Frozen Puppy Loses Tail and Penis Tips

Callously left to die in the freezing temperatures of January a puppy is one out of ten to survive; parts of his little four-week-old body had frozen off.

Brenda Flatjord, of Waukon, said that she and friend, Kim Kloke, along with her seven-year-old son Jess Kloke, rescued a freezing pup in Northeast Iowa.

"Something had definitely happened to his tail and we were shocked to find out that he had damage to the end of his penis. After a trip to the vet in the morning it was discovered both were lost to frostbite and exposure. Samson was underweight, full of worms, and needed some TLC," said Flatjord in an email.

Flatjord is a volunteer for PAW (People for Animal Welfare). She explained that there were originally ten pups in the litter but eight of his siblings sadly froze to death and one died at birth. For some reason this one puppy survived she said and so he has been named Samson.

"Samson is a true survivor and that is how I came to name him," Flatjord said.
Samson and his nine siblings were born on a cold January day on a farm in Northeast Iowa. Their mother is believed to be a chocolate lab mix and the father was apparently German Shepherd or Rotweiler, Flatjord said. The story that Flatjord tells of the history of Samson is not a pretty one.

The owners of Samson's mother were supposed to have her spayed before she was to be adopted out by PAW, but they unfortunately that did not happen; When Flatjord contacted the owners one day about the mother she was told that the mother was pregnant again and due any day, and worse still, they had decided to keep her. They told her at the time that they wanted to get help with the pups as they did not want them. Flatjord says that she instructed them to make a warm shelter for the mother - and was told that they would do so. The owners were also instructed to contact her to make arrangements for the puppies when they were born and they didn't.

When again Flatjord did not hear anything from the owners, she called them, and she was told that one of the puppies had died at birth and eight of the others had died from exposure. One had survived though, but it was in poor condition, she was told.

Upon questioning the owners as to what had happened, they said that they did not have time to get the mother set up with a warm place to have the pups. The female owner told her some other things that better explain just how these puppies came to such an excruciating demise.

"She tried to convince her husband to set them up with a heat lamp somewhere, but his comment was" I'm not spending money on that for puppies, let Mother Nature take its course"! So the pups started dying and by the time I had called to see if she had them, there was one left and against her husbands wishes they put a heat lamp out for the last one but it was not doing well as it's tail had frozen off," Flatjord said, explaining what the woman told her.

Flatjord pointed out that after speaking to the woman she immediately set up to pick the puppy up Friday after work. When she and the Klokes arrived at the owners to pick up the surviving pup, the family, with their four children, handed him over.

"They didn't even care to know what was to happen to him, not even a goodbye," she said. "Not even the blink of an eye about the puppies dying or saving this one...that bothered me the most," Flatjord 's injuries can be fixed, but he will need surgery, she explained. Her faith in humanity was restored by the act of a young boy.
"A seven-year-old boy...took little Samson to church with him one Sunday and raised a portion of his surgery cost that day," she said.

She explained that they need to raise $250 for his operations. He is gaining weight and some time in March, when he is about ten weeks old, he will have his corrective surgeries and be placed up for adoption, she explained. Dr. Chris Jenson from Monona Veterinary Clinic is going to donate a large portion of the expense to have this done for him. Flatjord requested that people please send any donations to help with Samson's surgery to PAW.