APRIL 19, 2002
This story is unbelievable. Late Friday night, , I received an email about a tiny, old female
shih tzu with a horribly infected eye that needed to be "rescued" from a shelter in a Dallas
suburb. She was estimated to be 9-10 years old and needed to be rescued
IMMEDIATELY, they said. She was practically hairless and one eye was oozing pus. I got
in touch with an adopter, Janee, that lived near that shelter and begged her to check on
this poor old lady Saturday morning. She agreed.
April 20, 2002 Janee was waiting on the steps when the shelter opened that morning.
Twenty minutes later, she called me and said she was on her way to Houston with a tiny,
MALE shih tzu. When I saw the little guy, I could have either cried or threw up. These are
the pictures we took that afternoon. You can see what a mess his eye is and how thin the
little guy is. It looked as though he had been on the streets for ages. I looked inside his
mouth to see what horrible shape his teeth must have been in and got yet another shock -
the little guy still had puppy teeth!!!
April 20, 2002 I took Tiger home and started his rehabilitation. It started with FOOD,
FOOD and more FOOD. Unfortunately, because he was so thin, we had to feed him small
amounts every two hours.
April 20, 2002 Of course, we took him straight to the vet. Dr. Moore stayed late so he
could personally evaluate this poor little dog. Tiger's right eye was horribly infected from
some sort of injury and is probably not salvageable; he has sarcoptic mange and severely
infected skin AND looked like a walking skelton. Tiger weighed only 5.2 pounds this
afternoon; we also found out that Tiger is only a puppy!! He is estimated to be around 10
months old. At least we found he did NOT have heart worms!!
April 20, 2002 Later this evening, I shaved those weird strands of hair off. In these
pictures, you can see how terribly thin Tiger is. Even with all of this, he's trying to play
with the little leopard-print toy at the bottom.
April 24, 2002 Tiger is making TREMENDOUS progress!!! With lots of food, he's
started to put on a bit of weight. In the comparison picture below, you can actually see
that he's filling out. The eye is also better, even though it still looks horrible. The fact that
it is so red is actually a good thing - that means that there is still good blood flow to the
tissue and that it MAY heal. Not that he will ever be able to see out of that eye, but
perhaps the eyeball will be saved. See his other cute golden eye? That's why we named
him Tiger.
April 27, 2002 One week from the day we got Tiger, he's improving daily. The swelling
in his eye and the volume of pus oozing from it has lessened considerably. He's playful
and so very sweet. The only drawback is that because he's still contagious from sarcoptic
mange, he cannot play with the other dogs nor can we touch him a lot. He's so very eager
to please. When it's his turn outside, he follows on my heels constantly. And the best
news - Tiger has gained a pound. He weighs just over 6 pounds right now.
May 4, 2002 Tiger continues to improve. He LOVES to run and play now and is totally
oblivious to the condition he was in three weeks ago.
May 11, 2002 Tiger weighs around 7 pounds now and is looking GOOD!!
May 16, 2002 Tiger got all spruced up to go to his NEW HOME!!! He's being adopted
and will live with his new sisters, Vonnie and Fanny.
May 29, 2002 And here he is in his new home with his sister, Vonnie. Vonnie is also a
rescue from Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue. Doesn't Tiger look content. If
anyone deserves it, he does!!! Tiger is doing well, but he has lots of friends that still
aren't faring so well.
Click here to help Tiger's friends.
July 28, 2002 Here's our little boy now!!! We did remove the burst eye - it became so
small, there was a lot of dead space inside the eye lid that constantly collected bacteria,
so we removed the offending eye and sewed his lid shut. He doesn't notice a thing. Here
he is attending his obedience class. Of course, Tiger is the hit of the class.
Can you believe this is the same dog??
Tiger is one of our most exciting success stories. THANKS to all of the wonderful people
that helped to make this little sweet guy whole!
are still in need of help.
Check them out.