Some of our guests, a family from Holland, came to us and said they had found a severely injured dog on the road. So of course we hopped into our car and went to have a look.
The dog was in really bad shape, and to be honest, I thought he was about to die. He didn't seem to have had an accident, but he was simply laying there, in bad condition, the fur full of parasites, and very very thin. We took him to the next vet, expecting that he would put him down. But he didn't. He said the dog most likely had a virus which caused his skin lesions and hair loss, and intestinal issues. He probably was a shepherd's dog but when he got sick, the people tried to get rid of him. That is how they do it here in Italy unfortunately. Our good friends Marta and her family have adopted and take care of about 14 stray dogs. So we got medicine and took the dog home. What else to do. The children of the family who found him called him Mr. Waffles, and so we lived and tried our best to help Mr. Waffles in his misery. We injected him his medicine, and slowly he found back his appetite, and was soon eating huge amounts of rice and dog food. But still, he remained the saddest looking dog in the world. We also had to put him on a chain in our garden because he otherwise would have escaped. He once did, and we were looking everywhere until our neighbors called us a few days later saying that they had found him. To be honest, I thought he just wanted to get away to die in peace. We tried our best for several weeks, but he just didn't get better (he also was quite old already). So in the end we went to another vet, who was shocked that his other colleague hadn't put him down already. He said the dog was just suffering and there was nothing that could be done for him. He put him down, and we cried but knew it was better for Mr. Waffles.
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