Luna's Tail... Tale

It takes a community to save a dog's life... While a dog might become a hard case because of just one owner and their inability to do the right thing, it will always take a community to right those wrongs done to a dog - and such is the case of Luna, a new rescue saved by TLC...

Five different folks emailed me about Luna and although we are just too full for comfort, I finally gave in on the fifth email and set up transportation from the high kill shelter to TLC... Dennis, from Animal Resources (#1), drove to Devore and pulled Luna from there, then drove her from the certain death to our rescue shop...

Luna arrived in very poor shape, but very sweet... We gave her a few days to adjust to our routine, sounds, smells and us before tackling her...

Niki (#2) from the TLC Bathing Brigade began the process - even Luna's ears had long mats and tangles hanging down... I've seen some bad cases, but Luna's coat is one of the worst I've seen... Scissor cutting the mats revealed they were down to the skin and it was quite painful to Luna, but she was a trooper throughout it all...

We got to the worst spots eventually - on Luna's back, down her legs and her butt... Shallan (#3) jumped in and while Niki held Luna still, Shallan started shaving the coat, tiny bit by tiny bit, as we gently started shearing away the months and months of neglect...

Some of the mats we got off were filthy underneath and stank, putrid from an inability to scratch, roll around and remove anything bothering her...

Eventually it took three of us (counting myself as #4 here in the community) to remove all of the mats - one to hold the front of Luna, another to stretch out Luna's leg to avoid any safety issues and the third to actually use the shaver to remove the mats... sigh...

Once freed of the massive amounts of mats and crap in her coat, we treated the skin immediately to relieve some of Luna's suffering... And then Niki did a medicated bath followed by a special conditioner to soothe skin and work on the dry coat...  

We gave Luna more treats, her breakfast and a break from the process to regenerate, run around, relax...

Later when Arissa came in (#5) and the rescue shop settled down and was quiet, Arissa started to perform her 'magic' and work on Luna's remaining coat...

Again, Luna was sweet and a major trooper through all of the scissor cutting by hand, trying to turn a clean but horribly chopped coat into a work of art... The coat will grow back in of course, and if adopted to the right kind of owner, Luna will be a showcase of beauty...

Today Luna is going in to be spayed, microchipped and get her rabies shot... Then she'll go up for adoption and we know someone very special will fall in love with this bundle of sweetness...

Yep, it takes a community to save a dog's life... And the TLC volunteers are the best around!