Mattie the Maltipoo

No one ever came forward to claim the little dog.  All I got was two email from a traveling nurse in Salinas, CA who wrote me saying she has been traveling in the King City, CA area for ten years and in those ten years she has found six small white dogs no one ever claimed.  She ended up paying out of pocket to have the dogs medically vetted, spayed/neutered and adopted out, mostly to her own patients.  I'm sure the dog was just one more statistic to the abandoned animal count in California.

I named the matted dog Mattie.  She stayed in the guest bathroom during her stay, but I knew that was not ideal.  She needed space to run around, and she needed human contact.  The only contact she got from me was when I visited her, usually twice a day while brushing my teeth and other personal hygiene tasks.  I promised Kevin I would take her to the closest vet when I wasn't working, to have her checked for a chip.

It had been a hot four days back in Arizona.  I went from temperatures in the 60s to temperatures in the 80s.  I'm sure for the dog that was no fun, but at least the bathroom is on the north side of the house.  I bathed her a second time in the sink when I got home, then took her bundled in a towel to the Coronado Animal clinic off Glenn Street in Sierra Vista.  It just so happens that one of the vet techs there founded Rescue Adopt Volunteers (RAV), a small dog rescue.  She gets donations from the public.  She volunteered to take Mattie and promised to keep me up-to-date on her progress.  I gave her a generous donation, enough to cover her spay surgery.

Mattie is an affectionate, emotive little dog.  I can see why elderly people like the breed so much.