Golden boy

The minute Bentley arrived, the shelter’s veterinary staff knew he needed to get to a clinic equipped to help him. And fast.

SWEET PUPPY, SERIOUS CONDITION

You might think there’s no way an eight-week-old goldendoodle puppy would end up in a shelter, but Bentley is proof that it happens. A woman in Houston bought Bentley from a breeder, and the same weekend she brought him home, he started having seizures. The breeder didn’t respond to her calls, so she brought the tiny pup to a vet clinic. When the vet said they’d need to run tests to determine what was causing the seizures, the woman wasn’t prepared to go down that road. So, she surrendered Bentley to the Harris County animal shelter. By that time, the puppy was having seizures every two hours. The minute he arrived, the shelter’s veterinary staff knew he needed to get to a clinic equipped to help him. And fast.

Best Friends in Houston’s manager, Kerry McKeel, happened to stop by the shelter’s medical area while a vet was holding the little bundle of golden curls. “Every moment was terrible for him,” Kerry says. “He was so disoriented, just looking off into space and howling.” The puppy couldn’t wait any longer for help, so Kerry took him straight to a veterinary specialist that Best Friends works with in Houston.

They got to work on Bentley right away and discovered the problem: a small cyst on his brain. Bentley was started immediately on a regimen of medication to stop the seizures, and Kerry brought him home. After all he’d been through, little Bentley was confused and seemingly distant, barely paying attention to anything around him. But after a few days of the medicine doing its job, he turned a corner. Within a week, his symptoms disappeared, and he turned into the bouncy, sweet puppy he was meant to be.

Sure, he might always have to take medication, but his prognosis is good. Now the happy and fast-growing pup will have everything he needs, including — soon — a new permanent home.