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November 1st, 2009 How she got here:
"Minnie" was gently led into the shelter today by a man
who plucked her off the side of a road in Bulger.
Despite bathing the terribly emaciated girl twice,
the yellow stains from what must have been interminable time spent
in a urine-soaked cage remained. At only 30 pounds, it is difficult
to say what kind of dog she is except to say that she is about 4
years old.
What can be said about this amazingly
sad dog is that she is trusting, despite the burns on her head,
friendly, though surrounded by strangers and very sweet.
Her
elbows and ankles have open sores and it is amazing that with so
little meat on her bones she can even stand. Yet "Minnie" who would
have every reason to fear people based on her apparent mistreatment
is a shining star who has landed on our doorstep this Halloween, and
we will treat her the best that we can.
UPDATE — November 9th, 2009:
"She is not
housebroken, but that is what we are working on now. She started off
afraid to go outside and afraid of grass and going and standing in
her output in our back room. I bought puppy aid training spray. You
spray it in the grass where you want them to go. We take her out
every hour (I work day, hubby works nights), and son of a gun
if that spray hasn't worked so far. She hasn't gone in the house in
about 48-hours now, hopefully, we've been successful! She is such a
smart puppy - look how far she's come already.
We are also trying
to get her to walk on a leash, sit, and sit and stay, which are
moving along. We got her a harness - she seems to be too afraid of
collars, but is fine with a harness. She is fine with our
itty-bitty-kitty, Miss Mel.
I've had friends
over and she has visited with the neighbors to get her socialized,
she loves people - jumping up and hugging strangers will be our next
thing to stop.
We've kept her away
from other dogs for now, so I don't know how she is with other dogs.
I called a trainer
because she is overly attached to my hubby, Rob, and I am worried
about separation anxiety. Rob wants to rename her Velcro! The
trainer said Salma’s attachment to Rob is typical of a neglected
dog, but we have to get it under control because it will get to the
point when Rob leaves, Salma's world will collapse. To do that I am
doing all of the feeding and training and walking and her visitors
give her treats so that she learns things can come from other than
Rob.
She is slowly
gaining weight, she seems to be gaining it front to back, like in
her chest and shoulders first, and she isn't a hoover with her food
anymore. Also, those ugly yellow stains are slowly going away, the
stains are gone on her front legs and belly, she still has them on
her paws and back legs. Her open sores are healing and she still
smells, but nowhere NEAR like she did before. I'm using huggies
wet-wipes on her, we don't want to giver her a bath yet or brush
her. Her nails are awful, cracked and split, but we're waiting on
that too.
She is going to be
a wonderful furry family member for some lucky family. I think she
looks like a short great-dane or a boxer. My neighbor sees some
rotty in her, Rob sees boxer. She is still too skinny to figure it
out.
Oh, I can send
pictures and was planning to, but I was going to wait until she was
a little bigger."
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