DR. MILLIE CATES 8/11/2026 THE SIMON CONWAY SHOW

All across the great state of eye where it is, the Simon Conway show, I do not understand some humans. I really don't. You know, we only get rescue dogs in my house. We have, right now, two of them. We have Magnus, who when our son found him, he was dressed as a burrito. He had, really, he had no life. He was kept in a store as a prop. And that was his life. He lived in the store. He had nobody to love him or anything else. That's just how he lived. Our chocolate brown lab, Hank, purebred chocolate brown lab. His owners had to have had him from a puppy because when we got him, he was one year old. And he weighed 44 pounds because they moved house and they abandoned him inside. Today, by the way, he weighs about 75 pounds, which is where he should be. Which brings us to the story of Blossom. Blossom is a puppy, about five months old, based on pictures I've seen, has maybe some golden in her, maybe some lab, I don't know. Five months old, full-sized dog weighs 9.7 pounds. On the phone with us on the Davidson Family Dentistry Newsmaker line is Dr. Kate's from the Animal Rescue League. We're going to tell a Blossom story in a minute, but before anything else, you've had her for what, about 24-48 hours? How's she doing? Yeah, so we've actually had her since August 8th. And so she's been doing okay. All things considered, she's really doing okay. We're very happy that we've got her. Right. So this dog was emaciated, obviously. Critical condition, obviously, 9.7 pounds. Two people found a garbage bag. On top of the garbage bag was a pet food bowl. They went down a path into an overgrown ditch, and they found the puppy. Yep. You say it's a large breed dog. What do we think she is? Yeah, I think you said it. She does look like a golden retriever puppy. She's got that really nice golden color. She's got that kind of fringy, long hair. So until proven otherwise, I would label her as a golden retriever puppy. Okay. You heard the story of My Two Dogs, the one before that. He was found wandering, he also, by the way, was a chocolate brown lab, pure bread, chocolate brown lab. He was found wandering around, and based on his condition, they thought he'd been outside for about eight months, which we didn't understand, actually, how he survived that until we'd had him quite a few years, because he displayed no alpha tendencies at all. And then one day he did, which was, and we were all like, oh.

That's how we do it. But I didn't even know he was a chocolate brown lab. He had very short, coarse, almost calico cat-colored hair as opposed to fur. But we just fed him properly for two weeks, and he turned into an absolutely beautiful chocolate brown lab. Do you ever question what is wrong with humans that do this to animals? Does that ever enter your head, or are you just more concerned about the patient? Yeah, I mean, absolutely. When I saw her, my first thoughts are just like, oh my gosh, how do I even help you? And then just kind of go into the list of what I need to do for her. And then it's like when I'm driving home or just kind of sitting, I'm like, wow, someone most likely did this to you. And it's just crazy that it still exists, honestly. But yeah, I think that's fair. But in the moment, it's just more like, oh, my goodness, we need to do something right now. You know, I had a Florida show, and at the last big hurricane, somebody tied a dog up next to I-75. The water was already up to his belly. It is quite amazing that a state trooper saw him from the side of the road and went and rescued him. But he'd have drowned. People are just so freaking evil. I don't understand it. Yeah, and it's hard to say, like, what happened here. I mean, we don't know the full story. You know, I only know that she just didn't have, she wasn't eating, wasn't drinking. She was severely dehydrated, amaciated, like we said. So, you know, I can only just think about her and what it means to get her better and, you know, rooting for her to get better. I know all of this are. But, yeah, it's a lot to think about sometimes, yeah, to sit with. She has a long road, right? No doubt, yeah. I mean, like I said, we've had her since the eighth. And it's been really slow games, really slow, like trying to get a little bit stronger every day. But, yeah, she's got a long road. She's got to build back up everything that she lost. Right. So, I mean, here's a question. How much should a five-month-old golden retriever, that's where we're going. We think she's a golden retriever. Yeah. How much should a five-month-old golden retriever weigh? A healthy one. Yeah. I mean, I would think that we would be looking at, like, teams or 20. They're usually kind of roly-poly, you know, they're a bigger breed dog, so easily can anticipate being like a mid-sized dog. I mean, we're... So she's a girl, so she's slightly smaller, so what, mid-20s to, if she's on the heavy side, maybe 40 pounds as a five-month-old? Yeah, I would say we're probably looking at the 20 to 30 range. Yeah, I think that's fair. So, having first scratched your head and how do I help you, what are you doing? I mean, what are you doing for? The feeding must be the hardest part because you can't just say, hey, here's a massive bowl of food, go eat, right? Because that'll just make her ill. So how do you even begin to approach something like this?

Yeah, exactly. So the business thing with that, she was severely dehydrated. So we've got to resuscitate her fluid balance. So got an IV in, started giving her IV fluid. She was high, had a lower temperature, so wanted to make sure that she could warm up. So she was definitely in the elements and not really sure how long she had been outside. And then, yeah, figuring out, like, okay, how do we just, like, be really careful feeding you? So, just a really small portion, taking it easy. She's been really good about it. I mean, you can tell she wants to eat you out of house and home, but just really, like, telling people, like, okay, she's on a strict feeding plan. You know, this is what we need to do to just kind of slowly get her body used to it. Got to recheck weight, kind of make sure that she's able to. you know, use the bathroom too. So all those things, you just have to really take the whole team, and thankfully, you know, the rest of the league has that. Absolutely. Well, you guys are miracle workers. I know they regard you that way down there as well. And we've seen some of these dogs come out the other end, and that is a testament to you and your team. So we'll keep hoping for her, and we'll keep tabs on her. I think we'll... We'll do little regular check-ins with her and see how she's doing. Yeah, I appreciate the support from everyone. I'm thankful to, again, be a part of the organization and to have a platform like this. So, yeah, please keep free for her and thinking about her. It's a very long road. She's very weak. If she has it in her, though, you can just tell by her eyes. Like, she's. That's what I noticed. I noticed their eyes. That's amazing. That's the first thing that got me was her eyes. Yep. I'm like, wow. Okay. You're here. We're in this together. Okay, we got this. So. Well, Dr. Kates, thank you very much. And by the way, people go to ARL-Iowa.org. And if you can donate some cash, it helps with all the things like the medicine and the food and everything else. Dr. Kates, thank you very much. Appreciate you, man. Thank you so much. Take care. All right. Take care. Bye for now. We'll take a quick final time out. How do humans do this to animals? I seriously cannot get my head around it. This is the Simon Conway show.