It was a day in July, 2018, our good friend Maureen McCann called and asked for a favor...Maureen was the Animal Services Supervisor and had picked up an abandoned dog. She was a little thing, full of fleas, fox tails, had no chip and was not spayed.
She is a Shih Tzu Mix, approximately 8 to 10 years old. It was also evident that she had given birth, perhaps several times. Most disturbing was the large mass sticking out of the right side of her mouth. Maureen saw that her immediate care was addressed and had to decide whether to take her to County or not. Elk Grove was still in the construction stage of our shelter. Afraid that her story would not have a happy ending, Maureen asked if we could foster “for a few days” until she could find other arrangements. Well, you have heard the term “Foster Failure”, we considered this to be “Foster Family” We loved her from the moment we set eyes on her and I’m sure she knew we were her “family” My first reaction was “OMG, she is so Precious” Now, what shall I name her? Not too difficult, PRECIOUS! We then learned that the mass in her mouth was a very aggressive cancer and was deemed terminal. It was so aggressive that it pushed all of her teeth on the right side of her jaw to the center of her mouth. Most were loose with roots exposed.
While she was still under the care of Animal Services, her teeth were extracted which aided in her comfort level. If it’s possible, we loved her more each day and every time we looked at her, we would cry at the loss we knew would be coming.
Her personality was that of an angel! She was so sweet, loving belly rubs (all the time) and extremely obedient. She knew to bark to go out, go lay down while we were eating, jumped for joy when she saw her harness and lease and cuddle with us for as long as we desired. She would wake in the morning, give us kisses and then curl up to go back to sleep. Her laid back nature would go from zero to 100 when it was time for her treats. She would literally hop, jump, go in circles until she settled on our laps, and eagerly awaited her treat. Her eyes told us to hurry up! We knew she was ours for as long as we were privileged to have her. It wasn’t long before we knew we were not ready to let her go. We decided to explore the odds of addressing her cancer as well as the cost to do so. We knew it would not be easy and upon her first oncology examination, we were told the cost could be $11,000 to $35,000 depending on our choice of the path we wished to go. Removal of her jaw, as well as Chemo treatments were taken off the table immediately. We loved her too much.
Heartbroken, we felt resigned to losing her within a couple of months. A faint message of hope came to us in the nature of Dr. Kristen Cuoto, our Oncologist at Vista Specialty, now at MarQueen Vets. She had been speaking with Raymond Esquivel at UCDavis and they suggested we consider palliative treatments. They consisted of four radiation treatments with a cost of $3500 to $5000. It would allow her to be much more comfortable with the removal of the mass as well as extending her life. Being fortunate enough to be able to carry the cost, we immediately started her treatments. Her guardian angel at UCDavis was Dr. Heather Ashcraft. The care and love she received was extraordinary. Precious handled her treatments, hair loss and sensitive skin as just another day being happy. Treatments were a total of four, one every week for a month. Her checkup a month later revealed: NO CANCER
We continue to monitor her every three months and pray to have her in our lives for a very long time. Anyone who owns a pet knows the joy, heartbreak and unconditional love of our Best Friends! It had always been our hope to be able to assist those who need help with the high cost of medical/dental care for their pets as well as helping those in our shelter. Precious became our inspiration for our fund “Paws For A Purpose” The purpose is two-fold to benefit our shelter. The first would be to assist with families for emergency care so that they are not forced to give up their family pet and thus put a burden on our animal shelter.
We all know the best place for our pets is to remain in their forever home! The second is to assist animals in the shelter with medical/dental care so that they are happy, healthy and adopted by a loving family as soon as possible. One hundred percent of the funds received by our annual “Paws For A Purpose” will be dedicated to this mission!