Chino

From Chino’s Final Refuge family:

We first saw Chino’s photo on the Old Dog Haven Facebook page and this sweet boy’s little face just kept popping up on our feed. I now refer to his FB photo as his “Tinder” pic! When we read his story it said he had an allergy on his paws that would “need some attention” but he was energetic and sweet and seemed good with other dogs. Well heck, we had experience with allergy issues so that didn’t deter us at all and why on earth were they having such a challenge finding a foster home for this little cutie we wondered?

We decided to go for it. We made a promise to our senior pack of 5 that when they all passed we would help other senior dogs that were left behind and it seemed like this little guy needed us. And boy, we weren’t wrong!! After going through the vetting process, we were anxiously awaiting a call to meet someone from the transport team to bring home our newest family member only to receive some difficult news about Chino’s health.

Chino, like many other Old Dog Haven Final Refuge dogs had a home at one time but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond his control, he was removed from his home for his own safety and went into the care of a local shelter.  Unfortunately, little Chino’s condition continued to decline despite their efforts at treatment and after a few months he was taken to a dermatologist who diagnosed a severe case of Adult Onset Demodectic Mange.     The shelter had asked ODH to take him several weeks before but only revealed this diagnosis (and a new picture) after we had agreed to take him for what seemed to be allergies.

As one can imagine this is never the scenario we want to see or read about but here it was and a decision needed to be made. We were told this was a huge ask for our very first Old Dog Haven Final Refuge dog, but we also knew this little guy had already had too many humans fail him and we wanted to make sure that whatever time he had left, he knew love. So we said we would take him and do just that – give him all the love he could handle for as long as he had left!

When Chino arrived he was so scared and sick. He cried almost non-stop for the first few days and very slowly he began to adjust. His skin was red and raw with scabs and sores. He was malnourished and underweight. He was tired and anxious, but somehow he began to trust us. We took him to the vet, started feeding him the right food, and most of all treating his skin condition properly. We began giving him medicated baths every three – four days and within a few weeks we could see his skin beginning to heal and his sweet personality starting to emerge.

By the second month Chino was really settling into his new life with his new pack. He has a new sister, Brynn, and more and more each day we can see them begin to get closer and even snuggle together on the couch. We have discovered that Chino gets REALLY excited to go on car rides & walks! He barks and whines, does zoomies all over, jumps on his sister and howls, yes HOWLS, with excitement!! He is vested 100% in his new life and hates missing out on any part of it!! He can keep up on walks with his sister and foster mama with no issues and gets protective when he sees other dogs coming our way! (Which is really cute since he doesn’t have any teeth – but don’t tell him that, he still doesn’t know!)

Chino’s follow up visits to the dermatologist have been nothing but positive and he has tested negative for mites on his last two visits!! BEST news ever!! We now get to introduce him to more proteins as we all agree we don’t believe his skin issues were due to food allergies.  His skin now glows and while it’s still healing, his fur is growing in nicely and he sports his jammies like a Boss Man!

We can’t imagine our pack without this little guy. Seeing him bounce back from what seemed like the brink of no return; to following us around the house, barking at the delivery folks, kissing us incessantly, snuggling up as close as he can get to us, doing zoomies, and rolling around on his back in pure happiness just fills our hearts with so much joy for him. He teaches us every day how amazing these little souls are; and their capacity to forgive and trust is truly awe-inspiring.

As humans we have so many choices of activities to keep us entertained and busy… but dogs only have us. We are their whole world.

Thank you Old Dog Haven for taking on these most beautiful old souls who deserve all the dignity and love we can give to them to live out their golden years. Thank you to our generous donors who make this all possible. And thank you for welcoming us into the Old Dog Haven family.

Chino is sponsored by: