Rocky was so thin, after months or perhaps years of neglect.
Rocky was handed into the RSPCA centre where I worked, as a stray. He was in such a bad state that it was thought that he would wait out his seven days as a stray and then be put to sleep, it would surely be a blessed relief to the ravaged body we all saw before us.
His back end appeared to be paralysed, his claws on his back feet were worn down and bleeding where he had dragged himself along. He was bald from the waist down and so thin and weak that I could not look at him without crying.
This tragic physical state had not happened overnight, this dog had been left to suffer for months, perhaps even years.
Rocky was placed in a kennel block under my care and I set about the task of caring for a dog that I knew would die at the end of the week. Nobody was going to come forward and claim a dog in such dreadful condition, who would have that kind of gall?
The law states that dogs must be kept for seven days no matter what their state, it’s just something we have to accept.
As the week progressed, Rocky grew stronger, everybody thought I was imagining it because I had gotten too attached and it was just wishful thinking, but I could see small improvements and I believed that he was not ready to die, he was fighting back.
After four days on five small meals a day his tired old body managed to walk unaided to the grass a few yards from his kennel to go to the loo. The next day he stood a bit taller and made it there with less of a struggle. The next day we walked a bit further, it took a great deal of effort on his part because the muscles in his legs had all wasted away.
On day six he made it to walk past the window of the manager’s office, she too could see that he was fighting to live so we decided to give him a bit longer.
Over the next couple of weeks Rocky astounded us all, he was still old, decrepid and skinny but he was definitely improving.
He had a horrendous ear infection which caused him great pain everytime he moved his head, something else that had been left untreated by his owners for years. The relief of the loss of that pain on proper treatment became apparent.
I remember a couple of weeks after he arrived, he shook his head and then ducked and winced waiting for the pain that usually followed, when there was none I swear he looked up and smiled.
In the third week a lady showed up asking if her elderly GSD had been handed in, it was Rocky she was looking for!!
One of the RSPCA inspectors happened to be there at the time, so he took her to Rocky for her to identify. Rocky was beside himself to see her. After all she had done to him, all the physical pain and misery she had allowed him to suffer for so long he still openly adored her. I couldn’t stay, at that point I wanted to really do her some damage, how could she betray that love by letting him down so badly?
Dale the inspector explained to the ‘lady’ that she would not be allowed Rocky back, she explained to him that she was a drug addict and very often did not have money to buy food, so she simply didn’t feed him.
We believe that it was his strong survival instinct to eat that gave him the strength to crawl through the streets on the day he was found.
Rocky was very unsettled after his owner’s visit, so he came up to the staff room for the rest of the day where he received more attention and love than he knew what to do with.
Rocky took almost a year to get to a physical condition that rendered him fit to rehome. He spent very little of that time in a kennel, he was always with me. I was only seventeen at the time and still living at home where my parents would not let me have such a big dog.
As soon as the first person showed interest in offering him a home I knew I could never let him go, it would have torn my heart out. So I left home, breaking my poor mother’s heart, and took Rocky on full time.
The dog that only had seven days to live went on for two more years. We were together twenty four hours a day, he came to work with me and he slept on my bed every night. This dog was undoubtedly my soul mate, when he finally gave up the fight I thought I would die too.
I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and certainly couldn’t talk about him. I swore I would never have another dog again because I couldn’t take the pain. I will NEVER regret knowing Rocky, I still miss him and I am choked up writing this but he taught me so much and I have so many lovely memories.
I have never seen a dog, before or since, fight back despite those odds. He taught me a valuable lesson on not giving up and he also taught me what an honour it is to take on an older dog and give them love and comfort in their last few years where so many people would walk on by.
Needless to say a few months later I did take on another dog, an elderly toy poodle whose owner died and she would not come out from behind the sofa because she was so scared…….
…well you can’t see a dog like that in a kennel can you………..?
Kelly