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Gem Of The Day: Have a Happy and Safe Memorial Day Weekend!

And Please Remember The Brave Americans Who Made This a Holiday. 

Dear Small Pawsers,

Happy Memorial Day to you all!

We have some great news for a change!

Bracco’s story is below. It’s an amazing story of strangers and our own volunteers coming together to save a life.

And save a life, they did! Bracco is walking after extensive fractured pelvis surgery on Monday, just five days ago!

Click Here To See Bracco Walking at his foster home! This is a .mov file.

Can you even believe it?! Thank you all so much for helping us to save our first Bichon-a-Doodle!

Here are some pictures of him for you from his foster Mom! He is on strict cage rest most of the time, so he can heal.

Coming home from the hospital!

Bracco was starved and he LOVES to EAT!

On May 27, 2021, at 4:26 PM, Valine Chang wrote:

“Good afternoon,

Just want to let you know Bracco slept well last night. Food and medicine intakes are good. Potty break/ sling walks are a little challenging. We are working on it. He was up and about and took some steps in his playpen earlier this afternoon (see attached video). We did some grooming over lunch hours, but more work to be done. He will feel so much better after he is all cleaned up. His skin is really bad. Hope current meds will help some, if not, will have the vet prescribe something during normal vetting. I will send another update after the weekend. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.     Thanks, Val

 

Bracco’s suture looks good.” So thank you all again! Bracco is going to be a great dog for someone!

 

Next, I know that so many of you donated for Bracco that I didn’t want to come and tell you about another emergency going on at the same time.

 

It seemed overwhelming to me so I knew it would be to you, too.

 

We had a little left over from Bracco’s surgery and I’m hoping we can fill in the blanks to pay the rest of this other emergency bill.

 

This last emergency was for little Bear, one of the Litter Brothers.

 

He was in obvious pain, panting, unable to get comfortable, so he went to the Charlotte Animal Referral and Emergency Hospital in N.C.

 

 

Look what they found in his urethra. Four bladder stones had to be pushed back up into his bladder so the surgeon could remove them the next day. The bill was $3600.00. 

 

 

The great news is that his incision looks good and he is back home with his brother, and litter mate of 8 years, Teddy.

They are VERY bonded and are back together at their foster home!

And we have more good news!

Our TN. Team Leader, Lori Foster, is back home after being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia last week.

She is back home and feeling great!

From Lori Foster at abichon@aol.com we have this update! Thank you for praying! Lori Foster update:

_________________________________________________________________

Dear Small Pawsers,

We have great news about little Bracco!

His surgeon, Dr. Laura Hinton, DVM, DACVS from Blue Pearl in Spring, TX., called me last night after the surgery and again today. She is very pleased with the surgical outcome!

She said she used five plates put together with screws to put him back together and she expects a full recovery.

She said that this morning he was able to “sling walk” and was toe touching and using his back legs in a “trying to walk” motion!

He was on IV pain killers up until this morning but has been switched over to oral. They are hoping he will eat for them today! They removed his catheter and he is producing normal clear urine. Yay!

So thanks to so many of you, he may be coming home as early as tomorrow! I’ve asked for pictures but I know how busy they are.

After we get him home with his foster Mom we’ll get some new pictures for you!

Thank you with all of my heart for saving this little guy! He will be a blessing to someone for many years to come, all thanks to you! All My Love, Robin

____________________________________________________________________

We have good news about our busted, hit by a car, little Bichon-a-Doodle, Bracco!

He did NOT need a blood transfusion!

When they got him plumped up with IV fluids, he began making new red blood cells, and they would like to take him into surgery this evening.

As you know, this surgery and hospitalization is going to run around $6000.00 including our 20% rescue discount.

In the mean time we have this GREAT challenge from Mike and Cindy Bush from the Great State of Texas! Thank you Mike and Cindy!

What is a matching challenge?

On May 24, 2021, at 10:57 AM, Michael Bush <mbush@flash.net> wrote:

Robin,

We’ll match the $500 challenge, donate $1000, and issue a $1000 challenge. 
That’s $2500 total. That will get us halfway there.

Thanks for all the good work you do.

Cindy and Mike Bush

Is there anyone who has been blessed to be able to match Mike and Cindy? 
As soon as I know more, I'll let you know, but it may not be until morning. 
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. Thank you! 

He's our little Bichon-a-Doodle and we are going to save him! All My Love, Robin

____________________________________________________________________

No time for a Gem of the Day.

This is a medical emergency. Late Saturday afternoon, Jody Ferraro, our South Texas Team Leader, was notified of a dog that had been HBC and was scheduled to be euthanized at 7 Saturday night at a shelter near the Mexican border.

