This is a sad story and I don’t know how it will end, but here’s where we are so far. We found this little dog curled up by the side of the road on Friday. I´d actually seen it on Thursday walking along the side of the road by the way to Llerena on Thursday. I´d tried to get him back, but I had Bob and Petal with me and he kept running away, so worried that I was going to make the situation worse, I went back to the house to get Ian. Ian drove up there and had a look but couldn’t see him. We’d assumed that it had head off back into the country or the village. Probably between me going back and Ian arriving the little dog had been hit by a car.
On Friday when we were going out, I was keeping a look out, and saw it curled up by the side of the road in a ditch, hidden in undergrowth. It was only a complete chance that I saw it, in fact to start off with I only thought I had and we had to go back and check. I wasn’t sure if it was dead, so we went to check and it was alive. When Ian went to pick it up and it sunk its teeth into Ian’s hand we realised it was definitely alive although very badly injured.
We took her the vet (who truly thinks we are mad), however the dog was so shocked and distressed he could not really look at it, but did think his hip might be broken. He didn’t xray him and gave us anti inflammatory drugs. I don’t think he thought that he would survive (in case you are wondering about my swinging between genders, we thought that it was a she, however unless she has a terrible growth in her nether regions, she is in fact an unneutured he, but we are still used to calling it a her).
Anyway, we bought him home and put him in the barn, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. In the morning he had left her cozy spot and was in front of the door, shaking. We bought him into Ian’s office and gave him some water with sugar in it, and some sausages, that he gulped down. Since then he has been making extremely small improvements – however has turned into an extremely friendly and affectionate dog. He put his right rear foot down today, but only for a few steps. His injured side is his right back, however he does lay on this side, which suggests that her hip might not be splintered. There is a tiny bit of blood in his poo, and the pee is clear.
We’ve just come back from the vet who was reluctant to x-ray. This entails a general anesthetic and as he doesn’t want to put him through that unless it is really necessary. So we will see how things go for the next day or two.
I thought that he was about 2 years old, however the vet said probably less than a year. Judging by the huge matts on his coat the poor thing has been stray for quite a long time. Potentially it could have been stray since puppyhood. However judging by the way it tucks into sausages and lifts up his arms to be tickled he has been looked after somewhere – just not anyway near here.
We´re not going to think about what our plans will be as it the moment the poor thing is too injured to make plans. We´re not naming it, other than calling it perro which is ‘dog’ which is what the vet called him.