p>I've just received the email below from Dogs Trust. If anyone could offer Ivy a home the contact information is at the bottom of the text. What a poor little pup - hope she finds someone special to love her. Here's the email:
Staff at Dogs Trust Darlington, Co Durham, have launched an urgent appeal to dog lovers in the North East to foster a beautiful, partially blind and deaf puppy in their care.
Ivy, a white Whippet cross, was born at the rehoming centre in October. While the three month old pup’s six siblings have found homes, little Ivy was not so lucky.
Staff realised something was awry when her eyes first opened. Workers spotted her eyes were slightly cloudy, and while her littermates bounded around their puppy pen, Ivy seemed very shy and bumped into things.
Sue Embleton, Dogs Trust Darlington centre manager, explains:
“Specialist vets have confirmed that she can see movement and responds to light stimuli and that noises are muffled; they’ve told us it’s like she is looking through frosted glass, so no wonder the poor thing was reluctant to run around with her bouncy brothers and sisters.
We need to wait a month until her eyes are fully developed before we’ll know if surgery is possible, and because of her disabilities we’re not sure of her life expectancy. But she’s a little sweetheart and desperately needs a loving foster carer who will lavish her with home comforts to give her the best quality of life possible.”
Dogs Trust will pay for all veterinary treatment relating to her conditions. Ivy needs to live in a stable, reasonably quiet home setting with owners around most of the day. Children should be aged at least twelve and sympathetic to her condition, and she would benefit from joining a family who already have a mature, sociable dog who can help support Ivy in her new home.
For more information contact Dogs Trust Darlington on 01325 333 114 or visit the centre at Hill House Farm, Sadberge, Co Durham DL2 1SL