My pals, it is time for the Iams Home 4 the Holidays 2012 campaign and our pals at the Helen Woodward Animal Center shared with me a great story of pet adoption from their Most Heartwarming Story Contest. Rush sounds like one great dog and because of German Shepherd Rescue of Central Texas. He now has his perfect forever home!
We are German Shepherd Rescue of Central Tx. We rescue dogs from various situations and shelters who need immediate help and find them their forever homes. We rehabilitate them, socialize them with people and other animals and attend to all their physical needs.
“Rush” came to us from animal shelter in Austin, Texas. He was found at 3 weeks old during an outreach spay and neuter program that was providing services in his neighborhood. The volunteer saw his living conditions where he and his two brothers were being fed chicken heads as their main food supply. They were being kept in a chicken coop out in the cold. The mother’s milk was not good enough for her puppies given the food supply and one of his other litter mates had already died due to malnutrition. All boys were food aggressive since they only got very little to eat each day.
Rush was the sable of a group of black and tans and he was the biggest but had the most severe health issue. He had Entropion- which is an eye condition which causes the lower eye lids to roll inward and thus his fur was touching his eye creating great pain and discomfort. I have included a picture of his eyes at the time of rescue. With this condition his third eyelid was protruding over to protect the eye from the irritant – his own fur. We took in all three baby pups so they would be kept together while we looked for homes. We knew Rush had the smallest chance of survival much less a chance of adoption due to his eye condition, people don’t want to adopt a dog with health issues, and also his food aggressiveness was worrisome. We decide to try our best and work on both issues since everyone that saw him was drawn to him for reasons of his past or because of his sweet inner spirit we knew was in there trying to get out.
We had him a few days and took him to our wonderful vet in San Antonio, the Dog Dude, Dr. K. He said he could do eyelid surgery or try a temporary eyelid tacking procedure which, in the end, turned out to save his life – he tacked the skin down around his eyes, rolling the fur back into place and made his eyes look wonderful!!! Immediately he could see better, his third eyelid started moving back to original place and he was no longer making so many tears or having goopy stuff run all over his face…we could then see what an absolutely beautiful dog he was and knew he was now very much adoptable. He had weeks of recovery wearing the E-collar cone and being separated from his playmates so his eyes could heal. We played with him and monitored interaction between he and his brothers because we know how important socialization is at this early age.
The two black and tan boys were adopted together but Rush was left with us a few more weeks. His day finally came on December 9, 2009 when a couple living near Lake Buchanon had their Christmas wish come true. Now called Duke, Rush lives on large acreage, has furry friends to play with and is loved by two sweet people who like nothing better than to kiss and hug on him all day…what a turn of events – from the depressing and dreadful start at life in a chicken coop to his wonderful loving and happy forever family!!
We appreciate all IAMS and other agents of help do for our organization by providing invaluable help and services throughout the year- this pup benefited because we benefit from you! Thank you so very much!
