By: Kim Scully, TAPS Volunteer & Donald’s Foster Mom
Donald (formerly known as Soco) was surrendered to an extremely low resource animal control in pretty bad shape. He was tagged for rescue in January 2019 by P.A.W.S out of Tennessee who specializes in rescuing the perfectly imperfect dogs. Despite not knowing a single thing about what was wrong with Donald, TAPS said yes. We knew he was super sweet and he had a core of people rooting for him. Donald obviously had lost almost all his hair except for a little wisp on his head and his skin was in horrible condition as well as the worst ears I’ve ever seen. We determined early on that all those ear infections had left him deaf. Under TAPS care, he immediately received great vet care and his primary problem was determined to be hypothyroidism, an extremely easy condition to treat. Immediately he started to regrow hair, slowly but surely. I first saw Donald’s post in February 2019. What I saw was a dog who had given up and simply just felt awful. Before I could even talk myself out of it, I called TAPS and said “I’d like to foster Donald”. TAPS knew Donald’s stay would be a long one as it takes time to recover from such a severe case of hypothyroidism as his. It not only affects hair growth, it affects the body’s ability to maintain body heat and severe muscle wasting.
I met Donald and I was shocked. His skin was extremely sticky (without hair to protect it) and his condition was very rough. I couldn’t imagine how someone could let their dog get into this condition and I knew I wanted to be a part of his success story and he came home with me. Donald slept the first 24 hours. He had his own couch and he was thankful. Donald was so weak from years of inactivity that we started with 20 yard walks. Every day he could go a little farther than he did the day before as he built back his muscle mass. It didn’t take long for him to get excited about our walks and his endurance was amazing! I knew we were turning back time for Donald and he knew it too! When it came time for Donald to find his forever home I knew it would have to be someone pretty special. A chance meeting at Petsmart led me to this person. Donald was adopted in May of 2019 and has a mom that fully knows without TAPS, Donald would not be here. He has an extended family that adores him and he has integrated so easily into their lives. Often you can find Donald outside on the deck. With all his wonderful new hair, that is one of his favorite hang out spots. He loves putting his face up to the sky and I can only think he’s thinking he can’t believe how his life has turned out. He doesn’t know who to thank but he lives every day to the fullest. I know who to thank. Thank you TAPS.
