Two lurchers have arrived here recently from death row at the pound,both in a pretty desperate state.Thing is they're both neutered.The kind of people who own this kind of dog around here (and dump them) most definitely do NOT neuter.They DO however steal this kind of dog from England and bring them here.Unfortunately neither is microchipped.They show very definite signs of having been house pets at some stage though. They are still in such awful condition,between the mange and long term malnutrition, it's not worth putting up photos of them yet as their original owners wouldn't recognise them but I'd like to find some lost dog websites on your side of the water to start the ball rolling. Given the state of them I suspect they were taken quite a while ago.Wouldn't it be wonderful if their owners could be found?[/IMG]This is one of them,a whippet saluki cross,[/IMG]and who would recognise her from this?[/IMG]I'm not sure all of her coat will come back,she's got hard tissue in places..
That's just one of them Shirley,apart from my poor photo skills the baldness would make her tricky to id.The dogs are now in Ireland.The pictured one,Mouse,is 22".She has 2 white toes on each back foot and a small white flash on her chest that is just beginning to show now that the hair is growing back.Guesstimate of age -4 to 6 years.The other dog,Midge,is a 29" pale brindle male.If he was a whippet you'd call him 'lemon brindle'.There's a suggestion of a slightly heavier coat than normal for a grey,I suspect a touch of both saluki and collie in him.He's definitely a pensioner,around 7 or 8 years old.No photos yet as he's still a bit too weak to do much standing up.
I`m surprised they`re neutered but not chipped. Is chipping not `normal` over there? :? BTW bless you for the great work you do.
M'chipping is standard HERE but not all UK rescues do it,besides which given the age of the dogs they could have been taken years ago before chipping was so widely used,but that's why I think they've been stolen over there and (standard practise for the thieving b......s) brought here-only to be dumped when it was discovered they were no good for their purposes.. Also the Irish are not keen on hound types as pets so a missing one would be well known about here.I'm sure these dogs are English.I've checked the UK lurcher site and the big site for dogs lost but nothing on there. If I can't find the owners it looks very likely I'll be stuck with them.Mouse is unlikely to ever be a beauty again,plus she's black(not a popular colour)Midge is old and although he will be a handsome boy once there's some meat on his bones his age will be against him in the homing stakes.I don't MIND keeping them (although I am in need of a bigger bed!) as they're both wonderful characters and have settled in to the gang without a ripple but it's too easy to get silly about it and end up with so many I'd not be fair to all...
It's just heartbreaking to think what these dogs have been through My lurcher just died in February aged 15 and she was the nicest dog ever
At last a photo of Midge.He's putting on the weight at a rate of knots bless him and the mange was no where near as bad as Mouse.[/IMG] He's looking younger too as his health improves and I got the worst of the scrot off his teeth but he's still definitely not a youngster.
I wish lost dog sites had better search engines! I've had no choice but to read through years of lists one dog at a time - NOT an exercise to be recommended!Talk about eye watering! Small wonder so many of these dogs remain lost. I stuck with it though and there is so far a possible match for both.It's still a remote possibility,neither of these dogs is unique in type or markings but I'm following up.The listing for the brindle boy was from March 08,the black bitch that's a possible match has been awol for 2 years.That matches my gut feeling that these two have been away from home for a long time. This experience has taught me one thing though.If you lose your dog and it isn't found within a week or two you need to refresh the listing every month or so (depending on how busy the site is) to keep your dog on the first page! I'd be astonished to discover that there were many as patient and downright stubborn as I am to spend days and headache pills going through old listings. It would be SOOO much simpler if Midge and Mouse were microchipped...
