Spotty
Spotty
My name is: Spotty
I came from: Hyderabad, India
Now I live in: Truro, Cornwall
My favourite things are: Walks, snacks, sunshine, sleeping and cuddles
Spotty’s story
We became interested in adopting a rescue dog after reading about Underdog and the amazing work they do. We initially reserved Ben who was rescued from a Chinese meat market by SHS. Unfortunately at the time we applied to adopt Ben, it was the start of the Covid pandemic and all flights from China stopped. Sadly, whilst we waited for flights to begin, Ben became ill and sadly died. We were upset that we had never got to meet him, but so wanted to give another dog a loving home.
In March 2021 we saw Spotty on the Underdog website. We were initially drawn to his photos as he had a crazy, mischievous look about him! On reading his story we learnt that Spotty was rescued from the streets of India as a two month old puppy, however, he’d been very unlucky and somehow managed to pick up Distemper which caused him to become really unwell.
He went on to spend over two months in a veterinary clinic being given round the clock care. He suffered severe weight loss, had dangerously low blood platelets, and was affected by muscle spasms and lockjaw as a result of neurological impact from the virus. It was touch and go for many weeks and his rescuer didn’t think poor Spotty was going to pull through.
Finally, in June 2020 Spotty was discharged from the clinic and has ultimately beaten his illness. He has been left with some neurological damage in the form of muscle tremors and due to lockjaw, his lower jaw is undeveloped. We made contact with Underdog who put us in touch with Trushula, Spotty’s rescuer and foster carer in India. After many messages and photo exchanges we were happy that Spotty would be coming to Cornwall to join us.
On April 17th 2021, Spotty began his long 5000 mile journey from India. He initially flew to Dubai before flying to Heathrow. We were very grateful to Nadine from Underdog who kindly accommodated us overnight. This meant that Spotty could have a rest after his 48 hour journey.
Meeting Spotty for the first time was a surreal experience. It was hard to imagine that he was born on the streets of India, survived a near fatal illness and then travelled halfway around the world. After a final 6 hour car journey, Spotty arrived in his new home. He has been with us a year now and has settled in amazingly well. He has a great personality and is almost cartoon-like in his looks. He is a loving dog but is quite protective of his own space - he resource guards Jo and I, as well as his food, but this is all work in progress. He loves a cuddle at night and always likes to have his body pressed against yours.
He loves to play with our other rescue dog, Marshall, who is a three legged Collie. We take them to our local dog safe paddock and Spotty enjoys outrunning poor Marshall, he always has a ‘catch me if you can’ look on his face! We also have a 16 year old Springer/collie cross who Spotty is very good around, he gives him lots of space.
It has been amazing watching Spotty develop and discover new experiences. He has been to the beach, he’s getting used to getting his toes wet and has experienced his first frosty morning! He was initially avoidant of wet ground, and wouldn't even stand on wet grass, but now he will now paddle quite happily in the streams of our local woods. We often get stopped when out with Spotty as he is such an unusual looking dog. People are so interested when they hear his story and we always explain about the great work that Underdog does.
Sometimes it's hard to believe his story and the hardships he went through to be here today. We are so grateful to his wonderful foster mum Trishula in Hyderabad and Nadine, Eve and Stef at Underdog.