Angus in his favorite spot             

The Angus Story
by Rosemary Rose
Scottie Rescue Volunteer and Foster Mom to Angus 

Animal Control in a small West Texas town received a call to pick up two dogs.  A volunteer worker, Shannon, located one dog under the house where he had gone to die and the other was never found.  Upon pulling him out and being snapped and growled at, she discovered the dog to be skin and bones and covered with ticks and fleas.  Due to his deplorable condition, the former owner was charged with neglect even though it really didn't do justice to the situation.  That evening she was to put him down but he wagged his tail so hard she couldn't do it.  She fed him as much glucose as she could and left for the night, expecting to find him dead in the morning.  She was surprised to find him still alive the next day. 

He stayed at the pound for a week and Shannon made him homemade dog food and kept him going.  It took her researching dog books to find out he was a Scottie.  She contacted Scottie Rescue and made plans for him to be picked up.  On Saturday August 18th, 2001, Linda Hill and I went to get him.  He was given the name Angus and the following Monday was taken to the vet's office for tests and to be boarded until he regained his strength and could live with us.  The test results were grim.  He had tick fever, heart worms, tape worms, and was severely anemic.  We went to work on the tick fever and building him up enough to go through the heart worm treatment.  Things went well until  Sunday morning, October 14th,  when he went into congestive heart failure, a complication from the treatment.  We rushed him to the emergency vet clinic and he survived the night there.  He was still fighting to live but by the 31st it became clear things were not going to work out.  Angus had suffered far too much before Scottie Rescue took him and since we were not going to let it happen again, he was put down. 
  
The bills for Angus were $1,800 even with the vet donating his time and only billing us for the actual costs of  tests and medications.  With help from San Antonio Area Scottie & Westie Rescue, we held a raffle for a basket of Scottish items at the Salado Scottish Games.  We also had generous donations from individuals and managed to get the bills paid.