This animal lay in the back of the pen and growled whenever anyone came into the pen.  She had been there beyond the time they are required to hold a stray but had not been eating.  We sedated her to clean up the obvious wound on her front right leg.

While sedated we noticed how thin she was, and covered with fleas.  The wound was badly infected.  The wound was cleaned, packed with antibiotic ointment, and bandaged.  While we were examining her we found a wonderful surprise - a female.  This was an almost certain guarantee that we could take her to live with Amadeus.  We put some canned cat food in with her to see if she'd eat that.

I checked on her the next day.  The bandage was still on her leg.  She hadn't eaten the cat food, but I had new food for her, chicken and some high quality canned dog food.  I put some of each in the pen for her to see if she'd eat.  She sniffed the food, but didn't move toward it.  I left more food with the shelter staff in case she did eat and was planning to pick her up the next day.

On Saturday, Oct 27, I met the vet at the shelter to pick her up.  We sedated her and cleaned the wound again.  She was given shots, treated for fleas, ticks and ear mites.  Given a heavy dose of antibiotics and moved into the crate for transport.  She was lightly sedated, but still remarkably calm.

When we arrived at The Conservators' Center someone noticed she had on a choke chain, buried deep in her undercoat.  We had to restrain her to examine it, but fortunately it was not imbedded in her skin, so we cut it off.  We left her in the small side of the pen which contains Amadeus.  The two were separated by heavy fencing, so they could seen and smell each other, and even touch noses, but neither could bite or hurt the other.  Amadeus  immediately began pacing and showing he was worried about her.  She stayed in the crate until after I left, but the report I got was that the two "talked" well into the night, and slept next to each other (with the fence in between.)

The next day (Sunday) the improvement was remarkable.  Her eyes were brighter and her attitude had improved greatly.  She even let me sit near to her outside the pen.  Unfortunately, now that she was walking a bit, we could see she had other injuries.  Her back legs, especially her left, were clearly bothering her.

On Monday her back legs were pretty bad, so she was taken for a full vet workup, including X-Rays.  We found she had multiple bone breaks, including her right front leg and her hip, which were all 2 weeks old, she still had fleas, and she only weighted 38 pounds.  (She should weigh around 70 pounds.)  After examining the X-Rays the vet determined the best course was to let her try to heal on her own.  The X-Rays were sent off to a specialist for a second opinion.  She also had a badly abscessed tooth.  This was removed (upper left canine).  The tooth was very likely causing a lot of pain which kept her from eating.  Her wound was cleaned again, and she was dosed with antibiotics again, and treated with an analgesic for the pain.  When she was returned to her pen she immediately went to see Amadeus, and they nuzzled through the fence.

A large amount of Chicken and Beef was cooked up for her so she has tasty, and soft, food to start getting weight on her.  By Wednesday the improvement was even more remarkable, and she had even eaten some dry food.  Each day she looks better.  She's well on her way to a full recovery.  Amadeus frets over her, and clearly shows he cares.  She will heal up with time, and have a happy life with Amadeus in her new home.

Her ongoing story will be include in the Amadeus Diaries.

On November 4 Hopa and Amadeus were allowed to be together for the first time.  It went very well.  Click here for the full story.