 

Yes, the shelter named him “Noe”. ( The name “Noe” has been changed. We don’t name dogs anything that sounds like “no.”) We have changed his name to “Bracco”, the name of our South Texas Team Leader’s first Bichon, and her heart dog. With all of her hard work to save this dog, it only seemed right.

Jody’s “Bracco” was even in her wedding to her late husband, Steve.

Is our Bracco a Bichon? No, but he looks like he once met one. We are calling him a “Bichon-a-doodle”.

So, we had less than two hours to save our little Bracco with a severely broken pelvis, and our nearest volunteer was Annie Jenkins, another of the original 25 members from the old AOL Bichon Frise Board from 23 years ago, was 3 hours away.

The timing wasn’t going to work. We panicked for about 30 seconds and then Jody Ferraro and I went into emergency mode.

Since we wouldn’t be able to get to the mountain before the shelter closed and before they were to euthanize our Baby Bracco, (the vet estimated him at only 2 years old) we had to bring the mountain to us.

Angels were falling from the skies just to help us.

Our first angel was our retired South Texas Team Leader, Karla Carter, who had an idea and it worked.

I called the shelter and spoke with Kelsey, our second angel, a caring and compassionate shelter director.

They really wanted to help, but had no rescue for this poor baby who was in pain after having been hit by a car.

I explained the logistics of our situation and we made a plan. 

The nearest Animal ER was right around the corner from the shelter.

It was the Pet Doctor 911 Animal Medical Center located at 7017 N. 10th. St. McAllen, Texas. It was open 24 hours.

They were our third set of angels.

I called them explained that I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma and that we are a National Rescue. Bingo. They recognized our name.

I told then that our nearest volunteer couldn’t get there in time to save this life, but that Kelsey, the shelter director, told me to call and set up an account for this dog, leaving our credit card and then they could accept him.

But how would he get there? He has a broken pelvis and he can’t walk.

Our fourth angel was a volunteer for the shelter, named Barbara. She was called and drove up to the shelter to transport our boy to the ER around the corner. We had less than 30 minutes left, before he would have been euthanized.

He either needed emergency medical attention or he needed to go home to God. Barbara got him to the ER!

The vet, a lovely young lady, and our fifth angel, told us that she had seen the above picture of the x-rays and there was no reason for them to take them again as she could tell that he needed orthopedic surgery and they had no surgeon.

She suggested we try to get him to somewhere further north like Houston.

She said he was in a lot of pain ( you can see that in his eyes) and she was going to keep him out of pain and do some blood work.

Guess what. He’s Heartworm Positive. OF COURSE HE IS!

Our fifth angel was SPR Volunteer Annie Jenkins, who left her home in Corpus Christi at 8:00 on Saturday night, getting her there at 11:00 P.M. We put her up in a hotel and can never thank her enough for heading that way, toward the Border at that hour.

Sunday morning I got this text from Annie.

“I just made it to the border Control Inspection center.” 

Then our sixth angel entered.

It was Ron Geedman, an SPR Volunteer in The Woodlands, near Houston.

Ron headed out first thing Sunday morning toward the border, to meet Annie and Bracco.

Ron delivered Bracco to Blue Pearl Pet Hospital in Spring Texas. 

They stabilized him. I just talked to them and two surgeons say he is surgical! If we can raise funds, they may be able to do the surgery today.

The only thing that would put it off until tomorrow is that blood work shows he is anemic and dehydrated.

He may need a transfusion today. But if they can can get him hydrated, his blood counts may come up in time for surgery today. I think you all would want us to try to save this two year old precious boy. our first “Bichon-a-Doodle”.

The surgery estimate is for around $6000.00. It will be $500.00 more if he needs a blood transfusion. We’ve done this same surgery many times.

Remember Elf? Elf made National News when we did surgery on him after he was thrown from a car!

Elf is 100% normal and has the greatest home with a police officer and her husband. I get updates on him several times a week.

Let’s do that again for little Bracco. I’m here and will issue all matching donation challenges.

And many thanks to our angels, Karla Carter, Kelsey at the shelter, Barbara, the shelter volunteer and transporter, the vet at Pet Doctor 911, Annie Jenkins, Ron Geedman and Blue Pearl Vet Hospital in Spring Texas!

It does take a village!

This challenge was not answered last Friday so I’m leaving it up for Bracco!

On May 20, 2021, at 12:18 PM, Ardys Adams <ardys@ardysadams.com> wrote:

I’ll make a $500 challenge. Ardys

All My Love, Robin