Far too many times we get contacted about a small dog that someone does not want any longer, or see dogs and puppies that we know other rescues will pass by... Allow me to tell you Carlee's story, and you'll get an insider's appreciation that 2 + 2 ╪ 4... Carlee is a 1 pound, 6 ounce Chihuahua puppy who is 7 weeks old now... When we were contacted about her not quite 2 weeks ago, she could not hold her head up, but flailed around uncontrollably unless held and/or confined...
The first night, we had to hold her head and feed her with a small baby spoon so she would not dunk her head into the wet food and drown herself... Looking at this puppy as a rescue person, you know going in that this is going to be a 'hard case' and rehabilitation is doing to take time and money... But a lot of time, love, energy and TLC more than anything else...
What do you do however?... Do you walk away from a tiny munchkin like this?
Carlee has something the vet believes is cerebelluar hypoplasia - basically part of the brain which controls the motor skills did not develop properly... Didn't mean much more than that... Carlee hears great, loves to give kisses and is a healthy puppy with puppy energy... She's intelligent and learns quickly...
You consistently have to think out of the box and multi-task, or you are just not a good foster mom at all... Especially with the hard cases... Sorry...
It seems that a cute puppy like Carlee would have immediately been swept up and adopted, but because she requires work as she progresses, she becomes 'unadoptable'... Sad, huh?
Doesn't make her any less cuter or any less in need of care and love... So I applaud those in the rescue community who consistently step up and foster some of the 'less than perfect' pets that are left behind and not adopted... It takes special pets to find special fosters to make exceptional furever homes for these kinds of case....
Our first prototype was not very pretty, but it sure was creative if nothing else! Wasn't too long before Carlee was strengthening those neck muscles and could hold her head up well enough to feed herself...
It wasn't long before I figured out that with practice, Carlee could teach herself to hold her head in place long enough to feed herself... It was a matter of ME learning the correct bowl to put her food into!...
And along the way, Carlee learned to give us the proper advance notice in body language that she needed to widdle or poo... As long as you could read her body language, there was just NO WAY she wanted to have an accident anywhere she slept, sat in, etc...
Next step was to add wheels to that prototype... In Carlee's case, she went from a cute 'bobbler' to a roaring motor scooter --- in about 10 days --- from the time we got her at TLC and she was scooting around like a crazy munchkin!
It was harder to find tinker toys than it was to teach Carlee to scoot around in this prototype we came up with... SERIOUSLY...
Along the way, we started homeopathic processes as well to increase the growth of nerve endings... You keep her healthy, keep her working those muscles and motivated to get where she wants to go, provide stimulation and play time... You basically do the next best right thing...
And also along the way, you realize that no matter how much money, time, energy and love you put into saving the next puppy or dog, it will always exceed any adoption donation... 2 + 2 just does not equal 4 in rescue... We will always put in more, and it is only through the community's support with donations and volunteering that TLC continues to take on the small dogs and puppies that get left behind....
Carlee has now moved onto another foster mom in TLC who is exploring hydrotherapy as another option... And another creative soul, I am just as sure she will come up with new tools to speed up Carlee's rehabilitation...
Two weeks later, look how proudly Carlee stands with her head held high... This is what rescue is all about!
