An animal rescue group in Pacific Grove, California, contacted us a week ago today about a senior blind dog they had seen in the Monterey County animal control shelter. Carie B. from the Animal Friends Rescue Project emailed me to say the dog had been picked up as a stray and that the shelter planned to euthanize him because he was running out of time. She attached a photo of a thick-coated dog with a happy, smiling face … and very blind eyes. We asked her to have the dog tested with other dogs to evaluate his social skills, and when he proved himself to be an amiable fellow, we agreed to take him.
Carie's group arranged for a number of volunteers to drive the dog out to us last week from California. Somewhere along the trip someone named him Gabe. The final leg of the trip was driven by Vicki M. from Victor, Montana, who drove down to Idaho Falls to meet the transporter on Thursday. Vicki was concerned to see that the dog's coat was matted and flea-infested, and especially alarmed that he seemed to have breathing difficulties. Vicki and her friend Hanna shaved his coat off and bathed him Thursday evening, then took Gabe to Vicki's vet Friday morning before bringing him out to the ranch.
The vet determined he has a sinus blockage of some sort, but also found he has severe periodontal disease and that he was reluctant to move his head in certain directions. Indeed, when Vicki and Hanna arrived with Gabe Friday afternoon, we could hear his snuffled breathing … almost like he has a hole from his mouth into his sinus cavity somewhere. And the poor guy's teeth are terrible, and thus we wonder if there's a connection there. He is also mostly deaf — he can hear high-pitched noises like a whistle and loud noises like a clap, but not normal voices. So he will be going to our vets in Helena next week for a full medical work-up.
But what a sweet, happy boy he is! I took these photos this afternoon of Gabe in our isolation yard. (Because we have no vaccination history or health history on him, we'll keep him quarantined until he gets to our clinic.) He absolutely adores people and will try to crawl into your lap … and if he doesn't succeed, he'll paw at you for some more loving:
Alayne was trying to get him over to the cot for these photos, but he was insisting on a tummy rub before going:
And as we were leaving the yard, he wanted to show us just how well he would fit in here by doing a little "rolling dog jig":
By the way we count it, Gabe arrived at the ranch on the day he would have been euthanized. Thanks to everyone who helped get this boy out of the shelter and on his way to us!
—
Update: Teddy is doing well at the hospital. His glucose levels got back to the 500s in the aftermath of the surgery — our vets expected to see a spike so are not surprised — but are starting to come down again. All of his catheters are out and he is eating and drinking normally.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
Leave a reply to Kathy Cancel reply