About four years ago, Les Amis des Animaux let me adopt the lovely but very scared Louky, so when they rather desperately needed an owner for an elderly Chasse dog, Bonzo, I agreed to welcome him into our pack of five rescue dogs. As usual, a kind volunteer brought him miles and miles to meet me half way ( I live in the Charente Maritime. No problem for LADA). I was a bit aghast when I first met this apparently powerful hunting dog who pulled like a train and seemed rather unimpressed by me (his SAVIOUR, for goodness sake…). But what neither I, nor LADA, knew was that Bonzo was beginning to suffer from a serious pancreatic disease. He soon seemed happy to be with us. Yet, in spite of a voracious appetite, he was getting thinner and thinner every day. Every single rib was soon visible. So LADA and I took him to see several vets ( for which they paid) and in the end we found he responds to the human pills called “Eurobiol”. Within a few weeks his health and muscles returned, as did his enormous joie de vie. From being a skeletal bundle of bones, Bonzo had become a handsome old boy who gets admiring glances , especially from hunters. His hunting days are over, of course, but he gallops around, seemingly aided in his bounding gait by huge flapping ears. He is a dear, and in spite of his enormous appetite, and tendency to pinch anything that looks remotely edible, has become an indispensable and affectionate member of the pack. LADA generously supplies the special food his condition needs, and lots of continuing moral and veterinary support. They are absolutely wonderful and have given so many dogs both hope and a second chance. I have never regretted taking in a dog, especially an old one, who would otherwise be stuck in a refuge at the end of his life.
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