A Portree pooch came to the rescue of a fellow dog earlier this month by giving blood to a sick spaniel.
Five-year-old Hugo, who is a dalmatian/ labrador/collie cross was called in by his local vet Rhona Campbell to help a poorly canine counterpart, as his owner Rebecca Miller explained.
“Ages ago I noticed that in Rhona Campbell vets that they had a picture up asking for volunteers for a dog blood donor list,” said Rebecca. “It said it had to be a dog at least 25 kilogrammes and they were aiming for dogs that weren’t too old and in good health.
As we are in Portree, I said I’ll add Hugo to the list. That was a while ago, and then I received a phone call the Saturday before last from Rhona who said that they had a dog, a wee local spaniel, who was really poorly and his blood was at a critical level, so they asked if we could come in and donate.”
After receiving the call, Rebecca put her dinner on hold and took Hugo to the vet straight away.
“When we arrived they had to shave Hugo’s neck because they had to take the blood from there,” she said. “He had to stay really still, but he was really good, and then they did the transfusion later that night. Rhona said a few days later that he (the spaniel) was gradually improving — so it did make a difference!”
After his act of kindness, Hugo became the poster boy of Rhona Campbell Veterinary Centre’s Facebook feed in an attempt to encourage others to sign up for the donors’ list.
As well as receiving plenty of praise online, Hugo was also rewarded with a packet of treats afterwards.
Rebecca said: “He got a bag of his choice of Skye Tails biscuits — they have a whole basket in the vets, so I went to get him his favourite, which is peanut butter — but they didn’t have any so I got him chicken flavour instead.
“It was a nice little good deed to do, and it was good to hear that it helped the other dog— it was an unusual Saturday night!”