Posted on 04/08/2011 7:26:04 AM PDT by traumer
NEWARK, N.J. When an emaciated pit bull found at the bottom of a trash chute in New Jersey was rushed to a veterinary emergency room last month, doctors there thought he would be dead within the hour. Instead, the scrappy pup, nicknamed Patrick, has defied the odds and is getting stronger by the day.
"He is a tremendous fighter," said Dr. Thomas Scavelli, the director and founder of the Garden State Veterinary Specialists, the pet hospital in Tinton Falls where Patrick is being treated. "There are very few animals, or any life form, that could have gone through and survived what he has, and really never looked back."
Hospital staffers, who named the dog for his reddish fur and because he was found the day before St. Patrick's Day, have been chronicling his progress on their website and a Facebook page that has garnered fans from around the world. He's received hundreds of emails, donations, gifts and letters from those inspired by his tale of survival.
When Patrick was brought to the hospital after being rescued by officials at the Associated Humane Societies, he was so starved, emaciated and dehydrated he was curled into a ball, unable to walk or stand. His ribcage protruded, he weighed about 20 pounds roughly 30 pounds less than average and was covered in sores with parts of skin hanging off him, according to Patricia Smillie-Scavelli, Thomas Scavelli's wife and the administrator of the hospital.
"Everyone thought that, you bring in an animal like that, that looks like it's really just a corpse, you put it to sleep," Smillie-Scavelli said. "But of course, he looked up at you with those eyes, and you say: How can you give up on this dog? How can you, when he's not giving up on life?
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Good for you for taking in the stray. People can be horrible.
Thank you; amazing he survived.....
I wonder what God thinks
Dr Scavelli is a good guy. He is an orthopedic surgeon.
Kudos to him and his wife for saving this dog.
Thanks for the ping and the update. Here’s hoping that Patrick continues to recover and finds a good forever home.
They do tend to be pretty stoic and tough.
Lots of Patrick videos on You Tube. Here he is getting fed by the good doctor:
Dr. Scavelli feeds Patrick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoItcAP3Dis
Ain't that the truth!
It’s hard for me to imagine what people can do to other people, to animals, etc. On the other hand, we are all only one lifetime away from barbary (I don’t know if that’s the right word or not—I mean a primitive lifestyle) ourselves. Take any of us, raised without civilization and we would not treat other people or animals as we do now. I am not justifying this, there is no excuse in our culture, just saying that it is a very thin line. It makes me wonder why so many people want to tear that thin fabric away, frankly.
I don’t think the lizards in my back yard would agree with you.... ;)
Dear St. Francis please take care of this adorable creature.
Patrick! Thought of posting something about this last week. An acquaintance of mine has been following this and posting Facebook updates since the beginning.
The way that this puppy was abused is proof that our society isn’t civilized.
The sub-human who did this should go to prison.
We are doomed..... and deserve it
I commend you, fellow Houstonian.
PS: there is now a product that will tell you the ancestry of your dog; you take a mouth swab and mail it in and they look for genetic markers.
I plan on using it soon: I have two pups and their "woodpile" is confusing: They are siblings from the same litter. One is supposedly 50% Pyrenees/25% Lab/25% Spaniel, and the other, (from a different father we surmise) is 25% Spaniel/25%Lab/50% Satan.
We saved them from a farm where they had eaten poisonous Poke Berries; their other littermates died and their mother was killed by a vehicle. The farm owner used the dogs there to fight off the coyotes and did not consider their parents as pets.
They were free, but re: their vet bills, they were the best $1200 I ever spent.
Abuse is not having your animal neutered. So, yes, I agree with you.
You don’t agree with me. Why pretend?
Bless you.
Not sure why imageshack deleted the picture of Patrick, but here is the creature that tortured him.
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