A story from a "pre" foster momma......

I pulled Van Halen yesterday from an Animal Control here in GA. He was about an hour and a half north of me in a very rural area. He was scheduled to be euthanized yesterday. When we came to get him, he could hardly walk and was very trembly. One eye looked clear and the other had a filmy haze over it. Trying to get him in the car was a joke because he just collapsed at the door of the car. I picked him up and realized he was a bucket of skin and bones, literally I felt like I was picking up a skeleton covered in filthy, matted fur. He just laid across the back seat next to my teenage daughter, panting. She petted him all the way home and about half way home she asked me to look at her hand. It was brownish-red from the filth he had matted on him. We got him home and he limped into the house after going potty outside. He laid on the floor and put his head between his paws with his eyes at half mast. We fed him a little food and he drank a bit of water. After we let him rest for an hour or so, we thought we should try to wash him up a bit. I picked him up and put him in the tub. He immediately lay down. We washed him as best we could with him laying down, pushing him up occasionally to get under his tummy. He was terribly matted, just horrid. The third rinse water was just as red from the Georgia clay he had embedded in him, as the first rinse water was. He started to tremble and his teeth were chattering, so we stopped trying to get him clean. We took him out and dried him off as best we could. He laid on an old quilt in front of the fireplace for the rest of the evening with some time for food and water when we would bring it to him. He went out one more time and did his business as well. When bedtime came, we realized our crate was WAYYYY too small, so we put him in our small bathroom with a nightlight and his quilt. However, my daughter felt horrid about leaving him alone, so moved him into her room later. He slept in there with her, all night. This morning he got up and walked outside and did his business with no fuss. He ate some breakfast and rested. Then we went to the vet. After we got home from the vet, he ate some canned puppy food and walked around for 10-15 minutes, just looking around. Now he is sleeping again, hiding in our bedroom.

We still have not heard him make a noise except for when he cried because the vet had to take some blood from him. He has nudged my daughter's hand to get some petting, but mostly seems to relish his quiet and stretching out time.