Sandoval County Animal Services has had their hands full this winter. They recently rescued a pair of shepherd-mixes wandering the streets of Rio Rancho earlier this month. Staff name the pair Bambi and Thumper. Rescuers believe the male and female pair are 1-2 years old and are in good health besides leg deformities that make mobility quite difficult, and in addition to both dogs needing surgeries, they also require special lifts to help them get around, and the apparatus can be costly.
Animal Services transferred the dogs to Cross My Paws, a nonprofit animal rescue in Albuquerque. Lani Nash, Executive Director and President of Cross my Paws told the Signpost exactly what Bambi and Thumper will need to live normal, happy and healthy lives.“The deformities are actually normal bone growth. It’s almost as if somebody kept them in a really small crate and they ended up just having to grow that way. [Their arms] grew kind of curled in toward their chest… They do not like small spaces now either. They don’t like to be put in a crate,” she said.
The dogs are being housed in larger cage enclosures called X Pens (short for exercise pens) and will likely need to be adopted by someone with a lot of space for the dogs to roam. Nash has no doubt that the dogs’ legs will be fixed as well as they can be, but the animal rescue pays for the surgeries itself, and with donations from other dog-lovers, they will be able to get Bambi and Thumper the best medical care possible.
Cross My Paws doesn’t make the assumption that just because the dogs were wandering outside means they were abandoned, but it was clear to rescuers that no one was looking for these dogs when they found them. According to Nash there is a big dog-dumping issue in New Mexico, and she believes the problem may stem from a distrust of Animal Control by New Mexicans because animals may be euthanized. Nash believes that “AP” or “Animal Protection” would be a better name for the public service.
When talking about the work she and the volunteers and staff do at the nonprofit, she encourages people to imagine briefly that they were a homeless animal, and asks the question, “Do you want to freeze to death at night and have to fight for food, or do you want to be in a kennel where you’re warm and safe with a bed and food and water, and at least taken care of until either you get a home or unfortunately, maybe you do have to be euthanized? They’re doing less and less of that these days, they’re reaching out to rescues, they’re reaching out to other states, they’re transporting to different places. The shelters are doing way better than we give them credit for.”
You can donate to Bambi and Thumper’s cause (or to the many other animals who need help) online at Donate — Cross My Paws. Nash said that if you include a note if you are donating specifically to Bambi and Thumper it will help so that they can track exactly how many donations have come in for their multiple surgeries. The entire healing process will likely take a long time. The dogs also have an Amazon wishlist and Chewy wishlist available on the website at crossmypaws.org/donate.
If you’d like to give Bambi and Thumper a new home, you can contact Cross My Paws at 615-477-6217 or apply online at Adopt — Cross My Paws. There are bunches of other pups available for adoption and the website has pictures and profiles of dogs who need a warm home.