Safe and warm with her puppies, Roo can look forward to a better life.
PALM HARBOR – On March 29, the Suncoast Animal League received an e-mail from Levy County Animal Services requesting assistance with a mother dog and her eight, 1-week-old puppies.
The photos were disturbing; the story was heartbreaking. The mother dog and her puppies had been found the day before in a field, under a tractor, nearly starved to death.
By 5:30 that afternoon, Suncoast Animal League Executive Director Rick Chaboudy and board member Annette Dettloff were on the road, heading north.
They picked up the emaciated mother dog, named Roo, and her pups in the one-stoplight-town of Inglis.
Roo was just a pile of bones. She had no milk for her hungry puppies, and her sad face was tired, her spirit nearly defeated.
During the trip back to Pinellas County, Chaboudy bottle-fed each puppy a supplemental formula to help boost their systems before arriving at AA Animal ER Center back in Pinellas County. Although each puppy was slightly underweight, they were surprisingly in fairly good condition, proving Roo gave her puppies every ounce of nourishment possible, even to the detriment of her own life.
Through the entire experience, Roo was gentle to everyone she met, and allowed her rescuers to handle her puppies without hesitation. After the initial 24 hours of round-the-clock care, she is on the road to recovery at a foster home, where she is resting comfortably and no longer has to worry about her next meal, next drink or whether that noise in the distance is a coyote after her pups.
The Suncoast Animal League is at 1030 Pennsylvania Ave. in Palm Harbor. For more information, or to make a donation, call 786-1330.
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