Pity drove Sonia Ayala of Pasco to pick up the abandoned, crippled dog from outside of town a couple of weeks ago.
But her act of compassion put her in the middle of a cruel paradox. She can't afford to care for the dog, and now she's finding there aren't any options for a stray animal picked up out in the county.
"Now I'm stuck with this dog," said Ayala, 48. "I have called every number and ... there is nothing that exists for something like this."
Ayala called around to see if anyone could do something, but Tri-City Animal Control doesn't pick up or take dogs from outside city limits. And the sheriff's office wouldn't follow her out there to put the dog down, she said.
Unable to find help, Ayala let the matter go. But then at Christmastime, she saw the dog again while visiting a family on a farm north of Country Mercantile.
"I was shocked when I got there and the dog come up to us with the ball," she said.
Ayala made several more calls without luck. Finally, after New Year's she convinced her husband to go with her to get him.
"I was so glad because it was terribly frozen, he had no shelter," she said.
She thinks Chocolate was abandoned. Surely somebody used to take care of him, she said, because his teeth are in good condition and he's very friendly.
Now in a roomy pen in her back yard, he lies on his belly to keep weight off his legs, which are snapped like toothpicks. But if he sees you, he scoops up his ball, props himself up on his broken limbs and staggers over.
Despite the trauma, his affection for people prevails and he fights through the pain to get up close. He doesn't bark, and he eats like he hasn't eaten before, Ayala said.
But Ayala is out of work and can't afford to take Chocolate to a veterinarian.
She hoped to take him to the Benton-Franklin Humane Society, but it only accepts animals surrendered by their owners. The society can't take strays because the animals' histories aren't known and they could pose health risks to other residents of the no-kill shelter, said Ed Dawson, operations manager.
Now Ayala hopes someone with a big enough heart and enough resources will hear about Chocolate and take pity. She can be reached at 547-2687.
"He has survived the worst of things, even the weather out there," she said. "He's got such a will to live. ... Maybe someone else who lost a chocolate Lab would want to take him on."
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