Sookie was one of the dogs that we rounded up for the spay/neuter clinic on the reserve a couple weeks ago. We were mostly taking in owned dogs for the clinic, but we were't going to say no to a friendly stray that obviously needed help either.
She wandered up to a couple of the volunteers that were collecting dogs. They put her into a crate and she somehow ended up in the back of my truck for the drive back to Cardston. I took her out of the crate and was appalled at her physical condition. The most obvious things was the porqupine quills sticking out of her face and eye. She was drooling uncontrollably as the quills made it mostly impossible for her to swallow. Once she came out of the crate, we also noticed that she had four circle shaped wounds in one of her back legs and a very deep gash farther down the leg. They looked like bullet holes, two holes for each shot. I didn't want her to spend the night in a crate and wait for surgery the next day, so I made a quick call to Dr Kremeniuk at the Park Pet Hospital to see if she would mind working late. She was willing and I started the drive in.
The following pictures do contain blood as they are the pictures I took of her during the quill removal.
Here is what her leg looked like:
This is what Sookie looked like when we took her out of the crate. It was hard to get a picture of her face as she kept her head very low and wouldn't make eye contact with anyone, it was so pitiful!
And, this is Sookie one week after the quill removal, one week after getting love and attention, only one week after eating real food, the transformation was beautiful. Wouldn't you say?
Sookie is a very good girl, she is my foster dog and is very sweet, outgoing and lovable. She loves to wiggle up to the kids and give kisses, then scurries off back to the dog bed. She sniffs the cats, much to their disgust! Mostly, she just hangs out on the dog bed in our living room. When she is outside, she is most comfortable with another dog out there to keep her company, not to play with as she isn't interested in that, but just to know someone else is out there too. She sleeps well in her crate at night, but would probably love a dog bed on the floor beside her new owner's bed. She has never had an accident or done anything 'wrong' in our house in the four weeks that she has been here.
Sookie is healthy enough now to get her spay surgery done, that is tomorrow, then she will be ready for a new home where she can settle in and know that she'll never be in that much pain again.
