OkcPets Magazine January 2024

January / February 2024 • OKC Pets 33 Undoing the Damage After Undoing the Chain Dalmatian Pup Heals in Body and Mind by Nancy Gallimore T he image came to me rapid-fire from various sources, as often happens when there is a Dalmatian in need. is dog was a seven-month-old puppy in a small town in northern Missouri — a bit outside the normal range of my Okla- homa-based Dalmatian rescue. When I clicked the link for a closer look at the post about this puppy, my heart felt a rush of sorrow and anger in one big, knotted jumble, the miles turning into counting precious minutes until I could offer help. It wasn’t a photo of pleading brown eyes. In fact, the young Dalmatian’s face wasn’t even visible. The angle of the photo was straight down on the dog’s back, and you certainly didn’t need a degree in veterinary medicine to know this was a desperate situation. The pup’s head was lowered, perhaps eating some food that had been dropped on the ground for him. A sturdy chain was stretched tautly from his collar to some fixed spot out of frame. The dog stood on dirt; any blades of grass had long worn away from the back-and-forth wear of his paws. The leaves that had once provided him with some sort of canopy now lay damp, brown, and scattered at his feet. A bare plastic doghouse was visible in the corner of the photograph, although it didn’t appear the dog’s chain would allow him to reach even that limited sanctuary. But it wasn’t the living conditions that held my eyes riveted. It was the physical condition of the dog. Ribs that should have had a healthy cov- ering of puppy fat protruded like the tines of a rake with a thin blanket of spotted fabric stretched across them. The knobby surface of his spine was punctuated by protruding hip bones on either side of the base of his drooping tail. Legs that should have been blooming with strong muscles were slack and appeared frail. This young dog was clearly running on empty and running out of time, espe- cially with the promise of cold weather approaching. And most infuriating was the fact that he was on a property with an owner living comfortably in a nearby home. An adorable puppy left chained, alone, and desperate since the moment he had left the safety of his mother’s side just months before. I reached out immediately, promising a place for this forgotten puppy in my rescue and in my home. My partner Jim and I could easily offer him all the things his neglectful owner couldn’t be bothered to provide. He needed a thorough exam by a veterinarian, several good meals a day, a soft bed, a safe yard for exercise, and plenty of loving attention. We were ready to put a checkmark beside each item on that list. Thanks to the persistence of Leesa King and other volunteers with an organization called Friends of Macon County Missou- ri Animals, local authorities were made aware of the puppy’s plight and required the owner to surrender the dog to animal control. Then, through the magic of the Internet and wonderful volunteer drivers, the Dalmatian Assistance League, Inc., of Tulsa welcomed the new dog into foster care. The pup, who would be known as Rudy, was off the chain and headed toward the promise of a much better life. Starting Rudy’s Next Chapters You might think this would be the end of Rudy’s rescue story. He was no longer alone on a chain. He would gain weight. He would get healthy. He would be placed in a wonderful home. Well, for a dog who had lived his entire young life on a chain, there needed to be a few more chapters added to that tale. When Rudy arrived at our home, he was justifiably confused and nervous. After introductions with our other dogs, we let him explore our house. But his behavior was unlike past dogs being initiated into the routine of our home. It was as if he had no concept of how to behave if not restrict- ed by a chain secured to his collar. He paced our home for hours. He bounced from one end of the house to the This was the first photo Nancy Gallimore received of seven-month-old Rudy, chained and emaciated. Photo courtesy of Friends of Macon County Missouri Animals.