Friday, December 27

Mr. Ages: Wise and Wonderful. And Waiting.

Cast your mind back to your youth and a little Don Bluth picture called The Secret of Nimh.*

You may recall that amongst the cast of characters there was an elderly, cantankerous, curmudgeonly medicine-mouse named Mr. Ages. 




A couple of months ago, a Good Samaritan acquired a dog for sale for $100 from a puppy mill breeder who intended selling him to another breeder.  This dog was nine years old at the time, well past the age when a responsible breeder will put a dog into retirement.  The dog had a mouthful of loose teeth and an enormous, swollen jaw and face from an untreated salivary gland infection.  It was all the same to the breeder, and a hunnert bucks is a hunnert bucks, amirite?

Our Good Samaritan wasn't going to let this nine-year-old dog get passed from one lousy breeder to an even worse one, so she acquired him and named him Mr. Ages, since he'd escaped the clutches of the lab
puppy mill people, and she was sure the old guy had some usefulness and life in him, yet.

And right she was.

After going to the dentist and losing ten of his rotting teeth (and the deadly breath that resulted), our hero still had some seriously infected ears and that scary-looking, swollen jaw.
But after a bit of surgery, during which he was neutered and his salivary gland drained, and some antibiotics for his infected ear, Mr. Ages has emerged a healthier, happier frogdog!

In fact, he's SO healthy and happy he has found himself on the available page!  Unlike his namesake, our Mr. Ages is not cantankerous, nor is he curmudgeonly (though we will say he prefers not to share his toys--but he's lived nine years without a single one, so can you blame him?), and it turns out he's a premier snuggle buggy.  Get a load of this guy, soaking up the snuggles on BOTH sides!  Is that some excellent snuggly form or what?
Sure, he may be a lowly puppy mill survivor with few of the airs and graces of a housepet, but he's got all the moves of a "to the manor born" Frenchie when it comes time to get his snuggles.  Might be instinctual.  Maybe he's a quick study.  Either way, he's a master.

Have you got a soft spot for older dogs who need a second chance to be loved for the first time?  You couldn't ask for a better candidate than Mr. Ages to lavish your affection and kindness on.





After nine years in a cage, he's waiting for a family to want him for himself alone, not because he can put money in their pocket.  He wants to spend the next few years cuddled between a couple of people on a couch or in a puppy pile of happy dogs on a comfy bed.  If you have a little room in your life and your home for an old man, check out his available page.


He's waited nine years.  That's long enough.

Too long, in the opinion of

The Frog Princess






*Based on the book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H. by Robert O'Brien.

No comments: