Everyone, please meet Wallace Jay!
One day the veterinary clinic where I work, we got a call from one of the local shelters. They needed to bring in a 6 month old Pug mix to be put down because he had a broken leg. They were told by the people who brought him there that he'd been hit by a car. Once our doctors looked at him, they determined that - from the lack of other trauma - he'd more likely been dropped than hit by a car, and the people who surrendered him had probably been his owners, with no money to get him fixed up. (That happens a lot around here). Our doctors determined he only had a broken leg - no reason to kill him - just splint it and cage rest him. But the shelter workers said they didn't have "time and resources" to take care of him, so they'd take him elsewhere to have him put down if our doctor wouldn't do it.
Of course, I adopted him on the spot. He required $4,500 worth of surgery, 8 weeks of strict cage rest, and a lot of attention. Here's what he looked like when we first got him, after his surgery:
You can see the lovely line of stitches there. He never once chewed or licked at them.
He was very worried, nervous, and shy at first, and didn't stray far from my side.
He still doesn't, though he's a little bit braver now!
