Thanksgiving Animals Short Story

Short Story

Bailey

I grew up with a dog and was always on friendly terms with the neighbourhood felines. Tragically, our family dog passed away before I finished school and the pain of his passing prevented us from bringing any other animal into our home. My mother was not prepared to go through the trauma of losing another loved one, so our home remained animal free for a long time. Then, about four years ago, there was a flood of animals that invaded our house and our hearts. We now have four cats and a dog that live together in relative harmony. Each one of them was picked up from the street under unusual circumstances, and each is a story in itself, but this one is about Bailey, our dog.

It was 14 April 2012, the opera had come to Bangalore

The little pup was awake and was crying for attention. Before visiting the vet I wiped him down with disinfectant and tried to feed him some baby food that we kept for animal rescues, but he refused to eat. That, coupled with his inability to use his hind legs properly, made us fear that he might be too far gone to help. This precipitated a quick visit to the vet. There, he was examined and sprayed for fleas. Much to my relief, the vet said that he was just weak and had a bad case of worms and once he was a bit stronger he would be perfectly fine. After spending some time hooked up to an IV drip to combat dehydration, the pup was brought back home and we tried to feed him a variety of foods that we thought would be irresistible to a hungry mongrel. However, he still refused to eat. The next day his condition worsened and he started to throw up bile in which we found live roundworms. This prompted another visit to the vet who was a bit troubled. He told us that he would deworm the pup but we should monitor him closely as he was still quite weak. After the vet administered the necessary mediation we returned home and I kept checking on the little fur ball every few minutes. At four in the evening disaster struck. The puppy started to have seizures and excrete dead roundworms. The combined toxicity of the dead parasites was too much for the little weak body to handle. I tried to hold the pup still to prevent

Everyone was affected by the pup’s plight. It was at dinner that we decided that the little guy had been through too much and that he deserved to spend his life in a loving household, if he survived the night. Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep and was up bright and early outside the vet’s office even before they had officially opened. The nurse welcomed me with a gentle smile and pointed to the back of the room. I looked in that direction and could not believe my eyes. There was the puppy on the examination table, an IV drip was inserted into his front leg but his eyes were bright, his tail was wagging and he let out a series of short barks when he saw me. To say I was overjoyed would be an understatement. I walked up to him and stroked his fur as he licked my fingers. The vet said that he still had a long way to go but that he was out of the woods and would make a complete recovery. After all the formalities were completed I wrapped him in a blanket and brought him back to his new