Papi’s story was originally shared in the Clear the Shelters Adoption Story Challenge on ShelterChallenge.com. Papi won the Runner-up Prize of $1,500 in cash and pet supplies for City of Tracy Animal Services! Create your own free Shelter Challenge account and vote for your favorite shelter or rescue group to win cash and prizes. Every time you vote we’ll give an extra donation to shelters!
Tracy Animal Services first met Papi in 2018. He had escaped his yard and was found by a citizen, who then brought him to our shelter. Papi was a sweet one-year-old, unaltered male that just needed someone to show him the ropes of being a well-mannered boy. At that time, the owner came to the shelter, and we were so happy to help facilitate a reunification between the family and their sweet pitty puppy.
Well fast forward and in 2019, we again met Papi. He again had escaped from his home and was found by a Good Samaritan. They brought this sweet boy to our shelter, as they were very concerned about his skin looking to be in poor condition and possibly infected. We were able to contact the owners and address the skin issues, as well as provide education about neutering. The owners took Papi to the vet to care for his skin issue and paid to have him neutered so we could avoid further ‘walk abouts’.
Then, this year during COVID, Tracy Animal Services received a report from a concerned citizen asking that we complete a welfare check on a dog that appeared in poor physical condition. When our Animal Services Officer made contact, they immediately saw that the dog was Papi. He was again suffering from a skin infection, only this time the skin infection was all over his body, but especially bad on his stomach and under areas.
Getting Papi on the Mend
Upon talking more to the owner, we found out that this was a new owner and the owner that had him for the last three years had moved to a new house that didn’t allow dogs. Due to COVID and Papi’s poor skin condition needing immediate medical attention, the owner decided that they were not going to be able to do what was best for Papi, as it appeared the skin condition could potentially be a lifelong battle. They made the decision that it would be best to surrender him to our shelter.
We immediately took Papi to the vet to assess the extent of his medical issues. He was diagnosed with chronic dermatitis and an extreme ear infection. He was prescribed five different medications. As you can see, from his time at the shelter, we were able to bring some much needed relief to his very itchy and uncomfortable skin.
Once we were able to see that the medications had started to heal his infection, we decided he was ready to find his forever home. We were extremely lucky to have a past adopter see his picture on social media. She immediately fell in love with his sweet eyes and happy smile. She also had past experience adopting one of our dogs with a skin issue.
We made her an appointment to meet Papi, and she fell in love with his loving and goofy nature. She just needed to bring down her current dog pack to do a meet and greet. On the day of the next appointment, we were all rooting for a happy tails outcome, and we are so happy to say that the meet and greets went well and Papi was adopted!
We are so thankful for our caring community, our animal loving staff, and for the adopter that came to the rescue for a big ol’ goofy sweetheart of a dog. The adopter promised to keep us updated on his progress and we couldn’t be happier for Papi, his new fur-ever mom, brothers and sisters!
I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.
Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.
