Meet "Mountain Moe"

Mountain Moe came to us in pretty bad shape. He had been found wandering the deserts, severely dehydrated, malnourished, and had a number of partially healed wounds. One being cactus in the side of his face which had pierced his left eye, blinding him. 

One day wandering along a wash, he decided to follow a pug named "Tinkles" back to her home. There he found a generous supply of water and food in the backyard and felt safe enough to remain for a while. 

He stayed for 2 weeks; slowly rehydrating, getting some tender love from humans, and regaining some strength. As his survival "sass monster" got louder, he frightened some of those humans, so they needed to rehome him. That's when we got him. He still hadn't seen a vet and needed some attention for his wounds. 

Initial vet visits all required he be sedated because he was so intolerant of people messing with him in any way! (I made the mistake once of thinking he was awake when he was just sleeping with his eyes open; my fingers ended up between teeth!) The vet guessed his age to be around 4 years old. So young, and so severely traumatized!

He's come a long way though! Just over a year of giving him love and letting him feel safe, has made a whole new personality emerge! While still very grumpy with things - like eye drops! - he loves pets and snuggles and brushes and is so happy when his people walk in the door (we get that helicopter spin of his tail!).

Sadly, he has found himself once again having to endure people messing with him. One day he was fine and eating normally and 3 days later he was not - he was in renal failure and needed intensive intervention. 

He spent 5 days, 4 nights in intensive care and was not a happy camper! He was so stressed out, losing hair by the handfuls, and starting to become quite depressed.

On that 5th day of visiting him, I knew he needed to come home. Even though his kidney numbers were still pretty high and he refused food, I knew at this point only love was going to help guide him out of the woods.

Initially bringing him home, he required a lot of medication as well as regular feedings through an NG (aka feeding) tube, and regular vet visits (his vet people have dubbed him "Grumpy Grumbles" - it's totally in his chart! lol). 

The first couple of days he was pretty lethargic still but would perk up when we paid him attention and gave him loves and brushes (he LOVES being brushed...except his tail! lol). After a few days of being home is when we received the call and found out he had a really high titration rate for Valley Fever (VF). We aren't sure if the renal failure is due to VF or if his kidneys were damaged from being so severely dehydrated (or a combination of the two), but both have hit him really hard.

After a few months of regular IV treatments, regular tests, and the balancing of medications, he is a new dog! We still have a few tests to go, and his daily regimen of seven medications is crazy, but he's a happy camper!

We are so very, very hopeful for a major, if not a full, recovery for him! He is quite the fighter and such a lover (once he approves of you! hehe).

In the meantime, we just keep loving him and getting him all he needs. 

We are hoping to have him for a long time still! <3