Back in January, 7 shelties were turned in by a single owner to Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue., and NVSR needed help fostering. The "Nags Head 7" these dogs were dubbed. Well, without even checking with dear hubby,(he so loves it when I just bring dogs home!) I e-mailed NVSR that if any of the dogs came as far north as Linda Isbell in MD, I would foster one. I didn't specify WHICH one, just any one of the seven...
Well, on a cold January Sunday, my dear unhappy hubby and I met Linda and her husband off of the PA Turnpike to pick up Pauly, possibly the saddest of the lot. Tiny, yet horribly overweight, with little fur, sores around his neck from an allergic reaction to a flea collar, stinking to high Heaven, complete with worms and a recent diagnosis of testicular cancer-AND over 10 years old-we rode home with him, and I thought, "dear Lord, what did they send me?"Admittedly, I was already falling for him in the parking lot before we pulled away...I took him to my vet's office a few days later for bloodwork, etc. As the vet looked over Pauly's paperwork, she also noted that he had had a cancerous tumor removed from his neck only a year or 2 ago, and his bloodwork determined that he was suffering from an extremely underactive thyroid (thus no coat, and WAY too fat!) When I got home, I had a talk with my dear hubby. Realistically he's going to be a "long haul" foster, I told him, and that at 10+ years and 2 times with cancer, not an easy placement. He started to get angry (why do they insist on doing this?) then softened and said,"well, we'll do what we can for the poor little guy." Pauly had already grown on us.

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Pauly with his new "brother and sister" Sean(foreground) and Katy (background)