A new life for Banjo

I found this little girl running along a dirt road near my home. Word around the neighborhood was that she'd been running free for a couple of days and when I pulled over and sat down on the side of the road she immediately jumped into my lap. My first thought was "How could anyone lose or abandon this little sweetheart of a dog?" After getting no responses from signs or social media posts, I had a choice to make. Little did I know that the choice had already been made for me by one of the sweetest dogs I'd ever met. With three dogs, two cat and three horses already under our care, somehow we would make it work. So we decided to keep her. We named her Banjo.

Still, I was puzzled why anyone would abandon such a wonderful dog. She had no behavior issues, was house trained and obedient. The only thing I could come up with was that it must have been something about her health. There didn't seem to be anything obvious wrong with her until a friend made a comment about the black skin on her belly. She said she might have "Alopecia X" or "Black Skin Disease" and there was also a chance it might be Cushing's Disease. So in addition to the fact that her gums are red, her teeth need cleaning and she can't seem to chew hard food plus she's got a limp in her left back leg, we want to have a vet do a full exam, blood workup and have x-rays done on her leg if necessary to see how we should proceed with any treatments. We are hoping it's Alopecia-Cushing's is much more serious.

Whatever the diagnosis, we're going to keep her. She has brought so much joy to my life already and knowing that she has a safe place to sleep tonight makes it all worthwhile...