William Zachary Irwin

 

Zach was turned in to the SPCA by a couple, when the woman half of the couple was force placed in a State Run Psychiatric facility.  From there he was adopted out.  He was at the his first adoption home less than 8 hours when he jumped their fence and was hit by a car badly breaking his right front leg.  The adopting family carried him to a local Pet Emergency Hospital where they signed over custody of him.  They either could not or would not pay his medical bills.  One of the techs there had sight hound experience and took him.  She nursed him back to health.  At her house he lay on the sofa and was more or less ignored for the next 21 months.  My daughter babysat Zachary when his second adopted mommy went out of town in November of 2005.  Zach ate less than two cups of food over an entire long weekend.  Zach is Moose's father and my daughter told his previous owner jokingly that if she would take him.  Four days after Zachary had left my daughter's house, the call came that Zach would be put back into rescue if she could not take him.  My daughter had her hands full as Moose was sick, so Zach became my baby.

It was pitiful; we went to his house on a Sunday night and walked this dog out to my van.  He went complacently into the dark night without hesitation.  He had no idea where he was going or who was taking him.  I dropped my daughter off at her house and headed home to my house with Zach.  Neither Zach nor I got much sleep that night, he cried and I cried.  This poor baby had been through so much and was just turned out with a few grooming tools, a full bag of dog food he wouldn't eat and box of burnt cookies.  Her instructions were to give him an A.M. and a P.M. feeding and just "toss a cookie on the floor" for him before bed at night.

The first six months or so were difficult.  Zach had not been vaccinated nor had he seen a vet with the exception of his surgical recovery since he had been turned into the SPCA in March of 2004.  His previous owner said he had never been sick and since she was a vet tech, did anything he needed medically herself. We took him to Moose's regular vet about three days after getting him.  He had pancreatitis and was so very sick. The first month he would not eat, I tried everything.  Finally after much coaxing, I was able to get him to eat dog food sandwiches.  I would take canned bland dog food and place it between two slices of white bread and make sandwiches.  He would never even touch the dry food the previous owner sent home with him.  His teeth were so filthy crunching dry dog food would have been impossible.  Additionally we had to wait for nearly two months after getting him to have his teeth clean in order to get his tummy settled down sufficiently to do it.  

Zach now eats Rabbit and Potato exclusively. He is fed on his very own plate. The canned food is rolled into balls and placed around the perimeter of the plate and the dry food is placed in the middle and soaked with rabbit broth that I make. Zach first eats the canned food balls a/k/a side cars then he laps up the broth and finally crunches the kibble. We repeat this ritual 4 times a day as his old tummy only holds small amounts of food at one time.

Along the way we have had ear infections, ruptured cysts on his foot pad, another wound on his foot pad that even the vet was worried would not heal and was afraid she might have to amputate one his front toes and another bout of pancreatitis that kept him in the ICU ward at the hospital for four days. No one including the specialists expected him to pull through that one.  But Zach and I worked through all this. He is momma's boy for sure now.

 

 

Zach is about 12 years old and has seen a lot of bad things in his life.  However, now he is king of the castle at my house and my daughter's house as well.  He sleeps on every sofa in the house. He visits Moose and his sissy at least once a week and he receives regular vet care.  He is a happy healthy and much loved old guy.  My daughter and my husband have nicknamed him Geez or Geezy Weezy short for Old Geezer.  His favorite pass time is having me massage his back or ears.  He loves this so much he actually hums to me while I am doing it.  He hates it when I am on the computer and will root his long pointy nose up under my hand on the mouse in order to get me to follow him to the couch so that I can massage him.  When I do something he does not like such as make him stop counter surfing, he will go get on the bed in my guest bedroom and pout.  That bed is now known to my entire family as the "pouting bed".

Zach has brought so much love and joy into our lives and will remain King of this Castle for all the rest of his days.

Sandy Irwin who is owned by Zachary