Only a few months ago, a dog that ate twigs and stones had a happy ending.
Alex, a 43-pound Weimaraner, was picked up on the streets of New Orleans and sent to animal control in Vermillion Parish for rabies testing.
Alex was so poor that Deanna Theis, assistant director of the Southern Animal Foundation, was surprised he was still alive when she saw his picture.
She knew he wouldn’t live unless he was yanked from the shelter right away, so she did just that.
X-Rays revealed that Alex craved food so much that he consumed stones and twigs to fill his stomach as he failed medical examinations.
At the beginning, his health was precarious. Alex’s extreme malnutrition resulted in a drastic setback when his stomach flipped in response to the nutrition he was getting.
He needed to act quickly to extract foreign objects and combat the unsafe situation, but the dog refused to cooperate.
He was placed in foster care with Diane Lundeen after he had recovered enough. She already has two Weimaraners, and when she met Alexa, she fell in love with him right away. And he fell in love with her, gaining ten pounds in his first week with her at home.
Diane realized she couldn’t let go of a dog whose eyes were so haunting when they first met four months later. Those same eyes are warm and full of joy now that he has found a home with Lundeen and his new siblings for the rest of his life.
Alex now smiles in every photograph.
He’s almost 80 pounds now, according to Lundeen: “He has strong color in his gums, lively eyes, and he doesn’t cry when he sits down.” He exudes an overwhelming sense of joy for life.”
