‘She’s a little fighter.’ Cricket, an emaciated and abandoned Raleigh pup, needs help.
Cricket, an emaciated two-pound speck of a pup, is getting help now after being found abandoned Sunday night in the driveway of the Wake County Animal Center.
Severely malnourished, anemic, dehydrated and with wounds covering her tiny body, it wasn’t clear at first if Cricket would even make it through the night. She was so weak she could hold up her head for only a few seconds at a time, and emitted soft, pitiful groans.
An animal center staffer took Cricket home and gave her care overnight, then called a local rescue group Monday morning.
PIP, which stands for Perfectly Imperfect Pups, came to Cricket’s rescue and got her emergency medical care.
“She’s in really bad shape,” PIP founder and director Nicole Kincaid said Monday afternoon. “You can’t pet her without hitting bones.”
Kincaid said Cricket is not in pain and not suffering, but isn’t really responding to affection either.
“All of her energy right now is devoted to getting better and staying alive.”
Kincaid isn’t sure how Cricket got her wounds, though it’s clear from some wounds that she has been “eaten and bitten by flies nonstop.”
Her other wounds could be from being attacked by something or by injuring herself trying to get away from something, Kincaid. She had open sores on her stomach and side. There were other indications that she had been kept confined for some time and unable to move around, Kincaid said.
The next 24 hours will be crucial for Cricket. She’s getting great care from Dr. Cindy Johnson at Peak City Vet in Apex, Kincaid said, and if she’s stable, someone in the clinic will take her home overnight to keep an eye on her and show her some love.
Kincaid said Cricket appears to be a 6- to 8-week-old American Staffordshire Terrier. A pup of that breed and age should weigh 8 to 12 pounds.
Despite Cricket’s poor shape right now, Kincaid is optimistic about her prognosis.
“She seems like she’s a little fighter and is gonna fight through this,” Kincaid said.
How to help Cricket
You can donate to help with Cricket’s care on the PIPS website: pipsrescue.org.
PIPS is a brand new rescue group, started just last month, and specializes in special needs dogs and medical cases (though Kincaid says they will try to take dogs even if they are not medical cases).
