by Tina Anderson
Tina Anderson is an Outreach Associate at Valley Animal Center in Fresno, California. VAC shares their animal rescue adventures with us every month. Check out KRL’s interview with VAC to learn more about what they do.
Many will recognize the familiar lyrics of the song “Doggie in the Window” by Bob Merrill, lyrics that generally indicate a person’s delight to see a dog for sale – a dog that is likely to be happy, healthy, cute, clean, and well-groomed, with its “waggly tail” – so happy to see a potential new owner.
Few people might be aware of the process it can actually take to best prepare a rescued dog to be “presentable” to the public in hopes of finding a fur-ever home. This process can go way beyond simply giving a dog a bath, a haircut and a pretty bow or a colorful handkerchief around its neck!
Take for example, Tiki, one of Valley Animal Center’s current residents looking for a home. A beautiful blue-brindle terrier mix, Tiki arrived in very sad shape to Valley Animal Center on May 30, 2015. Tiki was in need of a serious doggy spa day to clean her up and take care of multiple areas where her fur was matted. But even before she could be beautified on the surface, she needed to first be treated for mange, a terrible skin disease caused by tiny mites.
Sweet Tiki, 1½ years old, had what is called generalized mange when she arrived at Valley Animal Center.
Tiki
There are three types of mange: animals with localized mange suffer from mites and accompanying skin problems in just a couple [of] small areas; generalized mange affects animals with skin infections across large areas of the body, and often comes with other itchy and smelly secondary bacterial infections. Demodectic pododermatitis is a type of mange impacting the feet, and also usually go[es] along with bacterial infections.
Reference: pets.webmd.com/dogs/mange-dogs-canine-scabies?Page=1
In addition, poor Tiki did have another issue that needed to be treated: a secondary yeast infection. As part of her treatment, Tiki was put on a special diet and endured several rounds of skin scrapings until just recently, when she was declared healthy and all set for adoption. And boy is she ready! Our sweet girl is full of love and looking for a forever family to call her own.
If you would like to visit Tiki and see if she is the perfect forever pet for your home, please visit Valley Animal Center’s Dog Adoption Center, which is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The staff here at Valley Animal Center’s no-kill shelter hope all of our resident dogs and cats find permanent, loving homes. Every adoption from VAC allows us to make room to rescue yet another animal in need from a local animal control facility when their time to be adopted has run out.
Until all of our animals are able to find loving homes, we continue to take good care of them so they can be the kitty or the doggy you see in the window, their waggly tails waggling in hopes of catching the eye and heart of their new owner. Until they find YOU, we are very appreciative of donations to help care for cats and dogs like Tiki. Donations can made online at www.valleyanimal.org/donate, or in person at our shelter. As always, the Valley Animal Center is grateful for your support. Thank you.
Keep up with VAC’s animal rescue adventures here at KRL, and learn more about adopting from them, volunteering, and donating to VAC on their website If you advertise with KRL you can designate 10% of your ad fees to go to VAC.
Check out more animal rescue stories in our Pet Perspective section. Advertise in KRL and 10% of your advertising fees can go to a local animal rescue.
One of my Pinterest pages is titled “People Being Wonderful.” It is basically to remind me of the wonderful people in the world. I wanted to let you know that I appreciate the articles that let me see what is being done to help animals who need rescuing. Thank you.