Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Last Rites
The following is pretty gross.The shelter is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and that always inevitably means explaining to people that arrive at our doorstep that we are actually closed today, but we'll be open Wednesday and could they come back then?
Then there are those folks who decide any day is a good day to drive in, drop off their pet, and drive away. Today was such a day, although usually the abandoned animals are, well, alive.
Not today.
Today, JP spied a man in a pickup truck drive up and roll something wrapped in a blanket off of his truck and onto the corner of our parking lot. He leaned over the shape, clasped his hands together, shook them several times, and then hopped back into his vehicle and sped away. JP rushed out to stop him, but he was gone. What he left behind was a dead Rottweiler.
Very dead. Several days dead. Juicy and maggoty and oh my GOD what is that STENCH kind of dead.
RL, JP, and I put on some latex gloves, rolled out the clinic's gurney and attempted to work the prone body into a disposal bag. Things slid off. Things moved. Eventually the Rottweiler was hefted onto the gurney and rolled to our freezer, hefted in there where she awaits disposal. I don't know how she died, but I do know she'd been dead for a while before she was left on our property.
I can only hope that dog's life was a great deal better than her death.
Somehow, I kind of doubt it.
