I agreed to transport a Golden Retriever from the animal shelter (animal control) in a neighboring county to a vet located two counties over. He needs to be fully vetted, quarantined, wormed, etc before going into foster care. Maybe they even planned to start his heartworm treatment.
We left home at 8:15 this morning, got to the shelter, picked him up and headed on toward the vet. Needed to be there by 12 as that is when they close on Saturday. We arrived at 10:45, and guess what. The gates were closed and no one was there. the sign on the door said "closed for Labor Day on Saturday and Monday. Reopening Tuesday morning". Woops! Somebody goofed!!!!
This approx. 3 year old, male, Heartworm positive, neutered two days ago, absolutely beautiful boy had to come home with us. My dear husband has been biting his tongue, I think, knowing it was a mistake, but a bad one on a holiday weekend!
I learned some valuable rescue lessons today. The #1 thing I learned is to always have a phone number (preferably more than one) to call in case something goes awry, and always double check that the accepting vet is in the office! The coordinator for rescue is out of state this weekend. Someone in the group did respond to an email that I sent out to all the foster people in the group, thank goodness, and brought me a rescue group crate. This boy did not need to be around my dogs until he is fully checked out (he has a bad cough...probably the heartworms, and an eye infection) and he doesn't need to be excited (due to the heartworms). It put me in a horrible position, but what else could I do but bring him home.
He is gorgeous and sweet, and thin. He was picked up by animal control as a stray and no one came to claim him.
So far, so good. My precious loving dogs and my cats have been fine, not overly excited, which is good for him. He doesn't have a name yet, but Scott is calling him Bernie (for Bernard) because his head is enormous and once his body catches up, he is going to be a stunning man. He has that lovely "blockhead" that we love to see in our male retrievers. And he has jumped our gates in the house and dug out of the fence, already, so I have had to safely tether him on the deck where he can rest and be safe. He ate his dinner in the crate and will go back in with a Kong, later this evening. The responsibility for him scares me to death!!!
Say a prayer for "Bernie", please that he will get where he needs to be, and he will find a wonderful forever home once he is finished with his treatments. Say a prayer, too, if you will, for our other 4 that they will not catch anything and will be ok. All five beautiful "brown dogs" are so sweet and so good.
I'll share pictures a bit later.
Logan
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He sounds like such a dear boy and handsome too! I'll bet this will be one of the best nights he's had in quite some time! I sure will be praying that dear Bernie soon is on the road to recovery and finds a family just as wonderful as yours
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