Meeting Lilly

Often times, there is very little notice when one needs to pick a dog up from the shelter.  This time I actually had over 48 hours.  Helene, who was my contact for the Freckles transport asked me if I could foster two dogs.  I had to admit I was comfortable with only one at a time.  Luckily the other dog in need got a foster, and I was lined up to pick up a black and white pit bull named Lilly on Tuesday from the shelter.  Helene was still raising funds for her boarding, but because Lilly was on Death Row, she needed out ASAP.  Helene estimated she could raise the rest of the boarding funds within a week, so I agreed I could keep her up to seven days only.

Lilly was in sad condition.  She had kennel cough, which prevented her from being spayed before leaving the shelter (meaning I would have to take her in during the week if she was well enough), and she was almost done with her treatment for mange.

Little note on Mange:  yes, it looks gross, but most cases is not contagious.  The easiest way for me to explain it (and how I understand it), is it's like having a yeast infection or thrush, except rather than the overgrowth of a bacteria or yeast, it's an overpopulation of parasites that are naturally occurring and should be there on a dog's skin anyway.  It's just an imbalance, but if you've ever seen it, you know how awful it looks.  Imagine having it! Lilly still had a few furless spots, but overall she looked good.  Clearly the medication was working.

As I said with Freckles, shelters don't give you the meds a dog is on when you pull him or her, so Lilly had to go without the rest of the mange treatment.  However,  it turns out that having the meds was far worse than not having them.  As the animal control officer brought her out, she looked at Lilly suspiciously, then spoke with another officer, felt Lilly's abdomen and said, "Hmmm, I think this girl's pregnant."

Two issues with that:  1. she's been on meds that kill mange; most likely if there's puppies inside her, then the puppies have not developed properly and might even be dead, and 2. yes she can get spayed, but it becomes a spay/abortion procedure.

[Just a disclaimer for the shelter:  a dog going into the shelter is not like a human going into the emergency room--they don't ask or test to see if the animal is pregnant.  Most likely when Lilly had been brought in (which was now weeks ago) she wasn't showing, but the mange was, so they treated what they knew about.]

I couldn't just turn the dog away because she might be pregnant, and according to some estimation based on how long she'd been at the shelter, that she might even give birth at my apartment.  The shelter worker said she'd notify the rescue, and since I didn't think they would refuse her just because she got knocked up, I took her home with me anyway.  And so began the Lilly adventure.