When a Texas woman who was gazing out of her car window near a field in Odessa noticed something that looked like a garbage bag, she was shocked to see it suddenly move. Her husband stopped the car, and she rushed over to see that it was a dog totally covered in thick matting.
Schwartz met them in reception when they arrived with the dog.
“She was holding this black and brown matted creature that I couldn’t even tell had a face,” Schwartz said. “I couldn’t tell which end was which, except for the fact that he was trying to wag his tail. But the tail was so heavy from being matted, that I at first thought that the tail was broken.”
When Schwartz tried to draw blood and do some tests, she was unable to find any skin areas, so first had to shave off the matted mess.
The couple who had found the dog, to be named Matt, agreed to pay the vet bills, and amazingly when others in the waiting room heard this, they too offered to contribute.
“Everybody was really touched in that waiting room, and donated to getting him treated,” Schwartz said. “One lady was picking up her dog … and she heard his story as she was paying out her bill, and she put money toward this dog.”
Removing his fur turned out to be difficult and took several days, but Matt wasn’t phased in the least.
“He never shied away from being touched, and he never shied away from being petted, interacted with or talked to,” said Schwartz.
“If you looked at him, he’d immediately start wagging his tail. He just wanted you to pay attention to him … so it’s kind of hard to believe that this dog was out there, and hadn’t been approached by somebody else previously to this.”
“Everyone at the clinic, including myself, had grown a little attached to him.”
“He was kind of our little mascot already. He’s never met a stranger. Everybody he comes into contact with, he wants attention from. For a dog who has obviously not been taken care of very well by people, it’s amazing. It’s a testament of how strong dogs are. People don’t forgive as fast as that dog does.”
As the couple who brought this tangled bundle in couldn’t take him home, the team were able to find him a foster home, where he is now enjoying life as a dog should.
“He is worth it, and seeing that somebody didn’t appreciate how amazing he was at some point in his life hurts, but now he has a chance,” said Schwartz.
What a relief it must be for Matt to have a home to run around free of his entanglement.
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This New Yorker has helped 500+ strays get back on their paws again, and find fur-ever homes
