Dog News

Picasso Was Almost Euthanized Because of a Deformity He Was Born With Made Him “Unwanted”

by Fred

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Picasso was born to a backyard breeder, and the poor guy was born with some facial deformities.  Every single other one of his litter-mates found forever homes, but no one wanted poor Picasso.  The breeder was unable to get anyone to take him and surrendered him to a shelter where he was almost euthanized.  Thankfully, a rescue was able to see past his problems, and discovered a really awesome little dog.

One look at Picasso, and his medical condition is very clear.  His upper jaw is twisted to the right, and his nose points off to the side.  The misalignment of his jaw is causing some of his teeth to poke into the roof of his mouth, and we believe that it would go without saying that meal time is a difficulty for him.  He can eat, it just takes longer than some dogs.  (My dog practically “Hoovers” his bowl clean in just seconds…)

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As mentioned, every other one of his litter mates found forever homes.  However no one wanted to take Picasso.  So the breeder actually took him over to the Porterville Animal Shelter in California.  The shelter IMMEDIATELY put him on the euthanasia list.  While all of this was happening, Picasso’s brother, Pablo was living with a different family, and he was surrendered to the same shelter because they just didn’t want him anymore, and he was resigned to the same fate as Picasso.

As luck would have it, both dogs were about to be rescued.  Luvable Dog Rescue out of Oregon is a group that often does transports for the Porterville Animal Shelter, and they were scheduled to help out there while the two brothers were there on death row.  The very second they heard about them, they knew they just had to rescue the two.

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“I was talking to volunteer Shannon Corbit about the dogs we were receiving and just happened to ask her out of the blue if she had any unusual-looking or special needs dogs,” Liesl Wilhardt, executive director of Luvable Dog Rescue, said in an interview with The Dodo.  “She responded, ‘Well, as a matter of fact, I do!’ and she sent me Picasso’s shelter intake photo.  He was curled in a dog bed, and looked very sad.  His twisted face was startling, but he had soft and gentle eyes, and for me it was love at first sight!  I could not imagine leaving the brother behind to die, so I checked with Ashley, our Luvable manager, to be sure we had the space for both, and then told Shannon to pull them off the euthanasia list – Luvable would take both boys.”

It didn’t take very long for the brothers to steal the hearts of everyone with their new rescue family.  No one could ever imagine why someone wouldn’t want a pair of dogs so loving and sweet.  They also have quite a bond between them, and are rarely ever far from each other.

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“Picasso and Pablo seem to be the best of friends and are really upset when separated from each other,” Wilhardt said.  “After watching them together for a couple of weeks now at Luvable, we think it’s in their best interest to be adopted to a home together.”

And things do look like that’s exactly what will happen for them.  There’s still the surgery to remove the teeth poking into the top of his mouth, but once that’s sorted, they’ll be good to go.  The rescue has already had a ton of interest in the two, so it really is just a matter of time for them.  We can think of no more deserving pair than these guys, and wish them the best of luck in their new lives.

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