The Story of Phoenix

 

Sometimes, the best medicine, the best vet, the best care and all the love in the world can’t save them.  This is the story of Phoenix .

 

My name is Denise and the story of Phoenix is one of the hardest stories I’ve ever had to tell.

 

One summer morning my husband, Dave, and I were driving down Farrington Highway when I noticed a starving dog stumbling along in the gutter.  We immediately pulled over.  Dave and I always keep pop-top cans of dog and cat food in our cars for just these occasions.  Armed with a now-open can of dog food, I slowly and gently walked toward the dog.  He was a skeleton draped in a brown and brindle coat.  He was about two feet high and because he was so thin, his low-hanging head, even with his sunken in eyes, looked gargantuan.  I soon reached the dog, while Dave parked the van.  The dog ate most of the food but he still had such a delirious look about him.  He was weak and he swayed from side to side.  He started to drink gutter water but we already had opened some bottled water and he drank that.  We gently lifted this dog into the van and immediately took him to Lanny and Yamit’s house.  Lanny and Yamit were just establishing an animal sanctuary, Friends for Life.  They weren’t really ready to accept a dog but there was no way the four of us could turn our backs on this sorrowful looking creature.  I was already starting to fall in love with him.  I knew the others were too.

 

The next day, Lanny and Yamit took the dog to the vet.  Sabina, the vet, would certainly be able to help us pull this dog back from the brink of death.  Sabina gave some medication and instructions to Lanny and Yamit and they, with the dog, returned to the shelter.

 

Later that day, I went back to the shelter to see the dog and hear what the vet had said.  I also realized that we could no longer keep referring to the dog as “The Dog,” and it occurred to me that he was like something rising from ashes.  That’s how the dog came to be known as Phoenix .

 

Day after day, I would make three or four trip to Lanny and Yamit’s shelter to try to get Phoenix to eat.  Some times he would eat and we’d all be so excited that we would hug each other and jump for joy.  But he couldn’t eat much and sometimes he couldn’t keep his food down.  Lanny and Yamit stayed at the shelter each night.

 

Everyday, we’d try something new.  Dozens of trips to the store for soft food, hard food, dry food, wet food.  We tried softer bedding.  We tried cold water, cool water, lukewarm water and 7-Up.  Phoenix wasn’t gaining weight but he was no longer losing weight.  We hoped this was a good sign. 

 

Because of his vulnerability, we kept him in an enclosed pen.  The pen was large enough that I and another person could get in there.  Since we were trying so many different things to restore Phoenix ’s health, it wasn’t uncommon to find two of us simultaneously in the pen trying to minister to Phoenix .  Phoenix learned to distinguish the sound of my car from any other car and when I’d arrive at the shelter, Phoenix , would pick up his head and wag his tail.  His body, still so thin, would wiggle.  I’d crawl into his pen and he’d cuddle up onto to my lap and put his big head on my arm, resting at my elbow.  I’d sit and I’d love him and feed him make sure he had water and that his pen and bedding were clean. 

 

Some days, Lanny would say that I should take Phoenix for a little walk.  So I’d take him a few steps and Phoenix would sit.  We’d walk a few more steps and Phoenix would sit.  Then I’d carry Phoenix back to his pen and Lanny would laugh and say, “He’s never going to walk if he knows you’ll carry him.”  I didn’t see the problem with that because I was fine with carrying him.  When I carried Phoenix , it was like carrying a calf.  Because he was still so thin, his head still looked disproportionately large and his legs looked disproportionately long.  His legs would hang down to my knees.  Lanny spent many a moment laughing at this sight. 

 

Of course, by now, everyone loved Phoenix .  J. Mom, Lanny’s mom, who has many, many years of experience in caring for abandoned animals, came up with some ideas of new things to try to stimulate Phoenix ’s appetite.  One night she called me and told me to boil and then fry hamburger for Phoenix .  This is probably easy enough for the general population, but having been a vegetarian for 20 something years, cooking hamburger activated my gag reflexes.  Fortunately, Dave heard me and ran into the kitchen to help me with the cooking. 

 

So the next day, equipped with individually wrapped bags of cooked hamburger, I went to the shelter.  Yamit is also a longtime vegetarian so it seemed appropriate that I should ask her for help when it came time to preparing Phoenix ’s hamburger meal.  Yamit and I began to gag and thought that only for Phoenix would we do this.  It wasn’t until later that it occurred to Yamit and to me that we should have asked J. Mom to do the feeding.  After all, J. Mom wasn’t a vegetarian and feeding hamburger to Phoenix was her idea.  Nevertheless, Yamit and I set about feeding this hamburger meal to Phoenix .

 

One day, I thought Phoenix was really getting better.  He and I were just outside of his pen and I had him on a leash and Phoenix had just eaten and was resting.  Lanny came walking by with another dog.  Phoenix , right by my side, lunged at the dog and ferociously growled.  I was so glad that Lanny’s dog was also on a leash; otherwise, we would never have been able to constrain the two.  Lanny smiled and said, “ Phoenix is protecting his mom.”  It was so easy to love this dog.

 

Weeks had now passed and Phoenix still wasn’t gaining any weight, so back to Sabina he went.  Sabina kept him for a few days and nights.  We all hoped that she could provide the medical answer. 

 

Phoenix never recovered and within a few days he passed.  We lost him and now much of the animal welfare work we do, we do in Phoenix ’s name.  We love all the animals and most of them we can save, but the “Story of Phoenix” serves to remind us that animal abuse and/or neglect cannot be tolerated.

 

Sometimes, the best medicine, the best vet, the best care and all the love in the world can’t save them.  This is the story of Phoenix .

 

by Denise Saylors