Hello friends and supporters! We are holding an online fundraiser for a very special service dog with cancer. His name is bow and this is his story - please share and donate. Thank you! Imagine that your daughter is diagnosed with a debilitating congenital brain malformation that threatens to take her from you at any time. She will never live a normal life and the care that she requires means that employment is not an option. You leave your career and barely scrape by on the $800 a month provided by Social Security. You trade work for food and do whatever it takes to take care of your family. This is the harsh reality for Kay and her daughter, Lilly. Lilly has a rare disorder called Dandy Walker Variant. Her illness causes her to have seizures, developmental delay, breathing complications (including choking), and stunted muscle development. Attempts at getting a therapy dog had been unsuccessful because the right match wasn’t found. And then a miracle happened. A miracle in the form of a boxer mix with a white chest and contagious smile, named Bow. Bow jumped out of a friend’s pick-up truck to lie at Lilly’s feet and would not leave with his owner. It was that day that Bow adopted Lilly, and they have been inseparable ever since. Bow is a natural therapy dog. He alerts Kay when Lilly is in distress and this allows Lilly some sense of normality in her life. Once Lilly suffered a seizure, and Bo jumped through and broke out a window screen to fetch Lilly’s mother, who was working in a neighbor’s horse corral not far from the cabin. The physical struggles that Lilly endures can bring her to the point of total exhaustion and she can sleep for days after her mental and physical processes work too hard and shut down. Bow never leaves her side. He is her protector, companion, and best friend. Now Bow is fighting for his life. Bow has cancer. Bow has a cancer that we think is localized to his rear leg. He is in otherwise good health and the prognosis for his recovery is very promising if the diseased leg is amputated. Dr. Joann Fontaine of Healthy Heart Veterinary Clinic in Loudon, NH has been treating Bow since his symptoms became evident. We had the opportunity to meet Dr. Fontaine to discuss Bow’s treatment and prognosis. Dr. Fontaine has a heart of gold and is willing to perform the amputation at a greatly discounted price and has allowed the bill for the treatment she has provided Bow up to this point to remain outstanding until we can gather the resources to pay it off. We also had the wonderful opportunity to meet Kay, Lilly, and Bow. We pulled up to the tiny cabin in the woods and were greeted with hugs from Kay. When we got up to the porch Kay let Bow out to meet us. The first things I noticed were his happy eyes and goofy smile. Then, I saw it - the leg. Wrapped in a pretty yellow bandage by Dr. Fontaine earlier that day, it just hung there, sort of “in the way”. Bow hasn’t been using it for weeks and although his pain is managed with medication, he is definitely not comfortable dragging the useless leg around. Despite his discomfort he greeted us with sniffs, wiggles, tail wags, and was eager to be petted by these strangers that had brought him some bags of food. At first Lilly didn’t want to come out to see us. She knew that we were there to help Bow, but is shy and chose to stay in the house. We sat outside and talked to Kay for a while and Lilly eventually came out to say hello. A beautiful brown-haired girl who hesitated to make eye contact at first, Lilly came out briefly and brought Bow in the house with her. She and Bow resurfaced a short time later and Lilly seemed more relaxed and made a joke about how her mom eats a lot of chocolate. We promised Lilly that we are going to do everything that we can to save her best friend. I didn’t realize until after we left that Lilly had initially brought Bow into the house because she thought that we were going to take him away from her. Kay later told me that after we had left Lilly lay in bed with Bow and just hugged him. We need your help to save Lilly’s best friend. The only thing that she wants in this world is for her dog to be okay, and we want to make that happen, but we can’t do it without you. Bow is a lifeline for Lilly and we cannot stand by and allow him to be taken from her too soon. Donations made for Bow’s care through Helping People, Helping pets are 100% tax deductable. Thank you for your support. https://rally.org/helpingpeoplehelpingpets
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 14:58:07 +0000
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