This post is for anyone who hasn't followed the story on my Facebook page...
This little dog was tied up outside my gate 4 nights ago - abandoned. At 9.30 that evening I'd let the dogs out and they had gone bonkers with barking. Once I'd quietened them down I could hear a tiny tiny bark just beyond the gate. I called my neighbour and asked if one of her dogs was out and then she told me that a poodle had been tied up outside since around 6 p.m. when she'd got home. My neighbour assumed I had friends visiting and perhaps they had a dog in season and couldn't come in. Then I realised what was going on. I'd had a phone call earlier in the day asking if my place is a refuge for dogs. I said no. The lady said the dog's owner, from Menton, was sick, in hospital and dying and they didn't want his dog! I explained this is not a refuge and they should call the SPA in Monaco but somehow they found me and left her outside the gate anyway.
The next morning we went to the veterinarian - she is about 13 years old, very thin and is now on antibiotics, two different eye drops, one four times a day, one six times a day - one she will need for life as her eyes don't make tears. There's ear medication, and a special bath every five days. She has a heart murmur and filthy teeth which will be cleaned when she has gained condition. Parts of her skin are hard like elephant hide. When I got her home I scissored off all her fur, she's her had first anti-bacterial bath and she is on all the other treatments. Already her eyes are pretty much better, the inflammation has gone from inside her ears, her skin has calmed down - and she is adorable.
She's very neglected but not abused as such. I think her condition is probably the result of an old person just letting her care get out of control. Perhaps I'm being over-generous here as she is a mess. As the vet said, she's been neglected for years.
On the way home from the vet I stopped off in Monaco to have coffee at the
Café de Paris with blogging friends from the UK. It was quite funny to see this mess of ungroomed coat and weepy eyes sitting on a chair alongside the immaculately coiffed Monte Carlo dogs. She sat there as if she's done it all her life.
So now we have another dog as part of the Pension Milou family - she really is a very bright little dog, very needy (of course) but very easy. She's absolutely clean and is stuck to me like glue. She also isn't a yappy poodle, thank goodness. My two big hounds, Beau and Mia, don't give kisses so now I'm so lucky and have this little love who does!
Of course, she needed a name and I asked on Facebook - got an enormous number of replies which was so helpful - reading through them all made me realise she reminds me of an old movie star, fallen on hard times. There were many possibilities, Clara Bow, Norma Desmond and so on.
I tried several names on her - when I said 'Garbo' for instance, she looked at me terrified and ran back to her bed!And so she's called Fanny -
named for Fanny Brice who was the inspiration for the Broadway show and later the film called Funny Girl. Fancy Brice was also the first person to sing Second Hand Rose when she starred in the Zeigfeld Follies of 1929 - and this little dog is very much a 'second-hand rose.' She seemed to approve of Fanny and ran towards me when I said it.
And so Fanny she is!
Fanny update 6 days after she was dumped on my doorstep. As you can see her eyes are now pretty much cleared up, ditto her ears. You can see in the last photo the wizened skin on her cheeks - this is also under her chin and around her rear and tail. That skin probably won't change and won't grow coat again.
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