Friday, October 23, 2009

Sad, sad story.

Last week, I got a call from a neighbor who was at the emergency room. She informed me that my dog had bit her daughter and they rushed there to treat and report the bite. As a result, Maya was put in quarantine for 10 days for observation. I'm not sure what they were observing, or why they had to retain her for so long, but we followed the law - literally - to the doggy impound. Today was the end of the quarantine, so Sean and I went to the Animal Shelter to pick her up. I paid the fee and followed the girl back to identify my dog. This is a necessity because they do a 'procedure' for release and they needed to do it on the right dog. Well, let me tell you, it was APPALLING! The circumstances that Maya was in for those 10 days are nothing short of abuse! She was wallowing in her own excrement and understandably upset over the whole thing. I went up to the front of the kennel to let Maya smell my hand so she knew it was me, but just as the girl was telling me I couldn't touch her, Maya growled and slowly coward to the back of the kennel. She wouldn't come to the front for anything. I mentioned to the girl that the kennel was incredibly messy and I was concerned that Maya had been in it for the whole 10 days. Dogs are naturally clean animals and don't like to hang out where the pee/poo, so if they cleaned it, they did NOT do a very good job. After the release procedure (and bath) was complete, we met the girl out back for discharge. Maya was excited to get outside, but was unsure about me and Sean. We put her in the car and drove home, but it wasn't until we got in our yard that she seemed to be relaxing into the Maya we knew before her horrific jail time.

Since this morning, she's been very lethargic and her nose is all dry. I'm worried that she may have contracted a bout of kennel cough from the low conditions she was kept in. But it made me and Dustin think. If we had put her under the same conditions as they had - small confines for an extended period, with minimal cleanup - we could be prosecuted for animal abuse. I hope that she doesn't have any sickness that needs to be treated. Firstly, because I would hate to see her suffer anymore for this. And secondly, because I had to pay nearly $200 for her quarantine, I can not afford to spend anything else.

Please, fast and pray for us.

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