They walked him through the doors of the animal control. He wagged his tail and his head was held high, showing off his beautiful coat. He was strutting around, sure that everyone was admiring him as he entered that place, but very soon, his tail was tucked between his legs, and his ears were back. He could smell death and sadness.
At the time in his life when he needed someone to reach down and assure him it would all be ok, his leash was handed over to a worker there and the only people he knew in the world turned their backs on him and walked away. He was put in a small cage to await his fate. Silently he watched as other dogs were led away to a dark room never to return.
Tater was one of the very few lucky ones to get out of that Animal Control. He was rescued, but his trauma didn’t stop there. Tater grieved for a week and refused to eat. Finally, though, he came around and learned to play and loved to be loved on. He got to sleep wherever he wanted. He ate good food and had fresh water all of the time. Sadly, that bliss would be cut very short. You see, Tater had heart worms. A parting gift, you could say, from the owners who loved him so much. He wasn’t worth 12.00 a month to prevent this deadly disease. Gulf Coast Dachshund Rescue began treating him for heart worms. At first, he did well. A couple of weeks later, though, he began to urinate blood. An emergency trip to his vet that he had likely thrown a clump of heart worms which ended up in his vena cava. A prognosis of 72 hours was given. He seemed to get better, though, and the bloody urine stopped.
5 days later, he was let out to potty. He was found 30 minutes later, struggling to breathe and unresponsive. I, his foster mom, the one who nursed him through the depression he struggled with, the one who rushed him to the vet to be sure he was going to be ok, the one who struggled to get him to breathe again by trying to perform CPR, the only person in his short life who seemed to give a damn, held him as he took his last breath. Tater Tot deserved so much more.