Grace’s Delicate Dance

It was 10:30 pm when my phone rang, an AARF volunteer was on the other end.  Earlier in the day, a local vet had taken in a tiny little baby.  The owners brought her in to be euthanized, not having the funds to try to save the suffering puppy.  They explained that their dogs had a litter of pups in the backyard.  Mom had stopped caring for her.  Taken by her big brown eyes, the veterinary staff couldn’t help themselves from doing everything they could to save her.  First, however,  a rescue program had to agree to help with expenses and foster her if she made it.  This call was to find out if I could foster her.  Before the question was even asked, I was agreeing and anxiously awaiting her arrival. 

Before she could come home, she would undergo two blood transfusions (donated by a veterinary technician’s specially trained, blood donating dog).  The puppy was severally anemic, due to fleas.  In fact, the staff originally thought she was a little black puppy – that is how many fleas covered her tiny body.  After multiple baths, they found the tan and white little girl that I later named Grace.   She weighed just under two pounds and was a fighter.  After several days in intensive care, Grace was finally able to come home with me. 

 

We bottle-fed her, filled her with vitamin supplements and worked to keep her extra warm.  Her tiny little body was delicate and weak, but there was a fight in her eyes that kept us hopeful.  Finally, one morning I woke to find that she had left us overnight.  She was stiff in her kennel.  Scott and I wrapped her in her favorite blanket and said our goodbyes.  
 
In the short time Grace was with us, she delicately danced in our hearts and gave me the determination I needed to find the rest of her litter.
 
To be continued…