Mending Broken Hearts

Sweet Charlie

Over the Thanksgiving holiday this year we had two tragedies happen almost at the same time. Sweet Charlie was rescued from the Fresno shelter. They neutered him before he left but only a few days later he died from complications from the surgery. By then he had been adopted by a wonderful family and was already adored by them all. Like us they were devastated.

Penny

Then we heard about Penny, a 1 year old pregnant girl at the Lancaster shelter. The shelter did not want to adopt her out pregnant even though she was only a few days from giving birth. They were insisting on aborting her. Meg, our fearless transporter fought the staff for us and won. She managed to get her and her unborn puppies into the foster home. However, the shelter had vaccinated Penny when she came in and she was exposed to kennel cough. Vaccinating pregnant dogs or cats causes neurological problems with the babies and lowers all their immune systems just when they need to be as strong as possible.

Penny gave birth to seven beautiful babies the day after she got out of the shelter. They all had kennel cough from the start. With the neurological problems on top of the upper respiratory infection, they each sickened and died within a few days. Nothing we did helped. Penny, sick herself was distraught.

Once Penny was on her feet again we contacted the family that had lost Charlie and asked them if they wanted to meet Penny. We thought that perhaps all these broken hearts could help each other mend. They agreed. Now Penny and her new family are starting off the new year with joy in their hearts for a new beginning.