Geoffrey had been in an isolation kennel at our vets for the last 3 weeks. He had eye, ear, skin and respiratory infections. 5 days ago we decided to add another antibiotic to his treatment regimen. His skin was getting better but still had little improvement in the ears. By Friday the ears were beginning to look better and nasal discharge had cleared. Blood work was normal except for an elevated white blood cell count that simply wasn’t going down after being treated with antibiotics for 3 weeks. On Sunday morning he would not eat, after a food change he was acting normally. He wouldn’t eat again this morning but was acting normally. Again, blood work was checked and found to be normal except for the continued elevation in white blood cells, indicating infection. This afternoon, the kennel tech found Geoffrey unresponsive. He had a faint heartbeat when discovered and all means at our disposal were used to resuscitate…we failed. Sweet baby boy was just too weak from 18 months of neglect to battle any longer. He suffered at the hands of his owner for 18 months, a person who was nothing more than an ignorant, unempathetic animal. How could any human look at this sweet boy everyday and not be moved to help?
We had great plans for Geoffrey and were looking towards the future, instead of the past. We wanted the chance to pamper him and let him know how it felt to be truly loved by his human. God had other plans.
I’ll never forget the blankness in his eyes on the day I first went to animal services. I’ll never forget the pit in my stomach when I had to leave him there for one more day to I could make arrangements for an isolation kennel. I also will never forget that the moment he walked out of that same shelter, the light was back. We were able to touch him with kindness, and watch him play with one of the vet techs he formed a special relationship with, in his weeks at the vet. He felt horrible, he looked even worse but he knew he was finally going to get the care and love he deserved. HE KNEW and that’s why we do this….HE KNEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes we just cannot undo the havoc caused by ignorance.
