This is how Seymour looked after he was shaved down. Here's the before picture:
We've learned a little more about Seymour's past - it turns out a puppy mill was shut down outside of Vancouver and our rescue was sent the dogs that the rescues there couldn't take in. The people who ran the puppy mill abandoned the place, with all the dogs left behind Our rescue took in four of the breeding dogs, but Seymour is by far the worst off. Heckler and I agreed to take him in, because nobody else would.
Seymour has almost no use of his back end; he wobbles and falls when he walks, and he needs support to stand when he pees. The first vet Seymour saw diagnosed him with spinal compression, which would have meant pain from arthritis for the rest of his life. Once our vet could see all of Seymour, it was decided that his problem was neurological - this is good news for two reasons: Seymour is not in pain from arthritis, and (although the neurological problem won't go away) it likely will not get worse. Seymour will need to have dental surgery in the next month, to neuter him and to have his rotten and broken teeth removed.
Seymour is still struggling with walking. The vet says his muscles are underdeveloped, likely due to living in a cage As he gets more active, his muscles might get stronger, which would make it easier for him to walk. A coworker of one of our board members was generous enough to donate one of her late Dachshund's wheelchair to Seymour We will still encourage Seymour to walk as much as possible, but the wheelchair will help him have the ability to go on walks.
Poor Seymour has terrible separation anxiety, but it really helps that we have Barkley around. As long as Barkley is near, Seymour is happy. At the moment, Seymour is crying at the back door, because Heckler is out with Barkley on their evening walk. Poor fella.
If you didn't catch the name reference right away, here's a hint
If you're interested in checking out our rescue website, here is the link Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders
Kittens!
It's feral kitten season, and our trappers have caught 8 kittens in the last two weeks from local colonies. We took in two of them - Wil Wheaton and Munchkin. They socialized really quickly - SO much faster than Honey and Bee last season. Here are some pics