Rescue dog makes recovery

Less than two months ago, Paws and Claws Animal Rescue of Quay County was directed to a stray dog just a few hundred feet from its rural Tucumcari facility. The emaciated dog was so weak, it could not stand. A local veterinarian treating him doubted he would survive.

Because of his sorry state, the staff nicknamed him Bones.

"He was the worst I've ever seen," Paws and Claws President Kathi McClelland said, who's been rescuing pets in all sorts of bad condition for 14 years.

On Friday morning, the small pitbull mix at the shelter energetically wandered from person to person and from dog to dog, showing no ill effects from an experience where he lost half of his body weight. A Tucumcari-area resident, smitten by the animal, probably will adopt him in the next week or so.

The saga began Dec. 8, when a passing motorcyclist spotted movement in an irrigation ditch only about 200 feet from the shelter and found a weak and starving dog.

One of the shelter's volunteers, Billie Lindsey, carried him to the shelter, then took him to Tucumcari veterinarian Dr. Jean Corey's clinic.

"He couldn't even walk; he had to be carried," McClelland recalled. "When we took him in (to the veterinarian), she told us, 'I'm not sure he's going to make it.' We felt like, let's give it a try, and we'll see.

Lindsey said she detected a spark within the dog.

"I could see in his eyes he was wanting to live," she said. "He had that look of, 'Please help me.'"

"Talk about a will to live," McClelland said. "Unbelievable."

The dog, named Bones by the shelter, was determined to be about two years old. He weighed only 22 pounds at the clinic.

"He was super-dehydrated," McClelland said. "The first thing we had to get done was get him hydrated so he'd have enough strength to eat. After that, we'd start him on soft food that was easy for him to digest because he hadn't had any in such a long time. It took three to four days of hydration before he could even stand on his own."

She said Bones spent two to three weeks at Tucumcari Animal Hospital before they brought him back to the shelter.

Once there, they began feeding him three times a day, augmented by higher-calorie puppy food and high-protein cottage cheese.

"When we first brought him here, we'd walk him just a little bit because he didn't have the strength to do much more," McClelland said.

Less than two weeks ago, the shelter reduced his feeding to a normal twice a day and stopped feeding him the cottage cheese.

On Friday, Bones weighed 43 pounds and appeared healthy and happy. McClelland said he might gain a touch more weight.

"He might beef up a little more because he lost so much muscle," she said.

McClelland and shelter volunteers aren't sure what happened to Bones. One speculated he got away from his owner and wandered the countryside for days until lack of food and water wore him down. Another thought he might have been a neglect case that was dumped near the shelter.

Regardless, McClelland said it was nearly a miracle he was found before he died or was killed by scavenger animals.

"I can't believe the coyotes didn't get him," she said.

McClelland said Bones has shown no apparent psychological or physical hangups after his ordeal.

"He's the best dog," she said. "He gets along with everybody and loves everybody. He's very forgiving. It's amazing."