UPDATE: After two months of searching, posting, and pleading with people to give Orvis a home, he found one. Welcome to our family, Orvis! We'll still keep updating this page with his adventures. Orvis was picked up as a stray by Henry County Animal Care & Control on December 11, 2013. According to the Friends of Henry Animals page, he was skin and bones and covered in fleas and crust. He also had a large growth on his chest and developed kennel cough. After 5 weeks at the shelter, he still had not been adopted and his time was growing short. The staff had held him as long as they could because he was so sweet and loved everyone. We pulled Orvis from the shelter on January 16, 2014 because someone in another state who does animal rescue and transport said that he would give Orvis a permanent home. We even had Orvis checked out by our vet and covered a large portion of his medical expenses. Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks, that man stopped communicating with us and we found out that he decided to take in a different dog. So we were back to square one on finding Orvis a home. Orvis is a very friendly, relaxed boy who loves to snuggle. We have two dogs, one male and one female, and he has gotten along well with both of them since the first day they met. He's also good with children, does fine around cats, and has been perfect around the many house guests we've had over the past couple of months. During a normal day Orvis wanders around our fenced yard with our dogs, follows us around the house some, and finds comfy places to nap. If we weren't already at our pet carrying capacity, we would keep him permanently. Our vet estimated Orvis to be between six and eight years old. He is not neutered. He also has a mass on his chest that our vet thinks is probably a benign, fatty tumor, but should be removed eventually because of it's size and location. The mass removal should be fairly simple and could be done at the same time as Orvis' neuter, however, surgery has to wait until his heartworm infection is gone. Orvis is heartworm positive, but has started treatment and is handling it with minimal side effects. He is on a less aggressive treatment due to his age and unknown medical history. A topical heartworm preventative (Advantage-Multi) will need to be applied to him once monthly until the heartworm infection is gone. Orvis started his treatment on February 18 and we are providing doses for 8 months of treatment plus the antibiotics that are needed during part of that treatment. The majority of dogs on this regimen are clear of heartworms in 6 months. We hope to find Orvis a forever home soon. If you are interested in adopting Orvis or have any questions about him, please email us at TheAdventuresOfOrvis@gmail.com. To those who have already helped Orvis, and to those who will help him in the future, thank you. Sincerely,
Marsha, Heather, and Orvis
