Mountain Moe came to us in pretty bad shape. He had been found wandering the deserts, severely dehydrated, malnourished, and had a number of partially healed wounds.

One of those wounds was what we later found out to be a gunshot wound to the side of his face, shrapnel blinding his left eye and breaking multiple teeth in his mouth.

After who knows how long wandering the desert, he was following along a wash and decided to follow a pug named "Tinkles" back to her home. There he found a generous supply of water and food in the backyard and felt safe enough to remain for a while.

He stayed for 2 weeks; slowly rehydrating, getting some tender love from humans, and regaining some strength. As his survival "sass monster" got louder, he frightened some of those humans, so they needed to rehome him. That's when we got him. He still hadn't seen a vet and needed some attention for his wounds.

Initial vet visits all required he be fully sedated because he was so intolerant of people messing with him in any way! The vet guessed his age to be around 4 years old. So young, and so severely traumatized!

He's come a long way though! Just over a year of giving him love and letting him feel safe, had made a whole new personality emerge! While still very grumpy with things - like eye drops! - he loves pets and snuggles and brushes and is so happy when his people walk in the door (we get that helicopter spin of his tail!).

Sadly, his journey with medical issues and the vet was not over. One day he was fine and eating normally and 3 days later he was not - he was in renal failure and needed intensive intervention.

He spent 5 days, 4 nights in intensive care and was NOT a happy camper! He was so stressed out, losing hair by the handfuls, and starting to become quite depressed.

On that 5th day of visiting him, I knew he needed to come home. Even though his kidney numbers were still pretty high and he refused food. I knew at this point only love was going to help guide him out of the woods.

Initially bringing him home, he required a lot of medication as well as regular feedings through an NG (aka feeding) tube, and regular vet visits (his vet people have dubbed him "Grumpy Grumbles" - it's totally in his chart! lol).

The first couple of days he was pretty lethargic still but would perk up when we paid him attention and gave him loves and brushes (he LOVES being brushed...except his tail! lol). After a few days of being home is when we received the call and found out he had a really high titration rate for Valley Fever (VF). We aren't sure if the renal failure is due to VF or if his kidneys were damaged from being so severely dehydrated (or a combination of the two), but both have hit him really hard.

After a few months of regular IV treatments, regular tests, and the balancing of medications, he is a new dog!

Eventually he went in for dental work and this is when we discovered a bullet lodged in his jaw bone. They were able to remove most of the shrapnel, the bullet fragment, and a couple of teeth that were broken. Due to sedation time he still has one tooth that needs removed.

Currently, we are having to assess having his left eye removed. Even with drops, the swelling is quite significant and we think he is experiencing pain that he doesn't let on about. It's a very challenging decision for us!

In the meantime, we just keep loving him and getting him all he needs.

We are hoping to have him for a long time still! <3