Rescues make the best pets

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By Dana Burrage – Special to the Sydenham Current

Before moving to Wallaceburg my wife managed a veterinary hospital that was next to an automobile coin wash.

One morning as she parked her car she could hear a dog whimpering and whining.

The sounds led her around to the back of the washbays. There she discovered a sad and hungry chocolate labrador retriever tied on a short leash to the gas meter. She immediately soothed the frightened animal with her always abundant compassion.

This dog was extremely dehydrated, hungry and filthy dirty. His fur was matted and dull, and his grey beard told the story of a long life of being tied outside, and neglect.

He sensed my wife’s kindness and tail started wagging, creating an instant bond.

First off was some water and some quality dog food.

At first, he didn’t seem to recognize what dog food was, suggesting that he had subsisted on table scraps, or whatever creature wandered within reach of his tether.

Then it was off to the bathtub to remove the layers of dirt. The first rinse ran blood red, revealing the hundreds of flea bites the poor guy had endured. Finally, after the third bath the rise water ran clear.

The vet then gave him the once over and the report was grim, the enamel on his teeth was completely worn away, apparently from trying to chew through his chain, one of his canines was broken off, the exposed nerve causing him extreme discomfort.

He had internal parasites, probably from eating rodents, and he had severe arthritis from years of sleeping outside with no shelter. It was the Friday of a long weekend, otherwise the dog pound would have euthanized him as a priority.

I was away in Rochester New York when I phoned that evening to talk to my wife. She told me about this dog she had found and I knew from the sound of her voice that she was smitten by this animal. I told her that I was behind her 100% whatever she wanted to do. Needless to say, when I arrived home we had a new addition to the family.

My wife then told me that while the dog was under anesthetic for removing his broken tooth, he was also neutered, and during this operation they found a huge parasite that lived inside the dogs penis, I forget the name of it but none of the veterinarians had ever seen one before. Our new old dog was cleansed of all his parasites and after two more dentistry sessions and daily arthritis medications he became the nicest companion one could ever hope for.

We always liked to get to know a pet before we named them so I suggested Yukon Cornelious, after the character in Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with its island of misfits that nobody wanted.

Yukon responded well to his new home.

When he first arrived he didn’t know how to sit, let alone anything else. Soon, we taught him to sit, shake a paw, how to heal, lay down, stay and a few other things.

One day while out for his walk, he wanted to turn right at the end of the driveway instead of going left as we usually did I tried twice to turn him around but he was determined to go in that direction.

Turning right meant climbing a steep incline up and over a ridge, and past a corn field before the road turned into two tire ruts in the dirt as it led through a small forest down to the lake.

We were about midway past the cornfield when suddenly Yukon veered off the road and tail wagging, he uncovered a cardboard box that contained three abandoned kittens. He didn’t try to harm the kittens at all, and seemed quite pleased with himself for finding them. We soon found homes for these three additional misfits and after that Yukon resumed the left turns at the end of our driveway.

Yukon had three great years with us before his past finally caught up with him and we had to have him euthanized.

My wife held him in her arms as he drew his final breaths and the last thing to stop moving was his wagging tail.

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