October 5, 2023

Guess Who Got ADOPTED!!

Congratulations to Sammie for finding an amazing furever home!

We are so excited to see him finally get his fairytale ending. He deserved this so much after everything he’s been through.

I’m sure he’s going to fill his mom’s world with so much love, stories and adventure. And I’m sure he’s going to appreciate her for changing his story!

We are swooning, over the moon and so happy for him. We all love Big Sam so much and wish him the happiest of tails!

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September 5, 2023

I don’t even know how to make this post. I’m shaking and crying as I type this so forgive me for any typos and any rambling that may occur. It’s been an emotional few days.

We fight along side them, sparing no expense, until they say to stop. This morning she said she couldn’t go on anymore. She was weak, lethargic, back to not eating and despite the fact that we kept trying to feed her, her stomach quit working and she just couldn’t eat anymore. The vet suspects that she had stomach cancer. That’s one of the few things that will cause the stomach to fill with lime green bile and the only explanation we have for what happened. She just went down hill so fast.

She left us. She left us holding the pieces of our hearts and feeling broken. It is with tear filled eyes that we regret to inform you that our sweet Sasha just crossed the rainbow bridge.

She left this world knowing she was loved. Her amazing foster mom (Liz) and dad (Dylan) gave her 3 months of kindness, understand, patience and love. We are eternally grateful for their dedication. Liz held her closely as she crossed the bridge and Sammie said goodbye, put his head in her lap and sighed. His heart is no doubt broken as well.

Please keep them all in your prayers. Sasha had us all captivated and left us all absolutely shattered

Run free beautiful girl. Spread your wings and fly higher than the skie

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September 4, 2023

I think one of the hardest things about rescue is the emotional roller coaster you ride every single time you have a sick dog in your care.

You throw everything you have into getting them better, turning them around and changing their story to include a happy ending.

It’s hard to know when to stop. I’ve gotten all the opinions from ‘she’s just a rescue dog’ to ‘she’s 6 years old and that’s old for a Saint’. Except it isn’t.

We took this same track with Aragon. We kept going as long as he said go, despite the fact that he was an older dog with odds stacked against him. He’s now living the life he’s always dreamed of with the best pawrents who love him more than imaginable. He’s happy.

We want that same fairytale ending for Sasha too.

She’s still fighting this out but the roller coaster ride continues. Last night she was back to not eating. She’s gone from 110lbs to 94 because we can’t get enough calories I to her to maintain. That’s a huge weight loss in such a short time and it scares me.

She’s still at the vet clinic today with expenses that just keep going. But it is what it is. We can’t let her go until she says she’s ready. And right now she’s not telling us that. So we keep going.

I’m hoping she’s just constipated. She ate a few cans of food and has yet to have a significant bowel movement.

We're adding more cerenia, pepto, sucralfate, miralax and metoclopramide on board. If it is mechanical, the metoclopramide /should/ stimulate her enough to move things along. We're not sure how it will effect her if her case is the same as the others, but it's a hail Mary. Liz got her to eat exactly two pill pockets and is syringe feeding her some wet food to try and get calories in.

I’ll update more as I have more information. Liz is going to take her home for the night and bring her back to the clinic on the morning with plans to do a barium study tomorrow if things don’t improve.

In the meantime please pray for Sasha and for her foster mom, Liz. She’s doing an amazing job with Sasha and has really poured her heart into taking care of her. As you can imagine she is incredibly invested here and has the front seat on this ride.

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September 1, 2023

She’s out of surgery but not out of the woods and to be honest we don’t have any answers as to what happened.

There was no foreign body, no obstruction, her stomach is still tacked so it cannot flip. I’ll spare you the graphic pictures but everything inside was pink and perfect in appearance.

That means it’s something mechanical. Or a reaction triggered by the immiticide. That’s not good.

The plan is IF she recovers from anesthesia- let her rest at the clinic tonight and tomorrow. They drained a ton of green bile/fluid, nearly 3 liters in fact. We're going to see if that is what she needed. Liz is going to bring big Sam to keep her company and calm so she isn't so wound up. And spend as much time as possible with her. She’ll monitor her closely through the weekend. If she still won't eat by tomorrow night and continues to vomit/decline, the dvm will come in and help her go peacefully. We do not want her to suffer. She’s been through enough. For now we’ll keep her on fluids and antibiotics and see if we can get her back to normal.

