Puppy with eye injury rescued from trash can on frigid night

Sue Thoms mlive.com GRAND RAPIDS, MI – An 8-week-old puppy with an injured eye was found crying in a trash can in frigid weather near a Grand Rapids home the night of Wednesday Feb. 5. The puppy was rescued by a woman who brought it to the Kent County Animal Shelter. “I would love for her to have a home by Valentine’s Day,” said Dr. Cassandra Bliss, a veterinary ophthalmologist who is caring for the injured puppy. The dog, named Foxy, is a brown and white Chihuahua mix. Temperatures were in the teens Monday night when a Grand Rapids woman said she heard crying from inside a garbage can near her house, according to the animal shelter. She pulled the tiny puppy from the garbage can and brought it inside. She cared for it overnight and contacted Kent County Animal Control the next day. Dr. Laurie Wright, the animal shelter veterinarian, said Foxy clearly had something wrong with her eye. “It appears she can see, but we could not tell how bad the damage to her eye was, and I knew it was something that needed a specialist’s attention,” Wright said. Bliss, who has assisted the shelter with injured pets, agreed to take care of Foxy. Bliss said it appears the puppy suffered some type of trauma around her eye, but it’s possible the problem could be caused by a birth defect. She plans to operate on the eye Wednesday and hopes to be able to repair it. It’s possible the eye may have to be removed. If that’s the case, Bliss said Foxy should be able to adjust. After the operation – in which Foxy also will be spayed – the puppy will be released to the animal shelter and made available for adoption. “Foxy deserves a good home,” Bliss said. For information on adopting pets through the animal shelter, go to icpawz.com. to read more: mlive.com