Hatch

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Hatch arrived this past weekend after a long haul from Alabama!  I just want to thank all the wonderful VOLUNTEERS - all 14 of them! - who helped get him out of the shelter and into RAGOM's welcome arms.  It never ceases to amaze me how many people give so much for these wonderful dogs. 

Hatch is estimated to be 10-years-old but was a stray so there is really no way to know his real age.  We'll just call him a distinguished gentleman.  He weighs 71 pounds, which is the absolute perfect weight for him.  Hatch is already neutered and up-to-date on all his vaccinations.  At the vet's office, they said that he is pretty healthy aside from the cuts and bruises (see below) and he has some arthritis in his front paws (did you know that dogs carry 80% of their weight on their front legs?).  He is on medications for a cut on his snout and because he's had a cough since coming and luckily coughed up a nice bit of pflegm for the doc!

Hatch's last night at the shelter in AL brought some severe thunderstorms and that was when they found out that Hatch has some pretty extreme storm anxiety.  They found him with his mouth all cut up and it appears he broke off a couple of his teeth. His snout is all swollen too, so he had quite a time.  Another RAGOM volunteer is going to let me use her thunderstorm CD so we can hopefully either decondition him or find out ways to manage his fear in a safe environment.  Due to his reaction to the thunderstoms in AL, he will not be able to be adopted until we are able to see how he reacts and how we can help him unless you have had experience dealing with stress and anxieties in dogs before.  I want to make sure his last home is furever and can help him work through this.

Hatch is going to have surgery this week to remove the two canine teeth that he broke off during the storms.  these must be causing him so much pain because the roots are exposed!  OUCH!  We are watering down his food so he doesn't have to hurt himself trying to eat.

Hatch has had quite the radical hair cut, my guess is he was full of matts so they just shaved it all off :-)  He is a light blonde color and it looks like there might be some other colors but we'll have to wait for his hair to grow back to really know.  We don't know what Hatch is mixed with but whatever it is makes him very unique looking!  I'll try and take a bunch of pics.

He met the resident dogs with absolutely no issues.  They did their meet and greet, they all went potty and excitement over new dog is over.  He is interested in the resident cat but he mostly just whines because the cat doesn't pay much attention to him.  When Hatch arrived, he slept for 10 hours straight!  He was one tired puppy.  He has been fairly tired since then too, but he may just be trying to help his body heal.  He was pretty perky meeting everyone at the vets office so I think he may have more spry in him than I've seen so far.

Since he was a stray, we don't know if he's housetrained or not, so stay tuned to find out how that goes.  However he has been here for over 24 hours and there have been no accidents so that is a bonus!