Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — A big bull mastiff rescued from the elements outside the JBS Swift & Co. plant here is making a remarkable rehabilitation effort at the Central Nebraska Humane Society.
“He’s doing awesome,” Humane Society Director Laurie Dethloff said.
“It’s pretty amazing.”
The dog, nicknamed Loner by the JBS meatpacking workers who fed him for the four-plus years he lived outside the plant after being dumped by a trucker, has been renamed Angus T. Loner by the veterinary and Humane Society staff members caring for him.
“He really isn’t a loner anymore,” Dethloff said. “He doesn’t like being by himself.”
No longer is he cowering in the small office that Humane Society staff members gave him after he was caught Dec. 2. He had been living in a drainage ditch and was brought in just days before single-digit temperatures set in.
Adjusting to the warmth and camaraderie of the Humane Society hasn’t been the huge transition that many people thought it might be for Angus.
“He’s been hanging around up front,” Dethloff said. “He likes to cruise the halls.”
Angus has been socializing with other dogs, including a bulldog that he towers over.
Although Angus will now stand still to be petted, Dethloff said, he is still cautious when being touched.
But Angus’ lack of aggression remains.
“He’s a really good boy, Dethloff said. “He’s never crabby.”
He has never lunged and never looked cross or defensive, and he had never barked — until Saturday.
Dethloff said she took Angus home and, as he was playing with her dogs, he began to bark in play.
“His tail is beginning to wag. His head is held a little higher,” Dethloff said.
“He’s even sleeping on the bed. He likes to cozy up.”
When she calls “Angus,” he turns and comes.
When Dethloff says, “Let’s go to work,” Angus goes to the door.
Angus developed a frostbite tumor during his outdoor years. Dr. Robin Wilcox-Morris and veterinary technician Amanda Svoboda of Stolley Park Veterinary Hospital removed the tumor in a 90-minute surgery Friday.
The tumor weighed 1 pound, and the surgery left Angus with 17 stitches below his tail on his back right leg.
Dethloff and Dr. Wilcox-Morris thought Angus would need a weekend of rest, but the surgery hasn’t fazed him.
He has been attempting to play with a rag rope, Dethloff said. He wrestles with it and then looks up, as if maybe he shouldn’t be doing that, she said.
“I think he’s having to learn a lot of social skills,” she said. “There are physical and emotional signs that he’s acclimating.”
What was originally estimated to be a six-month rehabilitation before he would be available for adoption is now expected to be six to eight weeks. Dethloff said Angus may be available after the first of the year.
He is believed to be about 5 years old. He is mostly housebroken and was neutered as a puppy. He has worn teeth from chewing on cattle bones from the meatpacking plant.
The 116-pound Angus has lost 5 pounds, apparently because he is dissatisfied with his new dog-food-only diet. He is supposed to eat about 10 cups a day, Dethloff said.
Once his eating habits have stabilized and he is a little more comfortable around people, the society will begin looking for a permanent home for Angus, Dethloff said. That permanent home will need some space.
“He has to kind of back up to turn around in hallways,” Dethloff said with a laugh. “It’s like having a small pony.”
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
