The saddest part of rescue

I'm going to delay telling you about my super-fun, bath-requiring day yesterday for one more day because I want to talk to you about something very sad and impawtant. It's hard work being part of a rescue. Momma said that people always ask her how you can foster a dog and give it up again. Well, we've done that, and it's sad every time, but it's also happy, because you've taken this sad little pup, gotten them all healthy and happy, and sent them off to a furever home where they'll be loved and taken care of for the rest of their lives.

That's why returns always hurt so much. Sometimes, no matter how hard we work to make sure all of our approved adopters are the bestest people ever and will take pawfect care of our dogs... well, it doesn't work out. Sometimes things change, like someone loses their job and can't take care of their dog anymore, or they have a baby and it turns out to be deathly allergic to dogs.

Sometimes, though, the returns are because the adopters are the grreat family we thought they were after all. :( This is Obie and Pancake. No, they're not boxers. There aren't good bulldog rescues in the area, so we'll sometimes take them in as "honorary boxers" when there's one in need. Obie is a very tiny Old English Bulldog, and pretty Pancake is a French bulldog.

Obie and Pancake ended up adopted by the same home, and we were SO happy for them. We knew they'd be loved and spoiled and taken care of for the rest of their lives. Well... here they are last week when we got them back.

Turns out "forever" only means "until we get a divorce." Then their momma just left them, and their daddy put them out in the backyard and didn't take care of them. Poor Obie is badly emaciated and has lots of problems. His poor little toenails were horribly overgrown -- one of them had even grown all the way around and embedded in his paw pad!! When our volunteers trimmed it, blood and pus came out. Ugh.

Pancake was in better shape, but she was still skinny and hadn't been taken care of.

Fortunately, they are both back with LBR now and in new foster homes. They'll have a chance to get well again, and this time we'll see if we can find them real furever homes. But it's so hard to think about giving them up again, because we already promised them furever once. :(

Keep your paws crossed for both of them today, please! They're going to visit the dogtors for full check-ups. Our biggest worry is that they'll turn up heartworm-positive, since they were being kept outside and probably weren't on preventative. Both had heartworm treatment during their first round with LBR, and a second treatment often has complications and can be fatal. So we're really hoping for HW-!!

Welcome home, Obie and Pancake. We're so sorry you had to go through this. :(


Update: Good news! Obie is heartworm negative!!! Woot! He still has a lot of other health problems -- he has to have lubrication drops on his eyes and his, er, manhood to deal with problems, he has meds for skin infections all over his little body, and he's going to have to go to a dental specialist to see about getting teeth pulled. His anal glands were full of gunk, and he had so many fleas that they're still coming out after three flea baths! Yuck. Long road to go for poor Obie.

I haven't heard back from Pancake's foster momma yet, but she was in a lot better shape than Obie!