Animal Campus Personnel Rescue Starving ‘Greyhound’
Veterinary Technician JoMarie Upegui pointed at a marble white, greyhound-like dog inside the receiving area of the Coachella Valley Animal Campus.
Even JoMarie was amazed.
“Look at her!” she said. “You can’t see the bones now.”
When Animal Control Officer Hector Palafox brought in the dog on Sept. 20, employees at the Thousand Palms-based shelter shook their heads with sorrow.
“When she came in she was so bone thin,” JoMarie said. “She had no energy at all.”
In fact, the employees had to gingerly help the pathetic-looking, 1-year-old dog onto a scale.
Her weight - 20 pounds - was dangerously low for a dog her age. JoMarie said that her bones protruded and she was raw on the thigh areas of her hind legs.
She and Animal Care Technician Will Irwin and other employees tag-teamed to make sure she’d have a comeback.
“Everyone was calling her ‘Bones’ because of her condition,” JoMarie said. “I don*t think it’s a very pretty name, but that’s how we all got to know her.
“She was so starved.”
Now?
Now she’s 33 pounds and playful as a pup should be.
Officer Palafox got the call to pick her up in the Coachella area where she was reported to be attempting to harass the neighborhood kids. But the officer discovered that she did very well walking on a leash . . . and was actually very loving.
“We’re buddies,” JoMarie said. “She’s my pal.”
JoMarie had to say goodbye to her friend on Thursday, Oct. 1, when the people of the Animal Rescue Kompany, or A.R.K., agreed to take over responsibility for Bones.
Joy Hunter and Michael Brown from the Murrieta-based, nonprofit rescue group picked her up. They will continue improving her health and then find her a lifelong home.
A.R.K. can be reached at (951) 677-5998 or mwood41@verizon.net.