In January 2005, Judy Wade, the Florida representative for Coast-to-Coast Dachshund Rescue, got a call from a woman who had found a Dachshund running down a busy street. The woman had kept the dog in her house for a few days, but the dog’s skin problems were too much for her. When Wade arrived to pick up the dog, she could not believe her eyes.
“[The dog] smelled terrible,” Wade recalls. “She had oozy sores all over her body and thick elephant skin. I went down on my knees and started crying. I have never seen such a bad case of neglect. I didn’t know how to hold her."
Wade named the dog Rosebud because she knew one day the little dog would blossom.
Foster volunteer Sandi Strauss was called in to help, and took the malnourished and dehydrated dog straight to the veterinarian. Along with yeast infections in both ears, the dog was diagnosed with severe demodectic mange and a secondary skin infection.
“Her body odor was so bad because of the skin infections,” Strauss says.
Frequent baths, medicinal shampoos, cream rinse, and leave-in lotions helped the timid Rosebud begin to flourish. Little by little, her black-and-tan hair began to grow back, as did her personality and confidence. Strauss guesses that Rosebud had been homeless since the hurricanes that hit the area in August and September 2004.
After six months of medical treatment and abundant love from Strauss, Rosebud was ready for a new home. Mary Mulligan and her partner Anne Marie Pelletier were looking for a companion for their longhaired Dachshund, Rosie. “The first thing Rosie did was lick Rosebud in the face,” Mulligan says. She and Pelletier knew they had found Rosie’s new mate, despite the ongoing treatment Rosebud would require to fully heal.
“She is a bundle of energy,” Mulligan says of “Bud,” who loves to play chase with Rosie. “She’s a real bright spot.”
Rosebud has, indeed, blossomed.
Jennifer Quasha is a DOG FANCY contributing editor and author of Don’t Pet a Pooch While He’s Pooping: Etiquette for Dogs and Their People (BowTie Press, 2004, $8.95). She lives in Connecticut.