Mon 12th Sept: Continuing yesterday's stories

 Today's stories are a continuation of yesterday's, starting with the giant Alaskan Malamute I'd been asked to help.  While there were three offers of foster homes, at the last minute I was told that the dog's owners had decided to have him euthanised anyway, with the time set for twelve thirty.  At twelve twenty some neighbours went to talk directly to the owners, and with the clock ticking it was eventually agreed that the Malamute could move to the most suitable of the temporary homes, meaning with plenty of space and the promise of continuing veterinary care, as well as physiotherapy.   So for now the dog is safe, but we will have to wait and see how well he does in terms of recovery before looking for a forever home.  Bearing in mind that this is really a huge dog at seventy-plus kilos, we will need to be sure that any adopter really does have the capability of accommodating such a hairy giant. 

I had misunderstood the situation with the mother and three puppies that AFCD had asked us to take on Sunday evening (at the same time that the Malamute request came), because it turned out that the mother had actually died and the pups were lying beside her body.  In fact it was the bad smell that caused someone to find the mother and the starving pups, and it also explained why the pups had wounds on them. Warning: Don't read the following paragraph if you are sensitive to the horrible realities of nature at its most cruel.

AFCD had told us that one of the pups had a wound, but from the photo it didn't look too bad.  However the foster home that kindly accepted the pups had said that the wounds were serious and that they didn't feel they could cope with taking care of the puppies in such a condition, so we asked them to bring the pups to Kennedy Town in the morning.  Checking them for ourselves we could also see that the wounds were indeed quite nasty, and the pups were sent straight to Acorn where they had to have stitches.  I was wondering how the pups came to have such injuries when it dawned on me that they must have been caused by the maggots that would have been on the mother, and would have also started to literally eat the puppies alive.  These maggots are from flies that lay eggs in open wounds, and the eggs hatch in a matter of hours to become flesh-eating monsters, relentless in their appetite.  This is how many stray dogs die, being eaten alive by what are known as screw worms, and the smell of an infected animal is really strong and immediately recognisable.  This is almost certainly what happened to the mother of the three puppies, and the knowledge of this is really incredibly upsetting. 

Drink up Peter!

Amazingly the puppies are fine apart from the wounds, which will quickly heal now.  They are drinking their milk well, and were picked up by their new foster parent directly from Acorn so they have a place to stay for the time being.  They should all be called Lucky, but instead they're Peter, Penny and Paula.

Sakura and daughter Aimi

The three shibas also arrived, two adults and a puppy, and as we'd been told, the puppy is missing the end of one leg. She's now Aimi, and she is the daughter of  Sakura. The other adult female is Ichika.  Aimi is four months old and will need to have the affected leg amputated, unless someone is able to create a leg-end for her (I know the 3-D printing can make anything now). 

Ichika 

Lucky Joe was chosen today

The only new news for today is that puppy Joe was adopted, and I'm obviously very happy for him.   We still have so many lovely girls and boys waiting for their forever families, and I'll be sharing an updated list tomorrow.

Frankie, Ferris and Fiona

The other three young puppies that came to us on Friday are also doing well in their foster home, but I always have the knowledge at the back of my mind that in a few short weeks these babies will also be in need of homes.