|
City Couple Gives Lost Dog A Second Chance
by: Brian J. Lowney - South Coast Today, Massachussetts
This is a story about a once-desperate dog named Clara and the couple who went the distance — and then some — to give her a second chance at life.
Last April, a good Samaritan found Clara, an English setter-mix, wandering in the Freetown State Forest. He brought the fragile animal to the Lakeville Animal Shelter.
When New Bedford resident Charlene Rocha heard about the lost dog, she knew she wanted to offer it a loving home. When Charlene, a longtime apartment-dweller, married her husband Matt, "he came with a house," she says with a chuckle. That meant her age-old desire to own a dog could now become a reality. Matt, also a dog-lover, felt the same way.
So when he learned about Clara from a co-worker, whose uncle was the Samaritan, Matt immediately told his wife about the dog.
"You mean our dog?" Charlene asked.
"That's what I was thinking," Matt responded.
The couple decided to adopt the dog, sight unseen. Little did they know the challenges that lay ahead.
"She was terrified and shaking," Charlene recalls of Clara. "She didn't want to leave the shelter."
The first thing the couple did was bring Clara to a veterinarian for a wellness checkup. There, tests revealed that the dog, estimated to be 5 to 7 years old, was suffering from a host of illnesses — Lyme disease, kennel cough, conjunctivitis, heartworm and other more. The staff said they'd understand if, under the circumstances, the couple wanted to return Clara to the shelter.
Charlene and Matt didn't need to think about it.
"We're keeping this dog," Charlene insisted. "We're sticking with her."
A regimen of costly treatments began, eventually mounting into thousands of dollars.
"It took a couple of weeks for her to lift her head off the floor," Charlene remembers. "She's still terrified of being alone. Clara is lovable and very sweet, but she has a lot of fear."
The couple named the abandoned canine after a character in the 1955 Academy Award-winning movie "Marty" — the spurned and lonely schoolteacher Clara, rescued from her loveless life by the title character.
"It's a classic movie about hope and second chances," Charlene says. "It's sort of her story, too."
Of Clara's many illnesses, heartworm proved the most challenging to treat, in part because of the dog's emerging emotional problems. The treatment requires calm, restful behavior to avoid the risk of stroke or cardiac arrest, Charlene explains — and Clara had developed a pronounced case of separation anxiety. The otherwise quiet dog would "go bonkers" when her owners left the house. They spied her pacing, barking, howling, even literally climbing the walls to get to a window.
As long as Clara was so disturbed, she couldn't begin treatment for the potentially lethal heartworm.
The couple needed help quick. So they turned to Jason Santos, owner of Bark Buster In-Home Dog Training in Plymouth. The animal behaviorist, who makes house calls, spent hours working with Clara and her new owners on soothing the dog's anxiety.
"I love working with dogs," says Santos, who has served some 500 clients since opening his business three years ago. "I teach the owners canine language and to use the right postures, tones and timing."
Eventually, the distraught Clara settled down enough to begin the heartworm treatment. Soon, the dog was wagging her tail and putting on weight.
"She was considered full of worms, but she fought the worms and won," says Charlene, proudly.
When Santos learned about the mounting cost of Clara's veterinary care, he returned his fee to the couple.
"They took her out of the kindness of their heart," the trainer comments. "They are the heroes."
Santos says that the couple could have easily returned Clara to the shelter, but Charlene had made a vow to the vulnerable pooch.
"I told her, 'This is going to be your new home.'" And the couple made good on that promise. It hasn't been easy, but "Clara is cool," says Charlene. "She's awesome."
In addition to some lingering behavioral issues, the dog has developed more medical problems, including a sore back and allergies, which must be treated.
"We are trying to help her to be comfortable," Charlene says. "We just have to work it out."
She adds that while Clara "loves to go for walks," the now-eager canine pulls when a squirrel runs by or something captures the dog's attention. Charlene hopes to call Santos for another consultation on how to teach the dog to walk once her health issues are resolved.
If there's a parting message to this story, it's the importance of disease prevention, Charlene says.
"Heartworm prevention is the thing to focus on. It's so important. There are a lot of mosquitoes out there because of all the rain. This dog didn't have a fun time fighting the illness. It's preventable."
Swansea resident Brian J. Lowney has been writing about pets for more than a decade. He is a past president of the Wampanoag Kennel Club, an active dog show judge and shares his home with two shelter-adopted cats. All of Brian's columns are available online in our new pet section. Visit http://pets.SouthCoastToday.com
|
