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A 10-year-old chow chow pulled from a wash by three women had a week of tender loving care before succumbing to tick fever Sunday.

The dog, named Clay by his rescuers, was found buried up to his neck in mud Aug. 4 in a wash next to the Rillito River near East Fort Lowell Road and North Columbus Boulevard.

"He could not get up, and if he had laid his head down, he would have drowned. He was so weak," said Rita Anderson, who, along with Doreen Hagerman, used a sling fashioned from a bedsheet to pull the dog up the side of an embankment after another neighbor, Rachel Pfister, waded into the foot-deep mud to pull the dog free.

Clay was taken to the Pima Animal Care Center but did not receive veterinary treatment for three days. On Aug. 7, the dog was taken to Benarda Veterinary Hospital by a representative of Hope Animal Shelter, which is based at the vet clinic.

When he arrived at the clinic, Clay's fur was so matted that some of the tangles were the size of baseballs. Beneath the fur, his skin was scabbed and raw, and crawling with hundreds of ticks. Clay vomited mud for much of his first day at the vet hospital. During the first two days at Benarda, he lay nearly motionless in his kennel. Blood and urine tests revealed he had tick fever and kidney failure.

After almost a week of I.V. fluids, medication, a shave by a local groomer and get-well visits from his rescuers and other animal lovers, Clay seemed to rally.

By Friday he was eating on his own, standing for short periods and taking an interest in his caregivers. New blood tests showed improvement.

Sunday, however, Clay began bleeding out, a symptom of tick fever, said Susan Scherl, director of operations for Hope Animal Shelter.

"At least he didn't die by suffocating in the mud," said Scherl, who was with Clay in his final minutes. "At least he had comfort the last few days of his life and people who cared about him. It was nice how everyone jumped in to help."

Pfister had considered adopting him.

"I was so sad when I heard about Clay," Pfister said. "He just kind of personified all the homeless, stray, neglected, abused pets that there are.

"Maybe we can turn this into something positive — a plea to people to spay and neuter," she said. "Going to Animal Control and seeing row after row after row of dogs — it's horrible. People are so irresponsible. All people need to do is spay and neuter."