Several years ago, Tom found a black dog laying in the storage shed. This shed was once used by a previous owner as a stable for a horse and has large fenced in area attached to it. The dog was a female, apparently very weak and possibly sick. The cat (Isabelle) was sitting on top of a straw bale in the shed and appeared to be "watching over" the dog. Tom gave the dog some food and water and shut the gate to the pen so she could not get out.
I came over to the farm after work to take a look at the dog. She had eaten all the food and drank some water. But when we came into the pen, she slowly slunk around behind a stack of boxes and wouldn't come out. We gave her some more food and when Tom checked on her the next morning, it was gone too. This went on for a couple of days with Tom feeding her twice a day. All this time, the cat never left her side.
I came over each day and talked to her, slowly gaining her trust to the point that she started wagging her tail when she saw me coming. She remained wary of Tom, however. As she gained her strength, I began to walk her around on a leash. It was obvious that she was not used to a leash, but she did pretty well. I noticed that her right front leg seemed to be at an odd angle to her body causing her to have a pronounced limp. I resolved to somehow get her to a veterinarian, get her spayed, vaccinated, checked for heartworms and get that leg examined. Then, I would find a good home for her. She actually seemed to be very friendly, eager to please and be petted, and she was gradually warming up to Tom. By this time the cat had lost interest in the dog and resumed patroling for mice or sunning herself on the roof.
I didn't know how the dog would react to riding in a car, so I first coaxed her into the back seat with some food and just drove her out to the road and back. This seemed to work pretty well, so I drove her around the section. The next day I made an appointment to take her to our vet.
She struggled a little bit with the vet tech when I took her into the vet's office and she realized that I was going to leave her there. After lunch the vet called to say that she had made it through surgery just fine and that she did not have heartworms. Thank goodness for that; treating heartworms is expensive. Then he told me that the reason she limped was that she had a bullet in her shoulder! The bullet had broken some of the bones in her shoulder and they had healed in such a way to cause her leg to stick out at that odd angle. He said trying to do surgery to fix it would, most likely, make matters worse. So, the best thing to do was leave it alone.
I was dumbstruck. First of all, I cannot understand why anyone would drop a dog or cat off in the country thinking they could survive on their own. Domesticated dogs don't know how to hunt food for themselves. Humans bred that trait out of them thousands of years ago. Also, Coyotes will kill dogs if they encounter them, and there are lots of coyotes out here. Neither can I understand how anyone could shoot an animal like this. This dog was obviously not vicious or aggressive and probably just wandered onto someone's property looking for food. So, their solution was to shoot her. How inhumane and mean must one be to shoot a poor, innocent creature who is lost and scared? Thank goodness whoever it was was a bad shot!
At any rate, after hearing this news of her having been shot, I knew I could not subject her to being given away to yet another human who might or might not be good to her. I think Tom had known for quit some time that we would probably keep the dog. At any rate, he didn't seem surprised when I asked if we could keep her and said it was okay with him. So, I named her Sally and here she is:
She is kind of funny looking at first glance. She has big, stand up ears like a German Shephard, but has a body more like a black Lab. Although, she's not as big as a Lab. Our son-in-law refers to her as the "bat dog".
One final note . . . . We have wondered many times how Sally was able to survive out here in the country, alone, having been shot, without food, long enough for her wound to heal and the bones to knit back together as they had. And, what enticed her to come up to our place and go into the shed where Tom found her? Could it be the cat found her, maybe even brought her mice or other small animals she caught? Perhaps Sally then followed her to our shed. The cat was a good mouser and once I saw Sally eating a dead mouse she found that the cat had left laying around. Yuck!
I don't know. But, Sally is a good dog. Loyal and friendly and I'm glad we have her. She is, however, afraid of storms and does not like to go out far from the house in the dark. I'm sure this is a hold-over from the days and nights she spent out on her own at night and in the rain. I keep telling her she has nothing to worry about now. She has found her "forever" home.
Katie likes the picture of Sally! (-: You have such a tender heart towards animals.
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