About a week and a half ago, Bear was left in our catch pen. His owners left us little details except that he is a neutered male 14 year old (yes, 14 years old) Collie X German Shepherd mix. Upon checking him out we found he had been neglected as his nails were severely overgrown (between 1 1/2 and 2 inches in length). This caused his toes to rotate, resulting in pain and the necessity to rock back on his feet in order to walk. He had some 
matting as well but nothing a good grooming couldn’t cure. Although his teeth are not great he very capable of eating semi-solid food with the occasional crunch on a biscuit. With his age also comes some arthritis and some sight and hearing deficits. None of these issues are severe enough to affect his overall quality of life. An afternoon was spent getting his nails trimmed up, his coat brushed out and assessing if there were any other issues. He was a trooper through all of it, not complaining once. Within a couple of days we noticed he was starting to carry himself higher on his feet and is seemingly improving daily.
We have found Bear to be a wonderful old man who is calm and quiet and just wanting his forever retirement home. He is an excellent companion dog as he likes to be where people are. His vision is mildly affected and his hearing just requires that you speak up a bit when addressing him. As he is a larger dog and he suffered some obvious neglect, we suspect that he won’t be around for many more years.He is fine with dogs and cats and kids. He is housetrained but as he is older he needs more frequent trips to the doggy bathroom. If you can find it in your heart to give Bear the warm secure and loving retirement home that he deserves please contact us. As he needs and deserves a home for the last years of his life, we are not charging an adoption fee for him. We simply want a good and loving home for him.
