I was right. He was a great dog.

From Ritalin Junkie, June 5, 2000:

What am I forgetting ..... oh yes! I got a new dog.

Tess went with me to see Titanic, and when I got to her house she pointed out a little dog cowering under her truck. She said it had just showed up there that morning, and they suspected someone had dumped it. I said "Aww, poor thing," and we left. On the way to town, she said that her mother, who was fed up with people constantly dumping their unwanted animals in front of their house, was threatening to take it in and have it put to sleep if it was still there the next day, to which I replied "No, if it's still there when we get back I'll take it home with me."

Naturally, when we got back to her house after the show it was still there. When it saw us coming it took off running down the road, so I got out of the car and started walking that direction. He got off of the road and cowered in the grass, and when I called to him he just sat down. I went over to him and he flipped over on his back and held still while I inspected him. He was a tiny little thing, and he looked like he was covered in mange, and he had worms. His fur was all matted and nasty, and he smelled like dead animal flesh, and I didn't really want to touch him, but I patted his stomach, and I could feel every single one of his ribs. I went ahead and picked him up, and the poor little thing just went limp. So, I took him home.

We quarantined him in the laundry room, where I fed him and gave him Mitzi's bed to sleep on. My mom took him to the vet for me this morning, and after they inspected him they determined that what I've got is a 3 to 4 year old full blooded toy poodle, white once we get him cleaned up, in basically good health except for the skin condition and the starvation and dehydration and traumatization and such. Rather than mange, he has treatable skin allergies, and he had simply chewed all of his fur off (and chewed his skin raw) because he itched. Rather than worms, (warning: this is really gross) the fur on his hind quarters was infested with maggots that were getting ready to burrow into his skin (I warned you it was gross). The vet said if he'd been left one more day he probably would have been too far gone to save. After we get him cleaned up and healed, he'll probably need medication for his allergies for the rest of his life. We figure that the assholes who had him before probably dumped him when they learned he was a high maintenance dog. I would love to be able to get ahold of those people. At any rate, he's my puppy now, and all indications are that he'll be a great dog once he's healthy again.

I think I'll name him Fizzgigg.

FIZZGIGG
199?-2008

You have put gladness in my heart - Psalm 4:7