Insight into one of DU's most loved/hated personalities, Glenn Greenwald

nashville_brook

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Sat Aug-27-11 10:18 AM
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Insight into one of DU's most loved/hated personalities, Glenn Greenwald

http://ggdrafts.blogspot.com/2011/08/dog-opportunity.html

Puppy opportunity
By Glenn Greenwald
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2011

Two weeks ago, I was driving and saw a dog on the side of the road who was hobbled and barely able to walk. She was entirely unable to use one of her back legs and could barely use the other, causing her to limp horribly as she tried, without much success, to walk up a hill. I was heading home from the grocery store and so happened to have food with me. I stopped the car, grabbed some meat and cheese, walked over to her and fed her, and she ate everything voraciously. It was immediately obvious why she couldn't use her legs: she had horrific, deep wounds on both back legs that looked to be a spreading infection. It was also obvious that she had something very wrong with her right eye -- it was almost entirely clouded over -- and she was very thin but had a bloated stomach.

The temptation to take her home was overwhelming, but because we already have 7 dogs, almost all of whom were found in similar fashion, my partner has issued death threats in the event that I pick up more dogs from the street. So I left her there, tried to tell myself that she at least was fed for a day, came home, and did everything possible to forget about it. But that proved impossible: I kept imagining how the infection would spread on her legs and soon render her entirely unable to walk, which would in turn cause her to starve to death -- in the woods, alone. After 5 minutes, I got in my car and returned to that spot. She had only managed to move a few feet. I picked her up in a blanket and brought her to my car, telling myself -- with what I knew was a delusion -- that I would just take her to the vet, have her legs treated, and then put her back where I found her. Picking up a dog is the point of no return: there's no such thing as "returning them to the street."

I left her at the vet, who said she would thoroughly examine the dog, and was told to return that night to pick her up. When I returned that night, the vet said the leg wounds were of unknown origin but could be treated, she was entirely blind in her right eye, she was full of worms and fleas, she was severely anemic, and -- this is the part that turned out to be quite a shock -- she was pregnant. And not just pregnant, but very pregnant . . . two weeks away or so from giving birth to six puppies. Six. That is presumably what explained the bloated stomach.

When I told my partner earlier that day that I had picked up another dog, he was angry but understanding and surprisingly restrained. But I don't think there's a word that adequately describes his reaction when he learned that I had, in effect, picked up 7 new dogs that day -- instantly doubling the number we have. Suffice to say, finding a home for all of these dogs is now imperative. The dog I picked up, whose pictures are here (more below), is genuinely one of the calmest, sweetest, and most affectionate animals I have ever encountered. Despite living a horrendous life on the street, she's so balanced and peaceful that none of our 7 other dogs had even a moment of hostility or tension with her; they were deeply curious about all her pregnancy smells but she blended right in without any problem.

(snip)