A Rescue Story

Carol Lopp
Atlanta area Small Dog Rescue & Humane Society
http://www.smalldoghumane.org
Independent Bichon Rescue complying with BFCA Best Practices
http://www.bichonrescue.org
Bichon Rescue Calendar
http://www.delawarevalleybichonrescue.org

My name is Carol, and I am a volunteer for Small Dog Rescue. I want to tell you about little Embry Riddle. Embry was brought to us from a severe neglect situation. Some folks would call it abuse, but that’s not the important part of my story. Embry was kept alone for an extended period of time with very limited food and water. He was left to stand in his own waste, and I would bet that he was so hungry that he was forced to eat the same. When Embry came to us he weighed 6.4 pounds, but after 9 days of eating 7-8 meals a day he weighed 11.8 pounds, so in less than 2 weeks he almost doubled his body weight. Can you imagine if you were so malnourished that you needed to double your body weight? Well, as this picture shows you, Embry was close to his body shutting down.
(This is the best picture that she had - sorry it is so small but you get the idea)

Elizabeth is a stay at home mom and another volunteer of Small Dog Rescue, and she accepted the task of providing nutritious meals for Embry. Since his body was so malnourished, she needed to feed him high quality, low fat food, but in smaller portions with higher frequencies. Hence, she fed him 7-8 meals a day, but small portions until his body could regain strength. This was not an easy task since Embry’s body did have quite a bit of gastric upset as it became able to digest food again. In fact Embry needed fluids after coming to us because his digestive system was under distress and he became dehydrated. Elizabeth gave not only time and food to Embry, but also the thing that those of us at Small Dog Rescue know makes all the difference, she gave him love.

I first saw Embry a week after Elizabeth began caring for him, and I could easily wrap my hand around his waist it was so small. Elizabeth asked me to come by to trim the fur off the bottoms of his legs. You see he was shaved before he was sent to us, but the people who shaved him neglected to trim the bottoms of his legs. You would think a dog that had been treated in such a manner would not really care for the human race, but Embry never harbored any of those thoughts. He knew that he had been without food and love for a long time, and he craved them both. He would gulp his food, and then when he finished, he could not stop kissing and trying to get in your arms. The only difficult part in trimming his legs was trying to see around his head which was busy trying to lick my face. He was and still is just extremely lovable. I shaved Embry’s legs, and picked up his feet to shave the bottoms of them. The skin there was so red and inflamed that it had to be painful, but Embry never showed any signs of being in pain, he was too busy looking for the love to feel the pain. One of his paws has a large dent in it which was probably caused by standing in urine and feces. His nails were stained with urine, and they looked so cracked and brittle that I refused to trim them for fear they would break and bleed. Embry never seemed to notice any of this.

Thru all this Embry never lost his faith in human kindness. His strength, joy and love are now shared with his adopted family. Embry understood that it’s the contrasts in life that help us find the things we like and dislike. He went for a long time without the essentials, and he would gulp food and water, but he also wanted love and joy too. Some humans in the same situation would have been disheartened with other humans, but not Embry, he knew what he liked, and he learned from his dire circumstances to appreciate his newly found blessings all the more. One of the joys of rescue is in finding the Embry’s and watching them fill their lives with joy, love and happiness. I will always continue to learn from these wonderful souls, and accept the joy they bring me.
Carol Lopp