Miss Chow: a story about love

I know I didn't have much time to post about her on Friday, but I wanted everyone to know everything that happened/is still happening with her story. 

let me begin by saying that I am SO honored to know good people. thanks to the love of so many people, we raised $1400 to contribute to her vet expenses. it amazes me to know such generous and kind folks, and I hope that if any of them ever encounter a tragedy like this, that someone is there to help them. 

I think it'll be easier if I just copy & paste all the updates I posted on Facebook and on the Chip In site. so much happened in such a short period of time that it's all kind of blurry now. 

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as you know, I hit a dog on Thursday evening on my way home from work. there was no way to avoid the accident, but I knew I had to take immediate action. I got her out of the road and thanks to the help of a stranger, I got her to my car and to the local veterinary clinic. They got her stable with fluids and pain medication, but they discovered through an ultrasound that she has some loose fluid in her abdomen, which meant that she was bleeding internally. Thursday night was a sleepless one for me... we weren't sure if she would even survive through the night.

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update posted Friday 12:03PM:  

she made it through the night and animal control will (hopefully) not be collecting her until Monday because she's still pretty unstable and bruised up. no owner has shown up yet, so I'll be going around to local places tomorrow with a picture of her to see if anyone recognizes her and to look for missing dog fliers. if anyone could offer to give this dog a loving home, that would be amazing.

at this point, I received an emailed picture of the pup, so I posted ads on Pet Finder, Craigslist, and the Anne Arundel County Animal Control  website. I also contacted several rescue organizations by email and called our local ASPCA to report the found dog and to inquire about the possibility of someone fostering her once she got healthy. 

I posted her story and a description of her on Facebook and asked people to pass it along. I tagged a bunch of people in her picture to make sure it would make it's way to tons of different people, in hopes that I could possibly find her owner.

at the suggestion of a couple people, I started the Chip In donation site to seek funding for her care. I knew that she wouldn't really be treated for her injuries unless I had some way to pay the vet. 

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update posted Friday 6:39PM: 

just talked to Dr. Ruiz. they said she's still in the same condition as she was in earlier today - no better and no worse. legally, because she could potentially be someone's dog, any willing foster or adoptive pup parents will have to go through animal control to take custody of her. so pretty much, what I'm doing is awesome, but I can't just walk in there and take her if we get enough money donated.

I will definitely keep everyone up to date! I'm going to the vet tomorrow to see the pup and talk to the doctor about actually finding out what exactly is wrong with her and how/if she can be treated. I'm also going to call Animal Control tomorrow to see what their policy is with adopting homeless animals. I mean it makes sense to me that they would rather her be in a good home than in their facilities, but who knows.

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and this is when I realized that things were going to be okay...

update posted Friday 9:01PM: 

I am seriously in tears right now. you all are SO amazing to hand over your hard earned money to help this poor pup live a full life. we are up to $1,000 in donations already! you are all unbelievable. I wish I could tag every one of you in this post, but you know who you are! I owe you guys... big time. 

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update posted Saturday 10:53AM: 

wooo! we're up to $1200 in raised funds for Miss Chow pup! heading to see her now and talk to the vet about possibly transferring her to another facility or to a rescue place. will keep everyone updated!

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update posted Saturday 1:17PM:

visited Miss Chow at the vet this afternoon and this is what I found out:

legally, they have to turn her over to animal control because they have already been notified of her whereabouts. the good news is that she cannot go there until she is stable. I paid $800 of her balance today at the vet. they are going to run blood tests as well as do more extensive x-rays to figure out exactly where the problems lie so that she can be treated accordingly. if there are people lined up to foster and possibly adopt her from animal control once she's there, that is a VERY good thing.

the good thing is that she's not necessarily getting any worse, but she's not getting better either. she's not mobile at all and there's definitely something wrong with her back legs. they're trying to keep her out of pain but the pain medicine also causes her to be sedated all the time, so it's hard for them to gauge where her pain is coming from. every time she comes out of her loopy state, she TRIES to get up on her back legs, but she can't.

