"Bud"

I was waiting for Lee to get home from work with the car, on Monday evening, as I had a meeting in Columbia to get to. I thought I heard him arrive, but he didn't come in. Then, a few minutes later, the doorbell rang. I answered it, and Lee was standing there with both hands full, and said, "Merry Christmas!" As I opened the door, I found that he had a bag of Puppy Chow in one hand, and a pet carrier in the other. Inside was this poor, pathetic, sick little puppy.



Lee said that one of the ladies he works with lives in Wilton, and the poor guy had been running around there for days. He had crawled under her fence, and was on her front porch that morning. She already had something like 6 dogs, and knew that we had recently lost one, so she brought him to work to see if we (or someone) could take him. Lee told me that he hadn't even seen the little guy out of the carrier, he just saw his eyes and was sold.

The puppy was scared to death! I don't think he's really been around people much at all. Not in any good way, at least. I was sure he had pnuemonia by the way he was breathing, and he was covered with fleas and some sores. Also, it looks like his right ear was almost chewed off at some point. I fixed him up a bed, and we fed him. He was really weak, and scared, and only left his bed twice. He seems to have a great desire/need to chew on things. All shoes have been put away.

He didn't come with a collar. I didn't think that I had saved any from Aida, I've gotten rid of most of her things. But, I discovered that I still had her purple harness/collar and leash that we got last Christmas. I told Lee, "Well, she wouldn't think much of this, but it's all we've got, and she only used it a few times.

Tuesday morning, we took him to the vet. We've got antibiotics for him, de-wormer, and flea medicine. I thought that he was probably 3 or 4 months old, but after looking at his teeth, the vet said he was over 6 months He had a bad tooth, but it was a left-over baby tooth, and the vet was able to just pull it.

He finally started to act like he was feeling better late last night. We went for a walk around the yard at 2:30 am. (I realized that he really needed to go to the bathroom when he tried to climb into one of our houseplants!) Up to this point, he had to be carried or drug outside, then he wouldn't really move much. I carried him out this time as well, but he walked around, tinkled, and explored some. He's had his tail between his legs until last night, when it came out some. This morning, I walked over to his bed, and he started wagging his tail, then rolled over on his back! Hooray!

He only weighs 20 lbs, and he has pretty small feet, so he probably won't get too much bigger. It's still up in the air whether we will keep him or not. It will depend on his energy level, etc. After Aida died, I decided that I didn't want another dog that needed to be outside and get excercise, etc. as long as we lived in town. So, he may become my Dad's Christmas present. I'll have to wait and see.

He has the most loveable eyes.


We've been calling him "Bud".