In loving memory of my sweet sweet "Sparticus" ... My heart still aches in
sadness, And secret tears still flow. What it meant to lose you, No one will ever know.
The past 2.5 years I have had more heartache and more loss then I think I have ever had in my entire life.
6 years ago while managing for Dr. Callum Hay back in Tampa I showed up for work one morning, came through the back door as I always did and upon entering the building I was immediately over whelmed with a stench. A rank nauseating stench that I had NOT smelt before as we were extremely adamant about a clean fresh smelling surgical practice! It never smelled like animals the entire four years I worked there.
It was very evident that the smell was coming from the dog run to my immediate left, so of course my curiosity over came me and as I turned and looked at what looked like was a dog, I immediately feel to my knees over taken with emotion! As I began to cry, I said out loud to one of the technicians, what on earth has happened to this dog. Who could have treated this precious animal this way??? He was emancipated to the point of skin and bones. He had extremely thinning hair from lack of food and nutrition, deep scars that apparently had left gashes in his head from something and a severely, severely broken leg. And last but not least, he was severely heartworm positive!!!!
Now, you have to understand that at Veterinary Surgical Services we rarely saw mistreated animals! Dr. Callum Hay is a board certified surgeon and his patients come to him on a referral basis from their regular veterinarian. So generally anyone willing to spend big bucks on their pets were responsible kind loving owners!!!
Due to the huge kind heart Dr. Hay had, we saw several cases weekly from multiple rescue groups as he would always give them a decent discount not to mention the absolute best care possible.
I was not at the hospital when the call came in regarding this rottie I saw laying in the run beaten until his spirit was broken. I was always effected and often emotional but this time something was different. My emotions were beyond my control. I grabbed my cell phone from my purse, crawled into the run to sit with this dog and called my husband. (Now my ex) I was so upset that I could hardly speak. And just as I expected he said, I don't care what it is .... just bring him home! I tried explaining to him that it was really, really bad and probably not a good idea with our other dogs and all ... he said bring him home Dee.
Janice with "Friends of Gummi" (the rescue group) must have seen what a mush I was over this dog as she started in on me right away with the whole I don't know what we are going to do with him, I don't have a foster home that can take him and his heart worms are so bad that he would have to stay crated for 3 months minimum. On top of that he needed to come back to Dr. Hay for a weekly bandage change once his surgery was performed. Friends of Gummi was 3.5 hours away! Now that is dedication I'll tell ya.
I had NO idea what I was getting my self into when I told Janice that I would FOSTER him for her until he was well enough to be adopted out. Little did I know that this was the beginning of my becoming a foster failure......
As you can see by the pictures, it was going to be next to impossible to find someone to take this poor creature in to their home and nurse back to health.
To be continued ...
