On a hot summer night, on the 16th of June 2020, car tyres could be heard coming down the PAWS lane in the evening. This can be a regular occurence at the PAWS shelter after public opening hours but rarely means anything good. Some of the most infamous PAWS rescue stories have come from late night surrenders or worse, drive-by dumping of dogs on the lane, many of them with successful story endings and some with bitter and heart breaking outcomes. It’s never easy to understand the mentality of someone heartless enough to dump a dog alone on a doorstep and drive off but nevertheless, PAWS will never see a dog alone in distress, no matter how much we may already be struggling or for lack of space there is in the kennels for another soul who needs us.
Among them is Fionn, the fawn saluki lurcher, who was dumped late at night during a thunder storm in the middle of winter who took three days of running from us before he crawled out of the ditch to our beloved Lisa, who was calling out for him after she caught a glimpse of him on her way down the PAWS lane to work one morning, the same lurcher who, three years after he stumbled out of that ditch to Lisa, now lives a very pampered life and sleeps curled up beside me on the couch as I type this. Asha, the black and white american akita girl who was thrown out of a car that sped down the lane just as PAWS staff were locking up one evening, who was so frightened, she took off down the neighboring fields and had to be lured out with a pouch of wet food held by Amy who stayed back after work and spent four hours trying to catch poor Asha. Also, not forgetting our Angel, the lurcher girl whose video went viral after PAWS posted the clip of her so terrified she hid with her head pressed in the corner of the office after she was dumped on the lane. Angel, now named Cara, lives a life of love and luxury in Dublin. These are the lane horror stories, then there are the owner surrenders where people have desperate or hurt dogs in need of help and they have nowhere to turn but to PAWS. It is safe to say PAWS will never turn its back on a dog in need, and for little lurcher, Lorcan, it was no different. Lorcan was surrendered to PAWS at 6 months old with a badly damaged leg. He was brought straight to the vet’s where he had to stay for a number of days.
The vet’s determined he had a break to his femur and they potentially needed to amputate or get plates put in. The effects of Covid 19 and the closure of the PAWS charity shop had put us in a difficult financial position but alas, the call went out to raise some funds for Lorcan’s care. As always, the PAWS supporters came through and the funds were raised for his surgery. Thankfully, and to our relief, the surgery managed to save his leg and rebuild it with a plate. Luckily for Lorcan, as 6 months is much too young for a little dog to lose his leg.
On the 24th of June, Lorcan made his way back to PAWS with a freshly fixed leg and a lot of aftercare to go with it. Nothing the PAWS team isn’t used to! It hasn’t phased Lorcan one bit and his little personality is starting to shine through. We look forward to this lucky boy’s success story after such a rocky beginning!
If you would like to donate towards Lorcan’s aftercare, please follow the link to www.paws.iw/donate
As always any donation no matter how little or big is hugely appreciated!
