VIDEO: Abandoned Puppy ‘Señor’ Well-Loved at New Canaan Vet

The staff at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital is facing the bittersweet prospect of saying “goodbye” to the abandoned Chihuahua puppy who came to them malnourished, shocked and screaming with fear after being left outside CVS on March 20.

In the three weeks since, the approximately six-month-old puppy known here as “Señor” or “Señor Friend” (after initially taking on the simple name “Friend”) has been treated at the Vitti Street vet for demodectic mange and they’re getting his weight up—and he’s also getting a whole lot of TLC.

“We had to give him some injections for his skin and he really reacted because he was so afraid and within two days, he started acting like this, holding onto us, letting us love him,” said Dr. Paul Potenza, moments before shooting the video above with us. “Now when [Technician] Michelle [Galanek] walks out of the room he starts to cry because he wants her back.”

It isn’t clear who abandoned the pup. A woman who works at a Lantern Ridge Road home found him outside the CVS on Park Street in the afternoon of March 20—about three Thursdays ago.

Señor is still at least a couple of months away from being adopted out through the vet, and there’s been strong interest from area families. Potenza and Tina Socci, practice manager at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital, said they’re hoping it’s a local family.

“We are praying because we have spent a lot of time, a lot of energy, and we’re really attached to him, so we’d love to continue to see his progress over the years,” Socci told NewCanaanite.com.

Asked what type of home he’d like to see the little guy end up in, Potenza said: “One of our clients, because we’d love to see him again. And we know our clients really well and they take good care of their pets.”

How quickly he’s ready for a forever home will depend on his continued progress in recovering from the skin condition.

“You need to treat it for a month after complete resolution of the problem, so it can take a long time,” he said.

The vets soon will “scrape” Señor, which means checking for mites, and then they’ll give him medication and hope to see some hair re-growth. The type of mange that Señor came in with is “very common” for a puppy that’s been malnourished, Potenza said.

Despite what he’s been through, the persevering Señor has an “awesome” personality, Socci said.

“He’s an active, super-friendly little guy,” she said. “He’s a little wary of men, especially taller men, at first. We just go slow and try not to intimidate him and he’s fine. He eats really well. He’s playful. He’s happy.”

He plays regularly with dogs—the small dogs owned by other staffers at the New Canaan vet—and socializes very well, they said.