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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIf anyone stepped near his kennel, he bared his teeth, flattened his ears, and let out a deep growl that echoed off the concrete. He wouldn\u2019t let anyone touch his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of the notes and his behavior, he was labeled \u201cRescue Only\/Euthanasia Risk.\u201d Dogs with bite reports rarely make it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m the head veterinary technician at the county shelter. I\u2019ve seen true aggression. But when I looked at Buster, I saw fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His eyes were wide. His body rigid. His tail tucked tight. I asked for twenty minutes before any final decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I couldn\u2019t examine him safely awake, so I used a mild sedative. Within minutes, his head rested on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I entered the kennel and began a full exam. Paws. Joints. Teeth. Nothing obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I lifted his left ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buried deep inside was a massive infected foxtail, hidden from view. The tissue was swollen, red, and burning hot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buster wasn\u2019t vicious. He had been living with blinding pain. Every touch to his head must have felt like a blade twisting inside his ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He wasn\u2019t attacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was begging for the pain to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I removed the foxtail, flushed the infection, and packed the ear with medication. Then I sat beside him as the sedation faded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When his eyes opened, I waited for the growl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It never came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, he looked at me, crawled forward, and pressed his face into my chest with a long, relieved sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dog labeled too dangerous to live just wanted relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two weeks later, Buster was adopted by a family who understands him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are no bad dogs\u2014only pain, fear, and people who don\u2019t listen soon enough. \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The surrender form was filled out in thick black ink. Under \u201cReason,\u201d the family wrote: \u201cSudden and unprovoked aggression. Snapped at my husband. Dangerous.\u201d His name was Buster, a four-year-old… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtNC53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xOTQlMkMyNTkmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJUaGUgc3VycmVuZGVyIGZvcm0gd2FzIGZpbGxlZCBvdXQgaW4gdGhpY2sgYmxhY2sgaW5rIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.fNtTwegbyNSin_0MjkFqLP5gDD0uv_AGtoBPiuoBuAcMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[13978],"class_list":["post-63483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-the-surrender-form-was-filled-out-in-thick-black-ink"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63485,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63483\/revisions\/63485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}