My mother drove me all the way to Murrells Inlet, SC to meet with Cindy and Donna of PuppyMillRescue. They were carrying precious cargo from South Port, NC.
I call him 'Tracker Jack', sort of like the yummy snack, Cracker Jack.
Tracker lived his whole life in a wooden box at a NC puppymill. His backside was so caked with feces when Cindy got him, that he could not even defecate. When she got him cleaned up, his poor bottom was totally red and raw. He had been cared for in rescue at least 3 weeks by the time I got him.
His backside is much better now.
I am not sure what I was expecting, but I think I thought he would be shy, unsociable, and sullen after all his abuse. Boy- nothing could be further from the truth!
What he is on the outside is very different from the lovely little boy on the inside.
Jack has a really bad infected tooth with infection reaching into the nasal passages. He also has a 'rattley' chest. My Vet can't see us until Monday so I started him on liquid Amoxil for the infection. He had earmites so I went ahead and put Eridamite in his ears.
Here is that awful tooth!
I also bathed him in a 'smell good' shampoo and soaked him in a warm baking soda bath. That helped with the strong unmistakable puppymill smell.
He has dark purple patches on his skin underneath the very coarse, sparse hair, possibly a fungus.
His nails are dead looking and the ends of his paws dark.
I would not be surprised a bit if he was heartworm positive, one of the other mill pups tested positive.
He has trouble breathing and his tongue is really bluish purple with some congestion in his chest. One good thing-he has not coughed. So he may not be too heavily infested.
Now on to his real self-
'Tracker Jack' is the happiest, sweetest, most lap loving baby. He is full of energy, spunk, nothing seems to scare him. He has taken right up with the other guys. There has not been a single growl or lifted lip!
You should have seen Jack and Timber running in the back yard just now! I am guessing he is not older than 8. It is his pitiful mouth that makes him seem older.
I am going to have to put him in his crate in a minute because he is so happy running around checking everything out that he is getting winded. When he is not worrying with that tooth he looks at you with the most bright intelligent eyes, and smiles.
He is smaller even than Trevor, probably 5 lb. but he is stouter than he looks. When you pick him up you are surprised he is as heavy as he is. I am so glad he came to us. He and Trevor are playing now- finally someone to play with Trev! They look like little brothers.
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