A Thanksgiving Tale

I thought this was a nice story from the HSUS...but wish the former owner had been prosecuted big time!

http://www.hsus.org/ace/15864

A Thanksgiving Tale: How Bob Got His Wag Back

By Brian Sodergren
Cut, bruised and flea-ridden, Bob was near death as he roamed the sweaty summer streets in 2002 around Norfolk, Virginia. Teased and kicked for months in his struggle for survival, the dog begged and rummaged for whatever scraps he could find—anything to satisfy his hunger and keep his filthy, emaciated body alive. Clearly unfamiliar with the dangers posed by traffic, Bob was nearly hit by a car one day in late August.

That same day, Bob appeared near the porch of some students from Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, poking around their trash for food. One of the students, as fate would have it, was driving the car that nearly hit Bob earlier. He instantly recognized the hound.

"He was real skinny. You could see all the bones," says Jon Ragan, a sophomore at ODU. "We took him in and let him sleep inside for the night. We were going take him to a shelter, but after seeing he had ID tags, we decided to call to let the people know we found their dog."

Upon calling the number listed on Bob's tag, Ragan made a startling discovery: Bob was a hunter's dog who was thrown to the streets months ago.

"He (the hunter) could care less what happened," Ragan says. "He said that they let the dog go so it would die—that he wasn't worth anything anymore. He told me, 'Why don't you let him go die?'"

Stunned at such heartlessness, Ragan and his friends were left wondering what to do. "We took everything into consideration," explains Ragan, "and decided to see what the veterinarian says first before we made any final decisions."

The students took Bob to the Norfolk Dog and Cat Hospital, where he was checked out by Traci Dixon, DVM. "He was all bones," the veterinarian says.

Upon their visit to the pet hospital on August 29, the students discovered Bob was actually a purebred English Coon Hound, approximately seven years old. Dixon found that Bob was covered with fleas, had hook- and tapeworms, was anemic, had an ear infection, and weighed only 43 lbs. The normal weight for a dog of his age is between 65–70 lbs.

In addition, Bob had a heart murmur and wasn't fixed. Dixon administered all of Bob's shots, treated him for his ear infection, de-wormed him, and gave him heartworm prevention medicine.

"When I saw him the second time, however, there was tremendous improvement," Dixon says of Bob's mid-September check-up. "On the recheck, he was at 60 lbs. and looked much better. The guys who brought him in were really nice. They were very concerned about the pet, especially one with all of those the problems."

When it came time for Ragan and his friends to pay the bill, they were in for another surprise. A woman in the hospital's lobby was so touched by their commitment to Bob, she offered to cover whatever expenses the students couldn't afford. It was a good thing, too, since the students couldn't cover all the vet bills. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, ended up paying around $180, Ragan says.

Adding to the students' good fortune, the Virginia Beach SPCA offered to neuter Bob for free after hearing of the dog's woes and after learning of the students' financial situation.

"We have some leeway for people who can't even afford our low-cost spay/neuter fee. Depending on the circumstances, we try to cover it for them—sometimes we can, sometimes we can't," says Dale Bartlett, the community outreach director for the Virginia Beach SPCA. "Our No. 1 goal is to create more responsible pet owners. We want to encourage responsibility, given the staggering numbers of pets turned in to shelters each year."

Bartlett says the first thing people should do when encountering a stray dog is to check for a tag or other identification and figure out if there's an owner. If there's no owner, or if the owner is unresponsive like Bob's, people should contact their local animal care and control. Bartlett adds that if no owner claims the pooch, people should think about adopting the dog into their home.

Even though Bob did have a collar and a tag, his owners refused to take any responsibility for the animal, leaving a domesticated dog to fend for himself on the streets. These days, Bob doesn't look any worse for the wear. He's now healthy and living with his new college buddies at their Norfolk house. In fact, Ragan, who has assumed responsibility for caring for Bob, calls him a "perfect dog."

You could say Bob has much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, but perhaps we all do. We can give thanks that there are still people, selfless and generous, who want to alleviate suffering wherever they find it—even the suffering of a old hunting dog whose owner thought he had outlived his usefulness.