Left to die … a pup called Tiny Tim
A PUPPY with a deformed leg was left for dead in a rubbish chute because the owner could not get any money for it.
The eight- week- old Staffordshire bull terrier’s cries were heard by two teenage girls who handed it to the police.
They took it to vets who decided to amputate the animal’s leg to improve its quality of life. Now the puppy, which has been named Tiny Tim, will enjoy Christmas with a loving family after one of the vets took it in.
Tim, born with a twisted right front leg, was dumped in the chute at an 18-storey tower block in Birmingham last Tuesday. It is thought the owner had been presented with a litter of puppies and decided no one would want to buy one with a twisted leg.
Staff at the McNaughton vet practice in West Bromwich fell for the pup, naming it after the crippled little boy in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
Tim is now being temporarily cared for by Ruth Cooper, 52, her husband Derek and their three children. The family also have two Jack Russells. Mrs Cooper, from Winson Green, said: ‘There is no need to dump a dog like Tiny Tim.
‘He could have been taken to any vet’s surgery and they would have looked after him.
‘Saying that, he’s a bit of a monster. He chews the furniture all the time. One of our other dogs, Sneekers, was a stray we took in. I don’t think he likes the pup that much because the pup gets all the attention. The puppy is very boisterous and when he gets too much the others just push him over because he is not too steady yet on three legs.
‘ He’s going to have a great Christmas with us and I will be sorry to see him go.
‘I hope that after Christmas he will be placed with one of our regular clients, who will give him a good home.’