Sasha has had such a hard life. Her people dumped her at the shelter, no doubt because they knew she was sick. She was in trouble then. We’ve been by her side for the past 3 months fighting with her. And as long as she was fighting, we would find a way. You all have been right on this roller coaster with me.

I know she’s 6 years old and for a Saint Bernard that’s getting close to lifespan. But more than anything I just wanted to give her a little time on this earth to learn what love feels like. To know what it means to have someone who loves you through all of your broken pieces and who would go to the end of the earth for you. She deserves warmth, comfort and security… good food and a happily ever after so she has someone to wait on the other side for. She deserves all of that.

All of it.

Come on baby girl. Don’t quit. I promise you there’s a life waiting for you.

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August 31, 2023

Sasha update:

At the moment she’s stable. Not great, but stable. Her respiration is very high and she’s obviously uncomfortable. We have torb on board as well as pain meds to help her, gas x and sucralfate.

This is either straight up recurring bloat or a real bad reaction to the immiticide. Either isn’t good but she’s pulled through harder things than this before.

Why can’t we operate? We already did that 2 months ago when she bloated the last time.

The fact that her stomach is tacked is a huge advantage. The issues is the heartworms.

In cases when adulticidal therapy has already been initiated, anesthetic procedures should be delayed for 6 months to ensure clearance of dying worms.

The worry is that during anesthesia/sedation with the worms dying off, risk of throwing a clot or other pulmonary complications are super super high because of the dying heartworms breaking off.

In other words, sedating her right now will kill her.

If it comes to it we may be able to try a super mild sedative like buprenorphine or torbugesic to try to release gas, but the worry is if she's not fully sedate she could chew the tube and swallow it.

So for now it’s medicate and close observation for the night. If she doesn’t improve on her own we may have to try other means to help her through it.

Cross fingers and keep praying. It’s going to be a long night.

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July 20, 2023

We’re getting there. Slow but sure, we’re building a healthy, happy dog.

It’s been a few weeks of recovery from Sashas emergency gastroplexy. And collectively our hearts all slid into our throats while we waited for that news. We all know the odds of surviving bloat for these dogs and with high level heartworms, Sasha’s odds of survival were even lower.

But she did it! With the grace that only a Saint can wear, she came through like the warrior she is while we all wished and prayed for her.

So now we get to hold hands and do it again as she started her heartworm treatment this morning. Because Sasha is high level, meaning she’s got a lot of them, she isn’t a candidate for the slow kill method that is less expensive and less restrictive. She will receive 3 injections of immiticide at different intervals over the next few weeks. And we expect these next few weeks to be very hard for her both emotionally and physically.

She has an amazing foster mom and dad who are not only very skilled in veterinary care, but committed to keeping her comfortable, happy and occupied during her resting period.

Hang in there girlfriend. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, sweet Sasha! And soon you will be ready for a home that will show you the love and care you should have gotten all this time.

We are still paying off expenses for Sammie and Sasha and with the immiticide treatments added in we have a little over a $3000 balance to go.

If you’d like to help these amazing dogs who have been through so much and come so far you can do so with any of these methods.

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June 27, 2023

How about we start this fine Tuesday morning with a bit of good news?

Yeah? I thought so too!

Sammies biopsy results are in and they came back as benign fibromas! Benign! That means they’re not cancer. The only way to get rid of them is to surgically remove them and we’ve done that so hopefully they don’t come back.

I can’t even tell you what a relief that is. I was so worried about him and what his future looked like. I was worried it was very serious given the number of them and I was especially worried.

He does have hip displaysia in one hip but we’re working on that for him too. Sometimes this can be managed with joint supplements and medication to keep the discomfort and inflammation under control. At this point we’re working with the vet to determine what is most effective for him.

Sammie will continue to heal and is doing great. He still needs an additional 20-30lbs on him but he’s already gained a bit in spite of all the medical poking and prodding he’s had to endure.

Sasha will be starting heartworm treatment next week. Please keep them both in your thoughts and prayers as they embark together on recovery

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June 20, 2023

Sammie and Sasha update:

It’s going to be a pawsitively great Tuesday!

Sammie is finally recovered from his upper respiratory infection and we’re ready to proceed with finding out what’s going on with his legs.

He went into the vet this morning to be neutered, X-rays and have the masses removed and sent out for diagnostics. Pray it’s not cancer!

