Saving Swiffer

Poor Swiffer has had such a hard life. We rescued her from a dog pound in February of 2010. We think she is about 12 years old, but nobody knows for sure. I came upon Swiffer on Petfinder.com. She was skin and bones. Swiffer was a "lost dog" who was found on the side of the road. She was starving to death and blind. Her adoption page literally said "please don't let her die here in the pound". My heart was breaking for her, so we decided to adopt her right away. When we got to the pound we noticed that her eyes had a thick yellow film over them and no one had bothered to even wipe them for her. She smelled of smoke and had a terrible cough, and was unable to control her bladder. She had about 4 "accidents" before we even got her out the front door of the pound. The adoption fee is normally $100 or so, but they only charged me the $16 is cost to buy the dog license because they just assumed she wouldn't last long. She had obviously not been seen by a vet in quite some time. We took her immediately to our vet where we were told that she had an eye infection (yellow scum in her eyes), a respiratory infection, she is diabetic (which was untreated for a long time and caused her to go blind), and the lumps on her belly are most likely breast cancer (probably a result of her not being spayed). We got her antibiotics and insulin and began treatment immediately. She was so weak that she couldn't even chew dry dog food, so we bought her a bunch of "Grammy's Pot Pie" canned dog food and she was in hog heaven! Swiffer weighed 9 pounds when we rescued her and today she weighs a healthy 17 pounds!! We make sure she eats at least twice a day and give her insulin shots every 12 hours. The vet is amazed with her progress. Despite being blind, Swiffer is able to navigate her way around our house with very little problem. She is truly an amazing and wonderful dog! We love her so much!!! **An interesting tidbit about Swiffer--she has "false pregnancies" which is also a result of her not being spayed. She has "adopted" a yellow squeaky latex lion toy as her "baby" and carries it everywhere she goes. She even kept it in her mouth at the vet while she got an x-ray and ultrasound. It is absolutely adorable! We named her "Swiffer" because she gets into every corner of every room and "swiffs away" the dust bunnies...just like the Swiffer brand sweeper!!

-Megan R.
Canal Winchester, OH


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