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By Tasha
Douglas is our very special “miracle child”. He was born on 10 December 2014 and was found on the side of the road, umbilical cord and placenta still attached. I am a foster mom to animals so offered to take him just before Christmas with the intention to rehome him when he was old enough. So the little street rat came to us at 10 days old…
On Christmas night we had an emergency visit to the vet. Douglas was having difficulty breathing. He had breathed in milk and that had developed into pneumonia. Because he was so little and had very little immunity, we left the vet with a large bottle of antibiotics and a very poor prognosis.
The antibiotics were a mission in themselves as all the mixing instructions were for 2kg and up. Douglas was tipping the scales at 400g.
He spent the night under my son’s dinosaur umbrella being humidified and was woken every 2 hours to be nebulised. That continued for the next day and a half. On the 27th, he decided that this being alive thing was just too much like hard work so stopped eating. He didn’t reckon on my stubbornness; I was not going to let him die. He would live whether he liked it or not. I had a quick lesson on how to tube feed and we were off. The problem came with giving him his medication, the 0,2ml didn’t even get halfway along the tube. But we got him through that!
For the first term he came with me to school where he had the most amazing impact and effect on my learners. Some had never touched a dog before! They spent many a break time in my classroom marveling at his excess skin. One learner in particular fell in love with him. Her father was dying of cancer in hospital and Douglas became her focus. He gave her great comfort both at school and at the hospital when I took him to visit her.
It was then that I realised that he was my first “foster failure”. There was no way I was going to be able to give him away to someone else.
Douglas is now a bouncing 18kg bundle of pure love and affection. I’ve never known a happier dog. He had to have a “face lift” 2 months ago and even when the vet was removing the stitches, he just lay on the table with his tail wagging through the whole procedure. He has just as much fun playing with his rope toy from his hamper, as he has from the box it came in.
He definitely thinks he’s “a people” and forcing his way into the shower while we are in there is not uncommon…
I have used the Regal Skin Healing Shampoo since he was a puppy as we were warned of possible skin problems with the breed. We have never had an issue and use the Skin Healing Spray if he gets any “itchy” of some sort.
I really am thankful that he never gave up the fight. He is an awesome AWESOME dog.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read his story.
