Waffles, Chicken and

Intake photo showing injured foot and shock collar

Every morning, our shelter's "needs rescue" list is emailed to me and a bunch of other local rescue representatives. Almost a month ago, a little Dachshund mix with an injured paw showed up on the list. He was wearing a shock collar and had the most awful tear stains. Drew said he looked like he'd been crying for days. His eyes stared through his intake photo at me and begged for help. Sometimes you can just see their gentle souls through their eyes. This was one of those dogs. I knew him as SB02, his kennel number. We started calling him "foot dog", which wasn't really much better than SB02.

Drew and I went to meet him & we knew we had to have him. I went inside his kennel and sat down next to him to get some better pictures and an idea of his demeanor. Despite all the pain he must have been in, he was so sweet and loving. He hobbled over next to me and laid down while I rubbed his ears. He was so much cuter in person than in his intake photo - young, white and cream colored, super soft, and stretchy like a wiener mix. Oh, and he had the most fantastic overbite I'd ever seen. He reminded me of derp master Tuna of internet fame: http://www.tunameltsmyheart.com/

Waffles in his kennel at the shelter

A few days later, we pulled "foot dog" under Jake's Wish Dog Rescue and brought him home to safety. He hopped out of the shelter like a champ on three legs. Nothing was going to stand in his way - he was heading for the good life now. It was so sad knowing he belonged to someone who bothered to put a shock collar on him, but didn't bother to go looking for him when he ended up in the shelter. A lovely owner, for sure. And no - he's not a barky guy. His foot looked rough, so I bandaged it for the first day we had him in order to keep him from stress licking. This made it worse, so we went open air healing and cone of shame from that point on until it dried up enough to stop oozing. We suspected he'd gotten hit by a car. He had a few other minor scrapes and bruises on his body, but just the bad one on his foot. Fortunately, x-rays showed no broken bones. After our experience with Raven's horrible carpal wound, which was far worse than this guy's, we knew we could get him fixed up no problem. You can read my main post on Raven's story here: http://ohfortheloveofdogs.blogspot.com/2013/10/raven-rough-start-for-sweet-girl.html

Waffles and his derptastic overbite

We needed to come up with a name for "foot dog", so we enlisted the help of Facebook and asked our friends to chime in. One of our friends in Chicago suggested "Waffles". We are from Atlanta where chicken and waffles is sort of a popular thing, however goofy it may seem. We decided to go with Waffles because of his goofy personality. He needed a silly sort of name. Turns out a lot of Californians don't really understand the whole chicken and waffles bit, but oh well. Waffles it is. As with every dog who comes through our house, Waffles has loads of nicknames: Waffy, Waffular, Chicken And, Waffle Taco, and Waffle Cone while he had to wear the cone of shame. I mean, really, how could we resist? 

Waffles enjoying the comfy couch

Waffles has the best personality ever. He's so ridiculously excited about life itself - it's contagious. He's happy-go-lucky, wiggly, snuggly, lovey, and just downright aderpable. I love his zest for life and his enthusiasm for everything. He's always happy to see you and he's never met a stranger. He loves other dogs and gets everyone to play. I just love his spirit. He's really a special little guy. Waffles will make a fantastic family dog. He'd love to have kids and other dogs to play with, then snuggle up with the family at night. It's just so wonderful to see him enjoying a comfortable life with the promise of safety and love. He deserves nothing less.

Earlier this week, Drew and I traded foster dogs with our rescue friends. Waffles went to their house and we took their foster, Mischa, who needs a change of scenery and extra socialization. Waffles is doing great at their house so far. He's got his favorite spot on the couch all figured out and he's loving their other dogs. I took him to the vet for a foot check up this morning. It's healing really nicely, with the exception of one toe. The nail looks pretty dead and will likely fall off, but that's ok. He's on antibiotics to ward off infection and he gets his foot soaked twice daily in a medicated rinse. How nice...anyhow, you can see how much progress his foot has made in just four short weeks! It's pretty amazing how resilient dogs are and how well they heal. Hopefully that toe improves.

Waffles is bearing weight pretty well on all fours. He still goes to three legs when he runs really fast or if he's feeling lazy, but for the most part I think he'll go back to walking normally once he's completely healed. He should be ready for adoption events in another week or so. Waffles is just such a special little critter. He's going to make someone out there super happy, we know it. He makes us laugh every day with his goofy face and wiggly booty. Then he melts our hearts when he curls up for snuggles in the evening. We're thankful that he gets to have a life beyond the identity of "foot dog" and that he finally knows what love feels like. Stay tuned for more on this low-rider goofball as he continues his journey toward furever! He's listed on Petfinder here if you'd like more adoption information: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/31509770