awful lot for her young age.
Charity came into the clinic with a broken left rear leg. She
belonged to a 16 year old boy who had barely scraped together
the $65 to have her put to sleep. She had been running
around with a broken leg for 4 days while he got the money
together. She came in to the clinic angry, and in pain, and
nearly untouchable. Her boy couldn't stop crying. I ended up
going in the room to assist the vet, who was all too happy to put
the dog to sleep (side note here: I don't like this woman. She's
a terrible veterinarian, she's a terrible human being, and she
was a crappy boss. So please don't think that this is the opinion
of ALL vets. Just this one in particular.) I stepped in an
interfered, as is my way. :) I told the boy "You don't want to do
this. She's a young dog, and you love her. I work for a vet clinic,
I can afford to get her fixed up. Give her to me and I will give
her the best life possible." He signed her over to me, and
handed me the poor broken, muzzled little min pin.
The vet thought I was insane. And maybe I was. It took two
surgeries on Charity's leg to fix it up right, but now she only has
problems with it when it's really cold out. Things were going
pretty well for Charity until....
August 1st of 2004, my roommate's dog, from out of the blue,
attacked and tried to kill Charity. I've never been so horrified.
I'm just grateful that I was there at the time and able to break it
up before she DID kill her.
Charity was badly beaten up and incredibly shaken. I took her
to A.C.C.E.S.S. in Lakewood Colorado and they were
FANTASTIC. They were good to both of us, incredibly kind and
helpful and they got her well on the road to recovery. They
were even nice to me when we were back a week later. The
same dog came THROUGH screen door, tore Charity from my
arms, and tried to kill her again. The damage was worse the
second time, involving surgery to reattach 270 degrees of
muscle around her neck. I wondered if she would be in too
much pain, if it was worth putting her through the surgery. The
emergency vet said that he felt it was, that she was a tough little
dog, and he thought she would recover though we were
running a risk of nerve damage this time around.
Two weeks later, when she went to see her new vet for a follow
up, not only did the stitches look great, and the muscles work,
but the vet felt he saw no signs of nerve damage at all. Charity
was good as new, with a few extra scars. Pretty impressive
considering after the surgery she looked like they'd sewn her
entire head back on.
Since then, we've moved away from the dog that attacked her,
who then moved to Washington, D.C. to be with her mom. The
dog that attacked her, Nanna, was a great dog. She was a big
sweetie and they had lived together for nearly a year and a half
before the attack. It really did come out of the blue. And
unfortunately, you can't ask "What on earth did you SAY to her
to make her so mad?" I was never mad at Nanna. I'm not sure
what set off the attack, and I can never know for sure.
Charity now lives a life of a Pincess, and is spoiled rotten. She
forgave me for failing to protect her from the second attack
(though I'm not 100% sure I have forgiven myself). She is a
little afraid of dogs outside of her pack, but she's getting better.
She won't admit it, but Shadow is her best friend in the world,
even if he does sit on her when he's tired of playing.
All that Charity really wants is all of my time, attention and love.
And if there were a way to be grafted to my thigh and share a
circulatory system, that would be okay with her.
She is a great dog, so full of love and for everything she's been
through, she is so trusting. I believe that she would die trying to
protect me, and it makes me tear up sometimes, just thinking of
how much she loves me. I am lucky to have her in my life, my
little Pincess.
loves e-mail, send her some here:
Charity@wendywylde.com
my favorite skirt, which she pulled out of the
laundry basket just to lay on. Rotten Pincess.
