Toby and Cooper

Steve received a call from Pam from Friends of Forks Animals about a dog in La Push (on the Quileute reservation) that was hit by a car; he was asked if he could euthanize the dog humanely, rather than have a tribal police officer shoot the animal. Upon hearing that only the dog's leg was injured, he felt that euthanasia might be premature. He spoke to a contact on the reservation and learned that there were two dogs, three-year-old brothers, that had been put out two years ago, and since then, they had both been run over several times, often intentionally, and they had also been shot, stabbed, and attacked with various other weapons. Steve drove to the reservation, where the dogs were being contained inside of a youth center. The owner signed them over to the tribal police that night, and Steve was given the go ahead to take them.

The dogs appear to be pit bull/Rottweiler mixes, but they are most likely a mix of several breeds, and may have different fathers; street dogs rarely produce litters from a single father. "Spike" had been hit by the car, but upon closer inspection, the injury to his left hind leg was not life threatening if he received veterinary care. "Copper" had a large abscess on his right cheek and a smaller one on the top of his head. Both boys were very afraid of men, so Steve spent a few hours gaining their trust; Copper gave him a fairly serious bite on the hand for his trouble, but he was able to get the dogs into the truck and take them back to the Sanctuary. They both went into surgery the next day: Spike had a tendon repaired and a drain installed in his leg; Copper had a drain installed in his cheek and the mass removed from the top of his head. The mass looked at first like a sebaceous cyst, but it was discovered that it had a stalk beneath it and quite a bit of compacted hair inside it, so it was sent out for biopsy. It is not expected to be malignant.

Steve likes to give the dogs new names to go with their new lives at Olympic Animal Sanctuary; Toby seemed like a more suitable name than Spike for a dog with such a sweet face, and Cooper was just a typographical error on his rabies certificate, but it suits him. Both boys will recover from their surgery before they are neutered; they have slept a lot so far, no doubt relieved to be out of danger for the first time in their lives. The brothers are making good progress and coming out of their shells, but a long history of violence makes them non-adoptable, and separating them would only add to their trauma, so they will remain at the Sanctuary for life. Toby and Cooper have already become friends with little Lupe, Ginger, and Lily, and over the next few weeks they will be gradually integrated into pack life, culminating after they are neutered, when they can be accepted by the other males. (Even the dogs don't put up with un-neutered males around here.)

Battle-scarred and traumatized after so many years of abuse, Toby (blk/tan) and Cooper (brindle) thought the camera was a gun until Steve left it on the floor and stepped away for them to investigate. These boys have a long way to go, but they're already making great progress, and loving human attention for a change.