Volunteers from the Spokane Animal Control shelter contacted us over the weekend about a tiny Papillon mix whose family dumped her there last week. They dropped her off on a day the shelter was closed, so no one was around. On a card all they wrote was 'brain damage.' They left no other information ... not their name, not the dog's name.
Here's a photo of her they took at the shelter yesterday. This little girl tips the scales at 3 pounds ... the shelter volunteer who spent time with her Saturday thinks she's about 5 or 6 years old. She appears blind and mostly deaf.
She is doing some circling, which can be a sure sign of neurological problems. However, blind animals in new environments also circle to map their surroundings and get a fix on their boundaries ... and newly blind animals do the same thing.
The volunteer said the dog had pretty much stopped circling by afternoon, and also loved to be held. She e-mailed that this little girl "totally snuggled on my lap and licked us when petted."
We're going to try and get a specialist in Spokane to evaluate her on Monday or Tuesday before deciding what to do. If she has some kind of debilitating and progressive neurological disease that we can't do anything about, we probably won't bring her out to the sanctuary. However, if her circling is vision-related or caused by a treatable condition, we should be able to take her.
My name is mary and I have a pom chihuahua mix. I think the papillon girl would be perfect friend for my little one. # 546-3911, will you let me know if she's able to be adopted? Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
Posted by: Mary Schiedermayer | August 02, 2005 at 03:07 PM
Please let us know what the specialist says. I will keep her in my thoughts. She is beautiful. My heart breaks for her. How many people abandon their animals never ceases to amaze me.
Posted by: Leigh | August 01, 2005 at 02:02 AM