Liz Jones of the animal welfare group The Sanctuary at Haafsville agreed to take the dog to Quakertown Veterinary Clinic. Professionals there shaved his heavily matted coat, cleaned his wounds, scrubbed the maggots out of his skin and gave him IV fluids.
They called him C. Ment, because of where he was found.
That was the end of the newspaper story. Here's what has happened since then.
Jones contacted Virginia Reiss of Haycock Township, who has taken in other foster dogs, and she agreed to take him. She and companion Fred Calabrette renamed him Bogey — for Humphrey Bogart — and helped him slowly get some of his strength back.
"This was a really, really old dog," Reiss told me. "When I got him from the veterinary clinic, you literally had to have him walk with a towel under him. He couldn't walk on his own." In the weeks that followed, he gained some weight and strength and his hair started growing back.
They found that he was housebroken, comfortable with cats and obviously had been someone's house pet. They'll probably never know if his owners dumped him at the quarry, discarded him elsewhere or just lost him, but no one came to claim him. The bottom line is that he was old and alone.
The dog, which had the configuration but not quite the size of an Irish wolfhound, took over the center hall of their home, where they set up a rug, quilt and other bedding to keep him comfortable. Once they figured out that he couldn't walk far, they left the front door open so he could go in and out on his own.
"He basically lived to eat and sleep," Reiss said.
Last Sunday night, Bogey had his dinner, settled on his bed and ate his nightly treat.
Fifteen minutes later, they discovered he [had passed away]. Jones suspected all his systems had been weakened by his age and his ordeal.
The nice part of the story is the way so many people — Jones, Reiss and Calabrette, Keystone Cement, the veterinary clinic, all the people and organizations who contributed to pay the bills for his initial treatment and subsequent surgical, teeth-cleaning and other procedures — came together to save this dog and ensure that his final days were spent in comfort.
Reiss said, "At least he knew, in however many months we had him, he had a family and we loved him."
The Sanctuary created a nice video about him , which also has information about the organization. I'm in awe of the work that many of the area's animal welfare groups do to find homes and better lives for stray dogs and cats.
If you want to support the work of the Sanctuary, which is in Upper Macungie Township, consider visiting its Furry Fest 10-4 Saturday at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Fogelsville near Routes 100 and 78. There will be rescue organizations with dogs and cats needing homes, vendors selling animal products, entertainment, food, games and what Jones calls an Un-Run in which you can sponsor someone who will not run up to 50 miles.
Yes, there are people who abandon their four-legged friends when they get too old or just too inconvenient, and it makes me sick. But there also are people who open their homes, their hearts, their wallets, their very lives to answer that cruelty with kindness. If you can help any of them, please do so.
(The Morning Call - June 20, 2012)
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