Chain of Hope has been hit with a lot of medical cases this summer. Here are several from just the past month. We couldn’t do this work without you!
This is Teresa with her little Jack Russell mix named Gotti. Gotti is 10 yrs. old and he was having terrible mouth pain. He wasn’t eating, didn’t feel well and Teresa had no money and no transportation. Thank God someone told her about Chain of Hope and she called us. I picked up Gotti and got him into the vet. He was a very sweet little guy. We ended up scheduling a dental. He lost a lot of teeth and was on antibiotics to get his infection cleared up. I took Gotti home with his medication and a case of canned food. Teresa was very grateful and Gotti felt 100% better! Check out Gotti’s picture below. Believe it or not, those huge bottom incisors were healthy teeth and didn’t need to come out!
You might remember our recent face book post about Bear, a huge Newfie mix that Chain of Hope has cared for for years. We shave him every summer to help him be more comfortable. Chain of Hope has also provided Rimadyl for his horrible arthritis for the past year and a half to help him be as pain-free as possible. He is 11 yrs. old and his back end was very weak. I received a call from Bear’s owner this past week and she asked if I would come and get him and relieve him of his suffering. She said that he couldn’t even get up most of the time, he was very painful and that it was time. I went over and got Bear and took him for a humane euthanasia with dignity and love surrounding him. It was tough to tell my old friend good-bye. It was our privilege to be a part of your life, Bear, we love you!
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We had 6 tiny kittens brought to us the other day. They had been without momma for a few days and 2 of them were almost dead. We quickly got them fed and a fellow rescuer helped us by taking them. All 6 of them are still alive and starting to thrive. Thank you, Wanda!
Mary called us because her Yorkie was attacked by a large dog in the neighborhood and he was in bad shape. We hurried over and it didn’t look good. Osha could not stand, move, anything. We got to the emergency clinic and x-rayed him and he had a broken neck. He had to be humanely euthanized, but at least his momma was there with him-he felt her touch and heard her voice to comfort him. We are so sorry, Mary and Osha.
We received a call about this feral cat with a huge hole in it’s neck. No one could touch it and it was suffering. The picture doesn’t do it justice-it literally went about 1/3 of the way around his neck and was wide open. This had been going on for about 3 weeks. We took a trap over and caught this poor thing. We tested him for feline leuk and he was positive. That fact, along with this terrible injury, made the difficult decision for us to put him down. No more suffering.
Of course, we’ve had Gabby. Gabby was one sick little girl with a corn cob stuck in her intestines for over a week. Emergency surgery and a lot of TLC saved her life!
The following story is about Man Man. He is a long-term outreach dog that Judy and I have been going to visit since before Chain of Hope was ever formed. He’s a great dog and we are extremely fond of him! A few years ago, he was attacked by another dog and Chain of Hope paid to have him fixed up. We’ve kept close tabs on this boy through the years-he’s one of our favorites. We received a call last week from his owner-Man Man had been hit by a truck. We ran over and got him. His leg was badly damaged. He is at Chain of Hope recovering and will stay with us.
Helen was blown up with M-80s on July 3rd and hid for 10 days. Thank goodness, a concerned neighbor called Chain of Hope to come and get her. Helen lost one eye and had damaged vision in the other eye, which is thankfully coming back. Her hearing was damaged and her paw was badly damaged. Helen is healing very well! She was spayed last week and just looks great! She is in a great foster home and we are thankful!
We received a call from someone who said that she had found a dog that was not in very good shape. I called her twice in a couple of hours that morning but she didn’t answer. I told Judy that we should just head over there, that this didn’t sound good. When we arrived, we were met by a severely mentally challenged woman. She told us that she didn’t want to show us the dog because it was really bad. Supposingly, a man had brought her the dog in a wagon a couple of nights before and asked her to watch it for him. This entire thing was bizarre.
It took about 10 min. of talking to her to finally get her to bring the dog out. She had it wrapped in a blanket. She was an adorable little pit mix, sweet as can be.We could smell that horrible infection smell as soon as the woman stepped out on the porch. We pulled the blanket back and I can’t even describe this injury. Suffice it to say that she was ripped open on her underside in her groin area-wide open. Her back leg was broken. I will not even get into this long, complicated story but Judy and I rushed the dog to the vet. They couldn’t even amputate her leg because there would be absolutely nothing to close the wound with-there was no skin and no flesh. It was a severe, severe injury. The vet advised we put her down and we agreed. Even he couldn’t fix something like this and he’s good. This little girl never cried, never growled, never made a sound. This one will haunt Judy and me forever. I won’t even put the picture of the injury on here (and you know I put almost any picture on here!). It is that horrible.
I know that God put this passion for animals in our hearts and He gives us the strength to keep getting out there, facing extremely difficult challenges every single day. It is not easy, it is heart wrenching. We lay in bed at night and can’t fall asleep, thinking about all of the outreach animals that we encountered that day. We get up the next morning and do it all again, knowing that we will most likely encounter horrific things that day. You can see some of these terrible cases just from the past month and these aren’t all of them.
Whatever you believe in, send the prayers, good vibes, juju and donations our way! These are the things that keep us going. We love the beautiful cards that we get in the mail and we put them on our bulletin board for all of the (especially outreach) volunteers to read-they give us encouragement. Sharing our work is one of the best things you can do for us-it’s so easy to hit that share button! We love the face book comments. We are comforted to know that you cry with us, laugh with us and believe in us. You have our sincere appreciation. We are saving lives every day.