Puppies Rascal and Toby didn’t have a happy or safe start in life. At only five-weeks-old, the terrier brothers were cruelly dumped in a box and left for dead in Gladstone Park in North London. Terrified and alone, all they had was each other.

A member of the public found the freezing cold pups and called Mayhew. Our Animal Welfare Officers went straight to the park to find them and rushed them to the safety of Mayhew to receive the urgent care they needed.

Our Vet team provided immediate emergency relief to the pups and made them feel more comfortable. It was clear that Rascal and Toby were very sick and they had to be kept in isolation away from other dogs. They were both suffering from mange, a parasite living inside a dog’s skin, which usually affects dogs with a weakened immune system. Our vets also suspected that they could have Parvo virus, a highly contagious viral disease that often affects unvaccinated dogs and is often fatal.

Rascal and Toby were so cold, dehydrated and weak they were given urgent and intensive care at our Vet Clinic and fed every few hours to build up their strength and fight for their lives. They were dewormed, given medicated baths, put on IV fluids and antibiotics, and wrapped in warm, heated blankets to improve and maintain their body temperature.

Despite all the urgent treatment and loving care, Toby was too weak to recover and sadly he didn’t make it through the night. Young animals are like babies and need warmth, care and regular food otherwise they will deteriorate quickly. Because they had been taken from their mum at such an early age, they didn’t have the chance to thrive and grow healthily.

Though devastated at the loss of poor little Toby, our Vet team had to focus on continuing to care for Rascal to make sure he didn’t suffer the same dreadful fate of his brother.

Thankfully, after receiving further treatment and plenty more TLC, Rascal started showing signs of improvement and after ten days of intensive care he was able to leave the isolation unit. Soon the little puppy was living up to his name and started showing off his personality. Thanks to the tireless work of our Animals Welfare Officers, Vet and Kennels team, Rascal made a full recovery and our Adoption team soon found him a new home with a loving family.

It is most likely that Rascal and Toby were bred in order to sell, but when they showed signs of ill health were callously dumped in the park to fend for themselves. Mayhew is a member of The Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG), which raises public awareness of the responsibilities to be taken into consideration when purchasing pets online or via advertising. As well as promoting preventative veterinary care and the Animal Welfare Act’s Five Welfare Needs, Mayhew’s Animal Welfare Officers discourage the selling of animals in pet shops and educate pet shop owners on the issues that animal welfare organisations like ours see on a daily basis.

Every day our Animal Welfare Officers and Vet team work around-the-clock responding to animals in need, just like Rascal and Toby. We are entirely reliant on the generous donations from supporters like you.