Blackie

Well, I just wanted to write about a dog we sponsored here who has been named "Blackie." Please don't get me wrong, we are not trying to toot our own horn, but Blackie has been a big part of our lives the past couple of weeks.

For those of you not living on Guam, there are a lot of "Boonie dogs" here. These are stray dogs that just run around the island. A lot of them get hit on the road. Most of the dogs I've seen are in a group of 2-3 and look pretty decently fed. However, one day about 2-3 weeks ago, we drove by a black lab-looking dog a couple miles from the house. The first time we saw him he was lying down and we saw his head and neck--complete with collar--and he looked ok. We figured he had an owner. The next time we saw him a few days later we saw his body--I have never seen ANYTHING that thin before in my life.  When I saw how thin he was, I screamed, had Rudi pull the car over and we fed him (we carry dog food in the back of the car for the boonie dogs). There was some other food around him, so it was obvious others had started feeding him too.

Well, afterwards, Rudi and I couldn't stop thinking of him. We cannot have dogs where we live (in a condo, where we agreed to no pets upon signing the lease), yet I didn't feel right not doing anything. We brought food & water to him multiple times a day, but it became obvious that he needed some medical attention. Plus he was all alone on the side of the road, and obviously had no where to go since he pretty much stayed where we found him. 

Rudi and I prayed a lot about it. Our hearts were just so heavy for this dog. We know there are tons of dogs on Guam that need a home, but this one was all alone, and so, so thin, and something just seemed different about him. I truly felt like God was calling us to help this dog (why this particular dog, I am not sure).

I decided to make some phone calls, though I thought no one would be sympathetic since there are so many strays here. The humane society here definitely would have euthanized him due to his condition, but I figured as a last resort, that would be better than letting him languish by the road. However, I ended up talking with a local woman who is employed by a kennel--she said if I could get the dog healthy, she would board the dog at her kennel (we'd have to pay), and she is connected with lots of people that foster dogs. She also gave me the name of a few vets.

So we picked him up and drove him to the vet. There they determined he had heart worm, so he'd have to be treated for that. They wanted him to stay there to be treated due to his poor health condition, and they gave us a good deal on the nightly rate. Besides heart worm, they determined he had hook worms, other intestinal parasites, about 50 ticks, and was about 20 pounds underweight (or more).

Today we picked him up from the vet a lot heavier, healthier, and happier. He has so much more energy, but is still just as sweet as the day we found him.

We drove him to the kennel today, and the lady at the kennel thinks she will just keep him, so long as he gets along with her dogs! She also said we could visit him, which is exciting for us  since we hope to see him when his fur coat and skin are healthy again. He still has 15 lbs to gain (my estimate), so we'd like to see him with that weight on as well.

Rudi and I are so overjoyed that Blackie is taken care of, healthy, and no longer homeless.  I still do not know why we felt so strongly that we needed to help this dog...it was as if we HAD to and we didn't really have a choice. We are also thankful that we were in the position of being able to "sponsor" this sweet animal.

The first picture is when we first picked him up before he went to the vet. It is hard to tell how thin he is because he is on the pillow. The next picutures were taken after he gained a little weight during one of our visits to see him while he was an "inpatient" at the vet. When we picked him up today, he was even more filled out and his fur looked even better!