I want to share with you a story that’s particularly close to my heart right this moment. Just about 2 months ago, I was sitting out in my garage and working on my laptop. This is where I can sometimes when I need quiet away from everyone else to work. My dogs (I have four of them) were all sprawled around the floor in the garage relaxing. Suddenly, I heard the oddest noise and as I looked up, all of my dogs became very agitated and they ran to bark at the garage door.
Puzzled, I put them in the house and open the door. Now, the idea of them barking at nothing is not unusual, not by a long shot. However, what I found when I opened the garage door seemed to be another nothing until as I turned away I heard a snuffling sound.
Standing in the opening to my garage was a painfully thin, very small husky. He snuffled towards me and I saw that he was having trouble walking and dragging a ten foot long steel cable.
Now before I continue with this tale, you need to understand that I am a huge sucker for animals. When I was growing up, I must have rescued, adopted and found homes for dozens of cats when I couldn’t keep them. I always helped them out. This dog was no different. I crouched down so I wouldn’t be perceived as a threat and lowered my eyes slightly.
Rule number one when dealing with a wild animal, particularly a predator, do not look them in the eyes. Most wild animals perceive this as a threat, so it’s better to not threaten them especially if you don’t know anything about them. I waited and spoke quietly, gently.
The husky came over to me slowly, snuffled my hand and then sort of fell against me. He was so thin. I started to pet him slowly, but he fell against me and you could just see how tired he was. I disconnected the steel cable and got him some water. He sucked the water down. I gave him some food and he ate that.
Over the next few days, I introduced him to my dogs and took him to the vets. His nails were so long, they had likely never been clipped. His toes were spread too far apart and he was having difficulty walking. He was infested with hookworms, tapeworms and whipworms. He was severely anemic. He weighed only 29.1 pounds and was dramatically underweight.
He smelled terrible and he was filthy. He’d never been spayed. In short form, this was a dog suffering from terrible neglect. It’s very likely he was kept outside in someone’s yard. If you tried to put a leash on him, he immediately went down and was fetal. Appalled, I discussed a treatment for him with the veterinarians and we started by administering dewormer and his rabies vaccine. We did blood and fecal samples to make sure there was nothing contagious about him. We clipped his claws and did a full physical exam. We found out he was a cryptoid, which means one of his balls was not dropped.
In horses, this creates a very aggressive stallion because it’s painful. It can also make it difficult for reproduction (for obvious reasons). I took him home and continued his treatments. He was a pretty miserable dog for the first two or three days. We had to feed him sparingly, letting him build up to eating again. The wormer went to work and we got the worms out. The iron supplement helped with the anemia. We kept him on plenty of water to re-hydrate him. We bathed him two or three times over the next few days to get the foul smells and dirt off him. (The water in the bathtub was pitch black until the last time).
We use a crate to help with his house training. Within a week, he was already feeling a lot better and gained six pounds. I kept my eyes out for signs for missing dogs and I watched the missing dogs websites to see if anyone posted notices. In my neighborhood, I’ve found and returned no less than a half dozen dogs. By day 7, we knew it was unlikely we would ever find the owners and even less likely that we would return this severely neglected dog to any owner that stepped forward to claim him.
Named Kai (pronounced Kaya) for a Native American word that means wild wind. Kai was now a member of our family and it was time to go to work on not just healing him, but integrating him.