By chance yesterday I stopped into Harris County Animal Control to evaluate a Lab they had there (to be a potential drug dog), and since they didn't have any Aussies listed on their website I figured I was safe as far as that went :-)   Wrong!   Of course the shelter personnel knows me so without even asking what I was there for they took me right back to the kennels to get the Aussie. Huh?!? Wait a minute, I was here to look a Lab, I didn't even know you had an Aussie?!?  Well, sure enough they had a red merle male that had been found as stray a few days ago, so in a weak moment of feeling sorry for the poor guy I took him <sigh>.  This was one of those 'really' bad weak moments that I normally only reserve for puppies, at Christmas time (I always seem to bail one out as Christmas time for some reason!), and when I have had a rescue die or had to have put to sleep.  This guy really  lucked out because he ain't a puppy, it ain't Christmas, but unfortunately we had to have one of our rescues euthanized recently and it was like he was just calling to me to help him (the one we PTS was a red merle male also).

This  poor, old boy, who we named Merlin, is soooooo matted down to the skin and grungy I just had to take a 'before', ugly duckling picture of him.  He looks to be a well bred, possibly from Las Rocossa lines from his coat and body type, Aussie boy and is as sweet as can be!  He had a nasty old collar on, with two chewed off ropes attached to it (like he's been tied up with his entire life), that was so gross it was almost bad enough I had to burn it rather than throw it away - yuk!  I spent a little over 3  hours grooming the mats out of him, trimming his 3/4" long nails, plus bathing out a TON of ticks and fleas - good grief!    Today, we spent 2.5 hours at the vet with him and found out that it would have been easier to list what *wasn't* wrong with him rather than what is :-(   He's high heartworm positive and has hook/whip works (big surprise! :-), is severely anemic from the fleas/ticks, has a bacterial infection around his eyes/muzzle, has ear mites and a ear yeast infection, 4 rotten/broken off front teeth, and has either a bad case of arthritis or hip displasia.   So he's on antibiotics, doxycycline, panacur, droncit, pet tinic, cosequin and etogesic for the next couple of weeks to see if that'll help him get back on track.  We'll have to wait and see about the neutering, teeth cleaning/extraction, heartworm treatment for when he's feeling better, if it's even possible to do these things at his age.

Of course, finding a home for a senior dog is not an easy task but I'm hoping there will be someone out there that would give a good home to an old dog who needs a soft place to lay, good meals, and a lot of love for his remaining years.  After all he's been through in his life, this is least that we can do.  So if anybody knows of a home like this and/or would like to help contribute to his medical and foster care, please let me know!

I'll post his 'after grooming' pictures and updates on this as well as time goes on!