About 12 hours after we brought Baby Blu, we brought Miss Mercy home too!
The story goes like this: Sometime back in October, I got an email from JAAN (the organization that rescued Blu) about a boxer that needed a home. It said that the owner had a lot of dogs and couldn't take care of this old lady boxer who needed some TLC. After having tried to rescue a boxer from the US this summer (and being told no because the rescue people couldn't do a home visit to Jakarta), we thought seriously about this.. as it seemed like what we were waiting for. So, we thought about it for a couple of weeks, got in touch with the owner and asked a few questions.. and I finally decided to go meet her. It was a Thursday night, and I went to the woman's house. She had many, many dogs (14 in all), mostly Golden Retrievers. She introduced me to Mercy, who was so shy.. and so so so skinny. I almost cried when I saw her. It took her about 15 minutes to get brave enough to come to me so I could pet her. Once I did, it was like she remembered what it was like to be with people, and she wouldn't leave my side. I left, and went home to talk with Zeric. Clearly, she was very sick. After a lot of talking, we decided to ask if we could take her to our vet and see what was going on. From there, we would make our decisions. If she was terminal, then we didn't want to ask her to adjust to new home.
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| skinny girl! |
Saturday, I spent three hours at the vet with Mercy. She had ticks crawling all over her body. Her skin was a mess from malnutrition. But she was friendly and happy, and affectionate. She had hookworms, and ehrlichiosis (a blood parasite from the ticks). She was so anemic and dehydrated that they couldn't get a reading on her kidney and lover functions. She weighed in at 52 pounds. They did a flea/tick dip, and put an e-collar on her. They said that, before we could treat her with the antibiotics for the ehrlichiosis (which will kill her eventually), we needed to get rid of the hookworm and see that she could start gaining weight. After three weeks of deworming and immune supplements, they would check her liver and kidney functions again to be sure she could handle the antibiotic. Given that hookworm is contagious to other dogs and people, we decided to take her back to her old home and visit to treat her for the worms, and bring her extra food. Once she was clear of worms, and once we knew she could do the antibiotics, we would bring her to our home.
I didn't want to leave her with the 13 other dogs with an e-collar on (and I knew that the woman wasn't home, and that they guards wouldn't deal with it), so I decided to bring her home for a few hours to meet Zeric and the kids. The minute Zeric saw her, he said, "We're not taking her back there. She'll never get better there." And so we converted the garage into Mercy's place, and started taking care of her. After 3 weeks, she gained 4 pounds. After 4 weeks, she's up by 6 pounds. No more worms, good liver and kidney functions, and she's 10 days into her antibiotic.
There's still a lot we're not sure about. She could still have cancer or something else. Once she's done with her antibiotic, we'll keep checking.. and in the meantime, we'll keep feeding her and loving her.
We have found that she is true to breed: she loves to chase cats, she guards her house, and she loves her people. She likes other dogs but is dominant (Blu's okay with it, mostly). She has taught Blu to bark and talk.. which is pretty funny as it turns out he has a lot to say! True to (our experience so far with) rescue dogs, Mercy is grateful. She says thank you every time she is fed (before touching her food), she says thank you for every gesture.. her new bed, and even her weekly baths! She is a lovely girl.. and we sure hope she is with us for a long time!
Welcome to our family, Mercy!
