Veterinarian enjoys the 4 dogs she’s rescued
Published: February 9, 2007
Emily Read has nurtured countless canines in her lifetime - as a veterinarian and a dog lover.
Although she is a self-described “soft touch” for any dog with a hard-luck story, Read’s fondness for Gordon setters is apparent when she walks her current pack.
Read, a veterinarian at Companion Animal Hospital in for the past seven months, regularly walks three Gordons and a Schnauzer in the West End neighborhood around her home in Shippensburg.
All four pets have been rescued by Read and each pet has a tale of woe that has turned into a story of love and devotion between a dog lover and her pets.
Read got her first Gordon setter as a high school junior in 1971 and has had at least one of the black-and-tan pointers ever since.
Read’s current brood all came to Pennsylvania from Kansas City, Mo., where she worked since earning her veterinary degree from Kansas State in 1986.
When she relocated to Lewisburg in 2003 she brought Roosevelt, K.C. and Spider with her, then added a schnauzer with an unusual problem shortly afterward.
Facing euthanasia
Read says Roosevelt was facing euthanasia is a Missouri animal control facility in January 1998 when a friend called to tell about her about the 4-year-old male.
“It was his last day and no one was looking at him,” Read remembers. “He looked like he had given up. He was sitting in the back of his cage and wasn’t very animated. But when I got him out of the cage he perked up.”
She took him home the same day.
“He’s been a perfect wonderful gentleman ever since,” Read says.
She gave him the name Roosevelt to complement the female Gordon - Rose - that she already had waiting at home.
Became indoor dog
Two-and-half years later - in July 2000 - Read says she was approached by a man seeking a new home for his adult female Gordon with the name K.C. - which is short for Kansas City.
“He saw me walking my dogs and was looking for a home for the dog that he had used as a hunting dog,” Read says.
K.C.’s six years were spent in an outdoor kennel with little exercise, recreation or human contact outside of her hunting forays.
Read took the dog and converted her into a house pet.
“She really liked coming indoors, and she loves it … except for the vacuum cleaner, which is her nemesis.”
Needed surgery
Read’s third Gordon setter survived even greater challenges.
Spider came to Read from another Missouri pound in January 2003 with hip dysplasia - a crippling defect that limits the mobility of dogs and leads to arthritis.
When hip dysplasia was discovered at the pound, Spider appeared destined to be euthanized until Read intervened, adopting the dog and arranging surgery that went a long way toward alleviating the problem.
Read says Spider was 5 or 6 years of age when she adopted her.
“She’s quite the girl,” Read says. “She knew a lot of commands from the very beginning.”
Very thin and fine-boned, Spider took her name from those traits and the unusual gait she used because of the hip dysplasia.
“It was supposed to be a nickname - she was going to get a pretty name - but Spider stuck,” Read says.
Schnauzer’s story
If the stories of Read’s three Gordons are touching, the details of Hobart’s life are tear-jerking.
The schnauzer is a strong young yearling now, but his life began under a cloud.
Born with a cleft palate, Hobart’s fate appeared dim when the Lewisburg dog breeder that owned the little pup discovered that milk flowed out of his nose when he nursed.
That symptom is a dead giveaway for a cleft palate, Read says.
As in humans, a cleft palate in a dog is a hole in the roof the mouth that opens to the nasal passages. It meant the breeder had little use for the “defective” pup.
Read had a use for the little guy.
She named him Hobart after Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y. She tube-fed the puppy for a time, then stuck by Hobart while he learned to eat bits of food that were too big to fit through the hole in the roof of his mouth. He also “learned” to drink water without the water flowing into his nasal passages.
Ultimately, Dr. Amy Hinton, Read’s employer at Companion Animal Hospital performed surgery to close the cleft.
Hobart shows no obvious signs of the problem.
He eats whatever Read serves him, although there is still a small cleft remaining in his palate.
“He holds his head a little differently when he’s eating, but he can eat anything,” Read says.
As the rambunctious youngster, the schnauzer playfully torments the older, calmer Gordons on daily walks, gripping and tugging at their leashes with his jaws and hopping on the setters’ backs.
“He’s a monster,” Read says with a smile.
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