the vet said that it's still very early and that the owner could still show up. it might be a situation in where the owner was on vacation and someone was supposed to watch the dog, but she got out, etc. there are a number of different reasons why the owner has not shown up, so we just have to keep up hope that they're out there looking for her too.

either way, they are going to treat her the best they can while she's there. the vet seems eager to work with me in helping her and diagnosing her injuries. I don't have an exact vet bill, but I will know more on Monday after they run the rest of the tests. luckily, animal control is letting them keep her and treat her until she's better, and I'm hoping that by the time she's ready to be transferred, we'll have enough money together to pay for her treatment AND have a place for her to call home!

please keep in mind that there are no guarantees that she will live on and lead a happy, normal life. her injuries might be so severe that there is no possibility of survival. trust me, it's devastating to think that might be the case, but it is possible and I want everyone to be aware of that. we are going to try everything we can to help this poor girl.

thank you ALL so much for your support. please continue to pass Chow's information around! we still have $426 in our fund at the moment and I'm holding onto it until I find out the results of the rest of the tests. 

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update posted Saturday 6:40PM:

Dr. Ruiz called me at about 4:30 this afternoon to let me know that miss Chow is standing on her two back legs, which was one of the biggest problems she was having, and also what worried the doctor the most. she's still a little stiff and wobbly, but because she's putting weight on them, there's less chance for a spinal cord injury.

she's also eating now, which is GREAT! this means they took her off the pain medicine drip and have switched her to oral pain medication. she's still super anxious and stressed, so they're going to continue her pain management to keep her calm so that she doesn't injure herself any further.

Dr. Ruiz will be checking up on her a few more times throughout the day tomorrow, and then she'll run the rest of the tests on Monday. we're keeping our fingers crossed that there are no kidney or liver issues and that her blood comes out clean and that there are no serious fractures. 

ALSO. I'm teaming up with my friend Nicole Palermo, who has been working her butt off saving dogs for the last few months. she truly is a saint, and is going to help me make sure this pup doesn't end up being euthanized. her friend Kim, who runs a rescue organization, spoke to animal control this afternoon. they told her that the owners of the dog have until February 17th to come in and claim her. after that, she gets put into the adoption program.

I'm in dire need of someone to foster her when she's well until we can find a permanent home for her. she's going to have a long road ahead of her and it's going to be difficult to find someone who wants a dog with a potential vet bill.

thank you all SO much for continuing to pass this information on and donating! it makes me SO happy to know that there are good people in this world!

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FINAL update posted Sunday 6:15PM:

AWESOME NEWS! I was just contacted by a family who is the owner of Chow! They saw the ad on Pet Finder and called me immediately. They will be going to the vet tomorrow to get an update on Chow's progress, and then we'll be getting together in the evening to talk about everything. The woman said she's been in the hospital and that's why she didn't know that Chow was missing. I am so relieved to know that Chow will have a place to go when she's all healed up.

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me, posting her story, and donating your money. If I could go out and save every animal out there, I would. You are all amazing people and you should be proud of yourselves for doing such a good deed! I continue to be impressed by the good hearted nature of the people I associate with.

I'll be meeting with the family tomorrow. I've informed them that I've paid $800 of the vet bills and that I still have another $631 in donations to go toward her care (yep, that's a total of $1,431 raised). I'm not sure what to do from here in regards to the money. I was thinking that I could donate the money to an animal organization, or even to Muddy Creek Animal Hospital for working with my crazy ass. I don't know if the owners have the money to pay me back, and I'm honestly not worried about it at all, because my goal was to get Chow healthy.

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everyone agreed that the best thing to do would be to pay the remainder of the donations to the clinic to go towards Chow's continued treatment. I'm also going to suggest to the owners that we go ahead and get Chow microchipped. ;)

I cannot tell you how lucky I feel to associate myself with such amazing people. to those of you who passed on the story, donated, or just kept Miss Chow in your thoughts: I thank every single one of you, from the bottom of my heart. if it weren't for you guys, this story may not have had such a happy ending afterall. 

Happy Valentine's Day! ♥