This week has been ….. all the feels.
I’ve been keeping an eye out on Petfinder for a smaller, senior pup to keep me company. One of the rescue places that kept coming up in my ‘feed’ was a place called Caring Hearts Rescue. They are a local group (Fairfax County) that seem to specialize in senior, special needs companion dogs. One dog that particularly spoke to me, was a dog they were calling “Angelo.” ((His foster mom was calling him “Buggles”… and we’ve been calling him Bugs…. as in Bugsy.)) The short version, is that he came from an extremely abusive home, the wife in the couple passed, a family member then took the dog… but was very neglectful of it (and they had him for a couple years). The dog was then taken to the vet to be euthanized, but the vet convinced them to sign the dog over instead. The vet brought the dog to the rescue folks. They believe he is about 10yrs old, and a Shih Tzu mix. He had profound abscesses in his mouth and one on his face that needed medical care. He was on antibiotics, had surgery, and also had most of his teeth removed. He is blind in one eye (cataract and glaucoma), and gets eye drops now for the glaucoma. He was very underweight and malnourished. He suffers severe anxiety, and was not eating or drinking much. He is afraid of everything. The person that I spoke with categorized him as essentially ‘catatonic’ from the trauma. They started him on Prozac.
After a home visit, and several convos….. we went to get him yesterday. He is with us technically as a foster, but I fully intend to adopt him at the end of the probationary period. As with most abused pups… he will need lots of TLC and time. He also needs meds, special foods…. and help with mobility, etc. The main issue (at least for me) … is hoping he realizes that he is safe, and wanted. If I can translate to him/ convince him that he is loved…. I think the rest will fall into place. That said…. I need him as much as he potentially needs me.
As to other ‘stuff’…. Michael seems ok, Kristin is figuring out what her next move is going to be. Jim is busy with work (but we did have a great date night too)… and although I haven’t made any jewelry recently, I’ve at least ordered some supplies and sorted through some things… progress…
