For the Love of Ally: When Rescue Comes with Surprise Challenges

RESCUE THOUGHTS

The other day I posted about our new dogs, one of them being Ally. Ally comes from a shelter in Louisiana. The wonderful rescue that transported her to us was told that her current family was losing their home and could no longer keep her. We didn’t know that she had hip dysplasia but were eventually told it was controlled by pain medication only as needed. As Ally’s foster mom was taking her for walks, she began noticing that Ally does this cute little butt wiggle when she walks. We immediately made an appointment at our vet and — $700 later — the x-rays revealed that she was struggling with both hips and that she had some arthritis as well. We now know why Ally was surrendered.

We work very hard to balance taking in medical dogs, behavioral dogs, and perfectly perfect dogs. We were prepared for Ally to need some kind of medical intervention.  We were not prepared to hear that she potentially needed multiple surgeries. We are a small nonprofit funded by donations and volunteers. We were not financially prepared to hear the news of Ally‘s medical needs.

Regardless, we are going to figure out a way to get this girl out of pain. Our beautiful Ally is only four years old and deserves a chance to live pain free. As tired as we are, we are going to start ramping up our fundraising efforts to get this girl the surgeries that she needs. We would have taken Ally no matter what, but it would have been nice to know the extent of her medical needs. Ally deserved that.