Melvin’s tail is slightly better. Not healed. I have found it’s useless to make plans on this issue, that tail has an agenda of its own! We agreed to super-wrap it again, this time for two weeks. The vet wouldn’t even agree to bathe him since he’s so wiggly in the tub. Goal = healing. Got it!

I had dinner with my friend Becky recently. She has a dog, Max. Becky rescued Max years ago from the side of the road. She was driving, saw this sweet boy, opened her car door and Max jumped in. I find stories like this to be heroic. So many would keep driving, hoping for the best. Becky had no idea if Max was friendly, she only cared that at the moment, he was in danger of being run over. Turns out that Max ran with drug dealers, he was not loved or cared for and his health was not attended to. He just existed. Becky offered him a forever home (indoors and all) and Max shows Becky his gratitude everyday by being the sweetest, most loving and gentle companion.

Recently Becky was watching her boyfriend’s dog and somehow, both dogs ingested something poison to them. No one really knows what. It’s so easy for this to happen, every day I walk Melvin I will glance over at him and he’s eating something. Max showed signs of illness first, he started bleeding from his mouth and rear. Not minor bleeding, bleeding-out bleeding. Becky rushed him to her vet who realized immediately they were not equipped to help. Becky loaded Max back into her car, driving frantically to the emergency center. Oh how I wish they had animal ambulances.

The emergency center was initially not sure they could save him but in the end were able to stabilize Max (Becky’s direction to them was to do ‘whatever was necessary to save my boy’) and when the dog she was watching went through the same issue a day later, the vet was prepared for what to do. Today, both dogs are running around as if nothing bad ever happened. It is clear that the emotional damage and scars of these types of events rests on the humans. The dogs bounce forward almost instantaneously.