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Photographed by Haim Schwarczenberg
Last week, at ten o’clock at night, the bell rang at the Society’s door. The guard, used to receiving abandoned animals at all hours of the night, was surprised, upon opening the gate, to find a ten-year-old girl with a medium-sized dog in her arms. According to the child, she had found the dog lying on the road and had run to help her.
The guard rushed to let the dog in while taking note that she was in the advanced stages of delivery. Dr. Lena Algrabli, the Society’s veterinarian, who was alerted to the clinic, discovered that the large puppy was dead and was lodged in the cervix.
Dr. Algrabli hastened to perform an emergency hysterectomy and discovered that the entire uterus was in advanced stages of decomposition, indicating that the bitch had been in labor for quite a number of long days.
The one-and-a-half year-old mongrel dog was named Pappy, and the staff is lavishing love and attention on her. Pappy’s recovery from the trauma and life-saving surgery will be prolonged.
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At present she is under medical supervision in the clinic and is being administered intravenous liquids and antibiotics. In the past few days some slight improvement in her condition is discernible but she is not yet out of danger.
Pappy’s story raises more than a few questions and points of consideration: How is it possible that a bitch can be in labor for such a long time without anyone noticing her? Why has she no micro chip? How is such a young child wandering around alone in the area of the Society so late at night? Did the bitch go into labor in some house before being cruelly thrown out into the streets? Did she give birth to other puppies before this larger one blocked her cervix? If so, what was their fate?
We hope that Pappy will recover rapidly and will find a warm home, where she will be raised with the love and responsibility that all animals deserve.
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