The facility was licensed and inspected and there was a fresh bucket of water by the gate where the inspector would see it.  However, the foot tub inside the gloomy, rock bottom 8x16' enclosure was rank and stunk.  Our first visit was to put flea medicine on him and to take photos to try and place him.  Our hearts sank for this boy as he  was obviously not "wolfy" enough looking for most people and he certainly wasn't "pet quality".  It was going to take a very special home to save him. 

We made plans to go back a month later for another dose of flea medicine.  That day we got a call from the owner asking if we were coming and if we would take him to the emergency vet since he was down.  At that point the man could have approached him, but we were worried about the animal and agreed to take him.  The owner agreed to pay the bill.  To his credit, the owner did pay the vet bill when all was said and done.  When we arrived, he had positioned himself underneath a low bench.  We muzzled him as a precaution but it was pretty clear he had little life left in him and had given up.  Sliding a sheet underneath him as a stretcher, we managed to get him out to the car.  He was so badly wanting out of there that he pulled himself into the back of the car and into the crate.  The whole trip back to Naples we kept smelling something horrible but thought it might just be his coat and bad health.  Once we had Elan on the table at the vet we started feeling him all over.  He had open sores of green pus under the hair and the collar had been embedded at one time but worked its way out and now there was nothing but flesh literally rotting underneath the heavy leather collar.  THAT was what we had been smelling during the ride.  The vet said he had the highest white blood cell count he had seen and that there was maybe a 50% chance of survival. 

We took Elan home and began the process of trying to medicate and feed him.  We tried dry food, canned food, chicken & beef (cooked & raw, chunked & ground), cheese, liverwurst, organ meats (kidneys, hearts, livers)….NOTHING appealed to this boy.  Finally, desperate, we called our animal communicator and asked if he had just decided to die.  She told us he wanted a "cheeseburger on a bun on a plate…a china plate like you'd get in a restaurant"…and a blue ball (he'd had one as a pup).  Nancy cooked up a cheeseburger, put it on a bun on a china plate & Deanna took it out to him.  He gobbled down half, took the other half and buried it for a midnight snack, then ate half of a 2nd burger.  Elan got the blue ball the next day.  Ever since that day he has eaten everything we give to him…it was a test to see if he could trust the two-leggeds to care for him.  He now has his own pack with Viggo, Precious and Beauty (known as the "Back Pack") and has appointed himself the guardian, warning everyone when strangers approach.  Elan is still very wary of people and has not forgotten what has happened to him in the past but he has learned to trust and even love some of our very special volunteers.