People from all over the state were attending the meeting and I drove up with several other state employees including the District Medical Officer, one of my bosses.

When we arrived I noticed a small red dog - that appeared to be dead lying under a pick-up truck. A closer inspection revealed that the dog was alive but appeared to be very ill and close to death from starvation. I inquired inside and was told that the dog had come into their enclosure the night before and
collapsed under the truck.

They had put water and food under the truck - but were afraid to touch the dog because it was covered with ticks and appeared to be quite ill.

I went out on my break and tried to take a closer look but the dog would not move and just lay there very quietly. At lunch I announced to my supervisor that we had to go to the grocery store - I needed tick spray and dog food. I sprayed the dog as soon as we returned from lunch and placed some dog food under the truck.. I then talked to the people inside - apparently they had called animal control but no one had showed up. I conned a cardboard box out of them and talked to my supervisor who was none to keen about having me bringing
this very ill dog home in a state vehicle but finally everyone agreed that if the dog was in the box to keep the ticks out of the vehicle - then it would be OK.

Socorro (means help or succor in Spanish) as I named her appeared to be a whippet or greyhound cross and was a red brindle. She was nothing but a skeleton covered with skin - which hung on her like a baggy suit of clothes. It took me almost three hours to remove all the ticks.

There were hundreds of them. They had left her so anemic that her gums were totally white. Her hematocrit was about 12 when it should have been 40. She was about 18 inches at the shoulder and weighed 17 pounds.  She had green discharge from her eyes and nose.   Initially I thought she might have distemper but this was not the case. She was also about 5 months old as close as we could estimate because she had not lost her puppy canine teeth.

It took weeks of good food - rest and TLC before she began to be able to do anything more than walk around at a very slow pace. She was old long before she was young. Gradually she began to fill out and soon she began to play and that awful look of complete sadness and despair in her eyes gave way to one of joy and fun.  She began to develop muscle and began to trot instead of just walk - eventually she began to run and it was obvious that she was bred to run and play and play. The transformation was nothing short of miraculous. She quickly learned basic obedience and was a wonderful retriever. She loved playing with Becky the young elkie and Daisy another rescue. She tolerated cats and my grumpy old elkies always showing them great deference. When they wandered off at night and got lost in the field she learned to find them when I asked her.

And slowly she gave her soul to me. She went to work with me after hours. She went everywhere that she could when the weather was suitable. Her tail never stopped and neither did her tongue. She was totally safe with children or adults but when she barked which was rare you knew something was up. I started running again because of her - and she was a magnificent running partner. She kept the peace among my dogs. She did it with a combination of play, shouldering dogs out of the way - but never with viciousness or aggression. She simply wanted everyone to get along.

She became an extension of me and so different in ways from my beloved elkies but I grew to love that red desert dog completely and to trust her totally.

She is gone. It is so hard to write because dogs are not supposed to die of cancer at 2 1/2. For the past few months she had a bit of a pot belly that gradually increased in size but because she played with zest, ate with zest and ran - It never dawned on me that something was terribly wrong. Sunday night she quit eating and I thought she had bloated. Instead she was found to have a
mass in her abdomen.  Monday she had surgery and her abdomen was found to be full of cancer - adenocarcinoma. How she had lived so vibrantly - I will never know.  I elected not to let her wake up. She had given me everything including her soul and I had to let her go without asking her to stay and suffer more for my sake.

Why am I telling this story - for several reasons. We simply do not know how some rescues will come out.  Socorro became my best friend - do not get me wrong I love my elkies but they are different. Socorro gave me her very soul. She lived life to the fullest when she recovered.  How she got to the Firefighters Academy - and why - I will never know. I believe she was a gift. How a dog so
young could have such a horrid disease I will never know. Perhaps it started when she was so severely immune compromised. I feel great guilt for not realizing that a pot belly on a greyhound type dog is not normal but her behavior never showed any signs of illness until the end.

She proved to me that rescue is worth every dime, dollar spent and that the returns are always greater than what we put in. She has also taught me that the most unlikely candidate can with love and care and food become a magnificent friend. Go my friend and run free.

Majie and Moosies and the Red Spirit Dog