Rescued October 10, 2001
Died October 12, 2001

This was one tragic little guy. My heart still aches when I think about what happened to him. It seems that he couldn't get a break, no matter what. 

On September 29, I was told by a vet tech who works for a local shelter that a male Cocker had just been turned in there as "not wanted." I was asked if we would take him the next day because he was "too old" to go into the adoption room at the shelter, and they were too full. I said of course, if he was friendly. Ripken was. More's the pity.

Tragically, a major foul-up occurred when I tried to liberate Ripken from the shelter the following day. The tech had called in sick; she had been stricken with some kind of food poisoning or something, and I could not get the dog until she returned. She and only she was able to sign him out. I know it makes little sense, but that is the way of many shelters, I'm afraid. 

I called every day for one solid week. She remained sick and off work, and no one else would release the dog. I was amazed they were keeping him alive there, but they were. Nothing I said or did changed anyone's resolve at the shelter. I even called the tech at home to see if she could somehow drag herself in. No way. I was disgusted and horrified. Finally, ten days later, she returned to work and released Ripken to us. I cannot tell you how relieved I was. 

Ripken was taken to a vet we have used for quite some time. He was not feeling too well, but the vet pronounced him healthy, with the exception of dry eyes, for which he prescribed moisture drops. He vaccinated Ripken and sent him on his way, in spite of the fact that Ripken was having excessive diarrhea. He gave him something for loose stools and said goodbye, much to the dismay of the volunteer who picked him up. She had good reason to be concerned. 

Within one day of Ripken's release, the diarrhea turned bloody. The odor was foul, and it was evident that much more was going on than met the eye. He was lethargic and very sick. Look at his picture above. It was taken the day before he died. Anyone can see how rotten he felt. I feared the worst -- Parvo. I took him to another vet right away. There was no way he was going back to the person who released him as sick as he was.

The other vet knew immediately that Ripken was critically ill, and emergency treatment began. He was given rounds of IV fluids, transfusions and antibiotics. He was treated like the precious baby he was for the short while he lived. Sadly, he died anyway. Too much was tearing away inside his weary body, and he bled to death. We believe it was Parvo, but the earlier vaccinations made it impossible to make a firm diagnosis. 

I was heartsick because it did not have to happen. Had Ripken not been forced to sit so long in a shelter, unvaccinated and unprotected from all the sickness that spreads there, had the first vet who attended him taken a better look at him and administered more urgent care, perhaps he would be alive today. I realize it's hard to say for sure, but the prognosis would certainly have been better, and he would not have been exposed to so many other animals along the way. Ripken's story is inexcusably tragic.

It hurts even more knowing that we only had him in our care for two days. We didn't have any time to turn his life around for him, and I am so grieved to think that the life he had before he came to us was less than kind to him. Some things are too terrible to contemplate. I wish I could forget Ripken, but I cannot. Nor can I forget the system that abused him further. 

I pray he has forgiven all of us from where he sits, hopefully happy and pain-free at Rainbow Bridge. He'll be one of the first I seek out if I ever reach it myself. I will apologize at least one thousand times. I pray he'll jump in my arms and forgive us all. If the spirit of a dog runs true to form, I am sure he will. They forgive not because we deserve it, but because they don't know how to be mean. They don't know how to hold a grudge. They are pure-hearted little angels. Ripken is now among them. 

As he should be.