Maybe Maverick Cain had another name and a real home before he was picked up by animal control officers as a stray on Friday. Maybe he had owners who saw the young dog’s mange getting worse and worse, and didn’t care — or did care, but couldn’t afford to treat the dog.
“I have no idea of the real situation. Someone may really have loved him,” Minda Emas Harris, rescue coordinator for the Texas-based Mongtomery Animal Control Shelter, tells BarkPost.
Minda does know that Maverick was terrified, sick, and uncomfortable –“one of the saddest and for sure the neediest” of dogs, is how she put it on Facebook — when he arrived at her shelter.
She put out a plea for help, because Minda also knew that if Maverick was going to make it, he needed to get into a foster home, fast.
Jessica DeForge and her husband William, who foster Pit Bulls through the Texas Animal Society, were moved by the photos of Maverick, by his sad prospects, and quickly answered Minda’s plea.
“This lonely boy, broken, hurt, on the verge of giving up. We couldn’t let him give up or never know love,” says Jessica.
Maverick has been with Jessica and William — who own a dog boarding facility, Dogtown Texas — and their seven other dogs since Saturday.
Says Jessica:
“Luckily we have several acres and plenty of room for everyone.”
Maverick — whose mange is extremely painful, but not contagious to humans or dogs — has settled right in, giving lots of kisses, his tail wagging nonstop.
He now likes to nap on the couch — or anywhere that his foot, or any other part of his hurt little body, can touch Jessica or William. And most importantly, says Jessica, “he is learning quick what it’s like to be treated like a king.”
“He’s landed at a really good place,” says Minda, of Maverick’s lifesaving new situation. “He gets a chance.”
Because Maverick’s mange is so bad, it will probably take a few months to get better. In that time, he’ll get lots of soothing baths and salves, and cool towel wraps — and will have to wear clothes and sweet little booties to protect his delicate, healing skin.
(Here’s where you can help contribute to Maverick’s medical care.)
Then, when he’s well and ready, Maverick will ready for the best part yet – a family of his own.
Jessica is already dreaming of what that adoptive family will look like. It’s a very nice dream — and one that now has a great chance of becoming reality, because these good people are making sure Maverick’s bad start won’t damn him to a bad end.
“My ideal home for him will be one full of love, that will never give up on him,” says Jessica. “Can you imagine if we never gave the Mavericks of the world a chance? We would all be missing out on knowing some of the most amazing creatures.”
Featured image via Montgomery County Animal Shelter
