the dogs are). We’ve had a wet, rainy summer here in Virginia and the area back there has really become pretty wild.
So one day my mother-in-law happened to be walking near the back fence and she heard this pitiful crying coming from the weeds. She went back there and found this little puppy, about 5 weeks old, screaming at the top of his lungs. He was barely alive and struggled to move. Worse, he had open wounds in various places over his body, and maggots were crawling all over. He was too small to defend himself, but could only cry for the pain.
So he was first given a bath to clear off some of the maggots and then rushed to the vet. The vets were horrified and suggested just killing him. But after several hours of pulling out all the maggots and in general cleaning up his wounds, he stopped crying and managed to go to sleep. He was given an I.V. and several doses of antibiotics and de-worm medication.
After taking him home and putting him up to bed, my mother-in-law found two more puppies in the same general area as the first puppy, in the same condition. One had crawled under a log, but couldn’t fit all the way – the leg that was exposed was a Swiss cheese of maggots.
All three are currently alive and doing well. They’ve had to go in for more anti-worm and antibiotics treatments, but the wounds are healing, they are eating, and they are starting to act like puppies. We are trying to catch the mother dog to get her spayed so that she doesn’t have more puppies in the wilds around our house, but so far no luck.
Here is a pic of two of the better ones. You will notice that the smallest still has an I.V. in his paw, which we have since removed.
Here is another one we rescued: Some lady had rescued a stray pregnant
dog who had been SHOT in the stomach by someone else. The lady let the stray have the litter in her garage. Then, she proceeded to help raise the resulting 8 puppies. Once the puppies reached 8 weeks of age, the lady decided they needed homes. She is fixing and then keeping the mom. She brought all the puppies to the local supermarket; all were taken except the runt, who was promptly grabbed by my wife. Isn’t she adorable (the puppy and the wife)?
Finally, we rescued a kitten that had a gaping wound in her neck – so deep that when she breathed, air would come out of one of the punctures. I found her on our doorstep – not sure how she got there since we live quite far from the road and she had not eaten in a very long time. We have nursed her back to health and have found her a good home.
Here she is, healed, but scared of the camera:
