While Yessenia was doing errands in Puntarenas she saw a dog in very bad shape. Right away she took pictures and sent me the location in the hopes that someone would go and pick him up.

I was scheduled to be in Puntarenas the following day and since no one had offered to help we set about to look for him.

We found him under a car in one of the properties in the area and whisked him off to the vet. Close up his condition was terrifyingly dire. He had hardly any hair and he was full of fleas roaming freely all over his skin. He was absolutely covered in wounds from the mites and possibly from the constant scratching.

The vet said his prognosis is 'reserved' which is code for 'we don't know if he will pull through'. She did not however suggest euthanasia, so we continued with treatment which included taking samples of blood and a skin scrape to determine what is causing the mange.

It is very likely the Polar has erlichia as well, which can be a silent, slow killer, but is very treatable.

Polar's test results have come back. He doesn’t have mange. In fact he has parasitosis. He has at least a few parasites including dirofilaria (heart worm) which is transmitted by mosquitos and dipilidyum with is carried by fleas. In addition he has erlichiosos which is tick borne.

He needs an anti parasite treatment, doxycycline for the erlichia, a liver protector and protector for the lining of the stomach. He needs good quality food and liver.

Trying to do rescue in Puntarenas is a real challenge. When I am there I am always doing errands but the moment something needs to be done while I am not there is when I realise how tough it actually is. Polar needed an anti parasite injection and since he was really in such a bad state we needed to get it done ASAP. So we started looking for someone to donate transport and out of the woodwork Nathalie came to the rescue. She coordinated with Yesenia to pick up Polar and off to the vet he went. Polar had picked up a kilo and a half!

While all of this was happening Brie got in touch with me. She had been watching Polar's progress and her and her husband Gustavo had agreed to foster him. So plans were made to take him to the vet on Saturday to do a distemper test and rule that out and then to Heredia where he would stay with Brie and Gustavo.

Polar's distemper test came out negative and he had gained another kilo! Polar's fur is definitely looking thicker, his skin a lot less pink and he seemed a lot less listless. The trip to Heredia was a bonding time for Polar and I, he still had trust issues, but at this stage he knew I was all he had. I struggled to get him out of the car, but once out I took him straight to his new bed where he curled up right away. In the hour and a half I was there he got to explore the house, ate dinner, took his meds and tested the escapability of the fence.

When I first met Polar I didn't see his tail wag, Brie says he wags it all the time now. He enjoys chilling outside or just sitting on the covered patio while he looks out. He rolls in the grass and played with his bone on his blanket for 20 minutes, entertaining himself and just enjoying the simple things about being a dog.