I’m not going to sugar coat this… I’m sitting on eggshells nervous and scared for what’s going on with this sweet boy. He’s obviously uncomfortable since he won’t let anyone touch his legs. The masses are raw and bleed easily when you touch them. Hopefully the vet can get to the bottom of things, bring us some answers and help develop a treatment plan to bring this amazing dog around where he can have a better quality of life without pain.

This is just the diagnostics/neuter estimate. This doesn’t include anything we’ve already done or anything we will do to help him.

And we still have a $1300 balance of Sasha’s bloat surgery to cover and then her heartworm treatment is next.

If you’re up for skipping your Starbucks this morning and donating just $5 towards these 2 we sure could use the help! By the time we’re done I fully expect to be looking at $10-15k to save these 2. We’ve come too far to stop now and they’ve both shown their strength and will to go on against the odds. They deserve every opportunity to life a great life and some lucky adopter will get to share in that when this is over and they’re back on their paws.

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June 14, 2023

Just a little update on Sasha and Sammie the Saint Bernards

We’re making progress and they both seem to be working through their respiratory infections well despite a raging case of diarrhea. Still a long ways to go but progress is progress and we’ll take it. Nothing good happens quickly though.

Both dogs are eating well. Sammies appetite is starting to return. That’s a good sign. He had lost over 30lbs from shelter intake to rescue intake. A huge weight loss is always a concern. He woke up yesterday demanding breakfast. His personality is starting to come out.

Sasha’s cough is worse than Sammies. Both dogs are getting antibiotics and cough medicine to help alleviate their symptoms. Bit with high level heartworm disease I think Sasha is taking a bigger hit here.

Here’s hoping we can get these 2 stable enough to get diagnostics underway within the next few days. We need to know what exactly we’re dealing with so we can help them.

We are still facing a huge vet bill on these 2 and need all the help we can get. This was rather unexpected and we still have other dogs under our care that we’re responsible for. We are planning a few fundraisers as soon as my own health permits but in the meantime we need to lean on our rescue family a little more than we like.

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June 13, 2023

Sasha update:

I know we’ve all been sitting here with baited breath for an update on our sweet girl Sasha.

She made it through the night and did great this morning. Once she started eating on her own and on oral meds they felt it was safe to let her go home to recover.

Sammie had a rough night without his girl and I’m sure he’ll be elated to see Sasha once she’s home.

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June 12, 2023

The veterinarian has confirmed after a rush visit to the hospital this morning that Sasha has bloated.

She has been rushed to the emergency ER.

If you have been keeping tally Sasha has an upper Respiratory Infection and is high count HW positive. To say this surgery is risky would be putting it mildly. But Sammie will not live without Sasha..

Surgery is a go.

Bloat surgery is one of the most expensive surgeries for these dogs.

Desperate funds are needed for our Camp. We don't know how better to make this plea. These poor dogs cannot catch a break since day one. And this? Is the down side of rescue. The thing that keeps us up at night and crying to each other over the phone as we make decisions that are in the best interest of these dogs- with our pockets empty.

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June 9, 2023

Sasha and Sammie the Saints:

Yesterday didn’t go quite as planned but we’re navigating through this mess as best as we can, keeping their welfare and well being at the top of our concerns.

We were hoping to get some X-rays of Sammies legs for a more definitive answer of what’s going on with him and what, if anything we can do to help him. He’s been off his food for most of the day, which had us all concerned. With the nearly 30lb weight loss he really can’t afford any more.

Then we heard it. The coughing. He’s got a respiratory infection. This morning Sasha started coughing as well. As if he needed more on his plate.

The vet didn’t hear any discrepancies or irregularities in Sasha’s heart. We were looking for a murmur. That’s encouraging. Heart damage from being high level positive is a big obstacle that needs to be taken into consideration before proceeding. We want to be sure she’s a good candidate for immiticide before we put her through a costly and exhausting treatment. She is going to be super sick and I don’t want her to suffer unnecessarily.

We opted to hold off on X-rays for Sammie since that requires sedation and give him a few days to decompress on some antibiotics as well as keeping him on pain medication for his legs. We’ve also added an appetite stimulant to boost his appetite and get him eating a bit better. He’s going to need his strength no matter what happens.

At the moment we’re going to let them both have the weekend to just rest and decompress. We’ll revisit the diagnostics on both with the vet on Monday and see if they’re stable enough to proceed.

