These are the eyes of a young dog that has suffered a lot. Saturday, August 28th, Clem wandered onto the remote property of our foster home in rural northern Mississippi. He had a huge wound on his lower back and was in a lot of pain.

It took Sam and Janet some time to earn his trust and slowly he came closer to the house and eventually onto the porch. With Hurricane Ida coming the next day, their goal was to get him safe into the house and as he was so hungry, he gained their trust quickly with some good food. Their well socialized dog pack also helped him gain their trust.

Thankfully he felt safe with their other dogs and that was also helpful in keeping him on the property and also indoors as the remnants of Ida blew over their part of the state.

On Monday, September 30th, he went to the vet and x-rays sadly revealed that he was shot with a bullet that was deep into his hip area and there were also bird shot pellets embedded in his body. This poor dog was lucky he wasn't killed or paralyzed as the bullet came close to his spine. Further x-rays and exam shows a bad left hip, old fractures and he has a bad left knee. Additional worse news is that he is also heartworm positive.

Clem has suffered a lot for such a young dog. He is maybe2-3 years old and weighs 35lbs. He could use another 3-5lbs. Who could be so cruel to this sweet little dog? He is currently on antibiotics to help with the main wound. He has had a heartguard to start killing the heartworm larvae and he will be in our Heartworm Slow Kill program- which includes a Complete Blood Count and Chemistry, IFA Serology for tick borne disease and supplies to slowly kill the adult heartworms. Once he gets to Illinois, we will be consulting with an orthopedic surgeon for his hip dysplasia and luxating patella. Any major surgery will be several months down the road, but we would like to get started on his initial expenses.

Clem is a special little guy and our hope is to help him get better and find the perfect foster to adopt home that will love him in spite of his injuries, trauma and previous neglect. We would be grateful for your support to help this throwaway Mississippi dog on the road to a better life.