Rowdy, a story of survival

He was a stray brought in by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Department to the Humane Society of Central Oregon on October 4th. He had several open, untreated wounds throughout his entire body and strangely an old IV catheter in place.

He was immediately taken to our clinic where staff immediately worked on his injuries. He had several infected lacerations, a possible skull fracture and was not placing weight on his back right leg.

Karen Burns, shelter manager, was confused as to why a dog with an IV catheter in place had untreated wounds. Burns began to research the case and after speaking with the Animal Emergency Center (AEC) the pieces began to fall into place. The description matched a patient, who had been hit by a car on the parkway a week earlier. The owners of the dog, Rowdy, refused treatment and picked the dog up from the AEC. AEC had informed the police of the situation and when officers followed up with the owners they were told that a family friend had taken Rowdy to the woods and slit his throat.

The day Rowdy arrived at HSCO a technician from AEC came to the shelter and identified him as the same dog.

The police were immediately notified and Rowdy was taken back to AEC for x-rays and overnight observation. The x-rays confirmed that Rowdy had a dislocated right hip and a skull fracture. With these injuries, Rowdy was left to fend for himself in the woods for over five days.

KTVZ did a story on Rowdy’s plight and many people came forward wanting to adopt him. One family watching KTVZ was Katie Edwards and her boyfriend Michael Graham. They contacted the shelter first thing on October 5th and their story caught our attention.

Michael’s brother was actually Rowdy’s original owner. He was deployed to Iraq for two years and in that time Rowdy lived with Michael and Katie. When Michael’s brother returned from Iraq he took Rowdy back. After some time he realized he could no longer care for Rowdy and re-homed him via craigslist to the family that owned him when he was hit by the car. Michael was not aware that his brother needed to re-home Rowdy until it was too late.

When Katie arrived at the shelter the morning of the 5th, she was a wreck. She explained her experiences with Rowdy and how desperately she wanted him back. I told her I was concerned about Rowdy’s future medical expenses and she told me that whatever needed to be done for him she would do. When I took Katie back to see Rowdy, even heavily medicated, he recognized her and wagged his tail. He tried to stand but she encouraged him to lie down and just stayed with him for a minute. Less than an hour later Michael called and told us how much they would love to have Rowdy back in their lives.

It was ultimately decided that a home with Katie and Michael was the best choice for Rowdy, and on October 12th he was adopted to his forever home. Katie and Michael are committed to Rowdy’s medical needs and have made arrangement for his hip surgery. They have set up a bank account for anyone wanting to donate towards his care and Rowdy has a Facebook page to keep up with his recovery process.

It amazes shelter staff that Rowdy survived as long as he did with the injuries he sustained. During his entire stay at HSCO he was nothing but loving and friendly toward staff. We love this happy ending; he is home with people that love him and on his way to recovery.