A Dog Rescue Transport: Frankie's Story

This past weekend, we were asked to do a dog transport of an elderly Dachshund. The dog, Frankie,

Frankie exploring our backyard

 was being given up by her owner because the owner's daughter called and said the owner wasn't home for extended periods and wanted the dog to have a better life. So, the rescue got some information, had the owner fill out forms to turn the dog over, and Tom and I (Rob) drove to pick up Frankie on Saturday- and Frankie went to Tom's folks to be fostered that night.

WHO IS FRANKIE? -  Frankie is a female red, smooth-haired Dachshund. When we arrived, the owner's daughter told us that Frankie is actually 15 years old and she's on special prescription food for her kidneys. Our dog Sprite had kidney failure at 16 so it's not uncommon. Sprite, however, only lived another 7 months after the diagnosis. We were told that Frankie's prescription food was to prevent kidney / bladder stones from forming, as she apparently had them before and had surgery. She was also not supposed to eat dairy products because calcium would also cause them (as they do in humans). The bag she came with had heartworm and flea preventative medicine, but the owner's daughter didn't know if Frankie got them monthly.  **  Frankie rode well in our pickup truck and was very quiet. When we arrived home, she met our three dogs and they sniffed her and then left her alone.

Frankie enjoying being outside

STUDYING HER CONDITION -  When rescue volunteers (like us) take in a foster dog, we study their condition, abilities and habits. She appeared housebroken and she ambled around but we later learned she was not housebroken. (Apparently she was left alone very long hours as the former owner's daughter said, so she had some accidents - or perhaps it's kidney failure because she didn't poop in the house). We learned that she actually could not climb stairs when she couldn't  get up a small ledge from our sun porch into our kitchen. - The former owner also gave us "doggy stairs" they used to allow Frankie to get up on a couch, but she didn't seem to be able to use those either.
  Basically, Frankie is elderly, and in human years, 15 Equals 80 human years old.
FIRST NIGHT- Tom's folks said that she did walk with them, and very slowly. It was apparent that Frankie wasn't used to walking on a  leash, but did do her #2 outside, which tells us that she WAS housetrained and the 2 pee accidents she inside Tom's parents' house may be either marking, stress or from kidney failure (as she wasn't alone at any time).
ASSESSMENT - Frankie is going to be assessed at the vet to determine her overall health, age, etc. It is our assessment that Frankie is not in the best of health and that the owner may have called the rescue because of her kidney failure and they didn't want to see her during her last months or year. We say this having gone through kidney failure with Sprite just last July. We'll know more after the Vet visit. Meanwhile, we've asked that Tom's parents not be the foster home, because with ill health, Frankie's foster home will definitely become a permanent home.