On the positive side they are both still seeking affection. Sasha still has a great appetite. That’s a plus and it’s encouraging to me. Dying dogs don’t move and they don’t eat.

Keep praying. These fluffs landed in our care for a reason. Maybe they needed a miracle. If we band together we can be their angels.

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June 8, 2023

Will you hold my heart for me while I go get some glue and try to piece this mess back together? I’m sitting here trembling in fear of what today is going to bring upon us. My heart is so heavy I can barely hold it anymore.

I’ve been holding this one for a minute because I wasn’t sure of the outcome. I’m still not but I’m hopeful, desperate and praying so hard. Rescue has a dark side and sometimes the things you encounter will break you. I spent a good portion of my day yesterday with tears in my eyes. That emotion is still with me this morning as I await news from the vet.

We put so much ourselves into the dogs we take in. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve cried for a dog that wasn’t mine and this is just another one of those times. It’s exhausting but somehow we keep going. We live for the success stories and the happily ever afters. But they don’t all come out that way.

Sometimes rescue is just a reminder of how unfair life is. It’s definitely a reminder of how cruel humans can be. And I try not to judge people for their actions. I try to lead by example hoping that we as a society will try harder and do better. I’ve recruited an amazing board that shares those same goals with me so that collectively we can make a difference one dog at a time. We save dogs. We complete families. We bring memories, smiles and happiness. That’s the goal.

I don’t know that we’re going to get there this time guys and I’m scared.

We took in another bonded pair of Saint Bernards. We’ve had amazing luck placing them in awesome homes so it was an easy commitment.

Sasha, (age 6) and Sammie (age 3) were surrendered by their owners to a crowded shelter in Virginia. When they contacted me I was told their future was uncertain. As someone who has worked in rescue for nearly 3 decades, I know what that means. Both dogs were exhibiting kennel stress and were declining rapidly both mentally and physically. Shelters are a hard place for a dog to find themselves. This isn’t at all unusual and it’s the core reason that I’m always reluctant to judge a dogs behavior in a shelter environment.

We arranged transport and the pair came in yesterday. I wasn’t quite prepared for what we were dealing with.

Sasha is heartworm positive. In fact she’s very high level heartworm positive. Not only does this mean she’s not a candidate for the lower cost slow kill method but she may not even survive immiticide treatment. She needs a complete exam with comprehensive blood work and possibly imaging to be sure. Add into that the fact that she’s timid and incredibly bonded to Sammie. She won’t make a move without him. So staying in the hospital for treatment is going to add to her stress unless he’s with her. We’ll have to be creative in navigating that for her but if she has a chance, we’re going to save her.

Sammie is the one that scares me. He’s the one that brought tears streaming down my face as no dog should ever have to face what I believe he’s facing right now.

We were told he had some skin issues and a lump by his tail. They’re actually masses. Lots of them in fact and they’re solid like tumors. And they’re everywhere. Down his spine. Down his legs. Both back legs are swollen with lumps and he tends to shift most of his weight to his front legs, almost dragging the back. And they’re painful.

My fear is that Sammie has osteosarcoma in both legs. I’m praying hard that’s not the case but my gut tells me whatever is going on with him is bad. I’ll hopefully know more this afternoon as we run tests and X-rays to be sure. Like Sasha, if there’s a chance we can save him we will. But bone cancer is a death sentence and if he crosses Sasha’s world will crumble. Please pray with me that it’s not what it appears. He’s only 3.

Add insult to injury - these 2 are the sweetest dogs. As soon as they realized they were safe they dropped their guard and started seeking affection and love. It didn’t even take them an hour before they were laying at your feet soaking up the attention.

As you can imagine these 2 are going to need a lot of support while we navigate their medical care and create a plan for them. And we sure could use some help here. Images, testing and diagnostics are expensive but we have to be sure of what we’re dealing with before making any decisions. We want to do the right thing for them. Someone has to do the right thing for them. God knows they’ve been failed enough.

If you feel like skipping your Starbucks today we would be grateful as we still have Coconut with his impending orthopedic issues which likely will require surgery next month and Sammy the Pyr who is currently undergoing heartworm treatment that we’re covering. Plus we pay for all the food, supplies and care for the dogs while in foster care. The expenses pile up quickly but we are committed to the dogs and supporting our amazing foster families.

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